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IBM Cognos vs TIBCO Jaspersoft comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cognos
Ranking in Reporting
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (7th)
TIBCO Jaspersoft
Ranking in Reporting
8th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 4.6%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO Jaspersoft is 2.6%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

AMOL JAJU - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ad hoc analysis reports and good for operational dashboarding
There used to be many valuable features, but in the last three or four years, whatever IBM is doing with enhancements, it has taken a lot of time to build and develop. But the best usage of Cognos is the ad hoc analysis reports. I really like that. Our customers also like that. But now the usage of Cognos and OBIE is reduced by various business users because people and business users are now more focused on analytics, slice and dice, and the dashboard, and the widgets.
AnkurMathur - PeerSpot reviewer
A scalable and stable product that enables users to set properties dynamically
The solution is used mainly for reporting purposes. We generate PDFs, which are delivered to the recipient via email We can set any property dynamically. We have to use different currencies. Sometimes, we use the pound sign. Sometimes, we use the dollar sign. Our software is a multi-currency…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"One of the strong suits of Cognos is its robust corporate reporting capability."
"I have worked on the features like dashboards and stories, and I do like them a lot."
"The most valuable features of IBM Cognos are governance and enterprise reporting."
"Integration with Office can enable the 'download' mode of storytelling.​"
"Mapbox integration for geospatial analytics down to longitude/latitude layers."
"The solution's initial setup process is easy."
"Using custom controls, it is possible to extend the application with even more functionality and make the application intuitive and attractive."
"We use IBM Cognos for enterprise analytics and reporting."
"The solution is standalone with the flexibility to use visualize.js to embed within the application."
"We find the access restrictions on different user groups valuable."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten...The deployment process of TIBCO Jaspersoft is easy."
"The end-user reporting is very handy and the standard reports that can be achieved by using Jaspersoft Studio are quite impressive."
"The feature that I like most is the drag and drop capability."
"We can set any property dynamically."
"It offers high processing power for report generation and is cost-effective."
"The growth time is the most valuable feature of TIBCO Jaspersoft."
 

Cons

"Compared to Tableau and PowerBI, the IBM interface is easier to use. However, the drag-and-drop functionality isn't as straightforward. Formatting is also more challenging in the cloud than in other applications, like Power BI. Also, if you encounter an issue, it takes more time to resolve it on the formatting side."
"There are a lot of limitations with the out-of-the-box tool."
"The solution's support could be better."
"The charts and graphics are weak."
"The data uploads that we do, such as Excel files, have a lot of restrictions. If we can make it a bit more user-friendly, allowing us to have more flexibility it would be a great help."
"The solution seems to slow down the servers."
"There are some small features that are missing. It would be nice if the graphics were better. You can use external sources for charts, but it's quite complex to use and not easy to implement. If you want a new chart, you can download it from multiple tools and implement it into IBM Cognos."
"Extending dynamic cubes aggregate awareness with calculated measures."
"Customization is an area with certain shortcomings in the solution that needs improvement."
"There might be some compatibility issues with the dashboard if we're using the latest version and some clients are using the older version. Some features might not be supported."
"The upgrades are not easy."
"TIBCO Jaspersoft would benefit from enabling you to run multiple reports in one file and incorporating more options related to multiple reports."
"A better focus should be put on self-service reporting."
"I would like to see some analysis done prior to data extraction. The data extraction itself could also be improved."
"Currently, JSON format is the main format we use, however, in TIBCO Jaspersoft, XML format is the default and JSON did not work because TIBCO did not fix it."
"The Ad Hoc Report Writer does not include as many features as Tableau and needs to be improved to meet expectations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is affordable."
"I don't know the exact cost, but I believe Cognos is quite expensive, especially when it comes to the support consultants and the procedures that need to be applied."
"IBM Cognos is priced reasonable. However, it is more expensive than Power BI and Tableau."
"Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."
"I rate the product price as four or five on a scale from one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The licensing costs are a little bit higher for IBM Cognos. I don't think there is any additional cost apart from the licensing charges."
"The cost of IBM Cognos it's more or less the same as most of the other solutions on the market. They're very competitive with the rest of the market and it is not the most expensive product."
"IBM Cognos offers competitive pricing similar to other BI vendors in the market."
"The pricing is cost effective because it is based on servers rather than users."
"Since I checked last time, only one annual license costs about $25,000."
"I give the cost of the solution a five out of ten."
"I find the price to be reliable and not overly costly."
"The solution is a little bit expensive."
"I would rate the pricing as four out of five because it's expensive."
report
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Comparison Review

it_user6978 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 10, 2013
Jaspersoft vs. Pentaho – Which one to use & is there any need to purchase the commercial edition
Any company (be it technology, manfucaturing, human resource, ecommerce, SME etc) always has the need for Business Intelligence to some or the other extent. If cost is one of the consideration factor, then the 2 BI tools which are at the forefront are Pentaho and Jaspersoft. But, often the same…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
37%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Insurance Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Seeking lightweight open source BI software
It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...
What do you like most about IBM Cognos?
The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools.
What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
The best and open source (No cost involved) solution for all BI requirements is Jaspersoft Open Studio. Refer to rajeshsirsikar.com for more information.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO Jaspersoft?
I am sharing a scenario for pricing: for ten thousand users and a robust server, it may cost in the hundreds of thousands USD. However, TIBCO is more enterprise-focused and might have different pri...
 

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

More than 23,000 leading organizations across multiple industries use Cognos. Some examples of Cognos customers include BMW Financial Services, Quinte Health Care, Troy Corporation, Michigan State University, and GKN Land System.
Mosaic, Vander University, Telesoft, Entrust, Ericsson, BT, Groupon, John Hopkins, Puma
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Jaspersoft and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.