--- title: SAP Crystal Reports Reviews meta_title: 'SAP Crystal Reports Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 210 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how SAP Crystal Reports works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.2 review_count: 210 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-04' parent_category: name: Business Intelligence url: https://www.g2.com/categories/business-intelligence --- # SAP Crystal Reports Reviews **Vendor:** SAP **Category:** [Data Visualization Tools](https://www.g2.com/categories/data-visualization-tools) **Average Rating:** 4.2/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 210 ## About SAP Crystal Reports SAP Crystal Reports software is the worldwide de facto standard in desktop reporting. With SAP Crystal Reports, you can create powerful, richly formatted, dynamic reports from virtually any data source – delivered in dozens of formats, in up to 24 languages. A robust production reporting tool, SAP Crystal Reports turns almost any data source into interactive, actionable information that can be accessed offline or online, from applications, portals and mobile devices. SAP Crystal Server enables self-service access to reports, dashboards, and data exploration within a secure infrastructure. ## SAP Crystal Reports Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **endless data visualization capabilities** of SAP Crystal Reports, appreciating its vast options and integrations. (1 reviews) - Users find SAP Crystal Reports to have **ease of use** for basic reporting, despite challenges with complex report creation. (1 reviews) - Users value the **easy integrations** of SAP Crystal Reports across multiple databases, enhancing their reporting capabilities. (1 reviews) - Users appreciate the **endless capabilities** of SAP Crystal Reports, enjoying numerous options and integrations for reporting. (1 reviews) - Users enjoy the **intuitive reporting process** of SAP Crystal Reports, appreciating its versatility across multiple databases. (1 reviews) - Users value the **friendly GUI** of SAP Crystal Reports, enabling clear and interactive report visualizations effortlessly. (1 reviews) - Visualization (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users face **compatibility issues** with SAP Crystal Reports, especially regarding version requirements and limited OS support. (1 reviews) - Users find the **learning curve steep** , requiring additional training to effectively use SAP Crystal Reports. (1 reviews) - Users find SAP Crystal Reports to have a **learning difficulty** that necessitates additional training for proficiency. (1 reviews) - Users find the **limited customization** in SAP Crystal Reports restricts their ability to modify and enhance reports effectively. (1 reviews) - Users find the **limited options** in SAP Crystal Reports restrict customization, affecting report modification and interactivity. (1 reviews) - Users are frustrated by **performance issues** , finding limited interactivity hampers customization and detailed report editing. (1 reviews) - Users highlight **poor customer support** , with inadequate training and high costs impacting their overall experience with SAP Crystal Reports. (1 reviews) - Users criticize the **poor visualization** capabilities of SAP Crystal Reports, impacting their ability to effectively analyze data. (1 reviews) - Pricing Issues (1 reviews) ## SAP Crystal Reports Reviews ### 1. Very Easy to use, from basic reports to the more complex **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Online Media | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 13, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Its ability to create great reports from a vast range of data sources, makes this a very good and easy way to create meaningful reports. You do not need to be a developer to create any reports making it easy for any one to use, it is also great for creating dashboards and complex reports containing sub-reports. Crystal Reports has managed to create every report I have tried to do without having to resort to using 3rd party reporting tools, making it easier to maintain report projects. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** User Interface can be bit slow at times. I have found debugging complex reports to be difficult. Some additional functions and improvements have made Crystal Reports more difficult to use and learn. Crystal seems a bit too over complicated for simple reports and maybe other software would be better suited. Deploying reports requires you to install the runtime version of the software for it to work which can become a bit cumbersome, and should be made simpler. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** This is a great, intuitive way to create quick and complex reports. Give the 30 day trial a go to see its potential. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** To provide meaningful management reports from various data sources and combing the results, allowing users to choose how they want the report to be displayed after the results have been collated, Crystal Reports has provided us with a great tool for this. ### 2. Very nice sampling of what to expect. **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** William C. | Coordinator, Institutional Research & Effectiveness, Research, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 05, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** I enjoyed the accessibility of the trial - just enough was provided to understand what was to be expected. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** There was nothing that comes to mind concerning what I disliked. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Make sure the training that you are interested in purchasing will teach you what is it exactly you need to know. Some training that can be accessed online only covers certain topics that might not give you the training you truly need, or the type of training your employer expects you to receive. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I would be solving the shortage of individuals able to create new and modify existing crystal reports. I realize that having more than one person on our campus with this skill set is a true benefit to my department and the college in general. ### 3. Great Value, Fantastic Usability **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Katalin S. | Donor Relations & Communications Manager, Non-Profit Organization Management, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 13, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** I believe that SAP Crystal Reports is very well suited to any organization that currently has a relatively un-customizable CRM system. If you take the time to input data, you should be able to export it into a usable, user-friendly format. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** When creating very complex reports, the processing time can sometimes be very slow. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Make sure that your data is clean enough to use CR effectively. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** With a relatively uncustomizable CRM, Crystal Reports has been invaluable for me. I'm able to create more customized, usable reports for members of our staff - from finance to complex donor reports. Crystal Reports has allowed me to balance a need for organized, customizable reporting with our inability to upgrade to a custom-built CRM. ### 4. First time user of Crystal Reports **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jenny F. | Accountant, Machinery, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 27, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The program is intuitive for any competent computer user, and allows us to manipulate database reports in-house instead of having to contract out. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** It can be cumbersome to re-size multiple fields in order or rearrange a report **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Take a video training course to start off with, then jump in - you can always change items you are unhappy with or get more assistance online if you get stuck **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our database came with certain pre-loaded reports, but not precisely what we needed. Crystal allows us to create our own reports to get only the information we actually need. ### 5. Crystal Reports 2008, capable but not the leader any more **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** James C. | Systems Analyst, Government Administration, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Very easy to use in general, learning curve is not too steep, can generally produce reports fairly quickly **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Quite expensive compared to some competing products, support is not very good and overly complicated to interact with. Not as capable or versatile as some competing products. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** There are many Business Intelligence applications available. I don't feel SAP is keeping up with its competitors. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Getting users the information they need in a timely manner. ### 6. Instructor was extremely knowledgeable and very helpful **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 16, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Crystal Reports allows me to automate certain aspects of my work. Having a simple mechanism to share data and knowing that my end users can access it without issue is a huge time saver. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Some of crystal reports functions are not intuitive and certain aspects of the user-interface could use improvement. You'll find you spend a lot of report building time fixing and readjusting minor layout and formatting things that should be automatic. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** The is an excellent course if you are a beginner and want to learn the ins and outs of Crystal Reports. I felt extremely comfortable using the program post-training. Within a few says you'll be building real reports using your own data. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I work as a Data Scientist for my company and create both internal and customer facing reports. Crystal reports allows me to automate the reporting aspects of my work, leaving me time to explore other facets of the business. ### 7. Very Intuitive Software Product **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Government Administration | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The best feature of the Crystal Reports is the ability to export reports in multiple formats (.rpt, .pdf, etc.). Additionally, the development of custom reports is incredibly simple. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** When I need to run a custom report through the crystal report software it is a little weird that I must click the refresh button. I feel like there should be a more obvious way to make this happen, but it could also be that the custom report that I was provided with was poorly made. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** I took a brief 8 hour course on using Crystal Reports from my database vendor. I would recommend at least a brief formal training before attempting to use the software for the first time. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I run a 9-1-1/dispatch center. Crystal reports allow me to pull information from our SQL database. In the most recent instance it allowed me to create reports for the chat logs that happen between dispatchers and police officers. ### 8. CR initial review. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Frank A. | Owner, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** I like that CR is a full featured report designer that you can use outside of established or legacy software systems. It allows the user to link into their databases and create reports without having to ask software companies to add reports into existing programs. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Not really a dislike but it can be confusing to a non technical person. There has to be a certain comfort level with databases to write complex relational reports. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am a software developer and the ability to use CR has opened up new opportunities to help companies write CR reports and possibly creating front ends to access those reports in one location. ### 9. Great supplement to our reporting **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 18, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The ability to quickly create and deploy reports. The users love the ability to schedule and deliver reports with little need to access the system. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** I am just getting started using 2016 from the 2008 product. The main thing I was not optimistic about is the same look and feel and the cumbersome AD set up. So I have to determine if there is enough need for it to implement is or force the users to learn yet another password. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Read and ask questions. Often the documentation if you can find it is not clear, but the support person was very helpful in providing a clear implementation path to get me going. Support and the site has improved in the past few years, so that is a plus. As far as the output of the product, I do love the report creation and product it offers. I don't know of any competing product that can deliver with the look and ease of the reports. And once set up, it's really a smooth product. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Data analysis for our construction business. Also to offset any needs our ERP system is unable to provide. ### 10. A fully comprehensible and detailed reporting tool with many great added features! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Health, Wellness and Fitness | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 05, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The product comes fully equipped with a number of excellent reporting tools and the ability to customize to best meet our individualized needs. The technology can also be quickly and easily embedded into our existing platforms. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** For a small business, the complexity and added features can be a bit overwhelming and unnecessary. Reporting tools also require proficient technicians in order to fully realize these tools and utilize them to their maximum potential. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Crystal Reports is an excellent resource for a wide variety of reports, with ease and flexibility for our technical staff to generate just what we need for our specific application. The cost is a bit inhibitive on a small business scale, but mid to large corporations will find that it is as competitive in price as it is invaluable in service. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Inventory control, sales projections, corporate growth patterns ### 11. Crustal reports great tool for every developer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Emilio Salazar, E. | General Mgr, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 13, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Crystal Reports is easier to connect to any database than any other reporter available in the market. It has a very friendly interface to create dashboards with graphics and also easy to create barcode labels. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** The only thing is that if you have to use 2D barcodes you have to buy a third party solution for it. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** 2D Brcodes **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** We develop custom ERP's solutions and our customers always are looking for new reports, having crystal reports allow us to create custom reports in a fraction of a time and add them to our solutions very quickly. ### 12. The Easy way to create your owne report **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Apparel & Fashion | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** It's very easy to user and you don't need to be heavy technical to use it, It's very simple and attractive. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** SAP company need to work more in interface to be more handling and interface of report to be more sample, also there is issue in exporting to excel of sorting of columns. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** It's best tool to use it in reports building. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** uild reports using data from any data source type that has a Microsoft .NET Framework-managed data provider, OLE DB provider, or ODBC data source. You can create reports that use relational and multidimensional data from SQL Server and Analysis Services, Oracle, Hyperion, and other databases. You can use an XML data processing extension to retrieve data from any XML data source. You can use table-valued functions to design custom data sources. ### 13. Crystal 2013 Solid as Usual **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Christine C. | Lead Business Objects Engineer, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Crystal Reports 2013 continues to deliver additional data connection types and, thankfully, has not strayed from it's straight-forward design for development of reports. Developers familiar with older versions can get in and start building reports without a huge learning curve. Developers new to Crystal should find this version to be fairly usable from the get-go as well, considering the very useful report generation wizard. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Wish that accessing information in outlook had been a bit more straightforward. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am currently working on creating a report on ticket activity out of Outlook email records. ### 14. Not very intuitive but able to create any report you could possibly need **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Zachary K. | Consultant, Oil & Energy, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Crystal Reports allows me to display database information in the most efficient way possible. I can customize the SQL query in any way that I would like, and display it however I want. There are endless possibilities in creating a report. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Crystal Reports is not very intuitive. I took a week long training course, but since I don't use it on a daily basis I still have trouble figuring it out on my own. My main complaint is that a lot of the interface is drag and drop. I only use 2008 and 2010, but there are so many times when I'd like to enter a size or coordinates for a text box but that just isn't an option. Sometimes the 'snapping' doesn't work properly for me either, so I just have to take a guess. Overall, I wish I could be more precise with the layout. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Crystal Reports allows clients to see the database in a more understandable format. This is very important because sometimes this is ALL the client ever sees. Crystal Reports is capable of generating whatever report you may need. ### 15. A Exceptional BI Reporting Tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Abhilash K. | Sr. Business Operations Analyst, Computer Software, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** I don't mean to wax lyrical but after all these years of using Crystal Reports, I must admit there isn't a lot it can't do! It has an endless list of database connectivity options, an envious formula language, amazing web integration features and support for third-party feature enhancing dlls. I also feel that you're limited (mostly) by the "developer's'" abilities rather than CR not being able to pull something off - there's almost always a way around for almost everything! **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Crystal Reports has stood its ground until now however, I really feel there's room for innovation. I so wish there was a native 'table' object in CR - I cannot begin to explain how that would make a lot of our lives easier. If there is anything more laborious than gardening then it has to be building a grid in CR! As a developer who writes a lot of Custom SQL, I think it's high time it had a native SQL writing interface. My customers also feel they 'deserve' charts that look polished and are next-gen. A current-gen charting engine (atleast something that WebI offers) wouldn't be a bad thing to have now. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** If you wish to make full use of Crystal Reports' capabilities, you need to: - be a good SQL writer - have basic programming skills The beauty of Crystal Reports however, is that it offers a lot to beginners too. You can still get a lot working for you without knowing the two points above. Also, it has a very lively forum at http://scn.sap.com/community/crystal-reports, where help is always available. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** We do a lot of Inventory Reconciliation and a lot of that means combining data from multiple disparate sources. Sometimes, you can't wait on IT to stage all this data for you - until then, you have an easy way of analyzing your inventory. ### 16. One of the best reporting tools **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Raghavendra H. | Systems Development Senior Specialist, Printing, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The pixel perfect design, ability to use freehand SQL to write my own query to get the output as I require. I have used different reporting tools, but Crystal Reports scores over most of them including Business Objects. It's been a pleasure using the tool to meet my client requirements on most of the time and I can proudly say that I have used this tool and I am satisfied with the way the tool has got improved over different versions. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** I would say the improvement points instead of dislikes. To name a few are: 1. More support for Excel output to get the output as in pdf and also to export the Crosstab as well into excel format. 2. Multilevel of sub reporting. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** I will definitely recommend Crystal Reports to users and people who are using other reporting tools to have a trail copy and can check for the benefits over other reporting tools. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using Crystal Reports for close to 8 years and used it for creation of reports for different domains like Banking, Transport, Pharmaceutical, Defence and Energy and I was able to meet the client requirement on most of the occasions while using Crystal Reports. Crystal Reports is definitely among the top reporting tools with it's features like freehand SQL, pixel perfect reporting, support for more types of reports than many other reporting tools. ### 17. Best Tool for Report Creation! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Paul D. | COO / CIO, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** #1 Automating and Scheduling reports with Crystal Reports Server! #2 Being able pulling data from multiple sources and the report building process in crystal is clean. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Paying for it, but It works and is worth the investment and had a quick ROI for us. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Improve graphic elements support for logos and images. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Automating and Scheduling reports for daily, weekly, and monthly delivery to the user inbox or dashboard. We have saved a lot of man hours and get the data to the users much faster. ### 18. crystal report **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** You can edit the crystal report in preview window. Its design is flexible and customized. Using CR a developer can create highly formatted, pixel-perfect reports in nearly any layout desired and in up to 24 different languages. You can connect to many other solutions embed CR in their software. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** The tedious formatting of each field. Crystal Reports sometimes failed without showing any messages or errors. And if you moved the crystal reports to another server, it seemed every single time when you try to access the data, it popped out a window for you to verify the data source locations. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are using it to generate regular business data reports. It's not hard to use if you have certain data analysis background ### 19. Crystal Reporting **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Formatting is much simpler in Crystal than in SSRS. This is quite possibly the only thing I prefer in Crystal over SSRS. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** So much of this product could be classified as 'a necessary evil.' SSRS is a much simpler tool to achieve the same results. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am rewriting existing Crystal Reports for a jurisdiction's changing needs. Because the original author used the 'command line' methodology (probably as a cut and paste from prior Oracle reports) I appear to be barred from using functions - unless of course I go into the command line to manually enter them. While it's not difficult, it is irritating to be continually in and out of the tiny little box provided for editing the command line. ### 20. Great starter BI reporting tool **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Blossom P. | Manager, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** I like being able to connect to the database directly and pasting a command directly in. I also like the report wizard tool for people who aren't very SQL savvy but want to create reports. This is a great tool to create reports, and it's what I recommend as a first step in BI reporting. It can be very versatile and easy to learn. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** I wish there were more thing we can do on the fly with Crystal Reports. Comparing it to other BI tools such as MicroStrategy, this can fall a little flat. Dynamic aggregation and set up take longer than it should. Setting up every little formula can be tedious and not having too much flexibility to meet business requirements. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** If it's a simple data dump, crystal reports is excellent for reporting! It's easy and user friendly. ### 21. Crystal Reports-Much easier to use than expected **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joel S. | ERP Program Administrator, Industrial Automation, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** It merges well with our ERP system, and it is far easier to create reports and labels than I expected. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** The formulas can be a bit complicated to build at times, but I am working through it. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** We need to convert all of our Forms and Labels over to Crystal from the outdated Adobe form. It is going smoothly once the code is figured out. ### 22. Simple and reliable **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 29, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Well proven and reliable product not requiring a deep technical knowledge **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Could have developed more over the years, has essentially been the same for the past 10 years **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Adds reporting to websites to display information from the database ### 23. Custom Reports for Accounting and POS System **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Luis C. | CFO, Computer Networking, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Easily create powerful custom reports. Has allowed us to create custom reports on the fly that we were creating in Excel **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Report distribution is expensive using Crystal reports server. Interface needs to be updated. Easier repost distribution. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Report distribution can be expensive using Crystal Report Server, but report creation works well. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Custom reporting for Accounting software. Ability to create custom reports that are not easily obtainable through software provider. ### 24. Crystal Reports is very easy to use and distribute professional reports **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Goods | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 05, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The ease of using the features in the system. Everything is laid our very well. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** The way it connects to a database was difficult for me to figure out at first. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Take a training course. The training course will allow you to use Crystal Reports to it's full potential. There are also a lot of other online forums and videos to assist with making Crystal Reports better for you. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using this in conjunction with our CMMS software for a production facility. The reporting tool has allowed us to reallocate resources to be more efficient. ### 25. Portfolio Performance Reporting **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nirav P. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Graphics. Excel integration is lucid. Print option. Dial meter. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Line chart's X-axis cannot be spaced. For a long timeline, the X-axis looks bad. There is No Clustered bar-chart, for comparison of portfolio and benchmark. My version did not have the check-box, to show/hide a trend series. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** check problems list i mentioned earlier. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Performance Reporting. ### 26. Crystal Reports for local government analysts **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** I've used Crystal Reports since version XI. The layout of the screen & appearance of the icons - the layout of the window is very user friendly. I've always appreciated the Highlights and Key Resources tabs. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** I wouldn't say "dislike" but I would very much appreciate a comprehensive tutorial on "links". **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Offering free online tutorials and user support information would be much appreciated. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I train the analysts who run the reports. Essentially, they need to be able to create reports that are designed to help us support changes in Customer Service. ### 27. Finally upgraded to Crystal Reports 2013 **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Angela M. | Founder & CEO, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 23, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** I especially like the new "read only" version - our proprietary methods and deep skills are baked right into each report we design...we want to retain some ownership and this is a great way to do it. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** I dislike that parameter screens are not resizable. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Take a course - but practice with real enterprise data. Your own enterprise. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** We help business owners who use QuickBooks to get the EXACT report design they need at single click. Most of these reports are simply not possible without Crystal Reports (plus QQube for QuickBooks). ### 28. Used for Report Customization **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jason F. | Shipping and Receiving Clerk, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 27, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Being able to acccess different databases at once **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Not enough wizards or templates to work off of. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating custom reports for our erp software ### 29. Simple yet powerful **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David T. | Member of Board of Directors, Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 05, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** I appreciate the fact that you don't need a masters degree in Crystal Reports in order to generate a report. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** The cost is pretty high, but worth it in the long run. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Download the free trial. It's worth the evaluation period. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are generating reports off of our financial database. ### 30. A good report designer **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Luca C. | Online Platform & Integrations DBA Senior Supervisor, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 27, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Really useful the option to divide the report in different "groups", so you can easily make the groupings without going to write different formulas, you can put different graphic objects in every groups (not only header and footer), a good grid into designer tab. Useful functionality to modify the report directly in the Preview mode **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** It is not very user friendly, you need to work a bit then you can "master" the tool. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** You must consider how you want to use the product, if you need only a reporting software, or if you want to develop a BI platform (then also including other sofware businessobjects \ SAP) **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** In addition to the traditional use, by developing some advanced reporting I replace some web pages or desktop software using just the built-in reports in web pages. ### 31. 10+ years creating reports and queries for various businesses. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Construction | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Ease of suppressing details and sections based upon conditions and parameters. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Lack of a good reader/viewer that allows for user-entered parameters and also lack of built-in security on a per report basis, It is also difficult to create a simple report menu system for users that simply want to run/view reports on a regular basis. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am providing pertinent data to sales and operations folks that allow them to determine root cause on problems and also to assess business performance. ### 32. Very new to Crystal Reports, fairly easy to use **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Aviation & Aerospace | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The WYSIWYG interface is very handy for someone that never used CR. Our internal order system uses CR to generate reports and small tweaks can be made to the reports without paying someone else to do it. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** It's a bit pricey for the amount of use we get out of it. Haven't explored deeper features to have more of an opinion. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Changes to reports on the fly to generate better reports/more clarity. ### 33. An excellent product **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** i like how easy you can connect with a Database, and the integration with developement tools like visual studio.I like how easy the wizard works to make a new report **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** the front end of the app maybe could be more attractive to the users , because sometimes is a little confusing if you dont know the tool properly **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** read the documentation **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** automated Workflow system reports ### 34. Crystal Reports from a long time user **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Insurance | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** I love the full range of functionality. The variety of data sources that can be imported easily and the tremendous flexibility in formatting report outputs. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** It would be nice if Crystal reports were to incorporate a full range of BI pivoting and data modeling tools like Tableau and Power BI. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Primarily providing HR data analytics, but also auditing employee benefit deductions vs. vendor invoices. ### 35. Happy Long Term Customer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Ease of use for all. This is a product that can be used by consultants and business managers alike. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Product Interface looking dated. I have been using for 20years, and I'm not sure it looks different. This is good for me, however I feel a more modern UI would be good. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Simple reporting of data locked in databases ### 36. Crystal Reports 2013 **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Real Estate | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 26, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The interface is easy to navigate and hasn't been altered too much since the XI R2. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** I would like a better way to find help to issues I run across in building the complex reports. I find most of what I need on the web but sometimes the information is very difficult to find. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** I just build reports to be used internally by the person in charge of sales. ### 37. Excellent reporting tool **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Environmental Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 24, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Ability to drill down into your data. This is a valuable analytical tool. Turns complex data into meaningful information. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Preparing a well formatted report can take some time. It can be a bit confusing when you change data sources. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to provide clients with the tools to better present and analyze their data. ### 38. It has saved us a lot of money since we no longer have to pay for outside sources for our reports. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian S. | Quality Systems Engineer, Machinery, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 19, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Graphical interface for creating reports and the ability to see on the fly what it will look like **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** If possible, tool tips when you are hovering over right clicked menus. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Check out the multitude of videos on YouTube to get a basic understanding. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Easy access to important data regarding our inventory and transaction summaries. ### 39. Crystal Reports User Review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 05, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Ease of use. Ability to to extract and manipulate data in multiple ways to meet the needs of department and projects. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Slow to process at times. When processing large amounts of data, it tends to freeze. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** A faster way to extract information I'm a standardized format, that allows to repeat monthly, without having to create new reports each time. ### 40. Best reporting software **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 07, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Best thing about Csytal report software is ability to customize reports based on your needs. Data can be summarized at end of report to provide meaningful high-level perspective of trend. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Honestly, I have not came across any thing about Crystal Report that I would dislike. There's still so much to explore. One this that Crystal reports might adapt is to provide free training material or online courses for more users to get familiar with tool & functionality. Attending expensive courses may not be possible for users willing to learns skills on their own without organization sponsorship. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Do a basic level course before starting to use crystal reports. Its so useful when you know right tools to use while creating reports. Check with database admin about connecting Org DBs through crystal reports as sometimes you may have hard time linking to database. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Directory reporting from database for different business areas. ### 41. Easy to get up and running with, but takes time to master **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Machinery | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 20, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** It is easy to put together professional looking, relevant reports from your data. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** It has a learning curve to be able to product complex reports. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to produce reports much faster and more reliably than we were with Excel ### 42. Very satisfied with capabilities of Crystal Reports **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Goods | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 26, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The ability to use almost any data source. You are not limited to a specific database type, and as my data is primarily in dBase, this versatility is critical. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** So far I am satisfied with this software. The learning curve is quite steep regarding some aspects, but worth it. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Budget the time and resources needed to properly implement prior to going live. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Invoicing, customer statements, and past due reports all use crystal reports, and after getting a report set up, it is great to be able to rely on crystal reports to simplify ongoing activities. ### 43. Max review sap crystal reports **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Ease of use. This product was very easy to use. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** No dislikes. There are not any dislikes for this product **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Great software **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Municipal Court, Police Records and Fire Department Reports. Can be more graphic and specific with reports ### 44. Review SAP Crystal Reports **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 26, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The interface works well with our product. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Wish more backward compatible. New versions don't work with older engines. Should have a configuration which allow compatibility mode change. Had pay for 2008 because using older engines. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Global Printing. Good Interface with the tools we are using. ### 45. Good for Canned report **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** Flat reporting at it best. I was able to connect to DB2 source and create report quickly. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Self Servicing limitations. I definitely like SAP BO in this regards. **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** Good support for db2/oracle database reporting **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Report on top of Db2 database. ### 46. upgrade to new Crystal Reports 2013 **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 25, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** That the colours look really nice, that the upgrade was seamless **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** that I am not able to increase the size of the notification bars **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** would definately recommend to anybody looking at using this product. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** that we are able to generate some pretty comprehensive reports ### 47. Not the best **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The information is easy to read, nice reports but there does need to be some improvements **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** The system is not very user-friendly and could use some updating so it is more user-friendly **Recommendations to others considering SAP Crystal Reports:** None **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Medical billing reports ### 48. Great report for working with SQL **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 05, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** The simple integration with SQL allowing me to take my database and create reports based on it. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Like most things, the long term costs are killer. **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helping customers building out there reports. That it is easy to manipulate. ### 49. Easy to learn and use **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Wholesale | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 05, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** easy to create and use powerful reports from any database **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** Interface is a little dated - could be updated to make it more intuitive **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** various; quick analysis of almost any business question from accounting to inventory control ### 50. Crystal Reports **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Wholesale | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 05, 2016 **What do you like best about SAP Crystal Reports?** It provides us with the flexibility we need to generate reports we cannot extract from our ERP system. **What do you dislike about SAP Crystal Reports?** There are some limitations with the reports **What problems is SAP Crystal Reports solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sales reporting is great. Customization of pro forma invoices have been solved ## SAP Crystal Reports Discussions - [Why complex reports takes a bit more time to develop?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/why-complex-reports-takes-a-bit-more-time-to-develop) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [What is SAP Crystal Reports?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-sap-crystal-reports) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [What is SAP Crystal used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-sap-crystal-used-for) - 1 comment - [View SAP Crystal Reports pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/sap-crystal-reports/reviews?page=4§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-07+04%3A52%3A47+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=4f10010a-4847-4289-800a-6331ca0d5326&secure%5Btoken%5D=17fcc4c40a02cbf3e2cffc29e2107e8c531e86a65dccc8e2c30b4c90b72e53b9&format=llm_user) ## SAP Crystal Reports Integrations - [Microsoft SQL Server](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-sql-server/reviews) ## SAP Crystal Reports Features **Reports** - Reports Interface - Steps to Answer - Graphs and Charts - Score Cards - Dashboards - Customizable Reports - Marketing Reports - Sales Reports - Activity Dashboard - Interactive Reports - Customizable Reports - Customizable Reports **Reports** - Reports Interface - Share Reports - Steps to Answer **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization - Generative AI **Visualization** - Graphs and Charts - Score Cards - Dashboards - Formats - Mobile Dashboards - Public Dashboards - Private Dashboards **Data Updates** - Historical Snapshots - Real-Time Updating **Collaboration** - Sharing - Co-Editing - Devices **Self Service ** - Calculated Fields - Data Column Filtering - Data Discovery - Search - Collaboration / Workflow - Natural Language Search - Visual Discovery - Data Blending - Data Blending **Advanced Analytics** - Data Visualization - Big Data Services - Real-Time Analytics - Reporting/Analytics - Real-Time Analytics - Reporting/Analytics - Visual Analytics **Building Reports** - Data Transformation - Data Modeling - WYSIWYG Report Design - Integration APIs - Real-Time Data - Real-Time Data - Third-Party Integrations **Platform** - Mobile User Support - Customization - User, Role, and Access Management - Internationalization - Sandbox / Test Environments - Performance and Reliability - Breadth of Partner Applications - Mobile Access - Metadata Management **Data Updates** - Historical Snapshots - Real-Time Updating - Email Reports - Customizable Reports - Predictive Analytics - Data Management **Additional Functionality** - Customizable Branding - Natural Language Processing - Data Extraction - AI Copilot - Ad hoc Reporting - Real-Time Reporting - Publishing/Sharing - Collaboration Tools - Strategic Planning - Self Service Data Preparation - Trend Analysis - Text Analysis - Real-Time Monitoring - Data Synchronization - Widgets - Benchmarking - Performance Metrics - Data Mapping - Generative AI - Trend/Problem Indicators - Customizable Templates - Access Controls/Permissions - Data Import/Export - Profitability Analysis - OLAP - Alerts/Notifications - Search/Filter - Drag & Drop - Data Connectors - Multiple Data Sources - Key Performance Indicators - Dashboard Creation - Role-Based Permissions - Data Mining - Forecasting - Ad hoc Query **Additional Functionality** - KPI Monitoring - Secure Data Storage - Multiple Data Sources - Data Visualization - Single Sign On - Natural Language Search - Search/Filter - Alerts/Notifications - AI Copilot - Real-Time Notifications - Collaboration Tools - Widgets - Performance Metrics - Ad hoc Reporting - Activity Tracking - Reporting/Analytics - Customizable Branding - Data Aggregation - Dashboard Creation - Data Connectors - Customizable Templates - Data Synchronization - API - Forecasting - Interactive Elements - Single Page View - Data Import/Export - Drag & Drop - Access Controls/Permissions - Trend Analysis - Workflow Management - Third-Party Integrations - Functions/Calculations - Historical Reporting - Data Capture and Transfer - Visual Discovery - Real-Time Updates - Real-Time Reporting - Data Mapping - Relational Display - Visual Analytics - OLAP - Ad hoc Query - Reporting & Statistics ## Top SAP Crystal Reports Alternatives - [Looker](https://www.g2.com/products/looker/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (1,592 reviews) - [Domo](https://www.g2.com/products/domo/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (1,043 reviews) - [Spotfire Analytics](https://www.g2.com/products/spotfire-analytics/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (328 reviews)