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.
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Designer available with installer | 〇 | Available with MS SQL Server | Separate Installer | Available with Crystal Reports Installer |
| Create blank report | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | Through Database Expert Wizard |
| Add chart to blank report | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Add map to blank report | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Add CrossTab to blank report | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | |
| Interface style | Modern UI, Ribbon Interface | 〇 | Modern UI, Ribbon Interface | Traditional WinForms interface |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Reporting Application Available | Available with MS SQL Server | WinForms, WPF | ||
| Template applications that bind Report with Viewer | 〇 |
〇 |
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| Report (blank), Report Wizard available in "Add new item" | 〇 | 〇 |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Report Wizard | 〇 |
〇 |
〇 |
〇 |
| Table list | Any data source | Any data source | SQL Query for Access, SQL Server data source |
〇 |
| View list | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Stored procedure list | Any data source | SQL Query for Access, SQL Server data source | 〇 | |
| Grouping set during Report Wizard binding |
〇 |
〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Grouping set only for Table/Matrix | 〇 | 〇 |
| 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 | 〇 | |||
| Tabular | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Justified | 〇 | |||
| Labels |
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| Stepped |
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| Outline |
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| Aligned |
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| Standard |
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| Form Letters |
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| OLAP |
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| 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 | 〇 |
Oracle, OLEDB, ODBC, TeraData |
Any datasource |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Section-based design template | .FLXR | .RPT |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| MS SQL Server | 〇 |
〇 |
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| Object Datasource | 〇 |
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| OLEDB | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| SQLite | 〇 | |||
| Stored Procedure |
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| XML |
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| Bind report to multiple tables |
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| Drag & drop bound fields to report |
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| Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services for MDX | 〇 |
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| DMX | 〇 |
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| Microsoft Power Pivot and tabular models | 〇 |
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| Microsoft Azure SQL Database | 〇 |
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| SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse | 〇 |
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| Oracle | 〇 |
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| SAP NetWeaver BI | 〇 |
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| Hyperion Essbase | 〇 |
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| Microsoft SharePoint List | 〇 |
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| Teradata | 〇 |
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| ODBC | 〇 |
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| Access |
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| Excel |
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| ADO.NET |
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| Java Beans |
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| Salesforce |
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| OLAP |
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| SAP Table |
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| SAP BW |
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| Outlook |
〇 |
| 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 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| HTML | 〇 | WebViewer | ||
| MVC | 〇 | |||
| UWP | 〇 | |||
| Windows | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| WinForms |
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〇 | 〇 | |
| WPF |
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| Web |
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| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Adding Sort Expressions on Groups at report level | 〇 | |||
| Drillthrough | 〇 | 〇 | ||
| Filtering | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Formatting controls - Done through tabs and groups of Ribbon | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Grouping |
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〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Hyperlinks |
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| Page Number |
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| ReportEvents |
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| Runtime Date & time |
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| Sorting |
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| Summary Totals |
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| Built-in Special Fields |
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| Report Scheduling |
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| Adding Sort Expressions on Groups available on Data Regions |
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| Subreports |
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| Interactive Sorting at Runtime |
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| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| AllowBlank Parameters | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | |
| Boolean | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| DateTime | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Float | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | |
| Hidden Parameters | 〇 | 〇 | ||
| Integer | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | |
| Multivalue | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | |
| Nullable | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | |
| Passing parameters to reports | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| String | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Time | 〇 | 〇 | ||
| Date | 〇 | 〇 | ||
| Currency | 〇 | |||
| Number | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Internal Parameters | 〇 | |||
| Options to refresh report with change in Parameter values | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports | |
| Boolean | 〇 |
〇 |
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| Currency | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
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| Date | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | |
| LongDate | 〇 | ||||
| LongTime |
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| Number |
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| Percentage |
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| Short Date |
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| Short Time |
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| Time |
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| Decimal | 〇 |
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| Full Date/time long | 〇 |
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| Full Date/time short | 〇 |
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| General | 〇 |
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| General Date/time long | 〇 |
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| General Date/time short | 〇 |
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| Month day | 〇 |
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| RFC1123 pattern |
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| Round trip |
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| Scientific |
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| Year Month |
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| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Total Chart Types | 70+ |
50+ |
50+ |
40 |
| 2D | 38 | 〇 | 〇 |
33 |
| 3D | 36 | 〇 | 〇 | 7 |
| Area | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | |
| Bar |
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| Column |
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Cone |
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| Cylinder |
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| Doughnut |
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Gantt |
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Histogram |
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| Line |
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| Pie |
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| Polar |
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| Pyramid |
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| Radar |
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| Scatter |
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| Stacked |
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| Step |
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| Stock |
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Bubble |
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Candlestick |
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Funnel |
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Range |
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| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
|
Properties |
〇 |
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| Bind data source | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
〇 |
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Visual Effects |
Advanced | 〇 | Basic | |
| Choose chart type | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Total Formats | 14 |
3 |
7 |
10 |
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BMP |
〇 | |||
|
Excel (.xls) |
〇 | 〇 | ||
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Open XML Excel (.xlsx) |
〇 | 〇 | 〇 | |
| GIF |
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| HTML |
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| JPEG |
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| PNG |
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| RTF |
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| TIFF |
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| Open XML Word (.docx) |
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| Zip compressed files |
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| Crystal Reports |
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| XML |
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| CSV | 〇 |
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| MHTML | 〇 |
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| Word (.doc) | 〇 |
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| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
|
C1Report |
〇 | |||
| ADP Reports | 〇 | |||
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MDB Reports |
〇 | 〇 | ||
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Crystal Reports |
〇 | 〇 |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Can create report in code behind | 〇 |
〇 |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| VB Script Editor | 〇 |
〇 |
〇 |
|
| Syntax check available | 〇 | 〇 | 〇 |
〇 |
| C# Editor | 〇 |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Internal business use for client application | No license required |
〇 |
〇 |
No license required |
| Third-party servers | License required | |||
| Royalty-free development | 〇 | 〇 |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Installed with setup | 〇 |
〇 |
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| Not installed at setup; available separately | 〇 |
〇 |
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| Medical Report | 〇 | |||
| Inventory Management | 〇 | |||
| Balance Sheet |
〇 |
〇 | ||
| Budget Report |
〇 |
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| Hospital Bills |
〇 |
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| SPC Process Control Chart |
〇 |
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| Telephone bill for FlexReport |
〇 |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| Report Fields | 〇 | |||
| Database Fields | 〇 | |||
| Calculated Fields | 〇 | |||
| Parameters | 〇 | |||
| VB Script Functions |
〇 |
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| Aggregates |
〇 |
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| Associated Properties |
〇 |
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| Property description |
〇 |
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| Report Design | ||||
| Add/insert resize actions for report sections |
〇 |
〇 |
〇 |
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| Can grow, Grow and Shrink, Can shrink, Keep Together available to control layout of text |
〇 |
〇 |
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| Caption settings like All, Section, Hairline, Hidden |
〇 |
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Expand/Collapse buttons for sections/subsections |
〇 |
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| Group header/footer |
〇 |
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| Reorder |
〇 |
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| Resize actions for report sections available |
〇 |
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| Snap to grid |
〇 |
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| Subsections |
〇 |
| Features | FlexReport | Visual Studio Reporting Control | Report Builder 3.0 | Crystal Reports |
| SAP Crystal Reports Server | 〇 |
〇 |
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| SAP Business Objects Enterprise |
〇 |