Knowage vs Windward Core comparison

Knowage and Windward Studios are both solutions in the Reporting category. Knowage is ranked #25, while Windward Studios is ranked #24. Knowage holds a 0.8% mindshare in RT, compared to Windward Studios’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Knowage users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Windward Studios users who would recommend it.

Knowage

Read 18 Knowage reviews

436 Views
66 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Windward Core

Read 36 Windward Core reviews

536 Views
99 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Knowage

Windward Core

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Knowage and Windward Core are competing solutions in the business intelligence and reporting domain. Knowage appears to have the upper hand due to its scalability, integration capabilities, and attractive pricing, while Windward Core's advanced feature set might justify its higher cost.

Features: Knowage offers an open-source structure, comprehensive integration options, and seamless data analysis across diverse systems. Windward Core provides powerful document generation, rich formatting capabilities, and superior data presentation options.

Room for Improvement: Knowage could enhance its user interface, expand documentation, and improve compatibility with third-party tools. Windward Core might benefit from simplifying its configuration process, expanding data source support, and enhancing its integration capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Knowage is known for its simple deployment and strong customer support. Windward Core, although more complex to deploy, offers pre-configuration services and responsive support to alleviate this complexity.

Pricing and ROI: Knowage is recognized for a competitive pricing model with lower initial costs, offering a positive return on investment. Windward Core, despite its higher upfront costs, promises significant ROI over time due to its robust features and streamlined processes.

To learn more, read our detailed Knowage vs. Windward Core Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Knowage vs. Windward Core

June 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 Reporting

25th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (34th)

Windward Core

Ranking in Reporting

24th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Document Generation Tools (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Knowage is 0.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windward Core is 0.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Reporting

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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Christopher Heinz

Sr. Systems Analyst at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Strong layout and design capabilities; leverages every aspect available in Word-native formatting

The licensing key is a little bit twitchy. I'd like to see more HTML formatting support in templates. It has a basic stock of HTML formatting capability, but it doesn't have a rich vocabulary. I have to work around that sometimes. The help documentation and blog posts are extensive, but not always up to date. The error reports also need improvement. If you don't key it in right, it's a little hard to find the root cause. It gives you information as much as it can, but it doesn't really hone in and tell you explicitly what you should do to correct the problem.

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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."

"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 embedding feature is great."

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

"The most valuable feature is the Rich Text or TinyMCE in fields. For example, you have a text field but it is not a regular text field, it is a link. Inside this link, you can copy/paste everything: images, text, and tables together. After saving this field, you can pull it into the document."

"The most valuable feature is the fact that it uses Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel as base templates, so when you generate, it's easy for clients to upgrade, and maintain, and generate out either a PDF or an actual Excel spreadsheet."

"The usually the response is within one hour. The technical support will WebEx with you. I rate them as a 10 out of 10."

"The Windward solution was very fast to rollout, and it is proven."

"The most valuable features are the ability for it to be integrated into our software solution and the AutoTag tool that allows us to quite quickly create and update the templates themselves."

"AutoTag is valuable because it integrates with MS Word and makes it easy for our users to create template documents and reports. It allows our users to design the templates based on differing needs."

"It's easy to create templates and reports using Microsoft Word, so we don't have to learn something new to create a template. That makes it very user-friendly... they have integrated the product with Microsoft Word. People can easily start working on it without too much training."

"Thanks to Windward, our documents need very few tweaks and are usually "customer-ready" right out of the box."

More Windward Core pros

Cons

"The dashboard components could be better."

"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."

"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."

"A lot of clients who want to use this don't have the technical background for the SQL portion of gathering the data. If Windward were to make a more user-friendly SQL extract front-end, that would help a lot of clients to leverage the application a lot more."

"I have to deal with VERY long lists of properties contained in our XMLs and it would be nice if Windward offered a way to alphabetize this property list."

"AutoTag needs to be web-based, so our customers can create reports from our web."

"The reason it took us so long to get the system up and running is that the APIs could be improved a bit. It could be a little bit more interoperable with software, without having to do a lot of the heavy lifting that we had do to get it in."

"They should add a document distribution solution on top of the document generation capability. It should allow us to send the generated document to a certain recipient (e.g. customer contact’s email address) based on a business-rules management system. That system would allow the end-user to manage a relationship between a document template and its recipient."

"The tool does not support macOS documents."

"The next release could benefit from a cloud-based environment."

"Is there any way to avoid AutoTag loading in Word/Excel each time? I need to use it from time to time - quite rarely. AutoTag affects performance of Word/Excel. I do not want to install/uninstall AutoTag each time I need it."

More Windward Core 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."

"The pricing is very reasonable for what it provides. The report builder is about one grand per user... We are paying for a support contract, which is 20 percent of the price, but because the licenses are perpetual, I think the pricing is very reasonable."

"CapEx fits our requirements, OpEx is higher due to the 20% service and maintenance cost, where we normally pay 15%."

"From my experience in this field, the product is reasonably priced, at least with the RESTful engine implementation. It's definitely not a cheap option. People say, "That's a fair amount of money to pay for a document generation tool." At the same time, you do get good functionality and the support is good."

"I can't advise anybody about pricing and licensing, but it was competitive. A lot of things we did look at were all volume-based, so it was a case of you buy a license to generate this many reports a year, and that's not something that I'm particularly interested in because it doesn't give you any idea - if we have future growth, or if we have a lean year - for budgeting reasons it's more difficult. With Windward it's a straight out license fee, whether we generate one page or we generate a million, it makes no difference."

"They are fair and flexible. They are willing to work with your current architecture to make sure you have the best deal."

"Pricing is a bit higher than normal desktop applications, but it's well worth it. The ROI is simple to understand and the monthly payment for an annual license is affordable and worth it."

"The cost is reasonable."

"Pricing is something I complain about. Production pricing is okay, but for a testing environment the pricing looks a bit high to me."

More Windward Core pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

16%

Real Estate/Law Firm

10%

Hospitality Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

11%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs Knowage

Compared 58% of the time

Procurify vs Knowage

Compared 42% of the time

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Microsoft Power BI vs Windward Core

Compared 31% of the time

SAP Crystal Reports vs Windward Core

Compared 29% of the time

Longview Analytics vs Windward Core

Compared 21% of the time

Domo vs Windward Core

Compared 19% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Knowage

June 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Windward Core

June 2025

Download Windward Core product report

Also Known As

SpagoBI

Windward, Windward Studios

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

What is Windward Studios?

For over a decade, Windward has been a leader in the software development industry by creating the most innovative and advanced document automation and reporting software on the planet.

Data-Driven Document Automation

Generate stunning documents that incorporate relevant data easily and seamlessly.

Visually Striking Designs

Our software provides innovative tools and features to build beautiful designs and stunning layouts, all within the familiar Microsoft Office Suite. Your imagination is the only limitation.

Agile Document Logic

We offer the best document automation software for the new millennium. With our conditional logic functionality, you can swiftly personalize the document content to gratify your end users.

Huge Time Saver

Looking for faster template creation that enables you to keep pace with your business? With our software, template creation takes minutes and you do not need any programming experience to get it done.

Exceptionally Intuitive Interface

Our program's design offers documents that can be edited, customized and designed using MS Office. Enjoy a stress-free document automation experience in programs you already know.

Efficient Savings

Significantly reduce the resources and time required for template development by using our streamlined template design and document automation tools.

Windward Studios

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

HAL, Inc., Axe Group, White Clark Group, Blueprint Software, Aspect Security, Nucleus Software, LeBlanc’s Food Stores, South Sound 911, Aegon, Barclays, Fidelity Investments, ArisGlobal LLC, USDA, RepLink, AON Hewitt

Buyer's Guide

Knowage vs. Windward Core

June 2025

Free Report: Knowage vs. Windward Core

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