Hi, Gerard,

First, I wrote a comparison of Crystal and SSRS:

http://www.code-magazine.com/Article.aspx?quickid=0711041

(Now, at the moment, you have to be a subscriber to read past the first page. However, when the 'newest' issue becomes available, anyone will be able to read it)

Second, I'm planning a blog entry very soon (probably right after Christmas) as a continuation of that article, with some personal recommendations between the two products. (I tried to keep the article free of opinions).

In a nutshell:

1) Crystal provides more power than SSRS. You can do more with Crystal than you can with SSRS. Quite simply, Crystal provides more critical options....everything from more control over a page to more control over data.

SSRS has only been around for 2 versions, while CR has been around for 11 versions (soon to be 12) - so it's only natural that CR would have more functionality.

2) However, Crystal's overall interface can be very very challenging. This leads to people concluding, "Crystal sucks". I personally think some of those conclusions are a bit hasty, but not completely unwarranted.

However, as someone who has now built a substantial amount of reports with both products, I can say that those who scream about CR should try building output with complex reqmts in SSRS, and then come back and see if their opinion has changed.

If you have any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Kevin