I haven’t touched my comparison of alternative reporting tools in a long time. This year I am adding two new reporting tools to the comparison: Clear Reports by iNet and CxReports by Codaxy. I have a separate article describing Clear Reports, which is very similar to Crystal.

CxReports takes a different approach. They use a page based layout approach (similar to SSRS) as opposed to the banded approach used by Crystal. The basis for each reports is a SQL query (or a script that combines SQL queries).  Calculated expressions are also done in the SQL query. Beyond creating the SQL, the GUI is designed for end users rather than developers. There are reusable themes and templates that allow consistent headers and footers across reports. The settings for each report are stored in an open format (JSON) file.

CxReports is designed as a SAAS tool, but it can be purchased and run locally on Windows or Linux, using Docker.  Pricing is tied to volume-based tiers, with more expensive tiers allowing for more users, more reports and more generated PDFs. Scheduling and automatic Email report delivery are included at all levels, subject to volume limits at each tier.

For a more detailed feature comparison you can download the feature matrix in the comparison article.