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SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs Zoho Analytics 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
6.3
SAP BusinessObjects aids ROI through savings, insights, and integration, with fluctuating returns based on usage and data quality.
Sentiment score
4.7
Zoho Analytics boosts decision-making and efficiency, offering cost-effective insights and integration, widely valued in retail and e-commerce sectors.
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.
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.
I have seen a return on investment so far in the form of saved time and resources.
The integration with Zoho People is particularly important because I can access real-time data at any time, including what's happening in the last minute.
After incorporating Zoho Analytics, now all our decisions come from its reviews.
Any time I've integrated customer data using Zoho, I've received great feedback and referrals, and Zoho has gotten me referrals and more customers.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Customer service and technical support are inconsistent, with varying experiences in response times and issue resolution effectiveness.
Sentiment score
5.4
Zoho Analytics customer service is responsive and helpful, but technical support experiences vary with ratings from 5 to 8.
I would rate their technical support as excellent.
I have experience with SAP technical support and have supported customers, including those in financial services.
Sometimes, they forward my ticket to the technical team, especially when my issue involves technical aspects that basis people may not be familiar with.
The support team doesn't have full awareness of the system capabilities.
Zoho support provides assistance through live chat to guide us.
If you need help with any issue you face, you can directly call them.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform excels in scalability and user support but may be complex for very high data volumes.
Sentiment score
6.3
Zoho Analytics is praised for scalability, ease of use, integration, and suitability for small to medium-sized businesses.
I rate the scalability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a nine due to performance issues related to optimizing parts.
Zoho Analytics can easily adapt to our needs when they grow, and you don't need much knowledge to adapt it; even basic Excel knowledge is sufficient.
You can utilize URL features to redirect users to their records in Zoho CRM or Zoho Desk with just a click.
Zoho Analytics is scalable.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
SAP BusinessObjects stability varies; proper configuration ensures reliability, though some face issues with updates and integration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.2
Zoho Analytics is reliable with strong uptime, minor bugs, and occasional limitations compared to competitors, depending on connectivity.
When they tried upgrading from 4.2 to 4.3, they found it buggy in some reports, which was quite problematic.
A major missing feature compared to Power BI is the ability to create multiple DAX measures or row-level context, which would be useful for showing custom profit and loss statements.
The stability and reliability of Zoho Analytics have been good over time.
The stability and reliability of the product is crucial for optimal performance.
 

Room For Improvement

SAP BusinessObjects needs enhanced dashboards, integration, and flexibility, with improvements in performance, setup, support, and competitive self-service features.
Zoho Analytics needs improvements in graph options, interface, integrations, AI insights, SQL editor, pricing, customization, performance, and reliability.
I've worked with other tools, for example, Microsoft Power BI, which is visualization-wise very strong.
SAP BusinessObjects is expected to be phased out by 2027 as reports are moving to SAP Analytics Cloud.
I would appreciate integration with Outlook as an additional feature in the future to make it closer to a perfect score.
The collaborative features of Zoho Analytics have faced one issue: they have tried to reduce the sync time with most Zoho applications, but even with CRM, the sync still takes one hour.
While Power BI uses Power Query, an intuitive and powerful tool that allows data manipulation in any way, Zoho Analytics has limitations.
Having to pay for 25 users when only 11 are needed creates an issue with the pricing structure.
 

Setup Cost

SAP BusinessObjects offers robust features with flexible but costly licensing, less price-competitive compared to alternatives like Microsoft Power BI.
Zoho Analytics offers flexible, competitively priced plans, especially valuable when bundled with Zoho One, against costlier analytics tools.
SAP BTP is an expensive solution.
The price is very competitive and reliable.
I rate the pricing for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a seven or eight.
The annual subscription cost of Zoho Analytics is equivalent to about half of the monthly cost of tools such as Tableau or Power BI.
The pricing for Zoho Analytics is actually cheaper than the competitors for the kind of service they provide.
 

Valuable Features

SAP BusinessObjects offers robust features like ad-hoc reporting, multi-source connectivity, and self-service for enhanced data visualization and decision-making.
Zoho Analytics provides user-friendly data visualization, integration, and AI-driven insights for seamless collaboration and effective decision-making.
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.
The best feature about it for me, and for them, is the fact that you have a universe that is well made.
The important features include a dashboard and reporting capabilities through SAP Analytics Cloud, which I consider to be a better version than the initial BusinessObjects platform.
The AI called Zia in Zoho Analytics is extremely useful. Whenever I build a chart or dashboard, I can generate a summary of insights using this AI tool, which is very convenient for both leadership and manager level teams to understand the data concepts.
The best feature is that in the same tool, we can use SQL and business intelligence capabilities.
Regarding integration capabilities, I have found Zoho Analytics' 100+ integrations very effective in consolidating data from various sources.
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP BusinessObjects Busines...
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
110
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Zoho Analytics
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (9th), Data Visualization (6th), Embedded BI (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is 2.9%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho Analytics is 0.8%, up from 0.4% 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 Platform2.9%
Zoho Analytics0.8%
Other96.3%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Declan Dempsey - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Nadeem Asghar - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience with advanced analytics and visualization features boosts decision making
I think the team would know how to predict what needs to be improved. Every business has its own predictions, so providing specific fields based on which to calculate predictions would be helpful. The analytics plans are very complex because they depend on the users, while other Zoho plans operate on a per-user basis. The analytics plan has different features for one user, 10 users, and 25 users. Having to pay for 25 users when only 11 are needed creates an issue with the pricing structure.
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Comparison Review

it_user6663 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
9%
Non Profit
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise65
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise4
 

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...
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 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.
What do you like most about Zoho Analytics?
Zoho Analytics's most valuable feature is the ability to provide excellent analytics through a single platform.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoho Analytics?
I rate the tool's pricing seven out of ten. The licensing costs are yearly.
What needs improvement with Zoho Analytics?
In Zoho Analytics, I don't think there is something that could be improved, but in Zoho itself, I have many concerns about Zoho People.
 

Also Known As

SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects
Zoho Reports
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.
Suzuki, American Pacific Mortgage, KPMG, Air Canada, University of Michigan, BricozOr, WorldWide Express, The University of Melbourne, Novartis, SAIC
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs. Zoho Analytics and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.