No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Knowage vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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

Knowage
Ranking in Reporting
22nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (32nd)
Microsoft SQL Server Report...
Ranking in Reporting
16th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Knowage is 2.0%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is 1.9%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services1.9%
Knowage2.0%
Other96.1%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

AM
Margin Assurance Analyst at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
A stable open source suite for modern business analytics with a useful replication feature
It would be better if more resources were available to help us learn how to use it. I wanted to use Knowage for a more extended period, but learning materials around the product were not really available and were not really straightforward. I've also seen inconsistencies between versions. For example, under the tools, especially in the cockpit, the way you create reports is now different. You will also find some configurations within a particular state, like a line chart, which differs from version to version. I think consistency is an essential feature in a product, especially for business intelligence products.
GD
Consulting IT Head at MYKLaticrete
Reports generation is efficient and saves effort, but integrating new features could enhance overall experience
I haven't contacted Microsoft technical support because of this tool, but for some other things I have, and I found them quite lacking. We had trouble with Azure Firewall, where we wanted logs from our VMs, but reaching out to Microsoft took a prolonged time to the extent that we were wondering why Microsoft was unable to get its own logs to us, which occurred a few months back. I would rate Microsoft support around 6.5 to seven, as they don't directly interact with medium-sized MSMEs, always referring to their partners, so it differs based on the partner's level of relationship with Microsoft.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would use SpagoBI if a company wants to use a free tool that has enough features."
"I am satisfied with the product in general given what the company invested in it, which was just our time."
"I can't name the features the way the Knowage community calls them because I still don't know the lingo. However, I can describe them. I like the ability to join more than one report, set all fields on one end, and replicate that on the other reports. I like that a lot. I think it's one of the features that got me using Knowage. They have tables, and I like that too. They took SQL scripts and many other scripts and enabled them to even correlate with Python. That's also one of the best things about Knowage. You could also decide to get information per user role, and this is also a feature that I like in Knowage."
"The most valuable feature of SpagoBI is that it is open source and 100% free without limits."
"It's a great product. It has a lot more features than many other BI tools. You can get the most out of machine learning, the best connectivity to Python, and it cuts across enterprise sections."
"The concept of engines is quite powerful allowing the user to work with report authoring/provisioning tools of their choice."
"Nice features available in SpagoBI compared with other open-source BI are Auditing, Collaborative BI, Query By Example, and User Profiling."
"Being able to schedule necessary jobs needed for production jobs and programming run times"
"I mainly use the solution for the ease of reporting and for executive dashboards."
"The tool's valuable features are its drill-down feature, graphs, and charts."
"The best features of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services are that it is easy to get the reports out because it is integrated with SQL and we have many of these tables."
"The SQL Server Reporting Services makes it very easy to get the data whenever we need it."
"With SQL Server Reporting Services, I can create reports and printable reports, known as paginated reports, and it's valuable since it allows me to create documentation using a template, which is difficult to achieve otherwise."
"We can create quality reports in real time."
"The stability of SSRS has been reliable, with minimal issues encountered during our usage."
"It is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"There are additional features such as Data Integration, Data Visualization, MobileBI, Cloud BI, Data enrichment and massaging should be implemented in the next release."
"We had stability issues."
"We expected the community to be bigger than what it currently is."
"The support is very meager: We had to break our heads to figure out everything"
"Many things need to be improved, most of all robustness."
"I encountered a lot of issues when I tried to integrate the map in order to realize Intelligent Location Dashboards."
"The demands of some jobs would slow Spago and lock the site, preventing any other job from processing."
"The only challenge here is that it's a Java-based platform. It requires very high technical skills."
"We have had issues with the refresh interval since we have too many reports scheduled. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is also expensive."
"There are occasions during maintenance runs when the Check Point monitoring system reports a lot of blocked sessions."
"Technical support is in minor need of improvement so that they can solve problems in a more timely manner."
"We encounter some barriers while trying to build a report."
"They could improve the scalability and stability of SQL Server Reporting Services."
"The setup is difficult because you have to install different servers."
"In this solution, the cost should be reduced for the enterprise edition."
"My issue is that Microsoft doesn't provide enough resources, as there are certifications for SQL Server, but there is no certification for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It allows the implementation of an effective reporting system using internal skills at a limited upfront cost."
"Knowage is open-source, and an enterprise edition is also available."
"The solution is expensive."
"The price is pretty good."
"Value-wise, the solution's pricing is good for the price that we pay."
"The tool's licensing costs are expensive."
"The pricing is high."
"The solution is cheaper than its alternatives."
"The solution is free to use for developers."
"The product pricing is reasonable in terms of suitable features for business."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Reporting solutions are best for your needs.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
21%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?
I would consider it cost effective for our environment, and we don't have to invest in another big tool to generate these reports, making it all integrated and easier. Otherwise, you need to write ...
What needs improvement with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is not difficult to use, but my main issue is troubleshooting whenever there is any problem, as the logs can be unclear. Perhaps I don't have enough experien...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?
The use cases for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services are mainly for reporting purposes, to deploy reports. That's what we mainly use it for, allowing business end-users to navigate to the URL ...
 

Also Known As

SpagoBI
SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft SSRS, SSRS, MS SQL Server Reporting Services
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

FIAT Group, Italian air navigation service provider, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Telecom Italia, ASL Genovese, San Giovanni Battista University Hospital
CMS Wire, The New York Times
Find out what your peers are saying about Knowage vs. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.