No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.
it_user54702 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user54702
Sr. Business Intelligence Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
Feb 23, 2016
Download
​We were able to configure our data warehouse and implement more than eight data cubes in a very short period of time.
Pros and Cons
  • "We were able to configure our data warehouse and implement more than eight data cubes in a very short period of time."
  • "It needs to improve scheduling for the integration aspect."

What is most valuable?

Pentaho Data Integration - Even though this is the community edition it is very powerful compared to other expensive products like MS SQL, SSIS, or Informatica.

How has it helped my organization?

We were able to configure our data warehouse and implement more than eight data cubes in a very short period of time.

What needs improvement?

It needs to improve scheduling for the integration aspect. Pentaho Mondrian (cubes) should allow snowflake schemas

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the follow tools within Pentaho for two years.

Pentaho Data Integration - 5.3.0.0-213
Pentaho Aggregation Designer 2008-2012
Pentaho Schema Workbench 3.6.1
Pentaho User Console (Mondrian) 5.4.0.1.130

Buyer's Guide
Pentaho Business Analytics
June 2026
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: June 2026.
DOWNLOAD NOW
903,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We had no deployment issues.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We had no issues with the stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have had no issues scaling it.

How are customer service and support?

We haven't used tech support, but the forums are an excellent source of help.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used Microsoft and Informatica. We chose Pentaho because it is an open source.

How was the initial setup?

I believe the software installation (client or server) is very straightforward.
However, complexity occurs when tuning properties for the Mondrian cubes.

What about the implementation team?

We did an in-house implementation, as it was fully customized.

What other advice do I have?

Pentaho is a good choice for Unix/Linux environments. The integration tool is quite good. The configuration for cubes is quite simple (XML) and it is very simple to configure dimensions, factual and calculated data. although, we use a Mondrian emulator (Sinatra) for our solution implementation.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
it_user384369
Programmer Analyst at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 21, 2016
Download
Big Data plugins and connectors are available by default.
Pros and Cons
  • "We use both DataStage and Pentaho, but I don't see any special features in Pentaho that is not available in DataStage, except Big Data plugins and connectors."
  • "It's still not user friendly or robust enough for our needs."

Valuable Features:

We use both DataStage and Pentaho, but I don't see any special features in Pentaho that is not available in DataStage, except Big Data plugins and connectors. These are default in Pentaho, and for those who have expertise in Java and Java script can write their custom code or enhance and call from Pentaho's code.

Improvements to My Organization:

When we wanted pursue this tool, the major factor was the amount of money we could save. Other than that, there is no special use cases for using this product as it was not that matured when we started using it in 2012 when compared to other ETL tools. 

Room for Improvement:

It's still not user friendly or robust enough for our needs.

Deployment Issues:

There were issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues:

There have been stability issues.

Scalability Issues:

We've had issues scaling it for what we need.

Other Advice:

Since there are very few skilled people available on the market, we had to risk the project. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Pentaho Business Analytics
June 2026
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: June 2026.
DOWNLOAD NOW
903,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
it_user383829
Founder and Business Intelligence Consultant at Know Solutions
Consultant
Feb 16, 2016
Download
It helps me to create new BI environments for my customers.
Pros and Cons
  • "I use Pentaho everyday in my company, creating new BI environments for my customers."
  • "The ad-hoc reporting needs to be improved."

Valuable Features

  • Business analytics
  • CDE
  • Flexible dashboard development
  • Cube

Improvements to My Organization

I use Pentaho everyday in my company, creating new BI environments for my customers.

Room for Improvement

The ad-hoc reporting needs to be improved.

Deployment Issues

There were no deployment issues.

Stability Issues

There have been no issues with the stability.

Scalability Issues

There have been no issues with the scalability.

Customer Service and Technical Support

I've never had to use technical support.

Initial Setup

It was easy, and only took a few minutes.

Other Advice

You should always check the community version first as it may be better for you.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
it_user384822
Programmer Analyst at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Feb 14, 2016
Download
Pentaho BA server is supported by CDE (Common Dashboard Editor) to create a responsive Dashboard which can used in Mobile. Mobile Responsiveness of BA server should be improved.
Pros and Cons
  • "Pentaho Business Analytics tool provides ETL and easy creation of Analyser, interactive and attractive dashboards."
  • "Mobile responsiveness of BA server should be improved."

Valuable Features:

Pentaho Business Analytics tool provides ETL. Easy creation of Analyser, interactive & attractive dashboards.

Pentaho BA server is supported by CDE (Common Dashboard Editor) to create responsive Dashboard which can used in Mobile.

Improvements to My Organization:

Organizing the data & representing data with Graphical view gives an insight on the data.

Room for Improvement:

Mobile Responsiveness of BA server should be improved.

Analyser and interactive Dashboard should be accessible via Dashboard.

Deployment Issues:

We've had no issues with deployment.

Stability Issues:

It's been stable for us.

Scalability Issues:

It scales without issues.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
it_user384954 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user384954
Data Modeller and Pentaho Integration Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Feb 9, 2016
Download
It covers most of our ETL requirements. It relies heavily on Java caching and sometimes it causes issues.​
Pros and Cons
  • "It covers most of our ETL requirements."
  • "There are issues with clustering, and partitioning which we have reported."

What is most valuable?

It's free and easy to use. You can actually explain it to any non-ETL developer.

How has it helped my organization?

It covers most of our ETL requirements.

What needs improvement?

There are issues with Java code and sometimes we have to fix it or apply work around.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it for two years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

There are issues with clustering, and partitioning which we have reported.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It relies heavily on Java caching and sometimes it causes issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

7/10

Technical Support:

7/10

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used ODI, Talend and Informatica. Pentaho is just current ETL choice for organization.

How was the initial setup?

It's very easy.

What about the implementation team?

We have implemented in-house with customization.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We're only using the Community Edition.

What other advice do I have?

It's very easy to use and implement.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
CK
Chandu Sekhar
Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Feb 9, 2016
Download
​It helped in managing the data from different sources into one unique target.​ I would like to see what code the report tool generates.
Pros and Cons
  • "Pentaho data integration, where most of the ETL work can be done with minimal coding, along with its reporting capabilities, helped us manage data from different sources into one unique target."
  • "In the reporting tool, I would like to see what code it generates. As of now, there is no provision to see the underlying code of the PRD file."

What is most valuable?

  • Pentaho data integration
  • Most of the ETL stuff can be done with minimal coding
  • Reporting capabilities

How has it helped my organization?

It helped in managing the data from different sources into one unique target.

What needs improvement?

In the reporting tool, I would like to see what code it generates. As of now, there is no provision to see the underlying code of the PRD file.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for one year.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

There have been no issues with deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been no stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There have been no issues scaling it.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

I have not had to use the customer service.

Technical Support:

I have not had to use technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

There was no other solution in place.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward and became complex later to our understanding of the existing structure and the use of the ETL to align with those.

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house. You need to have a good understanding of what the tool can offer like ETL, MDM, ans SCDs.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We're using the free edition.

What other advice do I have?

It's moderate to use, learn, and implement. It's nice and you should use it.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
it_user375249
Senior Software Engineer - Alfresco, Liferay, Pentaho at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Jan 27, 2016
Download
It's helped us with the integration of Big Data.
Pros and Cons
  • "We wanted a tool where by using it we could integrate multiple data sets, and could get responsive reports and Pentaho helped us do this in a good way."
  • "The presentation of data and reports. Pentaho have made a lot of improvements in the newer versions, but it's still an area of improvement when compared to other products in market."

What is most valuable?

Speed, performance and for me the best one is integration with any data type, including Big Data.

How has it helped my organization?

We wanted a tool where by using it we could integrate multiple data sets, and could get responsive reports and Pentaho helped us do this in a good way.

What needs improvement?

The presentation of data and reports. Pentaho have made a lot of improvements in the newer versions, but it's still an area of improvement when compared to other products in market.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Pentaho for over four years, starting from v3.2 we are continuously upgrading to new versions. We're also using Pentaho BI server v4.8.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Pentaho BI server comes with inbuilt Tomcat container which is easy to deploy.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No. So far so good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No. So far so good.

How are customer service and technical support?

Being a community user, most of the time we depend on forums and the kind of response we got for tricky questions was just amazing.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using Talend but simplicity of Pentaho attracts us and we settled on Pentaho.

How was the initial setup?

It was very much straightforward except at some points where we did our customizations which we had to take into account during new installations or upgrades.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented in-house on our own servers.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using the Community Edition of Pentaho.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
Ricardo Díaz - PeerSpot reviewer
Ricardo Díaz
COO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Top 20
Oct 26, 2015
Download
R Script needs work. Provides good dashboards for non-IT users.
Pros and Cons
    • "R Script."

    Valuable Features:

    - Correct URL integration

    - Excelent Look & Feel

    - Good Dashboards integration with Bootstrap

    Improvements to My Organization:

    - Senior management dashboard

    - Pentaho Reporting and CDF integration

    Room for Improvement:

    - R Script

    Use of Solution:

    6 months

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    Flag as inappropriate
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    it_user210372
    Product Owner of Business Intelligence at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
    Vendor
    Oct 19, 2015
    We found workarounds to a couple of issues, but we spend too much time dealing with them. We're now evaluating other solutions.

    With Pentaho we ran into a couple of issues - Multi-tenancy capability issues. We've found workarounds to the issues but our developers need to spend a great amount of time dealing with them.

    We're looking to expand our product offering to our customers and we'd like to have the ability to give them better access to their data. Pentaho isn't proving to be a great solution for our needs.

    Development time is currently too long for developing basic charts, dashboards and reports. All of these basic items take a long time to develop when using Pentaho. This costs us money and time.

    Part of these issues is due to the fact that Pentaho documentation is pretty limited. We need to go ad hoc and pay a lot for additional training. There aren't many help files for our developers.

    We're currently evaluating other solutions which will allow us to develop dashboards, charts and dashboards quicker while still taking the price point into consideration.

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    Flag as inappropriate
    PeerSpot user
    Ricardo Díaz - PeerSpot reviewer
    Ricardo Díaz
    COO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
    Consultant
    Top 20
    Aug 10, 2015
    Download
    Fast Development (Agile BI), Good Charts and Visualization, Good Security, Good User Interface
    Pros and Cons
    • "Powerful Analytics, Fast KPI Analysis"
    • "Customer Service: 5/10 Technical Support: 9/10"

    What is most valuable?

    Pentaho Analyzer (EE)

    Saiku (CE)

    Marketplace (CE)

    R (EE and CE)

    Community Dashboard Framework (CE)

    Dashboard Editor (EE)

    How has it helped my organization?

    Powerful Analytics, Fast KPI Analysis

    For how long have I used the solution?

    4 Years

    What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

    Integration with GeoServer (Specially ShapeFiles Layers on Maps)

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    None

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Migrate old version of Reports (.prpt) to a new version

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Customer Service:

    5/10

    Technical Support:

    9/10

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    Yes, QlikView.

    How was the initial setup?

    Difficulty: medium

    What was our ROI?

    45%

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    QlikView

    Tableau, SpagoBI

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    Flag as inappropriate
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Pentaho Business Analytics Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: June 2026
    DOWNLOAD NOW
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Pentaho Business Analytics Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Buyer's Guide
    Pentaho Business Analytics
    June 2026
    DOWNLOAD NOW
    Quick Links
    Learn More: Questions: