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Apache Superset vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 15, 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

Apache Superset
Ranking in Data Visualization
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP BusinessObjects Busines...
Ranking in Data Visualization
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
114
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Data Visualization category, the mindshare of Apache Superset is 3.8%, down from 10.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence is 2.9%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Visualization Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache Superset3.8%
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence2.9%
Other93.3%
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

MP
Founder & CEO at Lanzar
Have saved significant operational costs and streamlined alert-driven analytics with customizable dashboards
I definitely see some disadvantages in Apache Superset, particularly in the tagging feature which is not up to the mark, creating a little bit of mess for the administrators. We work with a Role-Based Access Control feature in the product. I assess this feature as good; they have permissions which are in more plain English, but there is a little bit of convenience missed out because if I have to create a super user apart from admin, I need to add all the permissions manually.
EO
Data Analytics Manager at Dangote Industries Limited
Solution empowers self-service reporting and delivers comprehensive performance insights
Empowering business users means they should be able to work independently without depending on the developer. One advantage of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is self-service capabilities, allowing users to do drag and drop to build their own reports and perform analyses without needing technical know-how.The platform has many drivers that I can use to connect to virtually all available databases, making it easy to integrate with Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and many others. With the cloud version, I can fetch data on-premises and to the cloud for analysis easily. It is so flexible that I can make choices for fetching data. For authentication in an SAP environment, I can choose to integrate with SAP logon for SSO or use AD authentication for convenience, along with the flexible integration options.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Apache Superset is the easy way to configure dashboards as reports or analyses and it's easy to use and intuitive. Users do not need a lot of training to use the solution."
"What I appreciate most about Apache Superset is its text search feature, including searching with small and capital letters."
"The no-code interface is the most valuable as it allows us to operate without constant support from the data engineering team, fostering a self-service environment."
"What I appreciate the most about Apache Superset is that it's free and easy to set up."
"Being able to quickly build standard dashboards around relational data in Apache Superset provides tremendous visibility for everyone on the team."
"Apache Superset allows us to set up alerts; for instance, if the failure rate exceeds 1.5%, we receive an alert to address the issue with our integration partners."
"I see savings from using Apache Superset in both time and money, particularly with the cost reduced by roughly 99% compared to Tableau where we previously paid almost 50k annually."
"Being able to quickly build standard dashboards around relational data in Apache Superset provides tremendous visibility for everyone on the team."
"It has got great flexibility. As a reporting tool, it has a great deal of flexibility for numerous data resources that you can bring into it. It allows you to write your SQL query directly within the product. So, it allows you to do server-side joins instead of pulling all the data into Crystal Report to aggregate that data. It has great visualization. For the most part, it operates quite efficiently."
"Go ahead with it -- it’s a good product."
"If you are completely new to business intelligence but you are already using SAP solutions, this is the best tool that you can use to leverage your financial systems or logistic systems."
"The features that I think are valuable in SAP Business Objects - BOBJ (WEBi, BI Launch Pad, Rich Client) are the drill down capabilities to the nitty gritty lowest level, and perform an in depth analysis from different angles."
"Business analytics are the most valuable features of this solution; I don't have experience with the other functional features offered."
"The solution can scale."
"The reports are most valuable. If it is a single-source universe, based on only one database, the performance, and the reporting tool is user-friendly, and users are very familiar with the tool and are comfortable using it."
"​Provides autonomy for all the business users to develop their own reports.​"
 

Cons

"The platform's reporting feature needs enhancement."
"Dark mode would be the main thing I would like; it does not really work because the chart text cannot be white in a dark mode setup, so it is not feasible."
"I definitely see some disadvantages in Apache Superset, particularly in the tagging feature which is not up to the mark, creating a little bit of mess for the administrators."
"Building a full-fledged product or software as a service might be cumbersome due to performance limitations."
"Apache Superset could be improved by enhancing its interactivity and engagement capabilities."
"When comparing Apache Superset with Elasticsearch and Solar Search, it lacks some features that come with Elasticsearch, such as Kibana."
"I definitely see some disadvantages in Apache Superset, particularly in the tagging feature which is not up to the mark, creating a little bit of mess for the administrators."
"Dynamic dashboarding could improve to enable smooth navigation when transitioning from a higher to a lower view, allowing for easy accessibility."
"They could reduce the licensing expenses. There is nothing really wrong with the product in terms of what it does. It works well. If you are a part of BI Launch Pad, then you could run ad hoc reporting, but for the integration, you need access to BI Launch Pad, which is quite expensive. We're an organization with 18,000 employees. It is not really practical to give people access to BI Launch Pad. So, from a customer perspective, in terms of saturating our employee base, we don't really have great saturation because of the expense."
"The dashboard tool is called Lumira and it is very uncomfortable for developers to use. They should improve this in the future."
"Reports/Dashboards on RDBMS cannot handle or scale the demands of the latest data analytics solutions."
"It should have a better integration with Excel."
"The cost of this product, so every company is not suitable to use it. Because of the very huge amount of integrations, every organization can not use it."
"Lumira is also a promising tool, but at this point still feels inferior to Tableau."
"We would like to see a native version of BusinessObjects and Web Intelligence created for the cloud."
"The amount of resources used has caused the system to fail from time to time."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Apache Superset is an open-source solution."
"Apache Superset is open-source and free."
"Apache Superset has a three-year licensing model."
"The price of Apache Superset is less than some of its competitors."
"It is not a subscription model, but you must purchase a perpetual license for this."
"The platform's pricing needs to be revised."
"The SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform has to improve its licensing cost."
"There is an annual license to use SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform."
"It is not cost-effective. It is expensive."
"I have always found SAP BI to be expensive. It is expensive even when you compare SAP BI Cloud with Microsoft Power BI. Power BI is probably around $9.99 per month, and the cheapest SAP BI is around $20, which is double. In terms of price, Power BI is definitely a lot better. If you have budget issues, you may want to go for Power BI."
"​It is not an expensive platform. The licensing is for a package of users starting at 10 users."
"We are satisfied with the solution, but we are not satisfied with the licensing cost which SAP offers. They offer one lumpsum licensing which does everything. That is not the right strategy, because sometimes you don't have power users, they are only viewers, but we need to buy the full license for them. This is not something we want to continue with."
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Comparison Review

it_user6663 - PeerSpot reviewer
BI Expert at a transportation company with 51-200 employees
May 25, 2013
SAP Business Objects vs. Microsoft BI
A quick look at the whole idea on another weblogs gives you a sense that all of them just talked about very brief things like report refresh feature in BO or cube feature in MS Analysis Service. I choose MS BI and I want to share my reasons and opinions on why I choose it and give you another quick…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise68
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Apache Superset?
I definitely see some disadvantages in Apache Superset, particularly in the tagging feature which is not up to the mark, creating a little bit of mess for the administrators. We work with a Role-Ba...
What is your primary use case for Apache Superset?
My major use case for Apache Superset is anything related to analytical dashboards.
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows: 1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle - look for SAP...
Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?
Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.
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