Pentaho vs. SAP Analytics Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Pentaho
Score 5.1 out of 10
N/A
Pentaho is a suite of open source business intelligence and analytics products, now offered and supported by Hitachi Data Systems since the June 2015 acquisition.N/A
SAP Analytics Cloud
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
The SAP Analytics Cloud solution brings together analytics and planning with integration to SAP applications and access to heterogenous data sources. As the analytics and planning solution within SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP Analytics Cloud supports trusted insights and integrated planning processes enterprise-wide to help make decisions without doubt.
$36
per month per user
Pricing
PentahoSAP Analytics Cloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
SAP Analytics Cloud for Business Intelligence
$36.00
per month per user
SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning
Price upon request
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PentahoSAP Analytics Cloud
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA 30-day trial with SAP Analytics Cloud is available, supporting analytics enterprise-wide. A trial can be extended up to 90 days on request.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PentahoSAP Analytics Cloud
Features
PentahoSAP Analytics Cloud
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
9.0
Ratings
10% above category average
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.0
Ratings
2% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.60 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards9.90 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.70 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
8.7
Ratings
8% above category average
SAP Analytics Cloud
7.9
Ratings
2% below category average
Drill-down analysis7.60 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.30 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages9.30 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.70 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
9.7
Ratings
15% above category average
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.0
Ratings
4% below category average
Publish to Web9.60 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.80 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Report Versioning9.70 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling9.90 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
8.1
Ratings
2% above category average
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.0
Ratings
0% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.90 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.20 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.30 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
9.1
Ratings
7% above category average
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.1
Ratings
5% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)9.30 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model9.60 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.90 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)7.60 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
8.3
Ratings
6% above category average
SAP Analytics Cloud
7.9
Ratings
1% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access9.70 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Mobile Application6.90 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.70 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
8.6
Ratings
10% above category average
SAP Analytics Cloud
-
Ratings
REST API8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API8.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PentahoSAP Analytics Cloud
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.1 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PentahoSAP Analytics Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.8
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.3
(0 ratings)
5.6
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.0
(0 ratings)
2.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PentahoSAP Analytics Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
Pentaho is very well suited to perform data extraction & data mining from various cloud storage & transform that data using various available data models. However, the software struggles when it comes to visualizing the extracted data in an appealing manner & can be difficult for end-users to get an understanding of data tables created using those models.
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SAP Ecosystem Integration:For businesses already using other SAP solutions such as SAP BW or SAP HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud is a natural fit. It integrates well with the broader SAP ecosystem, providing a cohesive analytics experience for users familiar with SAP technologies.Predictive Analytics Use Cases:Companies seeking to incorporate predictive analytics into their decision-making processes can leverage SAP Analytics Cloud. Its built-in predictive features enable users to create models and gain insights into future trends based on historical data.
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Pros
  • Integrate and synchronize with big data easily
  • Import data from any sources and different databases
  • Managing data in on-premise, hybrid and cloud environments.
  • Compatibility and flexibility of the platform with any type of scenario and any business or industry
  • Various tools in the software suite to transformation of data
  • Simple interface appearance and creative UI graphics
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  • It makes it easier yo analyse order and related records easily.
  • We can easily maintain and track the performance of employees in organisation.
  • Can easily track various aspects for the growth of an organisation thus allowing real time analysis and tracking of organisation's growth and performance.
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Cons
  • I think the relative obscurity of the tool is a downside, not as many developers, consultants or peers you can tap into.
  • Lack of a solid user community held us back, looking at Power BI and Qlik, they have huge user communities that help each other out. Would have liked that here.
  • Smaller company means smaller sales force, and the lack of a local presence made it hard to only interact online with the account rep. Other companies have someone local who often stops by with pre-sales developers to just pitch in free of charge when they have time.
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  • Possibility of more advanced scripting for data transformation without analytics designer
  • Provision to consider rate types from TCURR in SAC and should be able to write FX conversion logic considering rate types
  • Read data directly from BW by reading aDSOs backend tables
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Likelihood to Renew
I will use Pentaho until I find a better tool with a better, easier to use report designer client. For now, Pentaho has been the most powerful reporting tool for our clients because of its ability to connect to Odoo, integrate in Odoo (reports are accessible in Odoo) and the flexibility in report design and parameter integration
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There’s no doubt I will renew SAP Analytics Cloud. It is the most vital tool in our organization that makes it seamless to make rapid business decisions by collecting, modeling and visualizing data in real-time.
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Usability
Even if Pentaho requires less technical skills to develop a pipeline or ETL project, its learning curve can be a bit slow since there are many ways to do the same thing as in any other platform. However, in Pentaho, some things can be confusing some moments for non-technical teams.
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On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate 8 SAP Analytics Cloud's overall usability as a 7. SAC has a clean, modern user interface with drag-and-drop features. It is an integrated platform that combines reporting, planning, and predictive analytics in one tool. It has Real-time connectivity with SAP data sources like S/4HANA.


Self-service analytics capabilities allow non-technical users to build simple dashboards.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud an 8 out of 10 for scalability. It offers a flexible, cloud-based architecture that supports expansion across departments and geographies. The platform adapts well to growing data volumes and user needs, making it a strong choice for organizations looking to scale analytics capabilities efficiently.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud’s performance an 8 out of 10. Pages generally load quickly, and reports run within a reasonable time frame, even with complex datasets. Integration with other systems is smooth and doesn’t noticeably affect performance. Overall, it’s a responsive and efficient tool for business analytics. But
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Support Rating
We are an Enterprise customer. They handle problems INSTANTLY when they are critical, including initiation an immediate WebEx screen share call when needed. Smaller/less-critical problems are handled within 1-2 days -- and NEVER fall off their radar, no matter how small. As needed, we can also leverage "professional services" from them -- much of which is included in our Enterprise contract. Finally, when a problem I have discovered turns out to be a bug..they create a JIRA for the fix, and make me a watcher. I love seeing notes come in showing me status updates of bugs filed because of something I found. They really are TOP-NOTCH.
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Since the implementation stage, the support team has been very helpful and assisting. Even in the later stages, the tech team had quite a rapid response. In general, SAP has provided us with great customer support, let it be for a specific product of SAP or for integration of different modules.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
Good videos and reference material available in SAP Portal.
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Online Training
Course Taken: DI1000 Pentaho Data Integration Fundamentals Setup A week before your class started, the instructor will start sending out class material and lab setup instructions. This is helpful so that you understand how the environment is laid out and can start reviewing the content. Ultimately it saved about a 1/2 day trying to setup with 10 other people online which was great! The Course The 3-day course was laid out like many other technical classes with 15-30 minutes instruction and 15-60 minutes of lab exercises. The instructor was very knowledgeable with the functionality from version to version and answered questions as we went along. I was amazed at some of the functionality that was available that I was not using at the time and quickly implemented changes to many existing transformations and jobs. The novice users seemed to catch on quickly and more experienced users explained how some of the functionality was used in their home environments. Towards the end there was enough time so that we were able to ask very directed questions about our own environments. Overall, I really found the class to be informative and deliver enough information to be dangerous. My skills improved and I was able to design better and efficient transformations for the HIE. Course Description: https://training.pentaho.com/instructor-led-training/pentaho-data-integration-fundamentals-di1000
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it's ok
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Implementation Rating
Get the right people in before starting implementation. Start small and build as you go approach is time consuming and involves lot of rework. Evangalize within the organization the capabilities and limitations equally so that correct delivery expectations are set. Set expectations with the Customer that the tool cannot replace proprietary software in terms of stability/usability and that timelines could change given the new ness of the product.
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SAC is a simple solution ad it works fine when connecting it to other SAP tools. On the other hand, connecting it to third party solutions brings difficulties when there's no previous design and the objetives are not clear. It is really important to integrate Business users from the start to provide with valuable business insights
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Alternatives Considered
Perhaps Snowflake and SalesForce have some components which align with the Pentaho tools. The Pentaho tools have integrations with these technologies to add more value to the final users. Perhaps the only weakness I can honestly find in the Pentaho tools right now is the lack of a powerful web interface for data transformations. There is a web component from which you can access existing data transformations created with the Pentaho Data Integration tool. Still, the web component only allows visualization of the data transformation and remote execution. A complete web interface with remote execution would be excellent, and I'm sure that we might see something like this available at some point in the future.
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SAP Analytics Cloud and Power BI are both tools that help businesses understand their data, but they have some differences. SAC, made by SAP, works well if your company already uses other SAP products. It's in the cloud, easy to use, and has features for analyzing data, getting insights, and planning for the future. Power BI, made by Microsoft, can be used in the cloud or on your own computers. It fits well with Microsoft tools, is easy to use, and can do advanced data analysis. SAC has built-in planning tools, while Power BI needs extra tools for detailed planning
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud an 8 out of 10 for scalability. It offers a flexible, cloud-based architecture that supports expansion across departments and geographies. The platform adapts well to growing data volumes and user needs, making it a strong choice for organizations looking to scale analytics capabilities efficiently.
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Return on Investment
  • Pentaho has improved our overall business process.
  • Pentaho has helped the Managers and Directors to analyze the numbers going up and down from time to time.
  • We have a started a big project using Pentaho that is going to include all the business processes in the organization.
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  • Optimized our budgeting and forecasting processes. The platform facilitates real-time collaboration among our teams, allowing for more accurate and agile financial planning. This has led to improved precision in budget allocation, ensuring that resources are strategically deployed to support the most promising startups within our portfolio.
  • SAC's intuitive dashboards and visualizations provide a consolidated view of key performance indicators, startup health metrics, and portfolio analytics. This heightened data visibility enables our teams to make informed decisions promptly, identify emerging trends, and proactively address challenges.
  • Routine tasks, such as performance tracking and reporting, are automated, allowing our teams to focus on more strategic initiatives. This has resulted in time savings and increased productivity across various operational processes.
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ScreenShots