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Amazon QuickSight vs IBM Cognos 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
4.4
Amazon QuickSight provides competitive pricing, significant time savings, and value, though ROI varies based on usage effectiveness.
Sentiment score
6.7
IBM Cognos offers mixed returns; some save significantly, others find it costly, but generally enhances insights and processes.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.8
Amazon QuickSight's support experiences vary, with helpful Enterprise Support, useful documentation, but inconsistent general assistance based on issues.
Sentiment score
6.5
IBM Cognos support is responsive and expert but criticized for high costs, slow resolutions, and complexity in customer service.
I would say out of all the support experience I've had, only 5% took quite a long time to respond to the support message.
I rate technical support from IBM as eight out of ten, indicating a high quality of service.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.2
Amazon QuickSight offers scalability for various organizations but faces mixed reviews regarding performance with large datasets.
Sentiment score
7.5
IBM Cognos offers scalable solutions, supporting large deployments with proper server architecture, powerful hardware, and seamless software integration.
It can be scaled out to other teams, but requires building cubes and implementing policies.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Amazon QuickSight is stable and reliable, with occasional issues quickly resolved, but lacks maturity compared to Tableau and Power BI.
Sentiment score
7.2
IBM Cognos is praised for stability and performance, surpassing competitors, with minor issues often due to server configuration.
I rate the stability of this solution as nine out of ten, indicating it is highly stable.
 

Room For Improvement

QuickSight users seek improved features like data integration, visualizations, machine learning, user design, cost efficiency, and documentation.
IBM Cognos needs UI upgrades, better data visualization, improved performance, and advanced self-service features to compete with rivals.
Understanding how AWS charges for Amazon QuickSight usage is critical for all users wanting to visualize their data effectively.
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon QuickSight offers cost-effective, flexible pricing, ideal for AWS users, with potential savings through pay-as-you-go options.
IBM Cognos is costlier but offers extensive features, complex licensing, and competitive SaaS options for SMEs, emphasizing negotiation.
It is not expensive, but it is also not cheap.
I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon QuickSight offers seamless AWS integration, ease of use, cost efficiency, fast visualizations, and advanced analytics features for diverse needs.
IBM Cognos offers powerful analytics, flexible reporting, strong visualization, and robust security with scalability and ease of use.
The natural language query is very important, and natural language processing is crucial for disseminating dashboards across multiple formats and mechanisms.
IBM Cognos is a robust governed platform with significant security features and provides excellent graphics and reporting.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon QuickSight
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
5th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Cognos
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Amazon QuickSight is 6.3%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.1%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Mohd Farhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Has seamless data filtering and visualization for client satisfaction
One area for improvement is the cost, as it's a bit expensive. The caching mechanism also charges too much if I need to cache any data. Sometimes it takes time to display data, suggesting a need for enhancement in data visualization speed. Additionally, the role-level security is challenging to implement, and it could be improved to allow access control per department more easily.
AMOL JAJU - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ad hoc analysis reports and good for operational dashboarding
There used to be many valuable features, but in the last three or four years, whatever IBM is doing with enhancements, it has taken a lot of time to build and develop. But the best usage of Cognos is the ad hoc analysis reports. I really like that. Our customers also like that. But now the usage of Cognos and OBIE is reduced by various business users because people and business users are now more focused on analytics, slice and dice, and the dashboard, and the widgets.
report
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 4, 2015
Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho
1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon QuickSight?
The integration is very seamless. We stored our result CSV files in S3 and connected directly from there.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon QuickSight?
Amazon QuickSight charges $250 per user, which becomes expensive when managing multiple departments. However, this cost is offset by the advantages it provides.
What needs improvement with Amazon QuickSight?
Because I didn't use Amazon QuickSight extensively, I don't think I would be in the best position to recommend improvements. I was searching and wasn't getting the help I wanted with what I wanted ...
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...
What do you like most about IBM Cognos?
The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools.
What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
 

Also Known As

QuickSight
Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

MLB Advanced Media, Infor, HotelBeds, Gemini, Jivochat, Edmunds.com
More than 23,000 leading organizations across multiple industries use Cognos. Some examples of Cognos customers include BMW Financial Services, Quinte Health Care, Troy Corporation, Michigan State University, and GKN Land System.
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon QuickSight vs. IBM Cognos and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.