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Knowage vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services comparison

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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
22nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (32nd)
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 November 2026, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Knowage is 2.0%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is 1.9%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services1.9%
Knowage2.0%
Other96.1%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

AM
General Manager Information Technology & Enterprise Applications Manager at OXFORD HOLDING
Easy to customize, cross-platform capable, and very stable
The only challenge here is that it's a Java-based platform. It requires very high technical skills. When we come to the integration with the single sign-on facilities, that part is very challenging. In Power BI and other tools, it's very easy to integrate with active directory and single sign-on, and identity management is very easy in other business intelligence tools. However, 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. The solution could be cheaper.
GD
Consulting IT Head at MYKLaticrete
Reports generation is efficient and saves effort, but integrating new features could enhance overall experience
I haven't contacted Microsoft technical support because of this tool, but for some other things I have, and I found them quite lacking. We had trouble with Azure Firewall, where we wanted logs from our VMs, but reaching out to Microsoft took a prolonged time to the extent that we were wondering why Microsoft was unable to get its own logs to us, which occurred a few months back. I would rate Microsoft support around 6.5 to seven, as they don't directly interact with medium-sized MSMEs, always referring to their partners, so it differs based on the partner's level of relationship with Microsoft.

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."
"It's a great product. It has a lot more features than many other BI tools. You can get the most out of machine learning, the best connectivity to Python, and it cuts across enterprise sections."
"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."
"Customer Service: Excellent."
"In terms of ROI, much better than any other solution when it offer full fledged features in open source, planned to have direct contact with SpagoBI for better support."
"Unified interface, a lot of tools for BI, easy configuration, standalone SDK."
"We can easily do our own customizations."
"The most valuable features to us are application implementation, development, and analysis."
"It is scalable."
"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."
"The initial setup is easy."
"Outside of that, it's a pretty solid tool, pretty straightforward, and I have no issues with it."
"The solution's features are all just wrapped up in one nice easy package. I don't need a lot of toolsets to get everything I need done."
"I mainly use the solution for the ease of reporting and for executive dashboards."
"Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services has been functional whenever I needed to use it."
"I am impressed with the product's seamless integration. It can work with different databases like Oracle."
 

Cons

"Many things need to be improved, most of all robustness."
"The demands of some jobs would slow Spago and lock the site, preventing any other job from processing."
"The dashboard components could be better. They could do a lot more."
"Unfortunately, many interesting features do not work when you are using a custom database for storing the metadata."
"I encountered a lot of issues when I tried to integrate the map in order to realize Intelligent Location Dashboards."
"I faced difficulties when using the email feature and documentation was scant."
"We had stability issues."
"There are additional features such as Data Integration, Data Visualization, MobileBI, Cloud BI, Data enrichment and massaging should be implemented in the next release."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
"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."
"They could improve the scalability and stability of SQL Server Reporting Services."
"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."
"Tableau is more user-friendly because it doesn't need to do any extra programming. It has drag-and-drop functionality."
"It is not easy to integrate the product with other tools in the market."
"We encounter some barriers while trying to build a report."
"Currently, I would not recommend SQL Server Reporting Services since we switched to Power BI."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
19%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
Comms Service Provider
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: September 2026.
920,574 professionals have used our research since 2012.