Differences between Crystal Reports and Web Intelligence

[Former Member]

Hi Gurus,

I have this question about Crystal Reports and Webi, both are for creating reports and are very different products both can connect to different databases, but what is the real different between them, I really prefer Crystal but let say when is better to use Webi and not Crystal and when is better to use crystal and not Webi.

Thanks

[former_member292966 · Accepted solution]

Hi Antonio,

Webi reports can export tabbed worksheets to Excel, where Crystal can't.

Webi requires reporting from Universes. It cannot report directly from a database.

If a universe is designed well enough, it is a very good ad-hoc reporting tool for your users.

On the flip side, proper universe design is required for this to happen.

Webi functions and formulas are harder to use. A lot of the functions and aggregation must be done in the universe.

In short, Crystal has more functionality in the report designer. Webi requires a lot of designing in the universe first.

I prefer to use Webi as a reporting tool for users. For my purposes, I prefer Crystal because it's more versatile with less setup requirements.

Hope this help,

Brian