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Knowage 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

Knowage
Ranking in Reporting
21st
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (34th)
Microsoft SQL Server Report...
Ranking in Reporting
16th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Knowage is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is 2.0%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services2.0%
Knowage2.0%
Other96.0%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

AM
Margin Assurance Analyst at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
A stable open source suite for modern business analytics with a useful replication feature
It would be better if more resources were available to help us learn how to use it. I wanted to use Knowage for a more extended period, but learning materials around the product were not really available and were not really straightforward. I've also seen inconsistencies between versions. For example, under the tools, especially in the cockpit, the way you create reports is now different. You will also find some configurations within a particular state, like a line chart, which differs from version to version. I think consistency is an essential feature in a product, especially for business intelligence products.
RM
Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has supported daily reporting needs and provided consistent deployment functionality
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is not difficult to use, but my main issue is troubleshooting whenever there is any problem, as the logs can be unclear. Perhaps I don't have enough experience with the tool to know where exactly to look, but I do find troubleshooting to be the most challenging aspect; however, outside of that, it's a pretty solid tool, pretty straightforward, and I have no issues with it. The initial setup for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is not an issue for me; however, I find it challenging when we want to secure the endpoint, such as using bindings and so forth, which may be due to my lack of knowledge.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Instead of just relying on emails to disperse our reports, having a central server to do this for us has helped our organization and has pushed us into a better place."
"We can easily do our own customizations."
"I can't name the features the way the Knowage community calls them because I still don't know the lingo. However, I can describe them. I like the ability to join more than one report, set all fields on one end, and replicate that on the other reports. I like that a lot. I think it's one of the features that got me using Knowage. They have tables, and I like that too. They took SQL scripts and many other scripts and enabled them to even correlate with Python. That's also one of the best things about Knowage. You could also decide to get information per user role, and this is also a feature that I like in Knowage."
"SpagoBI makes delivering reports to our clients very easy."
"The most valuable features to us are application implementation, development, and analysis."
"It improves sales and products, which motivates employees."
"Unified interface, a lot of tools for BI, easy configuration, standalone SDK."
"The concept of engines is quite powerful allowing the user to work with report authoring/provisioning tools of their choice."
"Outside of that, it's a pretty solid tool, pretty straightforward, and I have no issues with it."
"The initial setup is easy."
"The best features of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services are that it is easy to get the reports out because it is integrated with SQL and we have many of these tables."
"I like Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services' automated reporting feature."
"With SQL Server Reporting Services, I can create reports and printable reports, known as paginated reports, and it's valuable since it allows me to create documentation using a template, which is difficult to achieve otherwise."
"Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is reliable for management dashboard and reporting purposes. It is helpful for user reporting and administrative tasks, such as monitoring progress. It is easy to use since it is lightweight and integrates well with the SQL Server database, making reporting straightforward. The visualization capabilities enhance our reporting needs with good pagination and KPI features. It integrates well with data servers and workbooks, allowing us to publish reports on mobile applications and tablets easily. Integrating other tools and platforms in our tech ecosystem is generally straightforward. However, if we need to perform something very specialized, we might have to use third-party tools rather than inbuilt options."
"The stability of SSRS has been reliable, with minimal issues encountered during our usage."
"I am impressed with the product's seamless integration. It can work with different databases like Oracle."
 

Cons

"As all software and especially the open-source ones have always something that can work better, in this case, SpagoBI is slightly difficult to implement."
"We expected the community to be bigger than what it currently is."
"We are not happy with the poor graphic user interface. It looks a bit old and sometimes it is not properly user friendly."
"The demands of some jobs would slow Spago and lock the site, preventing any other job from processing."
"Development of SpagoBI has now been moved to Knowage. Users interested in further developments of the platform will have to look there."
"When it comes to Knowage, it's a bit heavy, it's time-consuming sometimes, it's not very fast, and definitely not as fast as other business intelligence tools in terms of getting graphical reports."
"Yes, using Mobile and Desktop Editions, we would sometimes need to restart the service."
"The support is very meager: We had to break our heads to figure out everything"
"We encounter some barriers while trying to build a report."
"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."
"I would like the solution to add the scheduling feature for reports."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
"Sometimes, we need to make sure that the configuration stays consistent across the reporting instances. They all connect to the same database. So, it shares that same backend, but the reporting services itself can also be configured. On the application level, for reporting level. And it is, based on my own experience, it is a manual effort to make sure that the reporting servers are configured the same across the environment."
"The product should improve its performance."
"The product could be improved by reducing the time it takes to build and deploy reports."
"Currently, I would not recommend SQL Server Reporting Services since we switched to Power BI."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Knowage is open-source, and an enterprise edition is also available."
"It allows the implementation of an effective reporting system using internal skills at a limited upfront cost."
"The solution is expensive."
"The solution is free to use for developers."
"The solution is cheaper than its alternatives."
"Value-wise, the solution's pricing is good for the price that we pay."
"The pricing is high."
"The product pricing is reasonable in terms of suitable features for business."
"The tool's licensing costs are expensive."
"The price is pretty good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
25%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
7%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?
I would consider it cost effective for our environment, and we don't have to invest in another big tool to generate these reports, making it all integrated and easier. Otherwise, you need to write ...
What needs improvement with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is not difficult to use, but my main issue is troubleshooting whenever there is any problem, as the logs can be unclear. Perhaps I don't have enough experien...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?
The use cases for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services are mainly for reporting purposes, to deploy reports. That's what we mainly use it for, allowing business end-users to navigate to the URL ...
 

Also Known As

SpagoBI
SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft SSRS, SSRS, MS SQL Server Reporting Services
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

FIAT Group, Italian air navigation service provider, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Telecom Italia, ASL Genovese, San Giovanni Battista University Hospital
CMS Wire, The New York Times
Find out what your peers are saying about Knowage vs. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.