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Board vs Pentaho Business Analytics 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
7.8
Organizations save time and reduce costs with Board's efficiency, enhancing ERP integration and streamlining municipal processes.
Sentiment score
5.4
Pentaho Business Analytics mixed ROI perceptions highlight efficiency gains but unclear returns compared to competitors like QlikView and Tableau.
It's hard for me to gauge the monetary benefits, but the time saved in budgeting and forecasting processes indicates a definite bonus.
Manager, Software Delivery at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Board's customer service is praised for responsiveness and reliability, despite occasional communication issues, contributing to positive user experiences.
Sentiment score
6.5
Pentaho Business Analytics receives mixed reviews for customer support, with users relying heavily on forums and community assistance.
As long as I go through my account manager, I receive very good support.
Manager, Software Delivery at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Board efficiently manages scaling, offering flexibility and robust data processing, though some face scalability issues with larger Windows client data.
Sentiment score
7.0
Pentaho Business Analytics is scalable with good performance but occasionally needs professional help for complex data handling.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Users generally find the platform stable, with occasional issues mostly due to user error or integration challenges.
Sentiment score
6.5
Pentaho Business Analytics is stable but may face Java caching issues, impacting performance and requiring careful cache management.
Board's stability is excellent, with uptime around ninety-nine point nine percent, and I have not experienced any issues.
Manager, Software Delivery at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It can handle large datasets.
DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia
 

Room For Improvement

Board needs improvements in integration, user experience, data handling, and performance to optimize functionality and accessibility.
Pentaho Business Analytics lacks an intuitive interface, robust integration, self-service features, and requires technical expertise, limiting usability.
If the design isn't right, the flexibility of Board can negatively impact performance.
Manager, Software Delivery at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
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.
DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia
 

Setup Cost

Board offers flexible pricing, valued for cost-benefit despite being pricier than competitors; partner support is essential during implementation.
Enterprise buyers find the free Pentaho Community Edition cost-effective, while the Enterprise Edition offers value with support and features.
Pentaho Business Analytics is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView and Tableau.
DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia
 

Valuable Features

Board provides a comprehensive platform for customization, reporting, data analysis, security, and diverse functionalities with minimal IT involvement.
Pentaho Business Analytics provides easy data integration, customizable dashboards, extensive connectivity, and supports efficient data transformation and delivery.
Our budgeting and forecasting processes support around three hundred twenty users who would otherwise rely on Excel, making Board invaluable for saving time.
Manager, Software Delivery at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It is a stable product, and it can handle large datasets.
DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia
 

Categories and Ranking

Board
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
22nd
Ranking in Reporting
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (7th)
Pentaho Business Analytics
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
20th
Ranking in Reporting
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Operations Analytics (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Board is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pentaho Business Analytics is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Pentaho Business Analytics0.6%
Board1.0%
Other98.4%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Q&A Highlights

it_user196212 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President - Product Information with 51-200 employees
Oct 06, 2016
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2645016 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Software Delivery at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Offers flexibility in design and saves time in budgeting and forecasting processes
I find Board to be simple and easy to use. It offers significant flexibility in designing solutions. The system overall is very useful, with many capabilities that provide flexibility. Our budgeting and forecasting processes support around three hundred twenty users who would otherwise rely on Excel, making Board invaluable for saving time.
JB
Founder at SJT Consult
Solution enables effective ETL processes and exhibits high satisfaction
From an integration perspective, Pentaho Business Analytics is not the best tool on the market. There are things done by Apache that are better, though I am not the one implementing them, so this is based on what I have heard about novelties in the market. I do not see the need to extend the coverage of Pentaho Business Analytics's domain. For things that it does not do, there are better solutions on the market, and it would be costly to implement them. Pentaho Business Analytics is a very great tool for very specific standardized scenarios. If you need more complex elastic solutions because the process is different, there are better tools available.
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Comparison Review

it_user6978 - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder at Helical IT Solution (Jaspersoft, Pentaho, Talend, Kettle, DWBI, ETL, Ctools, iReport, Jasper Report)
Jun 10, 2013
Jaspersoft vs. Pentaho – Which one to use & is there any need to purchase the commercial edition
Any company (be it technology, manfucaturing, human resource, ecommerce, SME etc) always has the need for Business Intelligence to some or the other extent. If cost is one of the consideration factor, then the 2 BI tools which are at the forefront are Pentaho and Jaspersoft. But, often the same…
 

Answers from the Community

it_user196212 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President - Product Information with 51-200 employees
Oct 6, 2016
Oct 6, 2016
Bruce, have you made a decision about which solution is the best fit for your needs? I would love to hear your feedback.
2 out of 49 answers
it_user165072 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works with 201-500 employees
Sep 17, 2015
I'd recommend they look at Sisense.... Pentaho takes a ton of expertise and time. Board is really limited in terms of data magnitude, blending and the visulaziations aren't that great and Birst has huge performance issues, especially when taking concurrency into account. It's also overly expensive as well. http://www.sisense.com/embedded-analytics/
Sep 17, 2015
Hi, We have been using Pentaho as our primary BI Solution as an OEM for clients on our ERP Solutions, and have found it to be the most cost effective and user friendly of the BI Products we identified. On our scaled implementations, with 500+ users, we utilise HP Vertica for our Data Warehouse and we have not had any major speed issues at this scale Regards, Aadil Aboobaker Brainbug
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?
We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...
What do you like most about Board?
All the reports are prepared automatically.
What needs improvement with Board?
Board's integration could be a bit more robust, but what we have works. If the design isn't right, the flexibility of Board can negatively impact performance.
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pentaho Business Analytics?
Pentaho Business Analytics offers the best value for money. While improvements can be made in some areas, particularly with more cloud-based solutions, it is not in their domain because they do not...
What needs improvement with Pentaho Business Analytics?
From an integration perspective, Pentaho Business Analytics is not the best tool on the market. There are things done by Apache that are better, though I am not the one implementing them, so this i...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Pentaho, Kettle, Hitachi Pentaho Business Analytics
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Coca-Cola, Puma, Desigual, Ricoh, KPMG, H&M, Groupe SEB
Cargo 2000 Lufthansa, Marketo, ModCloth, Cardiac Science, Telefonica, ExactTarget, Active Broadband Networks, and Brussels Airport.
Find out what your peers are saying about Board vs. Pentaho Business Analytics and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.