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IBM Cognos vs QlikView 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
5.8
IBM Cognos boosts efficiency, saves over $650k annually, improving data insights and operational performance, with varied ROI based on implementation.
Sentiment score
6.4
QlikView ROI appears through time savings, decision-making improvements, and efficient deployment, despite licensing complexity impacting perception.
The biggest return on investment is the time saving for the customer.
Managing Director at Hurricnae
 

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
6.1
QlikView's customer support is highly rated, with quick responses, a helpful community, and generally strong availability despite geographic factors.
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.
I would rate the customer support a solid 10.
Managing Director at Hurricnae
I am totally satisfied with technical support from Qlik.
Financial Controller with task of Business Intelligence Implementation at a wholesaler/distributor 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
7.0
QlikView scales well with efficient resource management, but superior scalability features are found in Qlik Sense, requiring robust infrastructure.
It can be scaled out to other teams, but requires building cubes and implementing policies.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
If you want better performance with a larger volume of data, you can simply add an additional server.
Financial Controller with task of Business Intelligence Implementation at a wholesaler/distributor 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
7.7
Users rate QlikView's stability highly, with issues mainly due to infrastructure or large data, resolved with hardware tweaks.
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.
QlikView needs a more intuitive interface, better scalability, integration, predictive analytics, and cost-effective licensing for improved user experience.
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
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 a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
We are generally satisfied, but I am not certain if IBM Cognos meets every feature request from users since we only provide IBM Cognos as our standard and do not maintain infrastructure for other tools.
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
AI features are already available in Qlik Sense, so you would need to migrate to that platform.
Financial Controller with task of Business Intelligence Implementation at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
In QlikView, I believe the improvement that should be made is to bring the costs down, as you'll have to be competitive with Power BI, aiming for at least a 30% reduction to stop the hemorrhaging to Power BI.
Managing Director at Hurricnae
 

Setup Cost

IBM Cognos is costly but valued for features; negotiate near fiscal year-end for discounts, especially through partners.
QlikView pricing is variable and can be costly, but strategic planning can maximize ROI for organizations.
I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
I would rate the pricing for QlikView as not cheap, but it is reasonable.
Financial Controller with task of Business Intelligence Implementation at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The license cost per user or per year for QlikView is about 500 Euros annually.
Managing Director at Hurricnae
 

Valuable Features

IBM Cognos offers flexible reporting, interactive dashboards, AI insights, and comprehensive BI functions for enhanced decision-making and scalability.
QlikView offers powerful data analysis with dynamic dashboards, intuitive interface, and rapid visualization for enhanced business performance and insights.
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 a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
IBM Cognos is evaluated and complies fully with all our security standards.
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
IBM Cognos is a robust governed platform with significant security features and provides excellent graphics and reporting.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
Data integration capabilities are quite good; you can integrate any information stored anywhere in different systems with QlikView.
Financial Controller with task of Business Intelligence Implementation at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The best features in QlikView are rapid development, the fact that I can do what I want in QlikView, and full control along with ease of use.
Managing Director at Hurricnae
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cognos
Ranking in Reporting
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
136
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (10th)
QlikView
Ranking in Reporting
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
163
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.6%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of QlikView is 4.4%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
QlikView4.4%
IBM Cognos3.6%
Other92.0%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2648136 - PeerSpot reviewer
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Centralized reporting has supported university-wide regulatory dashboards and secure data access
From my experience, we use regular dashboarding with IBM Cognos for producing scheduled reports and for mandatory regulatory reporting. All our departments use IBM Cognos, with each department developing their own reports while our corporate IT team provides the data. Some people use the interactive dashboards feature of IBM Cognos, and there are also other tools in use. I think some users utilize Power BI and Tableau, but our IT organization only provides IBM Cognos as an enterprise business intelligence and reporting tool. IBM Cognos is evaluated and complies fully with all our security standards. In my opinion, IBM Cognos is very stable. It has been around for many years and many users are familiar with it, ensuring it performs well in its intended capacity. The benefits of choosing IBM Cognos, aside from cost savings, include having institutional knowledge for maintaining this infrastructure and a reliable solution that enhances developer productivity, given our team's extensive experience with IBM Cognos.
MA
Managing Director at Hurricnae
Rapid development and flexibility transform commercial decision-making processes
In QlikView, I believe the improvement that should be made is to bring the costs down, as you'll have to be competitive with Power BI, aiming for at least a 30% reduction to stop the hemorrhaging to Power BI, considering that you're losing a lot of customers to Power BI. Reducing costs is the main improvement needed, as this is the biggest burden currently faced in the South African market, with Microsoft converting QlikView customers due to the perceived cost reduction. I am aware of several big corporations, such as Sanofi and Aspen Pharmacare, which have left QlikView due to cost issues.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Reporting solutions are best for your needs.
879,310 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%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Performing Arts
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise86
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business73
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise76
 

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 QlikView?
If you correctly use the product for your use cases, it provides value for money.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for QlikView?
I would rate the pricing for QlikView as not cheap, but it is reasonable.
What needs improvement with QlikView?
We are not using analytics features and possibly predictive analytics and forecasting features in QlikView, although they are available. QlikView is very flexible, but we are currently using only t...
 

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.
Canon, Gatorade, Amcor, Panasonic, Fila, Cambridge University Hospitals, Global Retail Bank, North Yorkshire Police department, Lanoo Group Publishers, and AonGroep Nederland.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. QlikView and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,310 professionals have used our research since 2012.