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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Cognos Analytics

    Score6.8 out of 10
    N/AIBM Cognos is a full-featured business intelligence suite by IBM, designed for larger deployments. It comprises Query Studio, Reporting Studio, Analysis Studio and Event Studio, and Cognos Administration along with tools for Microsoft Office integration, full-text search, and dashboards.

    $10

    per month per user

    ThoughtSpot

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/AThoughtSpot is an Agentic Analytics Platform for enterprises where users ask data questions using natural language and get answers with AI. Code-first for data teams and code-free for business users, ThoughtSpot can handle large, complex cloud data at scale.

    $1,500

    per year (5 users)

    Pricing
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsThoughtSpot
    Editions & Modules
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 10.00
    per month per user
    On Demand - Premium
    USD 42.40
    per month per user
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 10.60
    per month per user
    Thoughtspot Analytics - Pro
    $50
    per month (billed annually) per user (25-1000 users)
    Thoughtspot Analytics - Enterprise
    Custom
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsThoughtSpot
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsThoughtSpot
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    I like the cloud native character and ease of deployment with Sigma and ThogthSpot, I also like the metadata modelling capabilities of Power BI. I prefer the ability of Cognos to create and publish a metadata model that provides both ad hoc access and managed reporting and …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson is an enterprise ready tool and could provide end to end functionality expected from a BI tool. Provides integration with custom applications as well as provides not just high end visualizations that Tableau or PowerBI provides but also the very …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    IBM has tried to push its product to be like Tableau and included dashboarding, but we still use Tableau due to better features.

    I haven't found anything that compares to the amazing features we get to use with IBM Cognos Report Studio, which allows you to send emails (PDF, …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Power BI is stronger for quick ad-hoc analysis and dashboards, but IBM Cognos Analytics is better when consistency, precision, and mass distribution matter. Tableau is best for interactive analysis, while IBM Cognos Analytics is better for standardized, repeatable enterprise …
    Incentivized
    ThoughtSpot
    Chose ThoughtSpot
    Compared to most reporting and analytics tools of a similar nature, ThoughtSpot seems to work particularly well with financial and sales related data. In terms of ease of use, ThoughtSpot ranks above average. On the other hand, there are dozens of basic features (esp. …
    Incentivized
    Chose ThoughtSpot
    While Thoughtspot runs on "keyword search" technology, it needs the users to import data and build the data model in thoughtspot which creates a duplicate copy of your data mart. Answer Rocket uses "NLP (Natural Language Processing)" to work on your existing database and while …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    65 Answers
    85%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    56 Answers
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    26 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    65 Answers
    85%
    Happy with the feature set
    34 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    42 Answers
    79%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    23 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    44 Answers
    90%
    Implementation went as expected
    27 Answers
    Features
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsThoughtSpot
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and ThoughtSpot
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.0
    106 Ratings
    15% below category average
    ThoughtSpot
    7.6
    85 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports6.896 Ratings6.021 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards7.3104 Ratings9.185 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.0101 Ratings7.725 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and ThoughtSpot
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    108 Ratings
    9% below category average
    ThoughtSpot
    7.8
    87 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Drill-down analysis7.3106 Ratings9.187 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities7.1107 Ratings7.786 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.874 Ratings5.447 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration7.4103 Ratings8.985 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM Cognos Analytics and ThoughtSpot
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.8
    107 Ratings
    6% below category average
    ThoughtSpot
    8.9
    80 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Publish to Web8.327 Ratings8.552 Ratings
    Publish to PDF7.1101 Ratings9.574 Ratings
    Report Versioning8.626 Ratings7.918 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling7.0104 Ratings9.261 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers8.112 Ratings9.233 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM Cognos Analytics and ThoughtSpot
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    6.7
    98 Ratings
    17% below category average
    ThoughtSpot
    8.1
    83 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)6.993 Ratings7.782 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.189 Ratings8.876 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics6.486 Ratings8.062 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining6.624 Ratings7.710 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM Cognos Analytics and ThoughtSpot
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    103 Ratings
    14% below category average
    ThoughtSpot
    8.6
    82 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)8.0100 Ratings8.679 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model7.899 Ratings8.671 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)6.199 Ratings8.575 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control7.428 Ratings8.413 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)7.882 Ratings8.668 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM Cognos Analytics and ThoughtSpot
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.6
    84 Ratings
    3% below category average
    ThoughtSpot
    7.3
    50 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access7.678 Ratings7.048 Ratings
    Mobile Application7.968 Ratings7.031 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile9.074 Ratings6.843 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of IBM Cognos Analytics and ThoughtSpot
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.7
    65 Ratings
    1% below category average
    ThoughtSpot
    6.4
    48 Ratings
    20% below category average
    REST API7.562 Ratings4.839 Ratings
    Javascript API8.660 Ratings4.532 Ratings
    iFrames8.39 Ratings8.231 Ratings
    Java API6.911 Ratings7.013 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)7.110 Ratings6.932 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)7.87 Ratings7.115 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsThoughtSpot
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    Cyfe
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    Score8.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score9.7 out of 10
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsThoughtSpot
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.3
    (131 ratings)
    8.3
    (87 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.4
    (27 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    8.1
    (8 ratings)
    8.7
    (82 ratings)
    Availability
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    4.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.6
    (40 ratings)
    7.8
    (5 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.3
    (40 ratings)
    8.4
    (5 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsThoughtSpot
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    IBM Cognos Analytics has great scheduling capabilities. A single report can be parameterized (e.g., “Store Manager ID”) and burst to thousands of recipients with their slice of data.IBM Cognos Analytics is a good fit for highly complex, multi-level calculations which can be handled by Report Studio. For example Monthly balance sheet that requires multi step calculation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    It is well suited when the same data is consumed by many different people with different analytics and visualization requirements because, if you have the data available in ThoughtSpot, every user can prepare different views. Also, it is a good reporting tool, you can get rid of slides if you have a good dashboard prepared, gaining flexibility and agility.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    IBM
    • We can make dozens of dispatchers all focusing on different types of workloads.
    • Friendly user interface, without the need for coding or complicated editing.
    • Highly functionality reporting tools.
    • We can easily create trigger when a certain threshold are met sending reports or alerts to needed parties.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    • Beautiful visualizations. The visuals are distinct, clean, and easy to discern from one another.
    • Intelligent querying functionality. When looking to manipulate the data, the search function makes it easy to manipulate the features in the data, along with aggregating them in the way you'd like.
    • Embedding! It has been a smooth process thus far for our product & technical teams to work with ThoughtSpot and bring it into our product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • IBM Cognos Analytics enables customer data segmentation, which is essential for marketing, improving and streamlining purchasing behavior and preferences. This helps companies create more targeted and effective marketing campaigns.
    • Our clients Through data analysis, we can identify and observe trends in the behavior of other clients, allowing us to anticipate needs and adjust strategies to avoid consequences.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    • It would be great if ThoughtSpot can add the feature to filter by clicking on visualizations. i.e if I click on a particular data point in the chart if the full dashboard can filter just for that particular data point.
    • Color coding the heatmap with different colors like green to orange to red.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    For an existing solution, renewing licenses does provide a good return on investment. Additionally, while rolling out scorecards and dashboards with little adhoc capabilities, to end users, cognos is very easily scalable. It also allows to create a solution that has a mix of OLAP and relational data-sources, which is a limitation with other tools. Synchronizing with existing security setup is easy too.
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    I give it just waiting because passport is brilliant and it has helped our organisation In advancing to the next stage in the age of AI. It has allowed or non-tech people to better service and clients in a cost-effective way. George port has allowed us to create new products for us and for our clients increasing our revenue streams and reducing clients churn
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    IBM
    We have a strong user base (3500 users) that are highly utilizing this tool. Basic users are able to consume content within the applied security model. We have a set of advanced users that really push the limits of Cognos with Report and Query Studio. These users have created a lot of personal content and stored it in 'My Reports'. Users enjoy this flexibility.
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    The rating is because of the ease of use of the interface as it has a no code interface that makes it easy to setup data pipelines without extensive programming. Cloud native integration: It integrates seamlessly with cloud based data warehouses. Automated data loading, Scalability, Cost Effective, Transformations, Data Governance and security.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    Reports can typically be viewed through any browser that can access the server, so the availability is ultimately up to what the company utilizing it is comfortable with allowing, though report development tends to be more picky about browsers and settings as mentioned above. It also has an optional iPad app and general mobile browsing support, but dashboards lack the mobile compatibility. What keeps it from getting a higher score is the desktop tools that are vital to the development process. The compatibility with only Windows when the server has a wide range of compatibility can be a real sore point for a company that outfits its employees exclusively with Mac or Linux machines. Of course, if they are planning on outsourcing the development anyways, it's a rather moot point
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    it's available unless there is a server or system update etc. sometimes the timing of this is bad (for example during a month end close)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    IBM
    Overall no major complaints but it doesn't handle DMR (Dimensionally Modeled for Relational) very well. DMR modelling is a capability that IBM Cognos Framework Manager provides allowing you to specify dimensional information for relational metadata and allows for OLAP-style queries. However, the capability is not very efficient and, for example, if I'm using only 2 columns on a 20-column model, the software is not smart enough to exclude 18 columns and the query side gets progressively larger and larger until it's effectively unusable.
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    It does what it is supposed to. Would be nice to have a bit more insights
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    IBM
    Why is their web application not working as fast as you think it should? They never know, and it is always a a bunch of shots in the dark to find out. Trying to download software from them is like trying to find a book at the library before computers were invented.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    I give it this meeting because the team is not only help able to help us in the current solutions but also amazing and taking feedback and feeding it back to their development team which includes more products and features into ThoughtSpot
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    IBM
    Onsite training provided by IBM Cognos was effective and as expected. They did not perform training with our data which was a bit difficult for our end-users.
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    inhouse in-person training. Took a bit to long to get the basics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    IBM
    The online courses they offer are thorough and presented in such a way that someone who isn't already familiar with the general design methodologies used in this field will be capable of making a good design. The training environments are provided as a fully self contained virtual machine with everything needed already to create the environments. We've had some persisting issues with the environments becoming unavailable, but support has been responsive when these issues arise and straightening them out for us
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    poor instructions
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    Make sure that any custom tables that you have, are built into your metadata packages. You can still access them via SQL queries in Cognos, but it is much easier to have them as a part of the available metadata packages.
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    Understand use case and model and design accordingly
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    My company selected IBM Congos Analytics because of its advanced features and data representation for data analysis. Its row and column features are very effective for creating dashboards and reports to visualize data. It's chart representation and view format are very attractive and useful for representation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    We also explored Tableau Ask Data. Tableau is our standard for BI in our organization. We want to use the smallest amount of tools in our company to have the best adaption. ThoughSpot will fill a few gaps that we have with our current set up and will also enhance out offering for our employees in the transition of being more data driven within in near future
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    IBM
    The Cognos architecture is well suited for scalability. However, the architecture must be designed with scalability in mind from day one of the implementation. We recently upgraded from 10.1 to 10.2.1 and took the opportunity to revamp our architecture. It is now poised for future growth and scalability.
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    Because it is very reliable, inside the situation, we need strong internet connection to access a lot of data but easily never had any downtime except during the upgrades
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • We use the tool for data modeling as it helps in predictive data analysis for complex data, which is very similar to real-life scenarios.
    • Options of customizing & scheduling reports as per our requirements basis.
    • Has mobile application which works seamless.
    • API integration is not upto the mark with very limited options.
    • Licensing & Maintenance can go from cheap to expensive depending on the scope.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ThoughtSpot
    • Time to market ROI is massive vs hiring the full-time dedicated team to build and maintain a frontend multi-tenant SaaS data viz product.
    • It will be interesting to see over time how the advanced features play out in terms of usability and end value, such as Natural Search, which we are very excited about, and the machine learning tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

    Screenshot of a natural language query, used in IBM Cognos Analytics to get AI-powered insights from data.Screenshot of AI-generated insights and forecasts that can be added with just a click of a button.Screenshot of a dashboard that can be generated automatically using IBM Cognos Analytics by uploading or selecting data.Screenshot of an AI-generated dashboard from a spreadsheet that was just uploaded. This offers a great starting point for the creative process.Screenshot of where to import data to IBM Cognos Analytics from CSV files and spreadsheets. Users can connect to cloud or on-premises data sources, including SQL databases, Google BigQuery, Amazon, and Redshift.Screenshot of a sample operational dashboard of a coffee shop created using IBM Cognos Analytics.

    ThoughtSpot Screenshots

    Screenshot of the ThoughtSpot home screenScreenshot of SpotIQ, which offers AI-driven insightsScreenshot of the Spotter AI agent that surfaces insights through natural language queriesScreenshot of AI Assist producing SQL in real timeScreenshot of SpotIQ, which offers AI-driven insightsScreenshot of the integration with dbt models and metrics