Comparing Report Authoring Environments

Microsoft Reporting Services offers four report authoring environments:

Report Builder 3.0. Use this tool to design reports that are compatible with a SQL Server 2008 R2 report server by using the familiar Ribbon interface.
Report Builder 1.0. Use this tool to design ad hoc reports that use a report model as a source of data. Models can be published to SQL Server 2005 and later report servers. For more information, see Designing and Implementing Reports Using Report Builder 1.0 on msdn.microsoft.com.
Report Designer. Use this tool in SQL Server 2008 R2 Business Intelligence Development Studio to design full-function reports that are compatible with a SQL Server 2008 R2 report server.

All authoring environments create report definitions in the Report Definition Language (RDL). This topic lists the features that are supported in each authoring environment. For more information about planning for report version support, see Planning for Report Authoring and Report Deployment and Designing Reports in Report Designer and Report Builder 3.0 (SSRS).

Project Features

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio)	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 3.0
Integrate SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports and data sources, SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) cubes, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages, and Visual Studio (VS) language projects in a single solution in BI Development Studio.
Use VS-compatible source control systems such as VSTS or SourceSafe.
Enable business users who do not want to work in BI Development Studio to create their own report or to update, edit and share existing reports.
Specify multiple deployment configurations.
Manage resources such as images and maps as part of a project.
Set custom configuration options for data extensions, rendering extensions, custom assemblies.

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio)	Report Builder 3.0
Add embedded data sources.
Add shared data sources that use report server credentials.
Create shared data sources.	Also available in Report Manager.
Create and add shared datasets.
Create queries that retrieve data directly from relational databases by using a graphical query designer.	View Designer from Visual Database Tools	Relational Query Designer
Create queries that retrieve data directly from relational databases by using a text-based query designer.
Create queries that retrieve data directly from multidimensional databases by using a graphical query designer.
Create queries for a multidimensional database by using a text-based query designer that supports extended field properties.
Create queries that retrieve data directly from data mining models.
Retrieve data from multiple queries for multiple data sources in a single report.
Import queries from .sql files or reports.
Retrieve data from built-in data source types. For more information, see Data Connections, Data Sources, and Connection Strings (SSRS).
Retrieve data from report models built from SQL Server, Analysis Services, Oracle, or Teradata.

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio)	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 3.0
Report Wizard.
Data Region Wizard.
Rich visualizations (chart, gauge).		Basic chart
Map
Free-form report layout surface.
Query generation through layout actions.
Automatic generation of infinite drill through links.
Automatic formatting of data for number and format and column width.
Flexible data layout (tablix).
Snaplines for alignment.
Zoom.
Field tags to add fields to cells.
Placeholder text for simple expressions.
Full support for RDL features.
Advanced grouping, sorting, filtering.
Multiple data regions in one report.
Add Indicators, Sparklines, Maps.

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio)	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 3.0
IntelliSense for report expressions.
Lookup functions and support for Aggregates of aggregates
Display processing errors in the Task pane.

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio)	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 3.0
Excel
Word
PDF (Acrobat)
MHTML (Web archive)
TIFF
CSV (Comma delimited)
XML (Report data only)
HTML 4.0

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio)	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 3.0
Provides design time support for Custom Report Items (CRI).
Use local CRIs.
Use report server CRIs.
Use local custom .NET Framework assemblies in languages such as VB.NET or C#.
Use runtime custom .NET Framework assemblies on the report server.
Use local custom data sources.
Use custom data sources installed on the report server.
Use a custom security extension on the report server to authenticate username and password.

Feature	Report Designer (BI Development Studio)	Report Builder 1.0	Report Builder 3.0
View RDL source.
Import existing reports from Access.