IBM Cognos Analytics vs. ThoughtSpot

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Cognos Analytics
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
IBM 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
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
ThoughtSpot is an AI-Powered Analytics company, that aims to create a more fact-driven world with an easy to use analytics platform. ThoughtSpot enables users to leverage natural language search powered by large language models to ask and answer data questions. Users within an organization can limitlessly engage with live data in any popular cloud data platform to create and interact with granular, hyper…
$95
per month
Pricing
IBM Cognos AnalyticsThoughtSpot
Editions & Modules
On Demand - Standard
$10.00
per month per user
On Demand - Premium
$40.00
per month per user
ThoughtSpot Analytics Team
$95
per month flat subscription
ThoughtSpot Analytics Pro
starts at $30,000
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
ThoughtSpot Analytics Enterprise
contact for pricing
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
ThoughtSpot Everywhere Pro
contact for pricing
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
ThoughtSpot Everywhere Enterprise
contact for pricing
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
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 Cognos Analytics
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 …
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 …
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, …
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. …
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 …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
IBM Cognos AnalyticsThoughtSpot
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.9
101 Ratings
4% below category average
ThoughtSpot
6.7
78 Ratings
20% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.592 Ratings6.021 Ratings
Customizable dashboards7.899 Ratings6.378 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.496 Ratings7.725 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.1
103 Ratings
0% below category average
ThoughtSpot
6.8
79 Ratings
18% below category average
Drill-down analysis8.1101 Ratings7.479 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.1102 Ratings5.778 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.871 Ratings6.345 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.499 Ratings7.677 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.3
103 Ratings
1% below category average
ThoughtSpot
7.7
73 Ratings
8% below category average
Publish to Web8.327 Ratings7.647 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.797 Ratings8.168 Ratings
Report Versioning8.626 Ratings7.918 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.0100 Ratings8.656 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.112 Ratings6.629 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.1
93 Ratings
0% above category average
ThoughtSpot
6.7
75 Ratings
19% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.088 Ratings7.474 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.285 Ratings7.170 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.181 Ratings6.058 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining8.020 Ratings6.27 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.3
98 Ratings
4% below category average
ThoughtSpot
7.7
74 Ratings
11% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.495 Ratings7.872 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.394 Ratings7.465 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.294 Ratings7.569 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.423 Ratings7.77 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.376 Ratings8.061 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.3
81 Ratings
9% below category average
ThoughtSpot
7.7
45 Ratings
4% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access7.975 Ratings7.943 Ratings
Mobile Application7.366 Ratings7.427 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.172 Ratings6.939 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.5
60 Ratings
5% below category average
ThoughtSpot
7.0
43 Ratings
12% below category average
REST API7.357 Ratings7.134 Ratings
Javascript API7.556 Ratings6.828 Ratings
iFrames8.39 Ratings7.026 Ratings
Java API6.911 Ratings7.013 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.110 Ratings7.127 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)7.87 Ratings7.115 Ratings
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Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
IBM Cognos AnalyticsThoughtSpot
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(126 ratings)
7.9
(79 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.7
(27 ratings)
9.7
(6 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(8 ratings)
8.1
(74 ratings)
Availability
8.6
(4 ratings)
8.7
(3 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(5 ratings)
7.7
(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
8.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.3
(3 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.3
(3 ratings)
7.7
(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
Our first and most basic scenario was to automatize the creation and publication/sharing of business reports that used to be created manually by employees throughout our organization. Using Cognos for that first use case worked well. The advanced analytics functionalities we used on the aggregated data were also as expected. However, the user interface is not always intuitive, and there is a steep learning curve, so I would recommend Cognos only to large organizations where there is a need for the most advanced functionalities (AI analysis/prediction).
Read full review
ThoughtSpot
Well suited for my clients for a Macro view of business insights, credit risk, ESG insights, etc. However, I think ThoughtSpot needs to make exploring underlying data easier, adding a feature where you can click on charts and filters will help users and especially business users to easily understand the granularities as well.
Read full review
Pros
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.
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.
Read full review
Cons
IBM
  • Sometimes there might be performance issues when dealing with large and complex data.
  • Although IBM provides full documentation but sometimes it's difficult to find answers to questions and connect with their customer support.
  • It relies on external tools for data cleaning, transformation and also for some integration tasks. It can also improve on providing wider range of data sources for integration.
Read full review
ThoughtSpot
  • Ability to build a single dashboard tile containing the main value, a sparkline, and a percent change over time
  • Easy way to build a user experience that allows for selecting different metrics to trend from a drop-down on a multi-axis graph
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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
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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.
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ThoughtSpot
The tool is easy to use if you know what you are doing and looking for. I know as they work towards improvements and simple language it will become even easier, but as of now they are doing a great job but there is room for improvement.
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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
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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)
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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.
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ThoughtSpot
It does what it is supposed to. Would be nice to have a bit more insights
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.
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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
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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.
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ThoughtSpot
inhouse in-person training. Took a bit to long to get the basics.
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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
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ThoughtSpot
poor instructions
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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.
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ThoughtSpot
Understand use case and model and design accordingly
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Alternatives Considered
IBM
In the past Management had used Excel and Workiva capabilities to create the reporting dashboards that were being used to make decisions. Since switching to IBM Cognos Analytics the Company has been much more efficient and decision making has been streamlined. IBM Cognos Analytics was chosen due to its reputation and data visualization capabilities and neither have been wrong.
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
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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.
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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
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Return on Investment
IBM
  • High ROI with well designed solutions. Supported by scalable deployment, robust security model and ability to create valuable content.
  • High ROI where well designed data models can be deployed with a common metadata layer to a variety of users and use cases.
  • High ROI in an environment that includes a variety of vendors and best of breed products within the overall platform
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ThoughtSpot
  • Positive ROI immediately seen for first POC.
  • Saved an immense amount of time for a sole analyst on a team by enabling the end-users to ask their own questions instead of always turning to her, allowing her to focus on other priorities.
  • Immediate answer to question on second POC that led to personnel changes.
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ScreenShots

ThoughtSpot Screenshots

Screenshot of ThoughtSpot home screenScreenshot of A Liveboard for drill downScreenshot of Live query, to connect to cloud data platformsScreenshot of Search to analyze and visualize dataScreenshot of A look at queries runScreenshot of Consuming insights on iOS app