Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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
4th
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
10th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 4.5%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO Jaspersoft is 2.6%, down from 2.7% 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.
Chan Sambopol - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use with a nice design and good connectivity
TIBCO Jaspersoft has two versions. Version one is the enterprise version, The other one is the community version, and which allows us to use it for free. In the free version, we have to support ourselves. For the enterprise version, you have technical support if you need it. I wish that we had more support while in the portal, at least for the community version, or if we could talk to someone regarding issues, like how to configure or fine-tune would be helpful. We'd like to have help on how to solve some problems when we use the product and have some error or limitation. They need to, at the very least, improve the community. The Enterprise Edition has support, and we can force some tickets through the portal and then have an engineer support us in some cases. However, in terms of the subscription price, it's a bit high. Therefore, we'd like to see the community version offer a little bit more support and better documentation and we'd like the enterprise edition to have better pricing.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Cognos offers tools so that you can design and develop your own test queries and reporting solutions."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools."
"The correlation analysis is excellent. It's one of the best that I have used to date."
"The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report."
"Comparing IBM Cognos to other applications, once a person is trained on it or they have developed a skill set to operate the application, it is best in its category."
"We use IBM Cognos for enterprise analytics and reporting."
"The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools."
"I have worked on the features like dashboards and stories, and I do like them a lot."
"With the online view, it's easier to create Ad Hoc reports. It has inbuilt reports so we can easily get data from the system and customize the fields."
"You can do quite a lot with it in terms of automated reports and dashboards."
"The growth time is the most valuable feature of TIBCO Jaspersoft."
"The feature that I like most is the drag and drop capability."
"It's easy to use and maintain."
"The solution is standalone with the flexibility to use visualize.js to embed within the application."
"The designer is the most valuable feature."
"I give the stability of the solution a nine out of ten."
 

Cons

"Tableau and Power BI are faster than Cognos."
"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."
"Extending dynamic cubes aggregate awareness with calculated measures."
"They were lacking in the initial phases of development in the area of big data, and they still need to improve that aspect of the product."
"I would like them to reinclude PowerPlay. One thing that I am missing in the current Cognos is what was formally named PowerPlay. They have basically removed PowerPlay from it, which is something that I fail to understand because it was the most wonderful tool for business intelligence that I've ever used. As far as I know, they don't provide this functionality anymore, so this is one thing that I dislike about Cognos."
"The solution seems to slow down the servers."
"I would like for the platform to become more standard. If we make a development on our report and our dashboard, it will not be used in another solution. That means there is no portability for the developers."
"I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions."
"We'd like to see the community version offer a little bit more support and better documentation and we'd like the enterprise edition to have better pricing."
"The stability of TIBCO Jaspersoft needs improvement."
"I would like to see some analysis done prior to data extraction. The data extraction itself could also be improved."
"I would like to see better support for big data."
"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."
"Jaspersoft should focus on user interaction features, and one should not expect it to suit every niche."
"A better focus should be put on self-service reporting."
"The upgrades are not easy."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The solution is affordable."
"IBM Cognos offers competitive pricing similar to other BI vendors in the market."
"There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."
"IBM Cognos is priced reasonable. However, it is more expensive than Power BI and Tableau."
"It is pretty expensive."
"IBM Cognos price is on the higher side of the spectrum. However, with the features that it brings, such as correlation analysis, it's worth the money. They should look at the pricing more clearly because it's a little on the higher side."
"On a scale from one to ten where one is low pricing and ten is high pricing, I would rate this solution at eight."
"I give the cost of the solution a five out of ten."
"The solution is a little bit expensive."
"I find the price to be reliable and not overly costly."
"I would rate the pricing as four out of five because it's expensive."
"Since I checked last time, only one annual license costs about $25,000."
"The pricing is cost effective because it is based on servers rather than users."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Reporting solutions are best for your needs.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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
54%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
4%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
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: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.