Knowage vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform comparison

Knowage and SAP are both solutions in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category. Knowage is ranked #34, while SAP is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3. Knowage holds a 0.5% mindshare in BIT, compared to SAP’s 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Knowage users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of SAP users who would recommend it.

Knowage

Read 18 Knowage reviews

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475 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...

Read 109 SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform reviews

5,335 Views
4,055 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Knowage

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform and Knowage compete in the Business Intelligence category. SAP BusinessObjects often has the upper hand due to its scalability and integration strengths, making it ideal for larger enterprises. Knowage is preferred for its open-source flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

Features: SAP BusinessObjects offers enterprise scalability with components like Live Office, Crystal Reports, and Web Intelligence. Its semantic layer ensures consistent data connections across environments, which is crucial for complex data integration. Knowage, focused on cost efficiency, provides essential BI functionalities, including flexibility in using multiple report engines and integration with open-source tools.

Room for Improvement: SAP BusinessObjects is criticized for complex deployments and necessary integration improvements among its suite, along with stability issues and outdated visualization tools. Knowage users note a need for technical expertise in Java-based integrations and improvement in user interface design and dashboard capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP BusinessObjects supports diverse deployment options, from on-premises to hybrid cloud solutions, though its customer service can be hampered by internal complexities. Knowage's setup is straightforward for on-premises deployment but lacks cloud flexibility. Customer service is considered fair, with opportunities for better user support.

Pricing and ROI: SAP BusinessObjects is expensive, with high licensing costs suited for larger businesses that can capitalize on extensive data handling. In contrast, Knowage provides a cost-effective open-source alternative that benefits smaller entities or projects seeking affordable BI solutions, though trade-offs in features and support are noted.

To learn more, read our detailed Knowage vs. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Knowage vs. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

July 2025

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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 BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

34th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Reporting (25th)

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

3rd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

109

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Knowage is 0.5%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is 3.7%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

AbdulshukoorMohammed

General Manager Information Technology & Enterprise Applications Manager at OXFORD HOLDING

Easy to customize, cross-platform capable, and very stable

The only challenge here is that it's a Java-based platform. It requires very high technical skills. When we come to the integration with the single sign-on facilities, that part is very challenging. In Power BI and other tools, it's very easy to integrate with active directory and single sign-on, and identity management is very easy in other business intelligence tools. However, when it comes to Knowage, it's a bit heavy, it's time-consuming sometimes, it's not very fast, and definitely not as fast as other business intelligence tools in terms of getting graphical reports. The solution could be cheaper.

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Declan Dempsey

Senior Consultant at Keyrus

Provides efficient data reporting while needing easier deployment and improved interface

Users tend to put everything into Excel, though I try to discourage this. The best feature about it for me, and for them, is the fact that you have a universe that is well made. This means you don't have those months that get assigned. You can just get to the point and get a report very quickly. Unfortunately, in some ways, it's a double-edged sword because it becomes more of a self-service ETL, even for the reporting team. If you have a decent universe and you just want to quickly get something together, it's very usable. Compared to Click, you can drop those reports very quickly.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We can easily do our own customizations."

"The embedding feature is great."

"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 concept of engines is quite powerful allowing the user to work with report authoring/provisioning tools of their choice."

"The feature that allows pivot users to create the report dashboards and run them when they want with a lot of flexibility with the drill-downs is very useful. The drill-down features are very good because, in other solutions, such as Excel, you have to create separate pivot tables and a lot of other operations to do drill-downs. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform tool does the drill-downs automatically. Overall the solution is user-friendly and has a lot of drag and drop features."

"The common metadata environment means that the entire organisation has the same definition of core measures rather than these being derived in spreadsheets or specific reports."

"I like the fact that we can integrate it seamlessly within our Epic environment, but probably the best thing that Crystal Reports offers is the ability to do visualizations. They're simple to do, and they're catchy. So, it is a really great tool."

"There are two tools inside BusinessObjects' schematic layout called the Universal Design Tool and Information Design Tool. These are the most powerful tools that set BusinessObjects' reporting from other solutions. If my organization has 300 or 400 tables, I can combine all of them into one universe, and everyone can use that. It is just a schematic layout that does not hold any data but the table relationships."

"The features that I have found most valuable are that we are able to build all dashboards with self-service BI and are able to provide our business users with self-service BI. We are building a repository on top of our data warehouse and building all the dashboards and KPIs."

"SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform's most valuable features are it has a great presentation layer. We can develop the presentation layer with drag-and-drop capabilities. For end-users and for our interns in the company can create reports and do their data analysis processes or works by using the objects that we created on the presentation layer by themselves."

"The most important feature of BusinessObjects is its integration with the SAP ERP system. If an organization is using SAP as its ERP system, and they want to do business intelligence, reporting, or analysis, SAP BusinessObjects is the only tool that I see doing that quite efficiently. That's because of the fact it is tightly integrated, and it gives a good user experience in terms of faster reporting. Its integration is the feature that I have found most valuable, but there are also other factors."

"The initial setup of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform was easy since the solution is user-friendly."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform pros

Cons

"The only challenge here is that it's a Java-based platform. It requires very high technical skills."

"Development of SpagoBI has now been moved to Knowage. Users interested in further developments of the platform will have to look there."

"The dashboard components could be better."

"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."

"Most of the Apps right now are into dashboarding. This tool, for the Crystal Reports in the phase I'm primarily working on, does not have those dashboarding capabilities, like in the other advanced tools like Power BI or ClickView, and compared to them the dashboard generation is not that great."

"It would be good if they could integrate the possibility for end users to create end models for themselves that they can use, especially for site operators, and if they could provide the end user not only the self-service BI, but also the self-service analytics, based on a predefined model, the same way that Oracle did."

"The interface could be slicker and more user-friendly."

"I would like to see their data visualization products enhanced and made more robust and easier to implement."

"The biggest area for improvement would be the dashboarding capabilities due to the recent change from Xcelsius to Dashboard Designer. This has created a gigantic ripple in many companies because the skill sets required are drastically different."

"SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform has to be improved performance-wise. The look and feel of this application, its scalability, setup, and technical support also need improvement."

"The cost of this product, so every company is not suitable to use it. Because of the very huge amount of integrations, every organization can not use it."

"The SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform has always struggled with dashboarding."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform cons

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."

"It is not cost-effective. It is expensive."

"It is not a subscription model, but you must purchase a perpetual license for this."

"There's no additional charge for a Development environment license, so build an additional development server."

"SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is an expensive application."

"The SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform has to improve its licensing cost."

"Depending on your size, try to stick with SAP BusinessObjects BI Edge. Most people tend to overthink the licensing. Remember that one concurrent user means that one person can be performing a task at a given time. That does not mean that only one user can be on the system at a time, it means that only one person can be refreshing a report or designing a dashboard. There are tons of ways you can access your data or reports without consuming a license. I've seen cases where five concurrent licenses support thousands of users."

"Its price is fair."

"There is an annual license to use SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform."

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user6663

BI Expert at a transportation company with 51-200 employees

May 25, 2013

SAP Business Objects vs. Microsoft BI

A quick look at the whole idea on another weblogs gives you a sense that all of them just talked about very brief things like report refresh feature in BO or cube feature in MS Analysis Service. I choose MS BI and I want to share my reasons and opinions on why I choose it and give you another quick…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

16%

Real Estate/Law Firm

11%

Hospitality Company

11%

Insurance Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows: 1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle - look for SAP...

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Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?

Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...

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What do you like most about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?

What I like the most about SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform is that it has significantly improved our decision-making process.

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Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs Knowage

Compared 47% of the time

Procurify vs Knowage

Compared 36% of the time

Tableau vs Knowage

Compared 17% of the time

More Knowage Competitors

SAP Analytics Cloud vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Compared 21% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Compared 17% of the time

IBM Cognos vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Compared 9% of the time

MicroStrategy vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Compared 5% of the time

More SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Knowage

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

June 2025

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform report

Download SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform product report

Also Known As

SpagoBI

SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects

Overview

Knowage (formerly SpagoBI) has a 14-years history. The actual release is the 6.3.

Knowage offers FULL ANALYTICAL CAPABILITIES, with a special focus on big data analytics and comprehensive support to rich and multi-source data analysis. Knowage provides different modules, each one focused on a specific domain but mutually combinable (Big Data, Smart Intelligence, Enterprise Reporting, Location Intelligence, Performance Management, Predictive Analysis). Moreover, Knowage is an OPEN SOURCE solution: the source code is freely accessible, everyone is allowed to join the community and build the own business solution to ensure strategic decision-making and improved productivity.

Knowage suite is supported by Engineering Group, the leading Italian software and services company, with about 10,000 people and more than 50 offices worldwide. Maintenance and support services (such as trainings, migration support, proof-of-concepts, etc) are provided by Engineering Group (KNOWAGE Labs) under subscription.

Knowage

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is a versatile and flexible solution for reporting and dashboards, focusing on analytics and ad hoc reporting. It can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud. The solution includes tools such as Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports, SAP Lumira, and Analytical Cloud and is primarily used for comprehensive business intelligence reporting.

The most valuable features include excellent reporting features, good technical support, scalability, and the ability to translate database data into business language. The solution has helped organizations by providing analytics, monitoring KPIs, and making important decisions as a financial business.

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Key Features

Central management: Access all your BI from a single, central launchpad that can be customized to meet user-specific needs. The launchpad provides business users with access to all their BI tools, reports, notifications, and applications in a single place. This includes the ability to launch SAP Analytics Cloud.
Data visualization and analytics: Create powerful visualizations, dashboards, and applications to assess risk, improve efficiency, identify opportunities, and enable users to analyze developments and data. Business insights can be shared with colleagues across enterprises.
Integration with Microsoft Office: Integrate with SAP Business Warehouse and SAP HANA to power real-time analytics. For large-scale data analysis, you can integrate with Microsoft Excel to discover in-depth business insights and forecasts. Data analytics information can also be embedded into Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
Cloud support: Extend and expand your BI on the cloud. SAP Analytics Cloud connects your BI to the cloud and offers enterprise planning and advanced analytics from a single online solution.

Reviews from Real Users

SAP BusinessObjects BI stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its user-friendly dashboard, its impressive reporting and analytic features, and its ability to integrate with multiple solutions.

A managing partner at a tech services company writes, "One of the most valuable features of SAP BusinessObjects is that it's not a dashboarding solution. It's a real product. You can create operational reports and publish it to anyone. You can create schedules. You can create a Universe, semantic layers. There's also a security configuration. It's a huge product, so if there is a business need, SAP BusinessObjects can cover it."

An associate manager at a consultancy notes, "It provides flexibility for creating reports. It is very good for creating highly complex reports. I like this solution because when I buy BusinessObjects, it comes with many components, such as reporting, dashboard, and data visualization tools. Its performance is good. It is running on top of SAP BW and SAP HANA."

A manager of data analytics and interfaces at a healthcare company says, "It has got great flexibility. As a reporting tool, it has a great deal of flexibility for numerous data resources that you can bring into it. It allows you to write your SQL query directly within the product. It has great visualization.

SAP

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

SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.

Buyer's Guide

Knowage vs. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

July 2025

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