For me, the first question is "where do these reports live"? If we're
talking about an application with distributed client reports (a Windows
"desktop" application), then I would definitely go with Crystal.
However, if you're looking at a hosted application (web) with a report
server delivering content to dozens or hundreds of users, the decision
is a bit more complex.

In terms of pricing, I think you'll find Reporting Services to be a much
better deal than Crystal's report server.

In terms of performance, we have to get a bit more specific again. For
example, if you tend to generate your reports to PDF in order to ease
printing, Crystal is terribly inefficient at this (it renders the PDF to
the disk on the server, then sends it the client). SQL Reporting
Services streams the content without writing to disk on the server and
so performs much better.

Crystal has been around a lot longer and has a strong history. SQL RS is
the new kid and lacks a few features. If the "missing" bits aren't
important to you, then it doesn't much matter and the extra flexibility
that a non-banded report designer gives you may well be worth whatever
other slight trade-off you might need to make.

Ken


-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Borshch
[mailto:mssqldba-ezmlmshield-x2015337.[Email address protected]
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 1:12 PM
To: LazyDBA Discussion
Subject: SQL Reporting Services 2005 v. Crystal Reports Server XI

My company is considering implementing either Reporting Services 2005 or
Crystal Reports for our report generation, so I've been comparing them
the past week. Does anyone have experience with these that can comment
on which one is a better choice, in terms of performance, ease of use
(for both report designer and end-user), and value? I am leaning
towards RS, because I like using SQL queries as datasets, but I also
like some features of Crystal better, like the report server itself, and
the price.



Any comments?



Alex Borshch





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