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

Download the report

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

Download the complete report

Helped 824,053 peers since 2012

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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"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."

"The main difference that I like about Cognos compared to other solutions is its data splitting functionality. We have all our company data inside the Cognos environment and so we prefer to split the information Cognos itself. It's more efficient this way."

"The most valuable feature is developing reports from different data sources, making it a reliable data source."

"Security administration tools are powerful and flexible."

"The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools."

"The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report."

"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."

"It's enabled us to report directly from our main application systems. We're removing islands of data and we're removing inefficiencies, where people or small divisions had their own store of information."

More IBM Cognos pros

"Everything that's in M Query and DAX is the heart of Power BI because with these tools you can make up for a lot of other missing features."

"I also find connecting to different data sources is quite simple. Other solutions we were using before were complicated."

"Easy to use. End-users can make changes to the graphics."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is real-time report tracking."

"Microsoft BI's most valuable feature is flexibility."

"The uploading of information is very easy, as you just use an Excel sheet to start work right away and obtain the benefits of Power BI."

"I have found the quick reporting and the conductivity with all the data sources valuable."

"The most effective feature of Microsoft Power BI for data analysis is the ability to use Power Query directly from Excel. Power BI's integration capabilities impacted our data management by allowing us to push all reporting down to the end user, giving them the capability to perform "what if" scenarios and discover and validate their own data without needing to refer to IT. Additionally, it provided insights that we couldn't get from Oracle Cloud. We wrote an extract routine to transfer our Oracle Cloud database to Power BI, which was a game changer in terms of giving people confidence in the finances."

More Microsoft Power BI pros

"From a scalability standpoint, I would say it's pretty fantastic."

"The solution is an affordable one."

"The most valuable feature is the map visuals that help us connect to the geo-specialized data which is more advanced than other solutions."

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

"The two features that I have found most valuable are its ability to customize the dashboards when it comes to the evaluation. The second feature is its ability to handle a large amount of data, which is also something very unique about it."

"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."

"R and automation services."

More TIBCO Spotfire pros

Cons

"I would like for the platform to become more standard. If we make a development on our report and our dashboard, it will not be used in another solution. That means there is no portability for the developers."

"I think the GIS pieces maybe not as good as we would like."

"I would like to have predictive and forecasting capabilities in Cognos. It's one thing to do reporting, and another thing to easily predict or forecast certain data points, which is very important for all the clients."

"I would like to see the introduction of mapbooks for supporting some geographical information."

"Extending features on dashboards so it becomes a real dashboard building application, not only a data exploration tool."

"They should provide improved visual reporting."

"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."

"Chart quality: many other competitors have charts and graphics that look much better and that provide dynamic effects. Cognos doesn't."

More IBM Cognos cons

"A few features available in Tableau are not available in Power BI. For example. Tableau has the ability to make up the physical layer and all other stuff at runtime. In Power BI, we have to develop a proper physical layer to connect it. The limitation that we normally face is related to the direct query mode. When it comes to the direct query mode, most of the functionality is not working, which is an issue for us. We have to use the direct query mode frequently because the client needs real-time data. They should work on this limitation. There are a lot of other technical things that need to be improved. I am also following the Power BI platform and Microsoft Support Center platform on the web where users have put their requirements. Microsoft is also working on improving this solution. In every update, they add new features to this solution."

"Power BI's drillthrough feature could be improved. I didn't like drillthrough and those options much, but I did like it in MicroStrategy."

"Microsoft BI’s integration and visualization could be improved."

"Spatial data support should be enhanced."

"SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is not user friendly."

"It is getting better but still, there are opportunity areas in some aspects, especially the Windows OS dependency."

"I am taking a course to be able to use the solution better. Some aspects of the solution are not straightforward."

"The solution could improve the mobile application design. It is difficult to use compared to the desktop version."

More Microsoft Power BI cons

"Print capability and trigger-based events."

"The Text Area feature needs to be more user-friendly. It is a little clunky to use, and it is difficult to consistently format text."

"The handling and consumption of realtime data could be improved."

"The solution might be generic."

"The initial setup is complicated and needs experience and knowledge."

"The way TIBCO Spotfire is designed, in my opinion, is the reason why it lags a bit, especially compared to other BI tools like Qlik."

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

"We encountered difficulties connecting the special data sets, as the post data set did not contain any shared columns, making it difficult to establish a connection between the data sets."

More TIBCO Spotfire cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 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."

"Pricing should be improved."

"It is my understanding that the cost is very low. It's not very expensive."

"I don't know the exact cost, but I believe Cognos is quite expensive, especially when it comes to the support consultants and the procedures that need to be applied."

"There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."

"The pricing and licensing policies are comparatively cheaper than other products in the market ."

"It's more expensive than similar solutions like Tableau and Power BI."

More IBM Cognos pricing and cost advice

"The solution's pricing is medium."

"Pricing, that's where Microsoft beats Tableau. It is priced much cheaper."

"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with one being cheap and ten being expensive."

"My company needs to make monthly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product."

"Once the trial period for the BI service is over, the cost is approximately $10 USD per user, per month, so it's quite reasonable."

"Both cost-wise and implementation-wise, this product is a good choice."

"Its pricing is reasonable for the desktop stuff, but for enterprise-level, it is a little expensive."

"Microsoft BI is very cost-effective and this is why we use it."

More Microsoft Power BI pricing and cost advice

"The ROI is nearly impossible to calculate."

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

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

"The solution is affordable one."

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

"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."

"I would describe TIBCO Spotfire as an averagely-priced product."

"The cost of TIBCO Spotfire could improve. It should be less expensive. It's the most expensive visualization tool in our company."

More TIBCO Spotfire pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which BI (Business Intelligence) Tools solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.

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.

Read full answer

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

Government

Educational Organization

42%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

18%

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

November 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.

DOWNLOAD NOW

824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Microsoft Power BI vs. TIBCO Spotfire report.

See our list of best BI (Business Intelligence) Tools vendors.

We monitor all BI (Business Intelligence) Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.