Microsoft Power BI vs TIBCO Spotfire comparison

Microsoft and TIBCO are both solutions in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.9, while TIBCO is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.4. Microsoft holds a 22.4% mindshare in BIT, compared to TIBCO’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of TIBCO users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Power BI and TIBCO Spotfire based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two BI (Business Intelligence) Tools solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Power BI vs. TIBCO Spotfire Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI vs. TIBCO Spotfire

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

IBM Cognos

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.8%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 22.4%, up from 22.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO Spotfire is 1.1%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

Carlos Larrad Salgado

Deputy Director Operations Management Control at Mapfre

Improved the quality of our KPIs, while reducing calls to the IT department

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. The user experience is also very important. Cognos is not very easy to understand sometimes, especially when they change the layout but keep the functionality the same. The help is not very graphic and they have no examples. Cognos has to make a big effort to help with understanding the functionality by improving the documentation. There is a lot of documentation, but the examples are hard to find and they should make their help section easier to understand for non-technical users.

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Amol Rane

Solutions Architect M365 at Sogeti UK

Supports AI initiatives in terms of predictive analytics

The only issue is with permissions. Sometimes, despite granting granular permissions, dashboards are visible to people who shouldn't have access. It's difficult to understand why the permissions slip out. Sometimes dashboards are visible to stakeholders even though they should not have permission. It's a bit difficult to understand why the permissions slip out. The dashboards lack a user-friendly appearance, and the permissions should be easier to understand. At this point, we have to go through a lot of details. It takes a lot of time to understand the permissions, so if there were better options available within the Power BI setup, it would be quite beneficial, especially for admins. So, there should be a more user-friendly dashboard appearance and easier-to-understand permissions.

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Rajesh Nai

Senior Associate at Cognizant

A robust BI tool, with good dashboard features and adverse event tracking

We would like to see some improvement in the default properties of the solution, so that there is less need for us to spend our time coding. We would also appreciate proper API and a proper training solution to be developed for this product so that we can quickly implement changes.

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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 feature of IBM Cognos is security. The solution has updated features that other competitors' solutions come out with long after IBM Cognos has had them."

"It is a stable product."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools."

"IBM Cognos is an excellent solution for tax, planning, budgeting, profit and loss statements and balance sheets."

"The solution's initial setup process is easy."

"We use IBM Cognos for enterprise analytics and reporting."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"The tool can join data from different sources, write back to databases, generate alerts, and be customized to our preferences. It's an enterprise BI tool that's more powerful than just visualization tools like Power BI or Tableau."

More IBM Cognos pros

"The tool is very flexible so it allows creativity."

"The fact that you can visualize items is great."

"The capability to add custom visuals and create Power BI apps. You can package datasets, synchronization details, and dashboards into a single app."

"I have found the best features to be the dashboard creation, graphs, charts, and presentation bar graphs."

"We have a lot of servers and applications from which we want reports, and it allows us to create reports from an SQL source or some other source."

"I like the flexibility it offers."

"I like data modeling. You can connect with your database, which is quite useful for me. It is a good tool if you have a large amount of data and you want to gather different data and interconnect it. The Power Query functionality is quite an interesting feature. If you have a query in Excel, you can also copy your query and run it in Power BI. Its dashboard is also very nice and not complicated. You don't need to be a developer to be able to use it. I am not an IT guy, and it is quite easy to use for somebody who is not an IT person."

"It is a good platform for data analysis, organization, and all of the other interim performances that are necessary."

More Microsoft Power BI pros

"We particularly like the data angling feature of this solution. This gives us the ability to work on data transformations, join files, and carry out other data preparation tasks all in a single tool."

"The most valuable features of TIBCO Spotfire are visualization. It's very nice, clear, and, flexible. You can analyze many data types and the user interface is very good."

"It allows users to quickly analyze data from a variety of sources and visualize it with powerful, interactive graphs, and charts."

"Spotfire is excellent for scientific applications, especially because of its integration with RNG."

"This solution allows us to integrate data from across all client departments, for effective reporting via a single dashboard."

"The flexibility, data preparation, and data wrangling abilities of the platform are exceptional."

"The solution is an affordable one."

"R and automation services."

More TIBCO Spotfire pros

Cons

"We would like to see development of the product's UI function, to make it more of a UI tool that can be configured as required."

"I need improvements, particularly with the Framework Manager, which has an outdated user interface from older versions like IBM Cognos 10 or 8. Additionally, the Event Studio, which offered great flexibility in previous versions, is no longer available in IBM Cognos Analytics 12. These are areas that could be improved to enhance the product."

"It would be good if the solution had conditional formatting."

"I would like to see is more easy building, movement in the reports, and dashboard functionality within reporting. Overall more simple elements within reports. If the elements are simple then you don't have to render a full page, but you can move separate parts in the page."

"It would be better if it is was easier to implement without extensive training for it."

"One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics."

"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."

More IBM Cognos cons

"The look is simple, and could be a little more professional."

"Power BI could be improved by implementing more options for data integration. Nowadays, the cloud takes care of scalability and security. As we all know, data sources are increasing, so we get data from a variety of streams. But if we could get the downstream data into the database and update the reports more easily, Power BI would be better."

"You do need to do some hard coding for certain things in Microsoft BI."

"It should have more report outputs. They should expand the report outputs. Its documentation should also be better."

"I have a little problem with Synapse Analytics because it's very new. It's a product that has many capabilities, but it is not very well developed. I have to see the list of permissions from one object. I can't do this in Synapse. I have to search on the web for a solution because I don't have the tool for it."

"Whenever you work on the same dashboard or on the same code, Microsoft Power BI doesn't have a good architecture that allows multiple people to work on the same project."

"The reporting needs to be improved."

"Microsoft BI lacks integration capabilities, so it needs to consider increasing its integration capabilities."

More Microsoft Power BI cons

"The initial setup of TIBCO Spotfire is in the middle range of difficulty. The initial setup of Power BI is easier."

"I would like more easy-to-implement analytical algorithms. At the moment they include things like forecasts and regressions. They need to add a lot more of these types of things to the product because not everyone is a data scientist."

"When you do the data loading, it is slow."

"Personalising Spotfire, as a whole, is painful and is something that could be made easier."

"When it comes to data manipulation, there are features which are good, but one of the features which has really been missing in Spotfire is an offline ability for data manipulation."

"We would like to see some improvement in the default properties of the solution, so that there is less need for us to spend our time coding."

"The layered features within Spotfire can make it a bit complicated sometimes as compared to Power BI."

"The solution might be generic."

More TIBCO Spotfire cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"Pricing should be improved."

"IBM Cognos price is on the higher side of the spectrum. However, with the features that it brings, such as correlation analysis, it's worth the money. They should look at the pricing more clearly because it's a little on the higher side."

"It is averagely priced."

"It is quite pricy. I think Microsoft BI is cheaper. Tableau might also be cheaper, but it also depends on the usage. If you have very many users, Cognos can be a problem. It could be cheaper than Tableau but not for so many users. If you have a few thousand users, Tableau, which is generally quite expensive, can be cheaper than Cognos."

"IBM Cognos offers competitive pricing similar to other BI vendors in the market."

"The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."

"There is a standard license required to use this solution. There are some additional tools but I am not sure if they are an extra cost."

More IBM Cognos pricing and cost advice

"Power BI is cheaper than Tableau and Cognos."

"This product offers good value for the money."

"We have enterprise licenses and some of the other tools or features come as a package and others you have to purchase separately."

"Pricing is a big advantage that Power BI has over Tableau. Power BI is three or four times cheaper than Tableau. For my personal use, I will definitely prefer a $20 monthly fee of Power BI rather than a $70 monthly fee of Tableau. If you pay altogether for Power BI, they give you a discount, whereas, with Tableau, there is no discount. There are three versions of Power BI: Free, Pro, and Premium. The Premium version comes with a lot of things. There is no extra or hidden fee. You pay every month, and the software is with you. If you upgrade, there will be some extra charges."

"I believe that the price is reasonable, at least for an enterprise solution."

"Power BI comes with enterprise Microsoft licensing. So for the user, you don't have to pay, but you do have to pay a one-time cost."

"You don't need a license for development, but if you want to publish to external users, you need a license. The licensing is very costly, but I think that since the advantages and benefits of Power BI are so high, people are willing to pay. I can't blame them."

"Microsoft BI is not expensive. Compared to the price of other BI products, the price is very fair."

More Microsoft Power BI pricing and cost advice

"The cost is a few hundred dollars per user per year."

"The ROI is nearly impossible to calculate."

"In comparison to other solutions such as IBM Cognos, TIBCO Spotfire is more affordable."

"The price-point for this solution is negotiable depending on usage levels."

"The pricing seems competitive and reasonable. The value delivered by the product far exceeds the cost."

"This product carries a monthly licensing charge, with the amount depending on the features that are to be included. This costs also covers the use of technical support."

"The solution is affordable one."

"The Tibco sales teams have been very difficult to work with - ignoring requests, misrepresenting level of demand, etc."

More TIBCO Spotfire pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user79932

Senior Manager - BI Head at NVidia

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…

Read full review

Answers from the Community

Esteban Fabiani

Project and Consultant Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Jan 18, 2022

How would you decide between Microsoft Power BI and TIBCO Spotfire?

Hi @Esteban Fabiani - you may also read this comparative study on peerspot https://www.peerspot.com/produ...

2 out of 3 answers

Evgeny Belenky

Director of Community at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)

Jan 17, 2022

Hi @Sai-Krishna, @Santosh Kurakula, @DenisGauder, @reviewer1441695 and @reviewer1431795, Can you please help answer this question to @Esteban Fabiani? Tnx.

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Ariful Mondal

Global Data Architecture and Data Science Director at FH

Jan 18, 2022

Hi @Esteban Fabiani - Thank you for posting this great question. All the tools have base-level functionalities which could serve your day-to-day data analysis and visualizations. There are various aspects that you would need to consider before choosing these tools such as 1. what are the primary use cases? Who will be using them? (Power BI is more user friendly) 2. Do they require a lot of customisations on the UI/UX ( Spotfire can be more flexible with IronPython scripts for custom UI development, Tableau has the best quality UI and charts) 3. Which cloud platform or server you would be using and what kind of computation power is required (if you are a Microsoft shop then Power BI should be preferred as it can be integrated with many MS applications at ease) 4. Cost - probably one of the key concerns (Power BI will be cheaper (desktop version is free) than Spotfire and Tableau) 5. Availability of talent within an organization as well as in the market (more talent available for Power BI and Tableau) 6. Many Oil & Gas, Manufacturing companies prefer Spotfire, but a slow move towards Power BI or Tableau or other visualization tools based on use cases. Many companies use Microstrategy for enterprise reporting 7. You may download free buyer guide reports from Peerspot, which would help you to choose the right one. All the best.

Read full answer

See all 3 answers

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

55%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

42%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Energy/Utilities Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 ...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?

I need improvements, particularly with the Framework Manager, which has an outdated user interface from older version...

See all answers

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I wou...

See all answers

Is Power BI a complete platform or only a visualization tool?

Power BI is an advanced visualization tool oriented to big data with a very complete set of widgets to visualize info...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What do you like most about TIBCO Spotfire?

TIBCO Spotfire is easy to use. We initiated Spotfire as POC, with support from a tech team based in South Africa. Whi...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO Spotfire?

Spotfire is a bit costly in terms of money, but it is value for money if you are installing it and working with it. C...

See all answers

What needs improvement with TIBCO Spotfire?

The hierarchies or the maps to some extent may need some modifications. The layered features within Spotfire can make...

See all answers

Comparisons

Tableau vs IBM Cognos

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle Hyperion vs IBM Cognos

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs IBM Cognos

Compared 8% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs IBM Cognos

Compared 7% of the time

SAP Analytics Cloud vs IBM Cognos

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM Cognos Competitors

Tableau vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 16% of the time

Domo vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 8% of the time

Databricks vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 6% of the time

Workday Prism Analytics vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Power BI Competitors

Tableau vs TIBCO Spotfire

Compared 18% of the time

TIBCO Jaspersoft vs TIBCO Spotfire

Compared 9% of the time

Databricks vs TIBCO Spotfire

Compared 9% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs TIBCO Spotfire

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs TIBCO Spotfire

Compared 7% of the time

More TIBCO Spotfire Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos

December 2024

Download IBM Cognos product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI

December 2024

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Buyer's Guide

TIBCO Spotfire

November 2024

Download TIBCO Spotfire product report

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI

Spotfire

Learn More

IBM

Microsoft

TIBCO

Overview

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence provides a wide range of tools to help you analyze your organization's data. IBM Cognos BI allows businesses to monitor events and metrics, create and view business reports, and analyze data to help them make effective business decisions.

IBM Cognos applies techniques to describe, summarize, and compare data, and draw conclusions. This allows users to see trends and discover anomalies or variances that may not be evident by simply reading data. Data sources that contain information from different areas of a business can be stored in separate packages. Users can see only information that they have been granted access to, based on their group or role.

IBM Cognos BI consolidates the following business intelligence functions into a single web-based solution:

IBM Cognos Insight: Create personal and managed workspaces for data analysis. Using these interactive workspaces, you can share insight results with managers. Cognos Insight supports write-back, and you can also use these workspaces to capture and integrate management goals, commitments, and forecasts.
IBM Cognos Workspace: With IBM Cognos Workspace, you can create rich, interactive workspaces using IBM Cognos content as well as data from external sources. You can view and open your favorite workspaces and reports, edit content in your workspaces, and share your workspaces via email.
IBM Cognos Analytics: IBM Cognos Analytics utilizes built-in AI and intuitive searches which helps users to quickly create the visualizations and a wide range of reports. Cognos Analytics provides cognitive and managed self-service, enabling you to gain insights from controlled and trusted data.
IBM Cognos Report Studio and IBM Cognos Query Studio: Easily create structured and query reports. IBM Cognos allows users to create application and report templates. In addition, report authors can reuse report objects to apply filters, fields, and styles to reports. Users can set the language of the user interface and report content according to the user's native language.
IBM Cognos Event Studio: Receive notifications of events that occur within your organization in real time. Event Studio enables the creation of agents that detect the occurrence of business events, failures, or anomalies, based on the change of specific events or data conditions. Notification can be sent via email, publication in the portal, or by triggering reports.
IBM Cognos Connection: This is the Web portal for IBM Cognos BI and is the central area for accessing all the IBM Cognos functions. In the web portal, users can schedule and distribute reports, create tasks, administer the server and the access permissions, and more.

Reviews from Real Users

IBM Cognos stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its powerful analysis tool and its reporting capabilities.

Prasad B., a senior software engineer at a financial services firm, notes, “The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report. We can receive automated reports as well. They are easy to schedule on a weekly or monthly basis. It is very fast. I mean in means of report output, it's very fast compared to the actual clients involved.”

Microsoft Power BI is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization. This tool stands out for its ability to merge and analyze data from various sources. Widely adopted across different industries and departments, Power BI is instrumental in creating visually appealing dashboards and generating insightful business intelligence reports. Its intuitive interface, robust visualization capabilities, and seamless integration with other Microsoft applications empower users to easily create interactive reports and gain valuable insights.

TIBCO Spotfire is a versatile data analytics platform that can handle large datasets and be deployed on-premise or in the cloud. Its dynamic reporting, easy creation of dynamic dashboards, and highly customizable tool make it a valuable asset for process data analysis, industrial performance dashboards, problem root cause analysis, business intelligence, and real-time analytics for IoT devices in the energy sector.

The solution also offers data science functions, map visuals, R and Python integration, and the ability to write HTML and JavaScript text areas. Spotfire has helped organizations deliver projects more efficiently and cost-effectively, allowing for faster data analysis.

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.

Accenture Adidas Aetna AIG Airbus Alibaba Allstate Amazon American Express Aon AT&T Audi Bank of America BASF Bayer Berkshire Hathaway Boeing Coca-Cola Comcast Cisco Coca-Cola Dell Disney Emirates Equinix FedEx Ford GE Google H&M Home Depot Honda IBM Intel JPMorgan Chase Kellogg's Kroger L'Oréal McDonald's Merck MetLife Microsoft Nike Oracle P&G PepsiCo Procter & Gamble Prudential Financial SAP Siemens Snapchat Spotify Starbucks Target Toyota T-Mobile Unilever Visa Walmart WeWork World Bank Xerox

Allergan, ASSS de Montreal, Avantium, Blue River, Bank of Montreal, Citibank, FrieslandCampina, Hellmann Logistics, Merck, Novartis

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI vs. TIBCO Spotfire

December 2024

Free Report: Microsoft Power BI vs. TIBCO Spotfire

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Power BI vs. TIBCO Spotfire and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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