What is the difference between Crystal Reports and Business Objects?

Crystal Reports is very popular software that has found various applications in business intelligence for the design and generation of reports, pulling various data from various sources. Crystal Reports is used by many software applications as a default reporting tool. It is bundled with Visual Studio suite from Microsoft, which is an OEM variant, which obviously has reseller rights.

Crystal Reports is developed by the Business Objects Company, which is a division of SAP. On the other hand, Business Objects is a portfolio of enterprise software which deals with business intelligence; it was originally started by a French company that has the same name in the early '90s.

The first version was the Business Object Skipper SQL 2.0, launched in the year 1990. Business Objects was first to focus on enterprise-wide business intelligence deployments. Business Objects now operates as a division of SAP Company, not as a separate company.

From the name itself, you can guess that business objects will specialize in details that surround business intelligence. Anything that is related to business intelligence will be available. Crystal reports will usually focus on the design aspect of the report. It will make sure that the report is clear enough to be understood.

At the same time, it aims to make sure that the business data sources can be clearly seen, especially when it is checked. Take note that Crystal Reports have already been acquired by Business Objects. In fact, a lot of people are saying that using Crystal Reports can be problematic right now, so it will be better to find an alternative to it.