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IBM Cognos vs Oracle OBIEE comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 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
6.0
IBM Cognos boosts efficiency, saves over $650k annually, improving data insights and operational performance, with varied ROI based on implementation.
Sentiment score
6.9
Oracle OBIEE boosts reporting speed and decision-making despite some ROI challenges and enhances financial outcomes with WebLogic setups.
I have seen a return on investment with time savings and productivity gains, as we have consistent, governed data models that reduce the risk of errors by eliminating manual data entry.
Senior Software Engineer at McKinsey and Company
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
IBM Cognos support quality varies, with competent tech support; costs and partner reliance are noted; ratings mostly 6-9.
Sentiment score
5.8
Oracle OBIEE's customer service is mixed, with prompt responses but inconsistent resolution quality and frequent upgrade suggestions.
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.
they are slow to respond to my queries
Senior Software Engineer at McKinsey and Company
The tendency to route users to sales personnel with limited technical expertise detracts from the support experience.
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
IBM Cognos is generally scalable, handling thousands of users, though some face configuration challenges in distributed systems.
Sentiment score
6.9
Oracle OBIEE is scalable and versatile for enterprises, but complexity and infrastructure dependency can lead to performance issues.
It can be scaled out to other teams, but requires building cubes and implementing policies.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
While Oracle OBIEE is scalable, it is more of a niche product designed to work specifically with Oracle systems.
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
IBM Cognos is generally stable, with occasional issues due to external factors, poor design, or large queries.
Sentiment score
6.7
Oracle OBIEE is stable but needs proper configuration and infrastructure for high user concurrency and optimal performance.
Even though we deal with a huge amount of data, it is capable of handling it, making it very stable.
Senior Software Engineer at McKinsey and Company
I rate the stability of this solution as nine out of ten, indicating it is highly stable.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Cognos needs better data visualization, simplified database connections, enhanced interface, and improved performance to compete with Tableau.
Oracle OBIEE is hindered by outdated visuals, complex usability, performance issues, and high costs, requiring enhancements and better support.
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
One area where IBM Cognos falls short is that sometimes the application breaks for no reason many times and is fixed on restart.
Senior Software Engineer at McKinsey and Company
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
Oracle OBIEE has a steep learning curve compared to tools like SQL Server or Power BI.
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

IBM Cognos is costly but valued for features; negotiate near fiscal year-end for discounts, especially through partners.
Oracle OBIEE's high cost and complex licensing can be offset by customizations and negotiated discounts for large-scale use.
I believe the pricing is affordable and pocket-friendly for every organization.
Senior Software Engineer at McKinsey and Company
I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
Oracle OBIEE is quite expensive, especially when compared to Microsoft's solutions.
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

IBM Cognos offers flexible reporting, interactive dashboards, AI insights, and comprehensive BI functions for enhanced decision-making and scalability.
Oracle OBIEE offers interactive dashboards, data visualization, secure data merging, and cloud-based architecture for advanced analytics and mobile access.
We have been able to save about 60% of our time from IBM Cognos Analytics, which helps us to make data decisions easily while also saving a lot of time.
Senior Software Engineer at McKinsey and Company
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
IBM Cognos is a robust governed platform with significant security features and provides excellent graphics and reporting.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
A valuable feature of Oracle OBIEE is its ability to automate some tasks, such as invoice analysis, saving a significant amount of clerical work.
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cognos
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
9th
Ranking in Reporting
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
137
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle OBIEE
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
11th
Ranking in Reporting
9th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
158
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 1.3%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle OBIEE is 1.4%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Cognos1.3%
Oracle OBIEE1.4%
Other97.3%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Dishan Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at McKinsey and Company
Efficient reporting with strong scheduling and time-saving features
The best features IBM Cognos offers include scheduled reports, calculation and transformation of raw data, and flexibility with the Excel format, which all stand out as especially valuable. I rely most on scheduling, calculation and transformation, and Excel flexibility, and these features affect my daily work by allowing me to use this tool for reporting to make and schedule reports easily. We are able to schedule over 300 reports in a day, where we also schedule them weekly to over 40 executives. Additionally, IBM Cognos transforms raw data into insights and analytics, enabling our data team to make great insights and data-driven decisions easily. IBM Cognos has positively impacted my organization by enhancing our data analysis capability which has helped us in our business planning. It is a great tool for reporting capacity, enabling us to update all of the leadership management about our business in one report. Auto scheduling and report generation are strong features that save a lot of time. Precisely, we have been able to save about 60% of our time from IBM Cognos Analytics, which helps us to make data decisions easily while also saving a lot of time.
reviewer2701689 - PeerSpot reviewer
Innovation & Data Management Enterprise Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Facing a complex learning curve challenges, automation capabilities provide some clerical work savings
Oracle OBIEE has a steep learning curve compared to tools like SQL Server or Power BI. In situations where complex problem-solving is required, Oracle's support tends to direct users to sales representatives with limited technical knowledge, which is less than ideal. Additionally, the solution is more expensive than using Microsoft's reporting tools.
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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%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise87
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business40
Midsize Enterprise34
Large Enterprise102
 

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 ...
How does Oracle OBIEE compare with Microsoft BI?
Oracle OBIEE is great in allowing design and creativity per the individual needs of the organization. Dashboards are fully customizable and very user-friendly. This solution is very stable. Oracle ...
Which Oracle product is better - OBIEE or Analytics Cloud?
Oracle OBIEE is designed to be relatively easy to set up and has a helpful customer support staff at the ready to assist customers. These are two attributes that make this system quite valuable. OB...
What do you like most about Oracle OBIEE?
The most valuable feature of Oracle OBIEE is its ability to handle large volumes of data and provide traditional BI functionalities that developers can easily understand.
 

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
OBIEE, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Oracle BI, Oracle BI EE 11g
 

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.
Banca Transilvania, BeckmanCoulter, Hong Kong Housing Society, HealthShare, Ivanhoe Cambridge Unifies, and Home Credit, and Finance Bank.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. Oracle OBIEE and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,282 professionals have used our research since 2012.