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Business Intelligence · head to head

IBM Cognos Analytics vs IBM Maximo Application Suite

IBM Cognos Analytics logo

IBM Cognos Analytics

Business Intelligence

AI-powered business intelligence

From
$15/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
IBM Maximo Application Suite logo

IBM Maximo Application Suite

Manufacturing

Enterprise asset management suite licensed by a shared pool of AppPoints rather than by named user

From
$3150/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: IBM Cognos Analytics listed on UK G-Cloud at £42.53 per user per month for IBM Cognos Analytics, via reseller Computacenter; IBM Maximo Application Suite appPoints are consumed by users, applications and environments at once, so a routine decision like adding a test environment or enabling Health quietly eats pool capacity and can trigger a true-up nobody budgeted for.
  • They diverge on capability: IBM Cognos Analytics covers AI Assistant, IBM Maximo Application Suite covers AppPoint pooling.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM Maximo Application Suite actually diverge.

Attributes where IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM Maximo Application Suite differ
AttributeIBM Cognos AnalyticsIBM Maximo Application Suite
Starting price$15/month$3150/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer year by AppPoint pool
PlatformsWeb, Desktop, Mobile, CloudWeb, Cloud, On-premise, iOS, Android, Linux
CategoryBusiness IntelligenceManufacturing
Founded1911Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in IBM Cognos Analytics

  • AI Assistant
  • Natural Language Queries
  • Automated Insights
  • Story Telling
  • Mobile Analytics
  • IBM Db2
  • Oracle
  • SQL Server

Only in IBM Maximo Application Suite

  • AppPoint pooling
  • Maximo Manage
  • Maximo Health and Predict
  • Maximo Visual Inspection
  • Industry solutions
  • OpenShift deployment

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

IBM Cognos Analytics

  • Self-service analyticsnot IBM Maximo Application Suite
  • Data explorationnot IBM Maximo Application Suite
  • Ad-hoc reportingnot IBM Maximo Application Suite
  • Collaborative analysisnot IBM Maximo Application Suite
  • Embedded analyticsnot IBM Maximo Application Suite

IBM Maximo Application Suite

  • A transmission utility managing hundreds of thousands of linear and point assets with regulatory reporting that a mid-market CMMS cannot producenot IBM Cognos Analytics
  • An airline or rail operator needing configuration control and maintenance history depth that survives a regulator audit going back yearsnot IBM Cognos Analytics
  • A manufacturer wanting condition-based maintenance and work order execution in the same system rather than integrating a predictive tool to a separate CMMSnot IBM Cognos Analytics
  • A defence or nuclear estate where the industry solution and long-term vendor viability matter more than the licence costnot IBM Cognos Analytics

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

IBM Cognos Analytics

  • Listed on UK G-Cloud at £42.53 per user per month for IBM Cognos Analytics, via reseller Computacenter

IBM Maximo Application Suite

  • AppPoints are consumed by users, applications and environments at once, so a routine decision like adding a test environment or enabling Health quietly eats pool capacity and can trigger a true-up nobody budgeted for.
  • Pools are commonly sized from headcount rather than concurrency and application mix, and licence reviews frequently find them over-provisioned by a large margin, meaning organisations pay for entitlement they never consume.
  • Implementation, data migration, customisation and integrator fees routinely cost two to three times the first-year licence, so a business case built on the subscription figure will be materially wrong.
  • MAS requires Red Hat OpenShift, which for a customer-hosted deployment adds a container platform, its licensing and the specialist administration skills to run it, none of which the previous standalone Maximo needed.
  • Maximo is deep and slow to change; configuration is a specialist skill, upgrades are projects rather than updates, and organisations without a dedicated Maximo team end up permanently dependent on an implementation partner.

Pricing, plan by plan

IBM Cognos Analytics

$15/month
  • Standard$15/month
    • Dashboards
    • Reporting
    • AI Insights
  • Plus$35/month
    • Advanced Analytics
    • Planning
    • Premium Support

IBM Maximo Application Suite

$3150/month
  • Essentials (SaaS)$3150/month
    • Entry SaaS tier for a small user population
    • One production environment
    • Core Manage functionality
  • Standard (SaaS)$undefined/month
    • Larger AppPoint pool
    • Additional applications and environments
    • Priced on application
  • Premium (SaaS)$undefined/month
    • Full application set including Predict and Visual Inspection
    • Multiple environments
    • Priced on application
  • Customer hosted$undefined/year
    • AppPoint entitlement bought outright and run on your own OpenShift cluster
    • Infrastructure, OpenShift and administration costs are yours
    • Annual support and subscription contract required

Which should you pick?

Choose IBM Cognos Analytics if

  • You need ai assistant.
  • You work on Web, Desktop, Mobile, Cloud.
  • You also want natural language queries.
IBM Cognos Analytics review

Choose IBM Maximo Application Suite if

  • You need apppoint pooling.
  • You work on Web, Cloud, On-premise, iOS, Android, Linux.
  • You also want maximo manage.
IBM Maximo Application Suite review

Questions people ask

Is IBM Cognos Analytics or IBM Maximo Application Suite better?
Neither clearly leads. IBM Cognos Analytics starts at $15/month and IBM Maximo Application Suite at $3150/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, IBM Cognos Analytics or IBM Maximo Application Suite?
IBM Cognos Analytics starts at $15/month and IBM Maximo Application Suite at $3150/month.
Does IBM Cognos Analytics or IBM Maximo Application Suite run on more platforms?
IBM Cognos Analytics runs on Web, Desktop, Mobile, Cloud. IBM Maximo Application Suite runs on Web, Cloud, On-premise, iOS, Android, Linux.
What is IBM Cognos Analytics best used for?
IBM Cognos Analytics is most often used for self-service analytics, data exploration, ad-hoc reporting, collaborative analysis. Of those, self-service analytics and data exploration are not what IBM Maximo Application Suite is typically brought in for.
What can IBM Cognos Analytics do that IBM Maximo Application Suite cannot?
IBM Cognos Analytics covers AI Assistant, Natural Language Queries, Automated Insights, Story Telling. IBM Maximo Application Suite covers AppPoint pooling, Maximo Manage, Maximo Health and Predict, Maximo Visual Inspection.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

IBM Maximo Application Suite: Is Maximo still sold per user?

No. The Maximo Application Suite licenses a shared AppPoint pool consumed by users, applications and environments. Per-seat Maximo is the old model.

IBM Maximo Application Suite: What does the entry SaaS tier cost?

The Essentials package starts around $3,150 per month for a small user population and one production environment. Larger tiers are quoted.

IBM Maximo Application Suite: Do non-production environments cost AppPoints?

Yes. Development, test and training environments draw from the same pool, which is the most common sizing surprise.

IBM Maximo Application Suite: Can I run MAS without OpenShift?

No. OpenShift is the deployment platform whether you host it yourself or consume MAS as a service from IBM.

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