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Anaplan vs IBM Planning Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

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
4.9
Anaplan's ROI varies by application; sales sees faster results, while finance benefits primarily from cost and efficiency savings.
Sentiment score
7.3
IBM Planning Analytics boosts ROI by enhancing budgeting, analysis, and productivity but faces affordability issues due to increased pricing.
I have seen a return on investment, as the accuracy has really improved in my organization since everything is automated.
Team Lead Manager at Finlays
Since using this tool, I can now make decisions faster, even when there is just a small change in the data.
Key Account Manager at DHL
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.3
Anaplan provides responsive, skilled customer support, appreciated for quick, detailed assistance and effective resources, with generally minimal issues.
Sentiment score
7.0
IBM Planning Analytics support is responsive and efficient, rated highly by users, yet there's room for faster direct resolutions.
The technical support from Anaplan is amazing, with a dedicated team to assist in case of any issues.
Lead Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We are getting the kind of support that we need from Anaplan.
Anaplan Solution Architect at a media company with 10,001+ employees
We have a multi-level support system, with the initial level handled by the company we bought the license from and subsequent support from IBM.
Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees
Instead, we rely on third-party partners recognized by IBM, who provide cost-effective support.
Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
They have been very dedicated and provided top-notch solutions.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.5
Anaplan offers scalable solutions for large companies, though scalability can be affected by server sizing, costs, and storage limits.
Sentiment score
7.9
IBM Planning Analytics offers high scalability, efficiently managing data with real-time handling and flexibility for small to enterprise businesses.
Anaplan had issues before, but the new Polaris engine solves them.
Lead Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
IBM Planning Analytics' scalability is impressive, as it is able to gather data from multiple sources and handle huge amounts of data without any lagging or downtime.
Team Lead Manager at Finlays
Scalability is quite hard to implement in TM1, largely since the on-premise installation chosen back in 2014.
Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees
Scalability is straightforward but it is pricey since it's a SaaS model priced per user.
Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Anaplan is highly reliable with rare downtime and robust performance, earning strong user ratings for stability and efficiency.
Sentiment score
7.9
IBM Planning Analytics offers stability and reliable performance for forecasting, with occasional fixable issues requiring vendor support.
The performance of IBM Planning Analytics has always been fast and reliable for my needs, even when dealing with huge volumes of data.
Key Account Manager at DHL
This stability is really important as we use it for budget calculation, which is time-consuming.
Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees
IBM Planning Analytics is stable because the reason we switched from IBM Cognos is that IBM Planning Analytics capability allows us to connect to multiple tools, which we could not do before.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Anaplan users seek improved dashboards, AI integration, better pricing, enhanced automation, easier collaboration, and a more comprehensive interface.
Users recommend improving IBM Planning Analytics usability, interface design, automation, integration, performance, scalability, offline access, and reducing upgrade frequency.
If any kind of history can be captured on the front-end UX page, that would be really appreciated and helpful.
Anaplan Solution Architect at a media company with 10,001+ employees
Anaplan cannot perform some tasks handled by Planning Analytics due to their different foundations, Anaplan on Hyperblock technology and TM1 on OLAP.
IBM Planning Analytics SME and Developer at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
One improvement that could be added to Anaplan is to stabilize the models when data complexity increases, allowing us to manage our time and space well.
Anaplan Model Builder at Xenlytics
The abundance of features results in complexity, requiring strict guidelines for developers to ensure simplistic approaches are adhered to.
Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees
IBM's visualization needs significant improvement.
Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
The advanced features are somewhat complex to understand, and if the data set is very large, it takes a lot of time to process, which causes performance to become slower.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Anaplan offers premium pricing with high functionality, competitive against market leaders despite limited licensing transparency and potential additional costs.
IBM Planning Analytics offers flexible licensing models and competitive pricing, with consulting fees impacting overall costs significantly.
Currently, Anaplan is more expensive compared to other tools.
Product Support Engineer at JSW
The pricing is slightly on the premium side, but I do not have detailed knowledge about the exact licensing structure.
Lead Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
TM1 is quite expensive, and I'd rate the pricing as an eight out of ten.
Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees
While IBM's solutions were costly before, the introduction of SaaS models has reduced prices significantly.
Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IBM Planning Analytics is that the pricing and licensing cost can be somewhat on the higher side, especially for small organizations.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Anaplan excels with real-time integration, user-friendly interface, scalability, collaboration, and cloud-based efficiency, enhancing planning and adaptability.
IBM Planning Analytics provides fast calculations, customization, Excel integration, and automation for efficient financial performance management and data analysis.
Anaplan's connected planning feature is its most valuable aspect, allowing for seamless financial planning, HR planning, and updates.
Lead Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The integration is very seamless compared to any other tools in the market, making Anaplan quite easy to integrate with different tools.
Anaplan Model Builder at Xenlytics
I like about Anaplan the simplicity and the way it makes reporting easier and planning is broken down well.
Associate Manager, Accounting at BIC
Its stability helps controllers win time in their planning processes.
Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees
It also integrates machine learning and AI engines, enabling us to use algorithms for inventory forecasting which optimizes our inventory and replenishment rates.
Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Some of the valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics are its intuitive and user-friendly interface, reporting output and scheduling, access control and security, and mobile capabilities.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Anaplan
Ranking in Business Performance Management
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Production Planning (3rd), Predictive Analytics (2nd)
IBM Planning Analytics
Ranking in Business Performance Management
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Business Performance Management category, the mindshare of Anaplan is 6.9%, down from 13.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Planning Analytics is 4.5%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Performance Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Anaplan6.9%
IBM Planning Analytics4.5%
Other88.6%
Business Performance Management
 

Featured Reviews

Segun Oladele - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Manager, Accounting at BIC
Reporting and forecasting have become more automated through intuitive data organization and flexible number calendarization
I do not have any improvements from my own end at this time.There are some specific features or functionality that I would like to see included in Anaplan in the future. From what we have been using, I do not think there is any specific one because we import and export numbers. Importing and exporting with CSV files is already available in Anaplan. I do not have any special requests from Anaplan. I still decided to give Anaplan an eight because I have not seen a specific dashboard on Anaplan. Anaplan could have a dashboard where you can see the flow of your numbers displayed on pictorials rather than just saying this is the number. Simple dashboards should be implemented.
Gladys Njeri - PeerSpot reviewer
Key Account Manager at DHL
Data-driven planning has transformed financial decisions and now saves major reporting time
IBM Planning Analytics helps with collaboration between teams by allowing us to gather data from various departments, analyze it, and collaborate on the data to make data-driven decisions between different departments easily. As I mentioned previously, I mainly use IBM Planning Analytics to visualize the existing data to generate meaningful report dashboards and use it during stakeholder meetings to arrive at the right decision. The best features IBM Planning Analytics offers include budgeting, forecasting, and what-if scenario analysis. The scenario modeling feature in IBM Planning Analytics is probably the most robust planning and forecasting solution we use, especially for what-if scenarios, where we are able to forecast using Watson Studio, which helps in better prediction. I really appreciate the Excel integration in IBM Planning Analytics because it keeps things familiar and adds more power.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Retailer
9%
Educational Organization
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What are your main use cases for Anaplan?
Anaplan is an industry-leading cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) platform that combines business planning and analytics in a single solution. It is designed to assist organizations...
Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?
We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...
Is Anaplan better than SAP ERP?
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time co...
What do you like most about IBM Planning Analytics?
The most valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics for streamlining planning processes include a unified database where all data are centralized.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Planning Analytics?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IBM Planning Analytics is that the pricing and licensing cost can be somewhat on the higher side, especially for small organizations. Howev...
What needs improvement with IBM Planning Analytics?
IBM Planning Analytics could be improved by simplifying the learning curve, as it requires a lot of time to learn and master it. The advanced features are somewhat complex to understand, and if the...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Cognos TM1, IBM Cognos TM1
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
ManpowerGroup, Convergys, AIG, Orchard Brands, Citibank, InterGen, Northwestern University, EF Education First, Ironside, Bazan Group, CSOB Insurance, Macquarie Group, Charles Stanley, SATO, Government of Sint Maarten, BMW Financial Services
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan vs. IBM Planning Analytics and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
882,207 professionals have used our research since 2012.