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Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services vs Pentaho Business Analytics 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services enhances usability, saves time, and improves decision-making and efficiency with streamlined reporting processes.
Sentiment score
5.9
Pentaho Business Analytics enhanced efficiency and output but faced ROI calculation challenges compared to alternatives like QlikView and Tableau.
Any tool which obviates the need for a lot of coding will definitely save at least 60-70% of effort.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Technical support receives mixed reviews; some praise its responsiveness, others face challenges, with satisfaction ratings between seven and nine.
Sentiment score
6.8
Pentaho receives mixed feedback on support, with strong community engagement but varying customer service and documentation quality.
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.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
SQL Server Reporting Services offers moderate scalability, with challenges in horizontal scaling, preferring smaller deployments over enterprise ones.
Sentiment score
7.2
Pentaho scales well and fits organizational needs but may require admin expertise for complex environments and large data.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is highly stable, with minor issues mainly related to upgrades and large datasets.
Sentiment score
6.6
Pentaho Business Analytics is generally stable but has occasional Java caching, RAM, and subprocess issues with large databases.
 

Room For Improvement

SQL Server Reporting Services needs better visualization, integration, and performance to compete with alternatives, plus improved support and pricing.
Pentaho needs user interface, reporting, and visualization enhancements, along with better debugging, metadata management, and cost-effective licensing.
I am thinking that with all the Copilot integration within the Microsoft environment, that could be integrated as well, so that you could issue a prompt and it generates designs.
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.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services offers moderate pricing and good value, though the licensing model can be complex and costly.
Pentaho's Community Edition is cost-free, while the Enterprise Edition, offering enhanced features, can cost up to $250,000 annually.
Otherwise, you need to write a lot of code or API calls to generate reports if using some other tool outside of the ecosystem, which definitely requires additional effort and therefore additional cost and time.
Pentaho Business Analytics is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView and Tableau.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services provides intuitive usability, robust security, and seamless integration, enhancing report creation, visualization, and deployment.
Pentaho Business Analytics offers powerful ETL, user-friendly interface, customizable dashboards, and cost-saving, open-source analytics and reporting features.
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.
It is a stable product, and it can handle large datasets.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft SQL Server Report...
Ranking in Reporting
4th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Pentaho Business Analytics
Ranking in Reporting
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (20th), Cloud Operations Analytics (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is 3.4%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pentaho Business Analytics is 1.1%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

MartinSimons - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures database access and monitoring have been manageable, but batch load analysis needs better support
There are occasions during maintenance runs when the Check Point monitoring system reports a lot of blocked sessions. This is typically due to system processes or maintenance processes that temporarily block themselves. Additionally, a tool within the studio for performing SQL analysis does not provide useful information for batch load processes, often advising not to use an index, which is expected with batch loads.
Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Excels in handling unstructured data, helping organizations navigate through different storage systems
Pentaho can help organizations by providing them an insight of their unstructured data using one platform(Pentaho Business Analytics). The features are almost identical to other BIS platforms but to me, customers can benefit as it has a community version with most of its Enterprise features. It also has a free limited-period trial version. The other feature that I would like to share here is, that users have access to a complete spectrum of data from different sources with the system’s adaptive big data layer, which takes the source of the data into account. The software is built on an open architecture and can be integrated with multiple systems. However, Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics has been acquired by HDS which offers an Enterprise edition for organizations that also need to meet product compliance.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Reporting solutions are best for your needs.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user6978 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
10%
Educational Organization
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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 is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView ( /products/qlikview-reviews ) and Tableau ( /products/tableau-reviews ). I usually use the community edition.
What needs improvement with Pentaho Business Analytics?
Pentaho Business Analytics ( /categories/bi-business-intelligence-tools ) is hard to learn and not suited for initial users as it requires knowledge of operating systems, Java, and other technical ...
 

Also Known As

SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft SSRS, SSRS, MS SQL Server Reporting Services
Pentaho, Kettle, Hitachi Pentaho Business Analytics
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CMS Wire, The New York Times
Cargo 2000 Lufthansa, Marketo, ModCloth, Cardiac Science, Telefonica, ExactTarget, Active Broadband Networks, and Brussels Airport.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services vs. Pentaho Business Analytics and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.