Pentaho Business Analytics Reviews and Pricing

Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Feb 9, 2016

It helped in managing the data from different sources into one unique target. I would like to see what code the report tool generates.

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.

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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 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.

it_user375249

Senior Software Engineer - Alfresco, Liferay, Pentaho at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 27, 2016

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It's helped us with the integration of Big Data.

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.

Buyer's Guide

Pentaho Business Analytics

May 2025

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Learn what your peers think about Pentaho Business Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.

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Ricardo Díaz

COO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Oct 26, 2015

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R Script needs work. Provides good dashboards for non-IT users.

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.

it_user210372

Product Owner of Business Intelligence at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

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.

Ricardo Díaz

COO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Aug 10, 2015

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Fast Development (Agile BI), Good Charts and Visualization, Good Security, Good User Interface

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.

it_user164988

Senior Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Apr 24, 2015

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A few steps in PDI can be fine tuned, but has enabled our clients and their users to make calculated decisions.

What is most valuable?

Pentaho Data Integration.

How has it helped my organization?

Pentaho reports have enabled our client and their users to take calculated and informed tactical decisions. The drag and drop reporting of Pentaho is very user friendly and takes care of all reporting needs very efficiently.

What needs improvement?

A few steps in PDI like Database Join can be fine tuned.
Work could be done on roles and securities.

For how long have I used the solution?

3 and a half years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None so far.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Pretty stable. But database and repository cache sometimes need to be manually refreshed to make the changes effective.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Yes. A few steps like Database join and merge join steps could be finetuned.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

A 3/5. The support is prompt and timely. But there have been some technical limitations sometimes.

Technical Support:

3/5.

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

Used MSBI sparingly. Used Pentaho mostly for cost benefits.

How was the initial setup?

Pretty straightforward. Also the support Pentaho documents are self explanatory for installation guidelines.

What about the implementation team?

In-house team.

What was our ROI?

Awesome. Even for enterprise edition. Obviously much better for community version.

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

Currently using community edition. So zero maintenance cost.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Not thoroughly enough.

What other advice do I have?

If budget is a constraint, then Pentaho is a very good option. If budget is not an issue , then paid BI tools can be easily considered. Pentaho is leader in open source technology but still may not match paid BI tools.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user165039

Senior Software Engineer - BI at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 5, 2015

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With the help of the Data Analysis tool, decisions are very easy but Data Mining needs improvement

What is most valuable?

The ability to maintain historical data.

How has it helped my organization?

For decision purposes, it serves the information to managers to so they can make proper decisions using the data. With the help of the Data Analysis tool, decisions are very easy.

What needs improvement?

Populating Cube
Data Mining

For how long have I used the solution?

Four months.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Yes we did.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

9 out of 10.

Technical Support:

7 out of 10.

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

No previous solution used.

How was the initial setup?

It was complex to set-up.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it through a vendor and I would rate them 9/10.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also looked at Talend.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user175566

CIO at a wellness & fitness company with 51-200 employees

Dec 25, 2014

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The initial setup of the tool is very simple and the product is fairly simple.

What is most valuable?

OLAP analysis (in CE edition JPivot)
Dashboards (CDF + CDE)

How has it helped my organization?

With the launch of Pentaho the organization has aggregated information about the various functional areas and the ability to generate real-time analysis (OLAP) without the need of IT.

For how long have I used the solution?

It's in production since 2010

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's fairly stable.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

I use the CE without support.

Technical Support:

I use the CE without support.

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

Yes. I changed because of costs.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of the tool is very simple. In the last version we have a marketplace for installing new features in the product.

What about the implementation team?

In-House.

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

The cost of initial setup was only for the hours and technical expertise (internal development).

What other advice do I have?

A very important aspect of performance is the choice of the database to house the data warehouse. I recommend investing time in deciding the engine and architecture. We recommend using oriented columns engines.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.