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SAP Crystal Reports vs Yellowfin comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

SAP Crystal Reports
Ranking in Reporting
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Yellowfin
Ranking in Reporting
24th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (34th), Data Visualization (21st), Embedded BI (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of SAP Crystal Reports is 2.3%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Yellowfin is 1.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP Crystal Reports2.3%
Yellowfin1.8%
Other95.9%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

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.
AC
‎IS Executive at SAINS
It is a central source of up-to-date data and information, but needs more charting capabilities
Management information Reporting Statistics Data analysis It reduces sending copies of different report/spreadsheet versions over email, which makes it difficult to access the right report. It is also able to create information dashboards for various users' throughout.  All management…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Crystal Reports has a great deal of flexibility in how you display your company data."
"It has been around long enough that any challenges you encounter can easily be found with a Google search."
"I have done incredible, innovative things with Crystal Reports, but only because I knew it so well and could synthesize breakthrough ideas on how to give the customer what they wanted."
"Crystal Reports is an excellent dedicated reporting tool, and I invested time into advanced training."
"Pixel-perfect formatting is extremely customizable."
"What I like about it is that it's easy to use and it provides good connectivity to various databases."
"Our reports are no longer just a static product, as our users can actually interact with the reports and we can generate a single enterprise wide report where users simply navigate to see only what is pertinent to them."
"Using SAP Crystal Reports had a strong impact on our organization; it saves significant time by automating routine reporting tasks and reduced manual effort in preparing customer letters and reports."
"It reduces time to reproduce reports, provides easy access to organisational data, and has the ability to generate a wide range of reports and analysis."
"It is a central source of up-to-date data and information."
"It is able to create information dashboards for various users' throughout."
"Yellowfin doesn’t try to do everything – it is a BI presentation and communication tool, and it does it brilliantly."
 

Cons

"It crashes the designer when the tool with no clear error messages."
"The linking feature between tables has always been a bit buggy, which is not good because it is really the core of ensuring that the returned data is correct."
"SAP Crystal Reports should provide better support for dynamic connectors."
"For companies that just have SAP Crystal Reports without one of the SAP server products that come with annual maintenance, about 3/10."
"I would like to see improvement in charts and metadata extraction."
"This was a good platform when it first came out but right now, it has become a complicated behemoth."
"If at all possible, a little bit of improvement on the analytical side is needed."
"It needs better integration with Hadoop as well as enhancements for more analytical usage."
"It needs more presentation/charting capabilities and integration with GIS."
"The first release was a bit buggy, but they seem to have gotten on top of that very quickly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay fifteen hundred dollars as licensing fee."
"SAP Crystal Reports is a very expensive solution."
"This product costs a lot of money."
"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."
"I feel that SAP Crystal Reports is a reasonably priced product."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
20%
Educational Organization
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise22
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
NCS, Universitat Konstanz, AT&T, PG&E, SingTel, InternetStores
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP Crystal Reports vs. Yellowfin and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,417 professionals have used our research since 2012.