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Knowage vs SAP Crystal Reports 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

Knowage
Ranking in Reporting
23rd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (33rd)
SAP Crystal Reports
Ranking in Reporting
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Knowage is 1.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Crystal Reports is 2.5%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP Crystal Reports2.5%
Knowage1.7%
Other95.8%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

BS
Software Engineer at syntegra
Open-source with great embedding capabilities but the dashboards could be better
I know the initial setup is pretty straightforward. It doesn't take a long time to deploy. Even on your own personal computer, when you want to try it out, it doesn't take too long to get it running. For the initial setup, I'd say it's maybe a four out of five in terms of how easy it is. You need to add these Java dependencies and so forth, which can be a bit boring, however, it's almost perfect. To deploy Knowage usually takes about a day. In terms of the implementation strategy, it's just following the instructions that they give us on the installation and then just knowing how to handle the process. Usually, there is a group of engineers who do that for us and manage the server itself. If a team is knowledgeable, then it doesn't take a long time. When you need a new instance, it's very quick. The implementation strategy is based on just following instructions on the installation process from Knowage. For deployment and maintenance, we need just maybe two people simply to monitor the traffic coming in. However, it's maintained by people who were doing other jobs like maintaining our other server. They just monitor the Knowage server and make sure that it's up and running and that there are no bugs. There are not too many bugs coming out from the debugger.
Salman Mukhtar Baig - PeerSpot reviewer
SAP Technical Manager at VS Furniture Middle East
Unlock data insights with seamless integration and robust reporting features
I assess the impact of SAP Crystal Reports' dynamic parameters on the customization and flexibility of my reports as very good. Sometimes it creates a problem when it suddenly closes during work due to improper shutdowns, but most of the time it's beneficial since I can fetch the data in one report very efficiently, which is great for the company. The sub reports in SAP Crystal Reports help me enhance the depth and detail of my reports by allowing me to use multiple sets of records, especially when I have very large requirements, such as company dashboards that show what sales, purchases, productions, and HR are doing. Using sub reports as the main report is very beneficial because I can pull multiple department data into the main report. Over the years, SAP Crystal Reports has had a very positive impact and benefits. It's a powerful tool to design any kind of report if you have knowledge of the database, and it can attach to both HANA and SQL databases. I can also connect this data with Excel, which makes it a very powerful tool for me.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I am satisfied with the product in general given what the company invested in it, which was just our time."
"It's very easy to get the historical reports you need based on the business requirements and this helps our executives for taking decisions."
"I would use SpagoBI if a company wants to use a free tool that has enough features."
"Unified interface, a lot of tools for BI, easy configuration, standalone SDK."
"Instead of just relying on emails to disperse our reports, having a central server to do this for us has helped our organization and has pushed us into a better place."
"We can easily do our own customizations."
"Our customers really appreciate the self-service BI functionalities."
"The concept of engines is quite powerful allowing the user to work with report authoring/provisioning tools of their choice."
"Pixel perfect static reporting."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a fantastic way of generating reports."
"We develop many management reports using Crystal Reports; it has reduced the development cost and effort, and provides feature rich reports."
"Enterprise is simply the best report delivery product on the market."
"It has been around long enough that any challenges you encounter can easily be found with a Google search."
"It is essential for our ERP reporting to function, so the value is very high."
"Our ROI on Crystal Reports is well over 1000%, as we offer both training and consultancy solutions to our clients."
"Creative formula construction is just one of the many tools in Crystal Reports that allows this tool to be so flexible and robust."
 

Cons

"The dashboard components could be better. They could do a lot more."
"The demands of some jobs would slow Spago and lock the site, preventing any other job from processing."
"Development of SpagoBI has now been moved to Knowage. Users interested in further developments of the platform will have to look there."
"We had stability issues."
"I encountered a lot of issues when I tried to integrate the map in order to realize Intelligent Location Dashboards."
"Yes, using Mobile and Desktop Editions, we would sometimes need to restart the service."
"Development of SpagoBI has now been moved to Knowage. Users interested in further developments of the platform will have to look there."
"We expected the community to be bigger than what it currently is."
"Some of the graphic displays are dodgy."
"I would like to have horizontal paging like crosstabs."
"SAP Crystal Reports should provide better support for dynamic connectors."
"There could be improvements made to the analytics capabilities."
"Installation takes more than 15 minutes on our workstations."
"It crashes the designer when the tool with no clear error messages."
"I would like to see improvement in charts and metadata extraction."
"Charts and Graphs are the only reason I don’t give the product a 10/10."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Knowage is open-source, and an enterprise edition is also available."
"It allows the implementation of an effective reporting system using internal skills at a limited upfront cost."
"I feel that SAP Crystal Reports is a reasonably priced product."
"The cost of licensing can be a significant factor to consider when upgrading or transitioning to a new version of SAP Crystal Reports. It's important to evaluate the benefits and features offered by the new version against the associated costs to ensure it aligns with your organization's needs and budget."
"This product costs a lot of money."
"We pay fifteen hundred dollars as licensing fee."
"SAP Crystal Reports is a very expensive solution."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
15%
University
10%
Marketing Services Firm
10%
Retailer
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

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 Business18
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise22
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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What needs improvement with SAP Crystal Reports?
SAP Crystal Reports could be improved with more modern user-friendly interfaces and better integration with cloud platforms and AI tools. It would be beneficial to have easier integration with Azur...
What is your primary use case for SAP Crystal Reports?
I have been using SAP Crystal Reports for six months. I am using SAP Crystal Reports to develop data-driven reports and use customer data printing. When I use SAP Crystal Reports for customer data ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Crystal Reports?
I am aware that the pricing of SAP Crystal Reports gradually changes. When I bought it last time, I don't remember the exact price, and I need to check the current price on the portal. SAP Crystal ...
 

Also Known As

SpagoBI
No data available
 

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
City of Buenos Aires, ASR Group, Citrix, EarlySense, Usha International Limited, Automotive Resources International (ARI), LivePerson, Coelba (Grupo Neoenergia), RZD Russian Railways, National Basketball Association - NBA, TALLY WEiJL, El Machetazo, Young Heroes, Mozzart, Mitsui Knowledge Industry (MKI) , Surgutneftegas Open Joint Stock Company, The VELUX Group, AOK Bundesverband, AL-KO KOBER GROUP
Find out what your peers are saying about Knowage vs. SAP Crystal Reports and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.