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Report Builder and SQL Server Reporting Services are almost identical - which makes the small but important differences even harder to explain.
- Should you learn Report Builder or Reporting Services? (this blog)
- Why Report Builder might be better than Reporting Services
- Why Reporting Services is better than Report Builder
- The Wise Owl Recommendation
Posted by Andy Brown on 16 February 2018
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Should you learn Report Builder or Reporting Services?
I've previously blogged on this, but felt it was time to bring the content up to date. This article uses the following versions of the software:
Software | Version |
---|---|
Report Builder | Report Builder for SQL Server 2016 |
Reporting Services | SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 |
It's actually quite hard finding out what the version of Report Builder is called - here's what the software shows:

The Report Builder version, as shown in ... Report Builder.
I should point out at this stage that the similarities between Report Builder and SSRS are much greater than the differences: underneath the different cosmetic appearances, they are basically the same software.
I've divided this blog into 3 sections:
- Reasons why Report Builder is better than SSRS;
- Reasons why SSRS is better than Report Builder; and
- The Wise Owl recommendation.
Let's get started with why Report Builder might be a better choice ...
- Should you learn Report Builder or Reporting Services? (this blog)
- Why Report Builder might be better than Reporting Services
- Why Reporting Services is better than Report Builder
- The Wise Owl Recommendation