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Pentaho Business Analytics vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.4
Pentaho Business Analytics mixed ROI perceptions highlight efficiency gains but unclear returns compared to competitors like QlikView and Tableau.
Sentiment score
5.8
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform yields high ROI in large deployments, despite steep costs, through efficiency and decision-making improvements.
The initial investment will be more, but the ROI is also good, so they can consider it if they're looking for something in the long run.
Associate Software Enginner at Siddaganga Institute of Technology
I have seen a return on investment so far in the form of saved time and resources.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
For most of my clients using the on-premises version of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, the return on investment is positive due to its affordability and ability to handle diverse reporting needs while automating information distribution.
Data Analytics Manager at Dangote Industries Limited
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Pentaho Business Analytics receives mixed reviews for customer support, with users relying heavily on forums and community assistance.
Sentiment score
6.5
Customer service for SAP BusinessObjects is mixed, showing both responsiveness and delays, with inconsistent technical support quality.
The support available for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is accessible 24 hours and seven days a week.
Student at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would rate their technical support as excellent.
IT at a marketing services firm with 10,001+ employees
Customer support for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is responsive, aggressive, and always professional.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Pentaho Business Analytics is scalable with good performance but occasionally needs professional help for complex data handling.
Sentiment score
7.6
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform efficiently scales for global enterprises, supporting thousands of users with seamless advanced analytics integration.
The scalability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is adequate; it is very scalable and grows with my organization's needs.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
I rate the scalability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a nine due to performance issues related to optimizing parts.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.5
Pentaho Business Analytics is stable but may face Java caching issues, impacting performance and requiring careful cache management.
Sentiment score
6.9
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform is stable and robust with proper configuration, despite occasional bugs and integration challenges.
It can handle large datasets.
DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia
When they tried upgrading from 4.2 to 4.3, they found it buggy in some reports, which was quite problematic.
Senior Consultant at Keyrus
 

Room For Improvement

Pentaho Business Analytics lacks an intuitive interface, robust integration, self-service features, and requires technical expertise, limiting usability.
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform faces challenges in performance, integration, user experience, setup, flexibility, and costly licensing.
Pentaho Business Analytics is hard to learn and not suited for initial users as it requires knowledge of operating systems, Java, and other technical skills.
DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia
We need to speed up the performance of our tool because it is slower compared to the SAP Analytics Cloud tool.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
If SAP could split the analytics side from financial analytics, it would become more affordable and easier to learn for technicians.
Data Analytics Manager at Dangote Industries Limited
I've worked with other tools, for example, Microsoft Power BI, which is visualization-wise very strong.
Senior Consultant at Keyrus
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find the free Pentaho Community Edition cost-effective, while the Enterprise Edition offers value with support and features.
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform's licensing is flexible but costly compared to alternatives, suited for large enterprises, budget-sensitive for smaller businesses.
Pentaho Business Analytics is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView and Tableau.
DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia
SAP BTP is an expensive solution.
Associate Software Enginner at Siddaganga Institute of Technology
The price is very competitive and reliable.
IT at a marketing services firm with 10,001+ employees
I rate the pricing for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a seven or eight.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
 

Valuable Features

Pentaho Business Analytics provides easy data integration, customizable dashboards, extensive connectivity, and supports efficient data transformation and delivery.
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform offers scalable, user-friendly reporting with robust features, enhancing decision-making and data governance.
It is a stable product, and it can handle large datasets.
DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia
Since we started using SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, we have been able to make faster, data-driven business decisions based on actual data insights and data analysis, which has accelerated our ability to make better decisions for our business productivity.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
For calculations, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform outperforms all other tools such as Power BI and Tableau, showing more accuracy, reliability, and flexibility compared to all other BI tools worldwide.
SAP Consultant at Sierra Digital Inc
The most valuable function of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is the universe, so customers can build their own reports without programming skills.
Global Product Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Pentaho Business Analytics
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Operations Analytics (2nd), Reporting (13th)
SAP BusinessObjects Busines...
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
112
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Pentaho Business Analytics is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is 2.3%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform2.3%
Pentaho Business Analytics0.6%
Other97.1%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

JB
Founder at SJT Consult
Solution enables effective ETL processes and exhibits high satisfaction
From an integration perspective, Pentaho Business Analytics is not the best tool on the market. There are things done by Apache that are better, though I am not the one implementing them, so this is based on what I have heard about novelties in the market. I do not see the need to extend the coverage of Pentaho Business Analytics's domain. For things that it does not do, there are better solutions on the market, and it would be costly to implement them. Pentaho Business Analytics is a very great tool for very specific standardized scenarios. If you need more complex elastic solutions because the process is different, there are better tools available.
Declan Dempsey - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
report
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Comparison Review

it_user6978 - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder at Helical IT Solution (Jaspersoft, Pentaho, Talend, Kettle, DWBI, ETL, Ctools, iReport, Jasper Report)
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
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise67
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pentaho Business Analytics?
Pentaho Business Analytics offers the best value for money. While improvements can be made in some areas, particularly with more cloud-based solutions, it is not in their domain because they do not...
What needs improvement with Pentaho Business Analytics?
From an integration perspective, Pentaho Business Analytics is not the best tool on the market. There are things done by Apache that are better, though I am not the one implementing them, so this i...
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...
What needs improvement with SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform can be improved by developing another module of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform to integrate with the existing system. This dep...
 

Also Known As

Pentaho, Kettle, Hitachi Pentaho Business Analytics
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cargo 2000 Lufthansa, Marketo, ModCloth, Cardiac Science, Telefonica, ExactTarget, Active Broadband Networks, and Brussels Airport.
SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.
Find out what your peers are saying about Pentaho Business Analytics vs. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,954 professionals have used our research since 2012.