MicroStrategy vs Sisense comparison

MicroStrategy and Sisense are both solutions in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category. MicroStrategy is ranked #8 with an average rating of 7.5, while Sisense is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.3. MicroStrategy holds a 3.5% mindshare in BIT, compared to Sisense’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of MicroStrategy users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Sisense users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

MicroStrategy and Sisense are key players in the business intelligence market. While MicroStrategy is commended for affordability and support, Sisense is favored for its advanced features, making it the choice for those focused on capabilities rather than cost.

Features: MicroStrategy offers robust analytics, comprehensive dashboards, and excellent data connectivity. Sisense excels in handling large datasets, ease of embedding analytics, and providing flexible integration.

Room for Improvement: MicroStrategy needs better cloud integration, simplifies its initial setup, and reduces complexity. Sisense should enhance customization options, improve user interface for non-technical users, and broaden tool intuitiveness.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MicroStrategy's deployment is complex, requiring technical expertise but has positively rated customer support. Sisense offers straightforward deployment with responsive support, appealing to those needing quick implementation.

Pricing and ROI: MicroStrategy usually has higher setup costs, but long-term ROI is acceptable. Sisense is seen as cost-effective initially, providing faster return on investment and quicker time-to-value.

To learn more, read our detailed MicroStrategy vs. Sisense Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

MicroStrategy vs. Sisense

October 2024

Download the complete report

Helped 814,649 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cognos

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.8%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MicroStrategy is 3.5%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sisense is 1.5%, up from 1.4% 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

Jul 27, 2022

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

Pietro Saglietti

Management Consultant at STG

Sep 26, 2023

A robust solution for powerful data analytics

I use its Discovery Analytics feature, particularly in the context of KPI analysis for management It plays a vital role in establishing a connection with predictive continuous improvement. This approach proves highly valuable for teams involved in continuous improvement efforts, especially in…

Read full review

Wiboon Thabsuwan

Senior Consultant at IMD Company Limited

Jun 22, 2022

Good solution for reporting and is fast compared to other solutions

My current position is as a Senior Consultant. I sell Sisense to my customers in Thailand. It is used for reporting and as an analytic dashboard The best part about this solution is how easy it is to mash up the data from many sources. Sisense is fast compared to other solutions. Sisense has a…

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

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

"In terms of stability, I think that Cognos is more stable than Tableau and Power Bi because of its framework manager concept that allows us to import metadata and store it in the framework manager."

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

"One of the strong suits of Cognos is its robust corporate reporting capability."

"The comprehensiveness or broadness of the software functions or business intelligence functions that it provides is valuable. It is also quite easy to use and user-friendly."

"The initial setup is quite straightforward."

"Cognos' most valuable features are the bundled studios, simple UI, and advanced features like the ability to create data modules."

"Even while a user is using a cube for reporting, there will not be a situation as ' Cube file locked; unable to build or deploy'."

More IBM Cognos pros

"It is always nice to have one solution in a single platform. You can do pretty much everything, instead of having to get a little bit here or a little bit there."

"It's user-friendly, also the MTDI cube is a very good approach, as it helps you to use the pre-format instead of using the standard objects from the schema of MicroStrategy."

"We have ramped up user adoption."

"The mobile for MicroStrategy is the best of all the BI platforms. As a separate product for the mobile device, MicroStrategy is the entire BI platform. It is an enterprise solution, a separate unit, etc."

"MicroStrategy has powerful data security features, which are crucial these days. For example, when users view data in MicroStrategy, they're only allowed to see a portion based on the permissions. When we evaluated other solutions like Power BI or Tableau, we found the security is very poor. They can't help us secure access to the data."

"Has a great semantic layer."

"The scalability is great. It was one of the selling points for us on MicroStrategy."

"I like the user interface and the experience has been great."

More MicroStrategy pros

"Support is very responsive and clearly one of the strengths of Sisense. I have always received a fast response and the staff is very helpful."

"Visually displaying data."

"Allows us to execute heavy, complex computations on the fly so customers can slice and dice the data based on their business needs."

"ElastiCube Manager is a very easy to use ETL tool, which includes the ability to easily transform raw data into reusable data."

"The solution's technical support team is good."

"This solution is easy to learn how to use."

"We like that this solution allows us to use data cubes to set up specific visualizations."

"Allows users to build their own solutions without as much reliance on technology staff."

More Sisense pros

Cons

"The AI-based features could be further enhanced by the solution."

"Cognos is quite slow - it's missing the performance of the PowerPlay cubes."

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

"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 could have more options for themes."

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

"The solution's support could be better."

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

More IBM Cognos cons

"Needs tighter mapping integration."

"We have the mobile server. We have not used it. That is because the people on our team have not been trained on it yet, but that is something that we want to do."

"Consolidate the functional offering to be more concise in the front-end for web reports, dashboards, and self-service."

"There are some challenges in our organization on how we store the data."

"I would like to see more Writeback capabilities that would allow our IT department not to be worried about the wild, Wild West of Writeback."

"It would be good if it had greater analytics so we could build these visualizations by ourselves with scripts."

"If you do not learn the ins or outs, it can be a difficult tool to use. You could do a PoC and get enough out of it to be able to use it. However, when it comes to administering it, you definitely need the training."

"Currently, the client view looks completely different depending on what you are building."

More MicroStrategy cons

"I would like Sisense to improve its performance, particularly when we are dealing with large-scale data."

"The solution's setup process could be easier."

"I would say that using Sisense on Linux's platform might not be advantageous for everyone."

"They should improve the filters to create downloaded data by moving them to the top of the dashboard."

"Larger datasets will sometimes give a "Accumulated logs" error when trying to make minor changes. T"

"I would love to have more customization capabilities for building dashboards, especially in creating custom widget sizes."

"At present there are additional costs involved if we wish to share our data queues within this solution, which we would like to see removed."

"I would also like to be able to run a bursts of reports based on different field values with PDF output right in the tool, rather than filtering on each field value and generating each PDF manually."

More Sisense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"On a scale from one to ten where one is low pricing and ten is high pricing, I would rate this solution at eight."

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

"My company uses IBM Cognos with another IBM product, so I think only one license is used."

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

"The cost of IBM Cognos it's more or less the same as most of the other solutions on the market. They're very competitive with the rest of the market and it is not the most expensive product."

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

More IBM Cognos pricing and cost advice

"They need to work on their license structure. They are not competitive against somebody like SAP BusinessObjects. We had a quote that was almost a third the price, coming from SAP BusinessObjects, and it's not a better platform. It's not cheaper. They do concurrent user licensing, while MicroStrategy does named user licensing, and that was literally the only difference. But it made a $500,000 difference. They've got to do something to make themselves more competitive. Maybe it's assessing your business users and what you really expect them to use, and maybe giving a reduced price on that. But they are already giving us a 60% discount and they were still a million or so above, over a three-year time period. That doesn't account for synergies as we get from on-site resources that are already available, but I thought that that was a big, big deficit for them."

"MicroStrategy's licensing cost is higher than that of other tools in the market. My company uses the enterprise edition of the product."

"We have one of the best pricing available, but we can't disclose that information."

"We have a license with packages, and there are additional costs for extra components."

"They can improve its licensing. It is a bit expensive as compared to Microsoft and other tools."

"The solution is scalable. A little expensive perhaps, but it is scalable."

"The price of MicroStrategy is reasonable."

"They gave us a good deal."

More MicroStrategy pricing and cost advice

"Compared to Power BI or Tableau, Sisense is much more expensive."

"This solution is more expensive than Tableau, Qlik and Dundas. It is an expensive tool. They charge $75,000 while Tableau is $45,000."

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

814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user6330

Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

May 2, 2013

MicroStrategy vs. Tableau

After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

57%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

10%

Retailer

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

25%

Computer Software Company

18%

University

Government

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

What do you like most about MicroStrategy?

The stability of the product is good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MicroStrategy?

For larger businesses, I think the pricing is logical, but for smaller companies, it can be a bit costly.

See all answers

What needs improvement with MicroStrategy?

There is room for improvement in data visualization. Compared to other BI tools like Power BI, MicroStrategy is stron...

See all answers

What do you like most about Sisense?

The solution's technical support team is good.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sisense?

I would say that using Sisense on Linux's platform might not be advantageous for everyone. I am more familiar with Wi...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Sisense?

For the use case, the tool is mostly used from an analytic point of view. We are focused on huge data size because th...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs IBM Cognos

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Hyperion vs IBM Cognos

Compared 10% of the time

Tableau vs IBM Cognos

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs IBM Cognos

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs IBM Cognos

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM Cognos Competitors

Tableau vs MicroStrategy

Compared 23% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs MicroStrategy

Compared 20% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs MicroStrategy

Compared 7% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs MicroStrategy

Compared 7% of the time

Qlik Sense vs MicroStrategy

Compared 5% of the time

More MicroStrategy Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Sisense

Compared 41% of the time

Tableau vs Sisense

Compared 30% of the time

Apache Superset vs Sisense

Compared 16% of the time

Databricks vs Sisense

Compared 6% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Sisense

Compared 4% of the time

More Sisense Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos

October 2024

Download IBM Cognos product report

Buyer's Guide

MicroStrategy

October 2024

Download MicroStrategy product report

Buyer's Guide

Sisense

October 2024

Download Sisense product report

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics

No data available

Learn More

IBM

MicroStrategy

Sisense

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.”

Company: Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is a leading worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms. With direct operations in 26 countries worldwide and approximately 2,000 employees, our mission is to provide enterprise analytics, mobility, and security platforms that are flexible, powerful, scalable and user-friendly. To learn more, visit MicroStrategy online, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Product portfoilio:

MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise™ empowers leading organizations to analyze vast amounts of data and distribute actionable business insight throughout an enterprise through two distinct offerings: MicroStrategy Analytics™ and MicroStrategy Desktop™. MicroStrategy Analytics delivers reports and dashboards, and enables users to conduct ad hoc analysis and share insights anywhere, anytime, via mobile devices or the Web. It also combines the agility and productivity of self-service visual data discovery with the security, scalability, and governance features of enterprise-grade business intelligence. MicroStrategy Desktop is a standalone, on-premise visual data discovery tool designed to enable business users to analyze and understand their data. MicroStrategy Mobile™ enables organizations to rapidly build custom business applications that deliver analytics combined with transactions, multimedia, and custom workflows to mobile devices. MicroStrategy Secure Cloud™ combines all of the enterprise analytics, mobile, and security features in MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise with powerful and scalable data integration, validation, and warehousing services — all delivered in an environment where organizations can deploy transformational analytics applications in minutes.

Usher, MicroStrategy’s breakthrough security solution, is a powerful mobile security platform designed to dematerialize traditional forms of identity verification (such as passwords, tokens, and physical badges) and replace them with a single mobile identity badge that is cryptographically linked to its owner’s smartphone and dynamically linked to an enterprise’s existing identity repositories. Usher works on standard Android and iOS smartphones, and also boasts an Apple Watch™ integration.

Sisense is an end-to-end business analytics software that enables users to easily prepare and analyze large, complex datasets. Sisense’s Single-Stack BI software includes data preparation, data management, analysis, visualization and reporting capabilities.

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.

Allstate Insurance, Barneys New York, Boston Children's Hospital, Buenos Aires Department of the Treasury, Campbell Soup Company, DHL, eBay, eHarmony, Facebook, Four Seasons Hotels Inc., Godiva, Hard Rock International, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pfizer, SECO (Swiss Government Unemployment Agency), Starbucks, Texas A&M University, Thomson Reuters Markets, US House of Representatives, and the US Postal Service.

Ebay, WIX, Wave Accounting, ESPN.com, Magellan Luxury Hotel, Paylogic, Sony, Merck, EDA, One Hour Translation, NASA, Plastic Jungle, Philips, Yahoo

Buyer's Guide

MicroStrategy vs. Sisense

October 2024

Free Report: MicroStrategy vs. Sisense

Find out what your peers are saying about MicroStrategy vs. Sisense and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

DOWNLOAD NOW

814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our MicroStrategy vs. Sisense report.

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