IBM Cognos Analytics vs. Spotfire

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
Spotfire
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Spotfire® is a data visualization platform that utilizes predictive analytics. In addition to data viz, it includes data wrangling capabilities, predictive analytics, location analytics, and real-time streaming analytics. Spotfire® is a business unit of Cloud Software Group, formerly known as TIBCO Spotfire.
$0.99
Per Hour (Starting)
Pricing
IBM Cognos AnalyticsSpotfire
Editions & Modules
On Demand - Standard
$10.00
per month per user
On Demand - Premium
$40.00
per month per user
TIBCO Spotfire for Amazon Web Services
$0.99
Per Hour (Starting)
TIBCO Cloud Spotfire - Consumer
$250/yr
per seat
TIBCO Cloud Spotfire - Business Author
$650/yr
per seat
TIBCO Cloud Spotfire - Analyst
$1250/yr
per seat
TIBCO Spotfire Platform
Please contact TIBCO sales
TIBCO Spotfire Cloud Enterprise
Please contact TIBCO sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM Cognos AnalyticsSpotfire
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsFor Enterprise engagements, please contact TIBCO directly for a custom price quote.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM Cognos AnalyticsSpotfire
Considered Both Products
IBM Cognos Analytics
Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
We actually selected Cognos, but had to switch to another BI tool due to cost reasons.
Spotfire
Chose Spotfire
Spotfire is easier to use and a report can be created in a lot less time. While there are quite a bit more formatting and visualizations available in Cognos it takes more mastery of the tool and time to create a custom report.
Chose Spotfire
IBM Cognos plays a bigger role at our company and Spotfire is still catching up to it in terms of automation, security, etc.
Chose Spotfire
This tool was selected in my organization around 10 years back. It was suggested to be one of the best and it proved to be. My users are also satisfied with the performance of the tool, but we had some setbacks with SharePoint online and the Azure SQL database. Hopefully, if …
Chose Spotfire
As someone who has knowledge of various coding languages, Spotfire is amazing because I can create anything without having to worry about UI or other limitations, however other tools have a much better self service strategy as it is much easier for non technical users to create …
Chose Spotfire
Compared to Cognos the Spotfire platform is much faster in every way. This is my my personal experience.
Chose Spotfire
  • Enterprise functionality
  • R engine
  • Speed and reliability
Chose Spotfire
None, I do not have much experience with other software. In my company Spotfire was used to replace IBM Cognos. But I have no idea which one is better. My experience with Spotfire is good. I like it but I can not compare it with other software.
Chose Spotfire
It was my organization's decision.
Chose Spotfire
We evaluated on Mobility, Dashboarding, Web Based User Interface and Analytical capability. At the forefront was the user experience which accounted for just over half of our evaluation criteria. No platform was a 10/10 in all four categories - SAS Visual Analytics excelled in …
Chose Spotfire
We have tried IBM's Cognos and it was too much and too difficult for what we wanted. We also tried Tableau and although we did like the visual capabilities, it did not seem to give as much in-depth "meat on the bone" as Spotfire did. Ultimately Spotfire was the perfect …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
IBM Cognos AnalyticsSpotfire
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.9
103 Ratings
4% below category average
Spotfire
8.3
299 Ratings
1% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.594 Ratings8.030 Ratings
Customizable dashboards7.8101 Ratings9.1294 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.498 Ratings7.9258 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.1
105 Ratings
0% below category average
Spotfire
8.2
311 Ratings
1% above category average
Drill-down analysis8.1103 Ratings8.3289 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.1104 Ratings7.8302 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.873 Ratings8.3224 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.4101 Ratings8.5274 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.3
105 Ratings
1% below category average
Spotfire
8.3
283 Ratings
1% below category average
Publish to Web8.327 Ratings8.2228 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.799 Ratings8.6267 Ratings
Report Versioning8.626 Ratings8.018 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.0102 Ratings8.4178 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.112 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.1
95 Ratings
0% above category average
Spotfire
8.2
310 Ratings
1% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.090 Ratings8.7306 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.287 Ratings8.4271 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.183 Ratings8.1234 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining8.022 Ratings7.68 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.3
100 Ratings
4% below category average
Spotfire
8.1
250 Ratings
6% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.497 Ratings8.7241 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.396 Ratings8.5206 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.296 Ratings7.8228 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.425 Ratings7.48 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.378 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.3
83 Ratings
9% below category average
Spotfire
7.3
189 Ratings
9% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access7.977 Ratings7.9177 Ratings
Mobile Application7.368 Ratings7.6126 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.174 Ratings7.5148 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
62 Ratings
5% below category average
Spotfire
8.3
89 Ratings
5% above category average
REST API7.359 Ratings8.371 Ratings
Javascript API7.658 Ratings8.370 Ratings
iFrames8.39 Ratings8.454 Ratings
Java API6.911 Ratings8.257 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.110 Ratings8.269 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)7.87 Ratings8.560 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM Cognos AnalyticsSpotfire
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM Cognos AnalyticsSpotfire
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(128 ratings)
8.6
(335 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(27 ratings)
8.3
(29 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(8 ratings)
8.0
(27 ratings)
Availability
8.6
(4 ratings)
9.0
(14 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(5 ratings)
7.1
(14 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(8 ratings)
8.7
(27 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
7.3
(52 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(4 ratings)
8.8
(55 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(7 ratings)
8.0
(17 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(2 ratings)
7.1
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.3
(3 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.3
(3 ratings)
7.0
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(1 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.0
(1 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM Cognos AnalyticsSpotfire
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
Spotfire
A high level of data integration is available here it supports various data sources and so on. Collaborating features allow users to give access to the dashboard and merge data analytics with other team members. It can meet the demands of both small and large size business enterprises. A customized dashboard and reports are provided to meet the specific needs and get support of extensibility through APIs and customized scripts.
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
Spotfire
  • It has the best coding integration (python, R) of any BI product
  • The ability to work with very large datasets (10 mil+) is better than competitors
  • Export options are more complete and have better functionality
  • The data canvas is the best tool to join and transform data vs. competitors
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
Spotfire
  • The donut chart is I guess a powerful illustrations but I hope it should be done quite simple in Spotfire. But in Spotfire there are lots of steps involve just to build a simple donut chart.
  • Table calculation (like Row or Column Differences) should be made simple or there should be drag and drop function for Table Calculation. No need for scripting.
  • Information Link should be changed. If new columns are added to the table just refreshing the data should be able to capture the new column. No need extra step to add column
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
Spotfire
-Easy to distribute information throughout the enterprise using the webplayer. -Ad hoc analysis is possible throughout the enterprise using business author in the webplayer or the thick client. -Low level of support needed by IT team. Access interfaces with LDAP and numerous other authentication methods. -Possible to continually extend the platform with JavaScript, R scripts, HTML, and custom extensions. -Ability to standardize data logic through pre-built queries in the Information Designer. Everyone in the enterprise is using the same logic -Tagging and bookmarking data allows for quick sharing of insights. -Integration with numerous data sources... flat files, data bases, big data, images, etc. -Much improved mapping capability. Also includes the ability to apply data points over any image.
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
Spotfire
Basic tasks like generating meaningful information from large sets of raw data are very easy. The next step of linking to multiple live data sources and linking those tables and performing on the fly analysis of the imported data is understandably more difficult.
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
Spotfire
Even though, it's a rather stable and predictable tool that's also fast, it does have some bugs and inconsistencies that shut down the system. Depending on the details, it could happen as often as 2-3 times a week, especially during the development period.
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
Spotfire
Generally, the Spotfire client runs with very good performance. There are factors that could affect performance, but normally has to do with loading large analysis files from the library if the database is located some distance away and your global network is not optimal. Once you have your data table(s) loaded in the client application, usually the application is quite good performance-wise.
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.
Read full review
Spotfire
Support has been helpful with issues. Support seems to know their product and its capabilities. It would also seem that they have a good sense of the context of the problem; where we are going with this issue and what we want the end outcome to be.
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
Spotfire
The instructor was very in depth and provided relevant training to business users on how to create visualizations. They showed us how to alter settings and filter views, and provided resources for future questions. However, the instructor failed to cover data sources, connecting to data, etc. While it was helpful to see how users can use the data to create reports, they failed to properly instruct us on how to get the dataset in to begin with. We are still trying to figure out connections to certain databases (we have multiple different types).
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
Spotfire
The online training is good, provides a good base of knowledge. The video demonstrations were well-done and easy to follow along. Provided exercises are good as well, but I think there could be more challenging exercises. The training has also gone up in price significantly in the last 3 years (in USD, which hurts us even more in Canada), and I'm not sure it is worth the money it now costs (it is worth how much it cost 3 years ago, but not double that.)
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
Spotfire
The original architecture I created for our implementation had only a particular set of internal business units in mind. Over the years, Spotfire gained in popularity in our company and was being utilized across many more business units. Soon, its usage went beyond what the original architectural implementation could provide. We've since learned about how the product is used by the different teams and are currently in the middle of rolling out a new architecture. I suggest:
  • Have clearly defined service level agreements with all the teams that will use Spotfire. Your business intelligence group might only need availability during normal working hours, but your production support group might need 24/7 availability. If these groups share one Spotfire server, maintenance of that server might be a problem.
  • Know the different types of data you will be working with. One group might be working with "public" data while another group might work with sensitive data. Design your Library accordingly and with the proper permissions.
  • Know the roles of the users of Spotfire. Will there only be a small set of report writers or does everyone have write access to the Library?
  • ALWAYS add a timestamp prompt to your reports. You don't want multiple users opening a report that will try and pull down millions of rows of data to their local workstations. Another option, of course, is to just hard code a time range in the backing database view (i.e. where activity_date >= sysdate - 90, etc.), but I'd rather educate/train the user base if possible.
  • This probably goes without saying, but if possible, point to a separate reporting database or a logical standby database. You don't want the company pounding on your primaries and take down your order system.
Read full review
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
Spotfire
Spotfire is significantly ahead of both products from an ETL and data ingestion capability. Spotfire also has substantially better visualizations than Power BI, and although the native visualizations aren't as flexible in Tableau, Spotfire enables users to create completely custom javascript visaualizations, which neither Tableau or Power BI has. Tableau and Power BI are likely only superior to Spotfire with respect to embedded analysis on a website.
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
Spotfire
In an enterprise architecture, if Spotfire Advanced Data services(Composite Studio),data marts can be managed optimally and scalability in a data perspective is great. As the web player/consumer is directly proportional to RAM, if the enterprise can handle RAM requirement accomodating fail over mechanisms appropraitely, it is definitely scalable,
Read full review
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
Read full review
Spotfire
  • It is costly, so not suitable for small scale implementations.
  • Dashboards are as good as the developer, so need experience to get most out of it
  • You need to be on Spotfire 11 at least to implement out of the box visualizations
  • Integration with Python and R is a game changer, it comes very handy to onboard data scientists without much hassle
  • performance is exceptionally well.
  • Secure
Read full review
ScreenShots

Spotfire Screenshots

Screenshot of Smart Visual AnalyticsScreenshot of Geospatial AnalyticsScreenshot of Intelligent Data WranglingScreenshot of Point-and-click Data ScienceScreenshot of Real-time Streaming Analytics