# Page 4 | IBM Cognos Analytics Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 4 - Is IBM Cognos Analytics the right Reporting solution for you? Explore 137 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/240583/IBM-Cognos-Analytics/reviews --- IBM Cognos Analytics 4.2 (137) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/240583/IBM-Cognos-Analytics/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Page 4 - Reviews of IBM Cognos Analytics ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 76-100 of 137 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use DR Dawn R. Project Manager Machinery Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Cognos Review" December 8, 2016 4.0 I utilize Cognos for dashboard and custom reports and the ease of creating and storing reports is fairly simple. The organization of files is a bit confusing and the ability of seeing other employee folders tends to be complication for sharing. The availability to send out reports is much easier though. Pros The ability to create custom reports makes it user friendly for anyone to figure out Cons the cubes tend to be confusing for file storage Review Source TD Tena D. Director of Payroll and Benefits Philanthropy Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Reporting at its best" April 16, 2018 5.0 Pros I love that you can report off any field and get results. There are calculations and graphs and so many tools to create any type of report for any data. Cons I struggle with all the information and fields and calculations. I'm old school!! Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Head Of Analytics / Data Science, Professional Project Management + Internal Audit Banking Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Cognos Analytics - Not up to competitors!" February 2, 2019 3.0 Pros It comes installed with Cognos reporting. Cons A fraction of the functionality of all the other visualization tools. Review Source HA Halima A. BI & CRM Specialist Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: 2+ years ### "From 0 to expert in IBM Cognos 11+" March 21, 2018 4.0 Is not a good tool to start because it needs a previous needs. Pros Too many full features Very visual Off line optional download Customizable Program code similar to SQL The framework manager is the best diagraming tool for packages Cons The transformer software is not user friendly Slow learning Not life proof The LATAM partner is not efficient Review Source KP Kinjal P. Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "I am a BI developer" March 3, 2015 4.5 Pros I like its functionality and different features. I also like the ease of use. Cons Cognos's support sometimes is not as it should be. The support should be quick and accurate, and Cognos should have more error details to track down the solution. The majority of time, the error doesn't provide meaningful info, so it is always difficulty to track down the solution. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer B2B developer Computer Software Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "IBM Cognos Analytics Review" May 1, 2019 5.0 We are currently using it in our project for reporting purpose. Pros Its is a wonderful tool to make the reports.It has many functionalities and we can make different type of reports like PIE , BAR and many more. It has cool functionality, Good security features. we can connect to different types of databases. Cons Some times we were unable to save the reports.Rest all good. High pricing. Review Source MH Michael H. Consultant Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Great for FP&A work accross many users within the organization" November 15, 2016 4.0 Cognos was great for controlling the FP&A budget being used and having it update in real-time for a number of users to use. Could add ease of copying and pasting within to enhance the product. Pros Easy to use across an organization to keep things updated in real-time and organized. Cons System does run slow at times when multiple users are editing a number of workbooks or sheets within the workbook. Review Source RK Ratnakar K. SSE Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best BI tool" October 19, 2017 5.0 Pros Enterprise level BI implementation can be with less customizations. Can build robustic solution using product. Cons Most of small and medium size will not prefer this product because of the cost. Real time analytics will not be available. Review Source GN Girish N. Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Robust product with more options for customization. SDK should be free" February 24, 2015 4.5 Pros Customization and more options to tune performance improvements. Many ways to connect databases like FM. Direct datasource, usage of stored procedure, and usage of database trigger is good. Cons SDK has to be bought as separate package, whereas it should be given free. Review Source PC Paolo C. Ad Operations Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Not great, lots of delayed data" December 29, 2020 3.0 Would not recommend this to anyone in media/advertising as it is really difficult to work with as far as real time data. Pros Pretty basic and easy to use UI. Reporting metrics show lots of good data and information. Support for the product is sufficient Cons Always seemed to be a delay in getting data. IBM seems to really like to have lots of control over its "proprietary" metrics. Frustrating to work with. Review Source CC Chinna C. Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Cognos BI is best for large projects.. " February 18, 2016 4.0 Using Cognos ,We can develop diff types of reports.It is suitable for big projects and it have so many new features and products like Cognos BI,Cognos Express,Cognos Tm1 aand etc.. Pros It is suitable for Huge data projects. Cons Expensive and difficult to understand Review Source AP Ashley P. Comedian Entertainment Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Data at your fingertips" August 19, 2020 5.0 Overall I'm pretty happy with Cognos. It's a pretty phenominal tool for engineers and developers. Pros I like that Cognos is incredibly intuitive. I can easily navigate through the program to finish coding and changing anything I need. Cons I sometimes struggle with coordinating upgrades and running up against other software/products. Some of that though is me. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Big Data & Sr BI Developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "Cognos is quite good tool" May 2, 2017 5.0 Pros I like it because of its visualization, 3D graphs wich is not available in Tableau. With the help of Cognos, we have created a lot of dashboards. Cons I don't have any concern with Cognos. Thanks, Cognos, I really like the features of Cognos.... Thanks to being a such a nice tool Cognos team. Review Source NS Nazeer S. Application Developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "One of the best report generating tools" January 30, 2017 4.0 It is easy to generate reports. Customized dashboards can be created for quick and usage. On demand menus for access to full capabilities. Easy to use. It is a good product. Pros Easy to create report Review Source Aniket W. Associate Management Consulting Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Cognos Controller" November 1, 2018 4.0 Pros The user access review is easily performed in cognos application Cons The technical details are not very clear Review Source MM Mark M. Litigation Technology Paralegal Legal Services Used the software for: ### "Cognos Review" January 5, 2017 5.0 My prior firm switched from the other software to Cognos to leverage the data contained in our Pivotal database. This software was far easier to use to create reports on the fly. Pros I like the ability to create reports on the fly. Cons I do not have any dislikes other than the staged rollout of pieces of my prior firm's datamart. Review Source RD Ric D. Custom Interface Specialist Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "IBM Cognos Business Power" April 24, 2015 3.5 Pros This software is very flexible and extensive enough to meet almost any of your needs. The reporting engine allows for complex queries and views that far surpass standard reporting methods. Cons While I was not involved in the purchase of the software it is my understanding the cost was a little high and this is not designed for novice users. Review Source JJ Jeanette J. HR Specialist Philanthropy Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Review" January 18, 2017 5.0 Our agency has used cogging for two years and has found it to be very user-friendly. It has the capability of generating training certificates for our employees and has a wide variety of training available. We have found the price to be very reasonable for what our agency needed to a training site. We would recommend this product. Review Source sS stefanie S. Senior Director, Digital Automotive Marketing Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Good for quick and visual reporting" July 22, 2021 4.0 Pros Being able to quickly look up calls and sales related to campaign telephone numbers Cons The filtering doesn't always stick, which causes you to have to re-apply otherwise your reporting is inaccurate. this particularly happens with the copy/paste of TFNs Review Source TM Tony M. Vice President Primary/Secondary Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Business intelligence for the novice users. " September 19, 2016 4.0 Pros The flexibility of the product and scalability of the solution. Cons Enterprise offerings are a bit pricey. For SMBs it can be a difficult conversation to justify the costs. Review Source RFT RAPID FORCE T. IT Evangelist Computer Software Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "COGNOS review" November 14, 2016 5.0 Cognos has performed splendidly, met and went well past our expectations. We use it for modeling, budgets, and forecasts. We exist in a sector with a lot volatility, so being flexible is everything.The architecture of the application can be tiered nicely for performance. This allows us to scale the application to support our growing user base. Cognos' mobile features are mature and we do use that as well. Cons Expensive product comparatively with other latest BI products in the market and revolving around BIG DATA. Review Source CB Chaz B. Intern Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Complicated but powerful" March 7, 2018 4.0 Pros \-can pretty much do anything you need -backed by the mega corporation that is ibm -has unlimited configurations Cons Very complicated to understand/ huge learning curve Isn't able to accurately forecast how long it should take to run Review Source DC Deanna C. Accounting Coordinator Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Much easier to use than the other version we were on." October 10, 2018 4.0 Pros It is more picture oriented rather than words. It gives picture grids to choose from rather than a list. Cons Still have a lot to choose from which may also be a pro. The lists/categories can still be very challenging if you don't know what you are looking for. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Data Analyst Airlines/Aviation Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Cognos a useful report" January 25, 2019 5.0 Pros Report is made automatically, just need to drag and drop and filters are predefined based on the date, product you have, etc Cons Graphic design that I would like to be more interactive Review Source DS Dheeraj S. Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Cognos Experience" February 20, 2015 4.0 Pros I like the easy access, great UI, and several ways to interpret data. Cons It still needs to catch up with other advanced tools in this field. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Related categories [Business Intelligence](https://www.capterra.com/business-intelligence-software/)[Dashboard](https://www.capterra.com/dashboard-software/)[Reporting](https://www.capterra.com/reporting-software/)