FlexReport versus other Reporting Controls

This section gives you a quick comparison between ComponentOne WinForms FlexReport and other standard reporting controls available for WinForms platform, such as Visual Studio Reporting, Report Builder 3.0, and Crystal Reports.

For easy navigation, we have broadly divided these features into different categories. Click on the corresponding category in the mini TOC on the right-hand pane of this document or scroll down to know more about availability of a particular feature.

While these different reporting controls are robust and easy-to-use, they still have their own strengths and capabilities.

End-User Designer for Section Reports

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Designer available with installer	✓	Available with MS SQL Server	Separate Installer	Available with Crystal Reports Installer
Create blank report	✓	✓	✓	Through Database Expert Wizard
Add chart to blank report	✓	✓	✓	✓
Add map to blank report	✓	✓	✓	✓
Add CrossTab to blank report		✓	✓	✓
Interface style	Modern UI, Ribbon Interface	✓	Modern UI, Ribbon Interface	Traditional WinForms interface

Visual Studio Templates

Features	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Crystal Reports
Reporting Application Available	Available with MS SQL Server	WinForms, WPF
Template applications that bind Report with Viewer	✓	✓
Report (blank), Report Wizard available in "Add new item"	✓	✓

Report Wizard

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Report Wizard	✓	✓	✓	✓
Table list	Any data source	Any data source	SQL Query for Access, SQL Server data source	✓
View list	✓	✓	✓	✓
Stored procedure list	Any data source		SQL Query for Access, SQL Server data source	✓
Grouping set during Report Wizard binding	✓	✓	✓	✓
Grouping set only for Table/Matrix		✓	✓

Built-in Report Styles

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Built-in Report Styles	34 types	6 types	6 types	12 types
Columnar	✓
Tabular	✓	✓	✓	✓
Justified	✓
Labels	✓			✓
Stepped	✓
Outline	✓
Aligned	✓
Standard				✓
Form Letters				✓
OLAP				✓

Query Builder

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Graphical Query Designer	Any datasource		SQL Server Relational Databases only
Text-based Query Designer		✓	Oracle, OLEDB, ODBC, TeraData	Any datasource

Report Layout & Controls

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Section-based design template	.FLXR			.RPT

Data Binding

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
MS SQL Server	✓	✓	✓
Object Datasource	✓			✓
OLEDB	✓	✓	✓	✓
SQLite	✓
Stored Procedure	✓			✓
XML	✓	✓	✓
Bind report to multiple tables	✓	✓	✓
Drag & drop bound fields to report	✓	✓	✓	✓
Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services for MDX		✓	✓
DMX		✓	✓
Microsoft Power Pivot and tabular models		✓	✓
Microsoft Azure SQL Database		✓	✓
SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse		✓	✓
Oracle		✓	✓
SAP NetWeaver BI		✓	✓
Hyperion Essbase		✓	✓
Microsoft SharePoint List		✓	✓
Teradata		✓	✓
ODBC		✓	✓	✓
Access	✓	✓	✓	✓
Excel				✓
ADO.NET				✓
Java Beans				✓
Salesforce				✓
OLAP				✓
SAP Table				✓
SAP BW				✓
Outlook				✓

Design Preview

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Preview Reports	Designer; not Visual Studio		Designer; not Visual Studio	Designer; not Visual Studio
HTML preview				Designer Edition only
Edit reports in preview				Designer Edition only
Portrait/landscape control in preview	✓	✓	✓

Viewers

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
HTML	✓			WebViewer
MVC	✓
UWP	✓
Windows	✓	✓	✓	✓
WinForms	✓	✓		✓
WPF	✓	✓		✓
Web		✓		✓

Report Features

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Adding Sort Expressions on Groups at report level	✓
Drillthrough		✓	✓
Filtering	✓	✓	✓	✓
Formatting controls - Done through tabs and groups of Ribbon	✓	✓	✓	✓
Grouping	✓	✓	✓	✓
Hyperlinks	✓	✓	✓	✓
Page Number	✓	✓	✓	✓
ReportEvents	✓	✓	✓	✓
Runtime Date & time	✓	✓	✓	✓
Sorting	✓	✓	✓	✓
Summary Totals	✓	✓	✓	✓
Built-in Special Fields	✓	✓	✓	✓
Report Scheduling	✓	✓	✓	✓
Adding Sort Expressions on Groups available on Data Regions	✓	✓	✓
Subreports	✓	✓	✓	✓
Interactive Sorting at Runtime	✓	✓	✓	✓

Parameters

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
AllowBlank Parameters	✓	✓	✓
Boolean	✓	✓	✓	✓
DateTime	✓	✓	✓	✓
Float	✓	✓	✓
Hidden Parameters	✓			✓
Integer	✓	✓	✓
Multivalue	✓	✓	✓
Nullable	✓	✓	✓
Passing parameters to reports	✓	✓	✓	✓
String	✓	✓	✓	✓
Time	✓			✓
Date	✓			✓
Currency				✓
Number	✓	✓	✓	✓
Internal Parameters			✓
Options to refresh report with change in Parameter values	✓	✓	✓	✓

Formats

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Boolean	✓			✓
Currency	✓	✓	✓	✓
Date	✓	✓	✓	✓
LongDate	✓
LongTime	✓	✓	✓	✓
Number	✓	✓	✓	✓
Percentage	✓	✓	✓	✓
Short Date	✓	✓	✓	✓
Short Time	✓	✓	✓	✓
Time	✓	✓	✓	✓
Decimal		✓	✓	✓
Full Date/time long		✓	✓	✓
Full Date/time short		✓	✓	✓
General		✓	✓	✓
General Date/time long		✓	✓	✓
General Date/time short		✓	✓	✓
Month day		✓	✓	✓
RFC1123 pattern			✓	✓
Round trip			✓
Scientific			✓	✓
Year Month		✓	✓	✓

Charts

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Total Chart Types	70+	50+	50+	40
2D	38	✓	✓	33
3D	36	✓	✓	7
Area		✓	✓	✓
Bar	✓	✓	✓	✓
Column	✓	✓	✓	✓
Cone	✓
Cylinder	✓	✓	✓
Doughnut	✓	✓	✓
Gantt	✓		✓
Histogram	✓		✓
Line	✓	✓	✓	✓
Pie	✓	✓	✓	✓
Polar	✓	✓	✓
Pyramid	✓	✓	✓
Radar	✓	✓	✓	✓
Scatter	✓	✓	✓	✓
Stacked	✓	✓	✓	✓
Step	✓
Stock	✓	✓	✓	✓
Bubble		✓	✓	✓
Candlestick		✓	✓
Funnel		✓	✓	✓
Range			✓	✓

Chart Wizards

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Properties	✓			✓
Bind data source	✓	✓	✓	✓
Visual Effects	Advanced		✓	Basic
Choose chart type	✓	✓	✓	✓

Export

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Total Formats	14	3	7	10
BMP	✓
Excel (.xls)	✓			✓
Open XML Excel (.xlsx)	✓		✓	✓
GIF	✓
HTML	✓
JPEG	✓
PDF	✓	✓	✓	✓
PNG	✓
RTF	✓			✓
TIFF	✓	✓	✓
Open XML Word (.docx)	✓	✓	✓
Zip compressed files	✓
Crystal Reports				✓
XML				✓
CSV		✓	✓	✓
MHTML		✓	✓
Word (.doc)		✓	✓	✓

Import

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
C1Report	✓
ADP Reports	✓
MDB Reports		✓		✓
Crystal Reports	✓		✓

Code Behind

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Can create report in code behind	✓			✓

Scripting & Expressions

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
VB Script Editor	✓	✓	✓
Syntax check available	✓	✓	✓	✓
C# Editor				✓

Deployment Licensing

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
Internal business use for client application	No license required	✓	✓	No license required
Third-party servers				License required
Royalty-free development	✓	✓

Sample Reports

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Crystal Reports
Installed with setup	✓	✓
Not installed at setup; available separately	✓		✓
Medical Report	✓
Inventory Management	✓
Balance Sheet	✓		✓
Budget Report	✓
Hospital Bills			✓
SPC Process Control Chart			✓
Telephone bill for FlexReport	✓

IntelliSense

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0
Report Fields	✓
Database Fields	✓
Calculated Fields	✓
Parameters	✓
VB Script Functions	✓
Aggregates	✓
Associated Properties	✓
Property description	✓
Report Design
Add/insert resize actions for report sections	✓	✓	✓
Can grow, Grow and Shrink, Can shrink, Keep Together available to control layout of text	✓	✓	✓
Caption settings like All, Section, Hairline, Hidden	✓
Expand/Collapse buttons for sections/subsections	✓
Group header/footer	✓
Reorder	✓
Resize actions for report sections available	✓
Snap to grid	✓
Subsections	✓

Server Edition

Features	FlexReport	Visual Studio Reporting Control	Report Builder 3.0	Crystal Reports
SAP Crystal Reports Server	✓			✓
SAP Business Objects Enterprise				✓