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IBM Cognos Analytics vs. Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Cognos Analytics

    Score7.7 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.

    $11.25

    per month per user

    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/AQlik Sense® is a self-service BI platform for data discovery and visualization. It supports a full range of analytics use cases—data governance, pixel-perfect reporting, and collaboration. Its Associative Engine indexes and connects relationships between data points for creating actionable insights.

    $200

    per month

    Pricing
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsQlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Editions & Modules
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 11.25
    per month per user
    On Demand - Premium
    USD 44.90
    per month per user
    Starter
    $200
    per month
    Standard
    $825
    per month
    Premium
    $2750
    per month
    Qlik Sense (On-Premise)
    Contact Sales
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsQlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsQlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    We looked at Qlik Sense, SAP Analytics Cloud, and IBM Cognos Analytics for our financial brand's needs. Qlik Sense is super user-friendly, great for quick data digging. SAP Analytics is perfect when we're working with other SAP stuff; it just clicks. But for our big project, …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Since we have previously used Salesforce, Tableau and Qlik Sense. I find each platform has it own strengths and weaknesses. Tableau is very intuitive and flexible, Qlik is very strong with ease of development. But IBM Cognos Analytics stands out in structured org level …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    IBM Cognos Analytics is good in few things, but we find more value in other BI tools where IBM Cognos Analytics is lacking. So we use all these above BI tools in our enterprise as a supplemental value for things where IBM Cognos Analytics is not helping with the analysis, …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    IBM Cognos comes close to Data Central. It has some pros & cons over Data Central. Pros: 1. We use the tool for data modeling as it helps in predictive data analysis for complex data, which is very much in line with real-life scenarios. 2. Has a mobile application that works …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    I have used Power Bi, Tableau, and QlikView.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    IBM Cognos is a separate product but it allows us to connect to any databases and databases from Microsoft Analysis Services as well. This feature made me choose Cognos.
    Incentivized
    Qlik
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    I have used Crystal Report using Pulse WMS and Cognos with Pronto. I really love the functionality of Cognos that it offers the department I work in.
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    We keep Cognos and Qlik. Cognos is best for formatted Excel files automated in emails. Qlik is easier to use for dashboards for the end users.
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    [I was not involved in the decision making process for the choice of the reporting tool]
    Qlik Sense is - certainly on the front-end side - far more user-friendly than the other tools I've experienced, and allows for more dynamic reporting. It also has obtained a certain …
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Cheaper and easy to use.
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    I have used SSRS previously for reporting. One interesting feature of SSRS is its email scheduling process, which comes in the same package as SSRS, but in Qlik Sense, we need to get the NPrinting package to make this happen (email scheduling). Still, we decided to go with Qlik …
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)

    I have worked on IBM Cognos , Power BI for reporting and Dashboards in different organisations.

    I can say the Cognos is for standard reporting with inbuilt scheduling and mail delivery services, Power BI is a bit more user friendly unlike Cognos and QlikSense.

    I have also worked …

    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    First and foremost, the ability of Qlik to play nice with SAP and utilize SAP Extractor. Second, the Grey-White-Green feature for basic insight is also very useful.
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Qlik Sense is better than Tableau and Cognos, but scripting is easier with MS Office 365.
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    We selected Qlik Sense because of two main reasons:
    1. Associative Engine
    2. Self Service BI
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    We have more enterprise options with Qlik Sense, which we like.
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Cognos felt too complex for the user. Tableau was slow and did not have a CSR programme. Hyperion is great but more for finance. Microsoft not as developed and rich in features. Qlikview as much as Qlik Sense felt well developed, rich in features and relatively easy to use for …
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Qlik Sense is very user-friendly and, at the same time, powerful.
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    More expensive, but a more mature product the visualisation features can blow senior managers away.
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Qlik Sense is a far superior product in nearly every conceivable way. Not just to "techies," but the actual users who have to consume, internalize, and act on the KPIs being provided.
    Incentivized
    Chose Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    The associative data model made an unexpected effect when in a pilot application that allowed users to find new and non-trivial patterns in supplied data sets. Surely TIBCO Spotfire is a great tool with incredible statistical and forecasting possibilities but everything is for …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    92 Answers
    89%
    Would buy again
    73 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    79 Answers
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    57 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    91 Answers
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    74 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    48 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    64 Answers
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    52 Answers
    Features
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsQlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.7
    138 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    7.9
    315 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports7.6129 Ratings8.3216 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.0136 Ratings7.8313 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.5131 Ratings7.5228 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.9
    138 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    7.0
    326 Ratings
    13% below category average
    Drill-down analysis7.4136 Ratings8.0322 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.3139 Ratings6.2315 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.397 Ratings6.2154 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.6133 Ratings7.6299 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    136 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    7.5
    278 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Publish to Web9.836 Ratings6.0210 Ratings
    Publish to PDF8.2132 Ratings6.9257 Ratings
    Report Versioning9.833 Ratings7.8176 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.2134 Ratings8.7183 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers9.918 Ratings8.1108 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    124 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    6.7
    314 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.9121 Ratings6.7307 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.0114 Ratings8.1283 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics6.7110 Ratings6.2195 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining6.947 Ratings5.92 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.8
    130 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    7.7
    297 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)7.5129 Ratings6.6276 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model7.5127 Ratings8.4272 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.4127 Ratings7.4275 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control8.257 Ratings7.42 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)8.6111 Ratings8.8218 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    6.4
    109 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    7.5
    221 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access6.8104 Ratings8.0215 Ratings
    Mobile Application6.390 Ratings8.0133 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.696 Ratings9.0185 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    87 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    8.3
    145 Ratings
    7% above category average
    REST API7.683 Ratings8.0125 Ratings
    Javascript API7.779 Ratings8.494 Ratings
    iFrames9.912 Ratings8.094 Ratings
    Java API10.013 Ratings8.471 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)9.915 Ratings8.497 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.99 Ratings8.884 Ratings
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    IBM Cognos AnalyticsQlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
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    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
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    User Ratings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsQlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (158 ratings)
    8.3
    (332 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.4
    (31 ratings)
    8.4
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (10 ratings)
    8.3
    (14 ratings)
    Availability
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (9 ratings)
    7.3
    (9 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    7.3
    (5 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.6
    (40 ratings)
    3.4
    (36 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.3
    (40 ratings)
    7.5
    (37 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    5.5
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.3
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsQlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    For Transaction monitoring, we build reports for executive management, providing insights into the number of alerts, the types or categories of detection scenarios, the risk profile, and a snapshot of high- or urgent-priority cases to be reported to AUSTRAC. Congos helps to build the report by ingesting alert data exported from SAS datasets. It joins with other data from Teradata and Customer Hub (Oracle).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Qlik
    Qlik Sense is a program whose purpose is to greatly improve all your operations and use of all data in an organic way. The mission will always be to increase the economic and commercial processes of the company in a short time. I recommended it for its high technology, which was Created for this area, the results are successful. We have noticed how it has increased relationships with our clients thanks to the credibility and security that we provide.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    IBM
    • Enterprise reporting - Create, customise, and run reports on sales trends, consumer sentiment, etc.
    • Dashboard creation and data exploration & analysis - Using drag and drop feature to create ad-hoc visualisation. Additionally, using AI powered natural language query feature for data analysis and dashboard input (formation of pie, bar, line charts). It's useful for no-technical person to put queries around the spreadsheet data to get quick answers.
    • Building insights for accurate decision making - Package reports with data backed insights for stakeholders in pdf, and Excel format to support business ad-hoc cases, forecasting and strategic recommendations on relevant asks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Qlik
    • Flexibility in data recording, from the app, as well as in handling them. Allowing you to view reports quickly and effectively.
    • Easy to generate dynamic graphics according to our needs.
    • It is very easy to use, intuitive, so it does not generate costs in the learning process compared to the tool with collaborators
    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
    Qlik
    • Scalability is RAM limited, all data is associative and in-memory so server's RAM is directly proportional to performance
    • Limitation on advanced analytics capabilities in the form of R integration to perform complex statistical and analytical calculations
    • Can have more intuitive interface
    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
    Qlik
    Qlik Sense is a constantly improving it's software and working with its' users to make it better. They are great at keeping their users informed of progress and care about delivering a quality product
    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
    Qlik
    Qlik Sense has a better and easy to learn user interface compared with other analytics tool which always help us to create regular and adhoc reports within the stipulated time frame and can be easily refreshed at a scheduled time and sent to multiple stakeholders for timely update regarding the Key metrics indicator.
    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
    Qlik
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Qlik
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Qlik
    Qlik is great for companies with lots of business domains and departments because it scales well, especially if data that is reported is saved in SQL and similar structures. Its ease of use and good UI enables business units to create and manage their own reports. That removes a great burden of creating and managing/modifying these pages from the IT team. Overall, it's a win-win for both IT and business units.
    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
    Qlik
    The instructor was very knowledgeable.
    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
    Qlik
    The online instructor was very knowledgeable.
    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
    Qlik
    Hire Qlik consultants. It's better done by them or with their aid.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    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 reporting. Sigma shines for customizable dashboards and drill-down analysis while IBM Cognos Analytics holds an edge in data discovery and visualization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Qlik
    The customization of the platform opens up plenty of other options depending on the use cases. The API layer is incredibly rich and makes integration of Qlik based visualization into web pages a simple and effective pattern. It's been very easy to use with a great community made up of professionals. Qlik Sense has introduces artificial Intelligence into my data visualization and reporting activity.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    IBM
    We rate IBM Cognos Analytics a 9 out of 10 for overall scalability. The platform handles large numbers of users, reports, and analytical workloads very reliably. We have experienced strong performance even in demanding enterprise environments with substantial data volumes. Its architecture provides sufficient flexibility to scale resources according to demand, making it well suited for large, business-critical deployments.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Qlik
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • The platform can be pretty pricey.
    • Convoluted contracts and they fine you for any breach during audits.
    • Things are changed between releases without any warning and break.
    • It is second to none at being able to customize list and crosstab type reports.
    • You can easily set up a report to be emailed out every day and even have it export the report to a shared folder.
    • On-prem environments can be scaled up pretty much as much as you would like.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Qlik
    • Once an app is published and running good, we can quickly see the time we save to analyze data.
    • It's hard sometimes to realize the money we save by using this system.
    • People start understanding the power of data and asking more questions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot

    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Qlik Sense Cash Flow DashboardScreenshot of Qlik Sense Global Smart SearchScreenshot of Qlik Sense Smart Data Compression - Get immediate insight on large dataScreenshot of Extend, mix and mash-up with our APIsScreenshot of Add "External data" with Qlik DataMarket - Data as a ServiceScreenshot of Visualization Bundle