No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Pentaho Business Analytics pros and cons

Vendor: Hitachi Vantara

4.0 out of 5

45 reviews
87% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Pentaho Business Analytics offers versatile tools like BI Server and Saiku, supporting easy job creation and integration with Tableau reports. With quick installation and robust database connectivity, it faces challenges in dashboard construction and source integration. Enhancements in logging, version control, and repository customization are required. It demands technical expertise in operating systems and Java, impacting ROI as the subscription cost outweighs delivered value.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Pentaho's BI Server, CDE Dashboards, Saiku, and Kettle are highly experienced and effective tools.

Components are easy to use for job creation.

Initial setup is straightforward, and installation is possible without tech support.

Offers valuable features like Tableau reports and ease in developing data flows.

Provides a wide range of database connectivity options, including cloud support, and is suitable for big data management and analytics.

CONS

Pentaho should improve dashboard construction and integration of information from different sources without technical user intervention.

Logging capability and version control are needed.

The repository requires improvement, and Pentaho is not customizable or interactive.

Pentaho is hard to learn and not suited for initial users due to its reliance on Java and technical skills.

Deployment is complex due to dealing with large amounts of data and storage.

Pentaho Business Analytics Pros review quotes

AR

ALEXANDRERIBEIRO

DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia

Mar 28, 2025

The interface of Pentaho Business Analytics is easy to use and does not require high-level skills to operate the tool.

Read full review

PK

Digital Development Specialist at Vittne Digital Teknologi

Dec 6, 2024

It is robust, offers market intelligence, and utilizes modules effectively.

Read full review

Azhagarasan Annadorai

Director at a university with 1-10 employees

May 28, 2025

We were able to install it without any assistance from tech support.

Read full review

Pentaho Business Analytics

Free Report: Pentaho Business Analytics Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Pentaho Business Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2026.

893,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

Nov 6, 2023

Pentaho is an analytics platform that can be used when an organization has a lot of big data storage systems already installed and needs to manage and analyze that data. It has a specific use case for unstructured data, such as documents, and needs to be able to search and analyze it.

Read full review

Muhammed Shafad

Senior Data Analyst at 6d Technologies

May 25, 2022

The most valuable feature of Pentaho is the Tableau report.

Read full review

Senior Manager, Financial Services at KPMG

Feb 16, 2022

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

Read full review

reviewer2031747

Administrative Assistant at a university with 10,001+ employees

Dec 2, 2022

Pentaho Business Analytics' best features include the ease of developing data flows and the wide range of options to connect to databases, including those on the cloud.

Read full review

SR

Saravanan Ramaraj

Solution Architect at MIMOS Berhad

Apr 28, 2020

Making business decision easily and efficient by simplifying the Performance Management of each business units on timely basis.

Read full review

Identity and Access Management Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Jan 8, 2018

Easy to use components to create the job.

Read full review

Director Tecnologia

Sep 14, 2017

I use the BI Server, CDE Dashboards, Saiku, and Kettle, because these tools are very good and highly experienced.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 31)

Pentaho Business Analytics Cons review quotes

AR

ALEXANDRERIBEIRO

DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia

Mar 28, 2025

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.

Read full review

PK

Digital Development Specialist at Vittne Digital Teknologi

Dec 6, 2024

The tool is very good, and yet it has some problems as it relies heavily on Java.

Read full review

Azhagarasan Annadorai

Director at a university with 1-10 employees

May 28, 2025

We did not achieve the ROI. The work delivered to users had lesser value than the subscription cost.

Read full review

Pentaho Business Analytics

Free Report: Pentaho Business Analytics Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Pentaho Business Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2026.

893,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

Nov 6, 2023

Deployment is not simple. It is not simple because we are dealing with a lot of data; we are dealing with a lot of storage. So, it's not a simple process.

Read full review

Muhammed Shafad

Senior Data Analyst at 6d Technologies

May 25, 2022

Another concern is that Pentaho is not customizable or interactive.

Read full review

Senior Manager, Financial Services at KPMG

Feb 16, 2022

The repository should be improved.

Read full review

reviewer2031747

Administrative Assistant at a university with 10,001+ employees

Dec 2, 2022

Pentaho Business Analytics' user interface is outdated.

Read full review

SR

Saravanan Ramaraj

Solution Architect at MIMOS Berhad

Apr 28, 2020

Customer Service: 3 (out of 5 scale) Technical Support: 3 (out of 5 scale)

Read full review

Identity and Access Management Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Jan 8, 2018

Logging capability is needed.

Read full review

Director Tecnologia

Sep 14, 2017

Pentaho, at the general level, should greatly improve the easy construction of its dashboards and easy integration of information from different sources without technical user intervention.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 31)

Product Categories

Product Categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Cloud Operations Analytics

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Tableau Enterprise vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Teradata vs Pentaho Business Analytics

IBM Cognos vs Pentaho Business Analytics

SAP Business Data Cloud vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Domo vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Amazon QuickSight vs Pentaho Business Analytics

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Oracle OBIEE vs Pentaho Business Analytics

QlikView vs Pentaho Business Analytics

MicroStrategy vs Pentaho Business Analytics

TIBCO Spotfire vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Sisense vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Oracle Analytics Cloud vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Spot by Flexera vs Pentaho Business Analytics

See all alternatives

Product Categories

Product Categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Cloud Operations Analytics

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Tableau Enterprise vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Teradata vs Pentaho Business Analytics

IBM Cognos vs Pentaho Business Analytics

SAP Business Data Cloud vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Domo vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Amazon QuickSight vs Pentaho Business Analytics

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Oracle OBIEE vs Pentaho Business Analytics

QlikView vs Pentaho Business Analytics

MicroStrategy vs Pentaho Business Analytics

TIBCO Spotfire vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Sisense vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Oracle Analytics Cloud vs Pentaho Business Analytics

Spot by Flexera vs Pentaho Business Analytics

See all alternatives

Related questions

62

Seeking advise on going with Birst, BOARD or Pentaho as an OEM platform solution where we could end up with 1,000's of users over time.

104

Jaspersoft vs. Pentaho. Which should we choose?

18

Performance benchmarks for Pentaho?

39

What is the biggest difference between SSIS and Pentaho?

137

When evaluating Business Intelligence Tools, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?

92

BI Tool Replacements, What Do You Recommend?

88

Which one is best for ETL - Pentaho or Jaspersoft?

62

Seeking advise on going with Birst, BOARD or Pentaho as an OEM platform solution where we could end up with 1,000's of users over time.

88

BI Tool Evaluation Criteria Rating Matrix -- anyone have one they've used in making a tool selection?

104

QlikView or Tableau - Which is better?