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IBM Cognos vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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

IBM Cognos
Ranking in Reporting
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (7th)
Microsoft SQL Server Report...
Ranking in Reporting
6th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 4.5%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is 3.4%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Gnanavel-Chakkarapani - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers useful templates but needs to improve the connectivity offered
In Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, not much of the interface part is used. With Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, its users face issues with the interface after they use Excel or create Microsoft SSIS Packages. The tool's interface is an area of concern requiring improvement. There needs to be an improvement in the product's connectivity so that the tool can connect easily with other third-party databases. In the dashboard, drag and drop functionality needs to improve, especially when compared to other tools like IBM Cognos Analytics and Qlik Sense. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is useful only for standard reports. In IBM Cognos Analytics, query studio can be used by users to drag the data and simply download the reports, so the user doesn't need to have any technical knowledge like developers. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is to be improved to offer features like query Studio, which is provided in IBM Cognos Analytics.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Previously, we were doing static reporting. Management would request a report, and it would take staff a week or more to provide it. With Cognos, we have dynamic reporting, and it has reduced both reporting and decision making times significantly. With the solution's dashboard, the company's management team has updated records at their fingertips. This means that they can directly access the data they need to make decisions."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools."
"The dashboarding offered by this solution is very valuable to us."
"The main difference that I like about Cognos compared to other solutions is its data splitting functionality. We have all our company data inside the Cognos environment and so we prefer to split the information Cognos itself. It's more efficient this way."
"Integration with Office can enable the 'download' mode of storytelling.​"
"IBM Cognos improves the effectiveness of the sales team."
"It's enabled us to report directly from our main application systems. We're removing islands of data and we're removing inefficiencies, where people or small divisions had their own store of information."
"The tool can join data from different sources, write back to databases, generate alerts, and be customized to our preferences. It's an enterprise BI tool that's more powerful than just visualization tools like Power BI or Tableau."
"The solution is known for its robust security features."
"I mainly use the solution for the ease of reporting and for executive dashboards."
"The stability of SSRS has been reliable, with minimal issues encountered during our usage."
"It is scalable."
"We can create quality reports in real time."
"I'm very satisfied with the customer service. And usually, whenever we have any issue or details, we get to the person for the support. I'm really satisfied with the service. Within a few minutes or within a few hours, the support person will be available."
"Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services has been functional whenever I needed to use it."
"In Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, the installation and configuration are easy."
 

Cons

"It could have more options for themes."
"One thing that we really want is the ability to have data portrayed on an image. Cognos is not able to do it at the moment, and that's becoming a requirement from the business side: having an image and then plotting your dataset on top of the image as a map."
"Cognos charts are not as fast as those of the other tools, even with DQM (dynamic query mode)."
"I would like them to reinclude PowerPlay. One thing that I am missing in the current Cognos is what was formally named PowerPlay. They have basically removed PowerPlay from it, which is something that I fail to understand because it was the most wonderful tool for business intelligence that I've ever used. As far as I know, they don't provide this functionality anymore, so this is one thing that I dislike about Cognos."
"The tool needs to improve the connectivity since I see that, at times, there is a need to increase the memory in the database."
"I don't like that when we use Colab packages, we get less functionality. For example, you can make groups of data with Excel or with the data sets from the packages, but when you use the Colab packages directly, you can only group the data when you analyze it with Analysis Studio. I think Cognos needs to improve more on this functionality."
"There are many problems with the product's stability part, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."
"There are occasions during maintenance runs when the Check Point monitoring system reports a lot of blocked sessions."
"They could improve the scalability and stability of SQL Server Reporting Services."
"It doesn't have quite the flexibility of a Tableau or something like that. Many users are more comfortable with Tableau and I'm not quite sure why that is right now, but it seems to be the case."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
"Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services needs to improve performance."
"The product should improve its performance."
"The complex tuning for report performance is complicated. There is a lack of native support for source code control. We often need to use separate tools like VS Code or other software to manage version control and changes in the database. It would be beneficial if source code management were integrated directly into SSRS, thus eliminating the need to rely on external tools. While CLI-based operations are exemplary, the trend is towards GUI for a better user experience. Integrating both visualization and source code management within SSRS would simplify the process for users."
"Tableau is more user-friendly because it doesn't need to do any extra programming. It has drag-and-drop functionality."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My company uses IBM Cognos with another IBM product, so I think only one license is used."
"IBM Cognos is priced reasonable. However, it is more expensive than Power BI and Tableau."
"It is my understanding that the cost is very low. It's not very expensive."
"Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."
"The cost of IBM Cognos it's more or less the same as most of the other solutions on the market. They're very competitive with the rest of the market and it is not the most expensive product."
"The licensing costs are a little bit higher for IBM Cognos. I don't think there is any additional cost apart from the licensing charges."
"On a scale from one to ten where one is low pricing and ten is high pricing, I would rate this solution at eight."
"The solution is affordable."
"Value-wise, the solution's pricing is good for the price that we pay."
"The product pricing is reasonable in terms of suitable features for business."
"The tool's licensing costs are expensive."
"The solution is cheaper than its alternatives."
"The solution is expensive."
"The price is pretty good."
"The pricing is high."
"The solution is free to use for developers."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Reporting solutions are best for your needs.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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
Educational Organization
50%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Insurance Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What do you like most about Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?
I mainly use the solution for the ease of reporting and for executive dashboards.
What needs improvement with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?
They could improve the scalability and stability of SQL Server Reporting Services. I haven't used it recently, so I can't provide detailed suggestions on improvements.
 

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft SSRS, SSRS, MS SQL Server Reporting Services
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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.
CMS Wire, The New York Times
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.