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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Organizations benefit from IBM Cognos by saving costs, reducing delivery times, enhancing productivity, and improving data insights and decision-making.
Sentiment score
5.3
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services enhances usability, saves time, and improves decision-making and efficiency with streamlined reporting processes.
I have seen a return on investment through improved decision making, as automated distribution and uptime, along with scheduled report delivery and bursting, have eliminated various manual emailing and delays, thereby saving time and cost.
Senior Project Manager at BD
I have seen a return on investment, as I mentioned earlier about time saving and productivity gains, with a consistent governed data model that reduces the risk of errors.
Sr. Project Manager at GlaxoSmithKline
Any tool which obviates the need for a lot of coding will definitely save at least 60-70% of effort.
Consulting IT Head at MYKLaticrete
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
IBM Cognos support varies; online resources and knowledgeable staff assist, but complex issues lead to frustration with resolution times.
Sentiment score
6.7
Technical support receives mixed reviews; some praise its responsiveness, others face challenges, with satisfaction ratings between seven and nine.
The customer support has been proactive, solution-oriented, and helpful whenever I have needed to reach out.
Senior Project Manager at BD
Our systems team, operating on a lot of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and maintaining long-term relations with IBM, benefits from good support coverage.
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
I rate technical support from IBM as eight out of ten, indicating a high quality of service.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
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.
Consulting IT Head at MYKLaticrete
I have not reached out to tech support at Microsoft for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services because it is my job to know how to get this tool to work.
Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
IBM Cognos is praised for its scalability, though it requires correct hardware and configuration to optimize performance fully.
Sentiment score
6.5
SQL Server Reporting Services offers moderate scalability, with challenges in horizontal scaling, preferring smaller deployments over enterprise ones.
The scalability of IBM Cognos is very good, as it has continued growing with my organization's needs, allowing us to analyze and store a significant amount of data and handle our organization's growth efficiently.
Sr. Project Manager at GlaxoSmithKline
It can be scaled out to other teams, but requires building cubes and implementing policies.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
IBM Cognos is reliable with correct setup, but complex tasks and high loads may cause occasional performance slowdowns.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is highly stable, with minor issues mainly related to upgrades and large datasets.
I rate the stability of this solution as nine out of ten, indicating it is highly stable.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
In my experience, IBM Cognos is stable, as I have not experienced any downtime or lagging issues.
Senior Project Manager at BD
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Cognos needs better data visualization, user interface, and integration improvements to compete effectively with Tableau and Power BI.
SQL Server Reporting Services needs better visualization, integration, and performance to compete with alternatives, plus improved support and pricing.
Integration with Azure login makes trouble.
Sr. Project Manager at GlaxoSmithKline
IBM Cognos can be improved by addressing its limited real-time data connectivity, as well as enhancing the endpoint experience and mobility, which currently is not satisfactory due to limited data blending.
Senior Project Manager at BD
Since IBM Cognos is a futuristic platform with many robust features, it takes time to grasp all the features and how they work, so there is a learning curve.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
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.
Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
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.
Consulting IT Head at MYKLaticrete
 

Setup Cost

IBM Cognos offers comprehensive features with competitive pricing, making it cost-effective for enterprises despite perceived high costs.
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services offers moderate pricing and good value, though the licensing model can be complex and costly.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is positive, as the price is relatively competitive and affordable.
Senior Project Manager at BD
I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
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.
Consulting IT Head at MYKLaticrete
 

Valuable Features

IBM Cognos excels in reporting, integration, security, and analytics, providing essential tools for data-driven enterprise decision-making.
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services provides intuitive usability, robust security, and seamless integration, enhancing report creation, visualization, and deployment.
I love the seamless and efficient data integration capability of IBM Cognos Analytics, where it allows us easy merging of data from various sources such as customer feedback and sales figures.
Sr. Project Manager at GlaxoSmithKline
Some of the best features that IBM Cognos offers are enterprise reporting, which enables us to create, customize, and run reports on sales trends, consumer sentiment, and many more; dashboard creation; and data exploration and analysis.
Senior Project Manager at BD
The AI features in IBM Cognos helped me gain deeper insights into our business processes, enabling me to make data-driven decisions easily and understand which points need our attention and which areas of our business are performing well.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
I had been trying to develop a solution using SSRS to view some data while allowing me to modify data and update the table in the back end, but it seems SSRS isn't the tool for that.
Database Administrator at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
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.
Consulting IT Head at MYKLaticrete
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cognos
Ranking in Reporting
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
138
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (7th)
Microsoft SQL Server Report...
Ranking in Reporting
5th
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 February 2026, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.2%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is 2.6%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Cognos3.2%
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services2.6%
Other94.2%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

RL
Senior Project Manager at BD
Data insights have transformed reporting speed and support faster, informed decisions
IBM Cognos makes it simple to create visually appealing products, and we are able to run about 1,000 reports on a daily basis while another 1,000 are run through the scheduler built into IBM Cognos Analytics. It offers triggering through the scheduler, which we use to confirm the completion of other processes needed to be available before the job is scheduled to run, allowing us to make data-driven decisions easily. Some of the best features that IBM Cognos offers are enterprise reporting, which enables us to create, customize, and run reports on sales trends, consumer sentiment, and many more; dashboard creation; and data exploration and analysis. We are able to use the drag and drop feature to create ad-hoc visualizations. Additionally, I find the AI-powered natural language query feature for data analysis and dashboard input to be very useful for a non-technical person to put queries around the spreadsheets data to get a quick answer. Building insights for accurate decision-making has been great. Moreover, we can package reports with data-backed insights for stakeholders in PDF and Excel format to support business ad-hoc cases, forecasting, and strategic recommendations on relevant tasks. Of all those features, the visual graphs, predictive analytics, and data cleansing feature makes the biggest difference for my team. IBM Cognos is deployed in my organization using a hybrid cloud setup with Amazon Web Services as our cloud provider.
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.
report
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882,160 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager - BI Head with 5,001-10,000 employees
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
Financial Services Firm
14%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise89
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise15
 

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?
Since IBM Cognos is a futuristic platform with many robust features, it takes time to grasp all the features and how they work, so there is a learning curve. The more I use this platform, the more ...
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 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...
 

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: February 2026.
882,160 professionals have used our research since 2012.