Best ASP.NET reporting engine with custom reports creation ability
We need to choose the reporting engine for our ASP.NET application. The main functional requirement is an ability for end users (not programmers, just normal users) to create custom reports. We will be using SQL Server as a database so I am aware of some options: SQL Server Reporting services, Crystal Reports, Active Reports, even WindwardReports.
But frankly speaking I've never used any of those except Reporting services and it's quite difficult to choose which one suits the best to customer needs of custom reports creation. Is it possible to get some pros and cons for these options or at least your advice on what would be better to use in this case. Thanks a lot.
Answer
I've worked with all the major reporting tools and each has their plusses and minuses. About the only "plus" on SQL Report Services side is that there's no additional $$ expenditure above the SQL Server license. The downside is that the report designer is probably the most child-like of all.
Crystal has been around forever, some love it, many hate it, it does the job, but has a serious price tag involved if you want to use it for anything other than personal use. And the web reporting server for it is VERY expensive.
ActiveReports, XtraReports, Telerik all have good products and all are being actively improved (at different speeds, of course). Each has a web viewer, but they don't include the rest of the things you might want from a web reporting server.
And if you find you really want an enterprise-class web server option for Crystal, ActiveReports, XtraReports or Telerik reporting (or any other report designer, for that matter), that's now available from www.versareports.com.