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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SAP Crystal

    Score7.1 out of 10
    N/ASAP Crystal is an analytics and reporting software solution for SMBs. SAP Crystal comprises Crystal Reports for pixel-perfect reporting, and SAP Crystal Server for automated distribution and self-service access to reports, dashboards and data exploration.

    $295

    per single user license

    Visual Studio

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AVisual Studio (now in the 2022 edition) is a 64-bit IDE that makes it easier to work with bigger projects and complex workloads, boasting a fluid and responsive experience for users. The IDE features IntelliCode, its automatic code completion tools that understand code context and that can complete up to a whole line at once to drive accurate and confident coding.

    $45

    per month

    Pricing
    SAP CrystalVisual Studio
    Editions & Modules
    Upgrade Version to SAP Crystal Reports 2020
    $295
    per single user license
    SAP Crystal Reports 2020 64-Bit
    $495
    per single user license
    SAP Crystal Reports 2016 32-Bit
    $495
    per single user license
    SAP Crystal Server 2020 1 NUL
    $869
    per user license + first year maintenance to be added
    SAP Crystal Server 2020 5 CAL
    $8,744
    5 concurrent users + first year maintenance to be added
    Professional
    $45.00
    per month
    Enterprise
    $250.00
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SAP CrystalVisual Studio
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details* SAP Crystal Reports 2020 Viewer allows you to view static data within a SAP Crystal Reports file. * SAP Crystal Reports 2020 - Full version allows you to create powerful, richly formatted, and dynamic reports from virtually any data source, delivered in dozens of formats, in up to 28 languages. If you already have an older version of Crystal Reports, buy a license for SAP Crystal Reports 2020 - Upgrade at a discounted, upgrade price. * SAP Crystal Server 2020, 1 NUL includes 1 license of: SAP Crystal Reports 2020 - SAP Crystal Server 2020. * As an add-on to SAP Crystal Server 2020 1 NUL, SAP Crystal Server 2020 5 CAL allows you to support a wider, intermittent audience of end users, up to five logged on at the same time.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SAP CrystalVisual Studio
    Considered Both Products
    SAP
    Chose SAP Crystal
    We develop our desktop applications in Visual Studio IDE, we use SQL Server as a database engine, and the reports are managed by SAP Crystal since it does not limit us when it comes to displaying data. It supports all kinds of information from images and graphics.
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP Crystal
    As I stated in the previous question, the SQL Server reporting engine provides necessary scheduling services to allow for employee self-service. It also supports granular security, based upon active directory, to control who can see which report. SAP Crystal is still superior …
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP Crystal
    Crystal Report is more complete, much more compatible and widely used, using a different alternative to crystal is not considered, Crystal has a large online community with a lot of information ideal to clear up doubts and typical problems. I can use crystal in any system (ide) …
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP Crystal
    • R&R, SSRS, Oracle OBIEE, Power BI, Cognos, ...
    • Crystal has overtaken R&R many years ago (similar to how Excel overtook Lotus 1-2-3).
    • The rest seem either less agile, more expensive, and in many important ways less powerful.
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP Crystal
    They are really two different beasts, Crystal Reports in its stand-alone form is meant for desktop reporting, although the same report can be pushed up to the web or to the enterprise with SAP's more expensive products. As far as I know, Cognos starts at the enterprise level …
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP Crystal
    Well I've been using Crystal for many many years and to be honest I'm just more comfortable with it. Crystal has been around since the FoxPro days and has continued to evolve as technology has. It worked with FoxPro, then Visual Basic 6 and now C# and VB.Net. It has been …
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP Crystal
    Crystal Reports has been established longer and has a larger user base with more comprehensive support materials. It supports a wide range of data sources and different scenarios. We have had little need to switch to a different reporting tool since we adopted it.
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP Crystal
    I have not tried Telerik first hand. I am concerned with the longevity and support of the product.
    SSRS is good, but it does not offer the same level of formatting options as Crystal Reports. SSRS does provide a nice report management interface and it is really easy to share …
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP Crystal
    The user interface is much simpler in SSRS, but SSRS also lacks a lot of the features that Crystal Reports has. So it is somewhat of a tradeoff. The fact that Crystal Reports saves reports as binary files is somewhat of a hindrance, but we ultimately chose it because it is more …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    Chose Visual Studio
    Compared with Delphi it is night and day, but that is perhaps because my experience was coming from a Microsoft coding environment to having to setup a development machine for Delphi coding.

    What made the alternative such a difficult process was having to download and install …
    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    Visual Studio can do what all of these alternatives can do and does them well. PowerApps is RAD and you just can't tweak apps like you can in Visual Studio. Xamarin is now supported in Visual Studio and IntelliJ is javascript which you can create inside of Visual Studio. Would …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    91%
    Would buy again
    10 Answers
    98%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    10 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    11 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    41 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    32 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    90%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    36 Answers
    Features
    SAP CrystalVisual Studio
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of SAP Crystal and Microsoft Visual Studio
    Feature
    SAP Crystal
    7.7
    124 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Microsoft Visual Studio
    -
    Ratings
    Pixel Perfect reports8.0113 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards6.7100 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates8.4117 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of SAP Crystal and Microsoft Visual Studio
    Feature
    SAP Crystal
    8.3
    136 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Microsoft Visual Studio
    -
    Ratings
    Drill-down analysis9.0117 Ratings00 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.8135 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages6.964 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.6120 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of SAP Crystal and Microsoft Visual Studio
    Feature
    SAP Crystal
    8.7
    136 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Microsoft Visual Studio
    -
    Ratings
    Publish to Web9.191 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publish to PDF9.4133 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Versioning7.994 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.997 Ratings00 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers8.454 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of SAP Crystal and Microsoft Visual Studio
    Feature
    SAP Crystal
    7.6
    89 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Microsoft Visual Studio
    -
    Ratings
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.650 Ratings00 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.576 Ratings00 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics7.841 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of SAP Crystal and Microsoft Visual Studio
    Feature
    SAP Crystal
    8.5
    88 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Microsoft Visual Studio
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-User Support (named login)8.481 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model8.480 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.480 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control8.43 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)8.940 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of SAP Crystal and Microsoft Visual Studio
    Feature
    SAP Crystal
    6.6
    65 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Microsoft Visual Studio
    -
    Ratings
    Responsive Design for Web Access6.163 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Application5.946 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.060 Ratings00 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of SAP Crystal and Microsoft Visual Studio
    Feature
    SAP Crystal
    7.8
    45 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Microsoft Visual Studio
    -
    Ratings
    REST API7.48 Ratings00 Ratings
    Javascript API8.437 Ratings00 Ratings
    iFrames7.18 Ratings00 Ratings
    Java API8.437 Ratings00 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)7.439 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.433 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SAP CrystalVisual Studio
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    IntelliJ IDEA
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    PyCharm
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Sisense
    Score6.9 out of 10
    WebStorm
    Score9.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SAP CrystalVisual Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.7
    (159 ratings)
    9.1
    (118 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (19 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    7.1
    (31 ratings)
    9.2
    (15 ratings)
    Availability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.6
    (21 ratings)
    8.8
    (15 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.8
    (14 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.8
    (124 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sources
    9.2
    (129 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SAP CrystalVisual Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    SAP
    Generation of templated reports is the strong suit of SAP Crystal. Allows users to change formats in templates bases on requirement with minimal effort. Automated report delivery requires the user to be aware of sql which cannot be expected from all users. Should support more document export formats and improve the UI for SAP B1 Users
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    When working with base C# code for desktop and web projects, then Microsoft Visual Studio is ideal as it provides the libraries and interfaces needed to quickly create, test and deploy solutions. It is when slightly more complex scenarios are required that issues can arise. The built-in integration for things like PowerBI Paginated Reports and dashboards is far from ideal.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    SAP
    • Crystal Reports allows us to create a consistent template for all of our reports.
    • Crystal Reports and Server allows us to house a repository for all of our reports to make them easy to find and update when necessary.
    • Crystal Reports can connect to a wide variety of data sources.
    • Crystal Reports can be a little daunting when first implementing. There are a lot of nuances in learning how to truly master this software and it can be frustrating at times.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • I like how the tabs and panels are organized; everything is gathered together so you can find what you're looking for quickly.
    • If you can't find something, there's a thorough search engine that searches all of Visual Studio's features.
    • The Team Foundation Server feature is fantastic since it allows us to easily deploy and roll back changes on the server.
    Read full review
    Cons
    SAP
    • The export of reports to Excel is very cumbersome and the results are difficult to format.
    • The design of reports and the graphical features (e.g. charts) feel quite rigid.
    • The learning curve for a non-programmer is incredibly steep, making Crystal a specialty tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Would be great if there was a better way to save and restore open tabs.
    • The built-in test runner can be improved, for example, by adding the ability to save a set of commonly run tests, etc.
    • Better integration for Microsoft SQL server would be great.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    SAP
    We have been using this product for so many years and it has truly become a cornerstone to our business processes when it comes to developing and distributing information via reports. We currently have over 500 reports developed to date over about 30 systems and that will continue to grow as user needs change.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    VS is the best and is required for building Microsoft applications. The quality and usefulness of the product far out-weight the licensing costs associated with it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    SAP
    Crystal is very robust, but not always easy to use. It create wonderful looking reports, and so deserves a high rating. However, I have to take a couple of points off for the simple fact that I cannot hand it to a user and expect them to be able to do development with it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I love the overall usability of Microsoft Visual Studio. I’ve been using this IDE for more than 20 years, and I’ve seen it evolve by leaps and bounds. Today, with AI and code-suggestion/completion features, developers no longer need to remember countless libraries, methods, or language syntax, or invest a huge amount of programming effort to complete a project. It truly offers everything a developer needs to program, debug, test, and deploy in a single IDE.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    SAP
    The support community can be difficult to navigate. I've also run into issues with my login. The SAP system has a bizarre mechanism for validating users that requires users to have what is called an S-ID. A basic ID may not give you access to all the features in the portal. The limitation may include not being able to perform a simple task like downloading patches and updates. This isn't a big deal for single user license but for teams it can be a pain.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    There are many resources available supporting Visual Studio IDE. Microsoft whitepapers, forum posts, and online Visual Studio documentation. There are countless demonstration videos available, as well. If users are having issues, they can call Microsoft Support, but depending on the company's agreement with Microsoft, the number of included support calls will vary from organization to organization. I've found that Microsoft support calls can be hit or miss depending on who you get, but they can usually get you with the right support person for your issue.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    SAP
    Trainer was patient and thorough in going through the basics and willing to answer questions by email after the initial training
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    IT is very complicated to understand all the functions that the environment has if you are not familiar with this type of development environments. It is important to select a good in-person training to achieve to understand all the possibilities and the capacity of the application. In this case, you will be able to develop a lot type of different applications.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    SAP
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    If you are not accustomed to develop in this type of development environments it would be complicated to follow all the parts of the course because if the course does not include a great tour with all the concepts to develop you will not have the option to understand all the functions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    SAP
    Just like any other implementation: When designing the differing reports, get end users' input, make sure to design the reports so that they display the information that the company requires, in the best and clearest way possible.
    Test, test, test, revise when needed, and, particularly, do sufficient training so users are comfortable using Crystal Reports!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    SAP
    Crystal reports is useful in case we want to import data from data base . We can write queries in it but Google Charts require to be implemented in our application using code so crystal reports is better than Google Charts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I personally feel Visual Studio IDE has [a] better interface and [is more] user friendly than other IDEs. It has better code maintainability and intellisense. Its inbuilt team foundation server help coders to check on their code then and go. Better nugget package management, quality testing and gives features to extract TRX file as result of testing which includes all the summary of each test case.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    SAP
    • It is a decent buy for specific departments in terms of reporting capabilities but updates and cost (frequent) demands are higher with the benefits offered.
    • So long as the requirements are not ever changing, with scheduling functionality, it's a handsome tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Using the integration between Visual Studio and our source control service, the cost of re-work and losing code is drastically reduced.
    • Paid versions of Visual Studio enable developers to be so much more productive than hacked-together open source solutions that it's hard to imagine developing in Windows without it.
    • When combined with support subscriptions and the vast array of free online help options available, Visual Studio saves our developers time by keeping them coding and testing, not wasting their time trying to guess their way out of problems or spend endless hours online hoping to find answers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SAP Crystal Screenshots

    Screenshot of Pixel-perfect reporting solutionScreenshot of Refresh with a clickScreenshot of Build pixel-perfect documentsScreenshot of Connect to all data sourcesScreenshot of Use drag and dropScreenshot of Build interactive reports