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IBM Cognos vs TIBCO Jaspersoft 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
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (8th)
TIBCO Jaspersoft
Ranking in Reporting
11th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.8%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO Jaspersoft is 1.8%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Cognos3.8%
TIBCO Jaspersoft1.8%
Other94.4%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Robert Thorpe - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust platform delivers excellent reports and insights while needing improvement in self-service capabilities
Our clients utilize IBM Cognos mainly for static reporting, board packs, business reporting, and insights IBM Cognos is a robust governed platform with significant security features and provides excellent graphics and reporting. One of our customers can get a full company update on a Monday…
AnkurMathur - PeerSpot reviewer
A scalable and stable product that enables users to set properties dynamically
The solution is used mainly for reporting purposes. We generate PDFs, which are delivered to the recipient via email We can set any property dynamically. We have to use different currencies. Sometimes, we use the pound sign. Sometimes, we use the dollar sign. Our software is a multi-currency…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are Report Development (Functionality) and Information Distribution (Flexibility)."
"Using custom controls, it is possible to extend the application with even more functionality and make the application intuitive and attractive."
"Comparing IBM Cognos to other applications, once a person is trained on it or they have developed a skill set to operate the application, it is best in its category."
"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."
"It has a very powerful edit feature which allows users to back out of changes (undo) without forcing them to recreate entire reports."
"IBM Cognos improves the effectiveness of the sales team."
"The most valuable features of IBM Cognos are governance and enterprise reporting."
"A drag-and-drop interface for selecting creating ad hoc reports makes this product very easy to use."
"You can do quite a lot with it in terms of automated reports and dashboards."
"It offers high processing power for report generation and is cost-effective."
"The designer is the most valuable feature."
"The end-user reporting is very handy and the standard reports that can be achieved by using Jaspersoft Studio are quite impressive."
"The solution is standalone with the flexibility to use visualize.js to embed within the application."
"The feature that I like most is the drag and drop capability."
"It's easy to use and maintain."
"We can set any property dynamically."
 

Cons

"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."
"Data modeling needs to be improved. We use the ETL process, and when we get errors, we then need to identify which structural change is required. The error messaging should be better. They should be descriptive rather than semantic."
"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."
"We need more predictive analytical functions, not only diagnostic or decryptic analytics."
"In terms of what could be improved, I would say, monitoring, monitoring, monitoring. Some improvements in monitoring would be helpful. I'd like to see more monitoring of specific reports and fields. The way the auditing is now is very limited, so I'd like to see more of that - of the monitoring."
"The solution seems to slow down the servers."
"It would be better if it is was easier to implement without extensive training for it."
"The high cost of a license makes it hard to scale up on a budget."
"I would like to see some analysis done prior to data extraction. The data extraction itself could also be improved."
"There might be some compatibility issues with the dashboard if we're using the latest version and some clients are using the older version. Some features might not be supported."
"Currently, JSON format is the main format we use, however, in TIBCO Jaspersoft, XML format is the default and JSON did not work because TIBCO did not fix it."
"TIBCO Jaspersoft would benefit from enabling you to run multiple reports in one file and incorporating more options related to multiple reports."
"Jaspersoft should focus on user interaction features, and one should not expect it to suit every niche."
"The upgrades are not easy."
"The stability of TIBCO Jaspersoft needs improvement."
"The reporting templates have room for improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My company uses IBM Cognos with another IBM product, so I think only one license is used."
"I rate the product price as four or five on a scale from one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."
"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."
"It's more expensive than similar solutions like Tableau and Power BI."
"It is pretty expensive."
"IBM Cognos is priced reasonable. However, it is more expensive than Power BI and Tableau."
"It is averagely priced."
"The pricing is cost effective because it is based on servers rather than users."
"I would rate the pricing as four out of five because it's expensive."
"Since I checked last time, only one annual license costs about $25,000."
"I give the cost of the solution a five out of ten."
"I find the price to be reliable and not overly costly."
"The solution is a little bit expensive."
report
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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%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Healthcare Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise83
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise14
 

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.
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
The best and open source (No cost involved) solution for all BI requirements is Jaspersoft Open Studio. Refer to rajeshsirsikar.com for more information.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO Jaspersoft?
I am sharing a scenario for pricing: for ten thousand users and a robust server, it may cost in the hundreds of thousands USD. However, TIBCO is more enterprise-focused and might have different pri...
 

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
No data available
 

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.
Mosaic, Vander University, Telesoft, Entrust, Ericsson, BT, Groupon, John Hopkins, Puma
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Jaspersoft and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.