DevExpress Reports vs ReportServer

DevExpress Reports is an embedded reporting platform for developers creating reports in.NET applications. It supports report creation, editing, conversion, printing, and export. Designers integrate with Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and JetBrains Rider, and applications can include an end-user designer for report creation and editing at runtime. Built-in elements include charts, cross tabs, gauges, barcodes, rich text, tables, images, and pivot grids.

Data sources include SQL databases, Excel and CSV, MongoDB, JSON, XML, Entity Framework, XPO, and standard.NET data providers. Supported integrations cover WinForms, WPF, ASP.NET Web Forms, MVC and Core, Blazor, Angular, React, Vue, and.NET MAUI. Export formats include PDF, DOCX, RTF, XLS, XLSX, TXT, MHT, CSV, HTML, and image formats such as SVG. It supports Windows, Linux, and macOS environments, with Docker, Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform among hosting options. The Reporting Subscription costs $799.99 a year per developer for 12 months and includes product updates and technical support. There is no free plan, but a fully functional 30-day trial is available.

ReportServer is an open-source business intelligence platform for companies, with reporting, analysis and distribution tools. It supports Eclipse BIRT, JasperReports, SAP Crystal Reports, script reports, ad-hoc analyses, Mondrian OLAP and Excel or Word reporting. Dynamic Lists produce ad-hoc reports in Excel, PDF or XML, while configurable dashboards can contain reports and HTML5 micro-apps. Reports can run on recurring schedules, as can maintenance scripts. Access controls combine hierarchical objects, user groups, ACLs, ACEs and user variables. Authentication supports usernames and passwords, with Active Directory or scripted single sign-on integration options. The platform connects to relational databases including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, SAP HANA and Google BigQuery, and can send data to services such as FTP, email, Amazon S3, OneDrive/SharePoint, Google Drive and local filesystems. It runs as a Java Servlet web application with metadata in a relational database. Community Edition is free under an AGPL license; Enterprise Edition is €3,999, paid once, including one year of upgrades, with a €1999 renewal.