We're seeing more and more satisfied customers switching to us from SAP Crystal Reports (a reporting solution that is no longer being developed).
For many software teams, Crystal Reports is not just a reporting tool. It is years of templates, invoices, labels, PDFs, customer-specific layouts, and “please don’t touch this” legacy code.
That is why replacing it is hard.
Why Teams Start Looking Beyond Crystal Reports
The usual pain points are familiar:
- fragile deployment
- runtime dependencies that are easy to break
- security issues/no more security patches
- no Linux/iOS support
- designers detached from the application
- limited flexibility when customers want to adjust reports themselves
- and migration projects that look risky because no one wants to rebuild hundreds of reports by hand.
There is also the bigger question: do you really want your reporting stack tied to an old workflow while the rest of your application moves forward?
A Reporting Component Built for Developers → List & Label by combit
That is where we can offer a solution—List & Label.
List & Label is a cross-platform reporting component for developers who want reporting to be part of their own application, not a separate world bolted onto it.
It integrates into .NET, with C# in Visual Studio (and other DLL/API-compatible environments), so teams keep control over the user experience and architecture.
Migration Without Starting From Zero
A practical reason to look at List & Label as a Crystal Reports alternative is migration.
List & Label includes a customizable Crystal Reports converter in the Professional and Enterprise editions. It can transfer Crystal Reports content directly into List & Label, including standard areas and groupings, and comes with C# source code so teams can adapt the converter to their own setup.
That matters because real-world reporting is never clean. Reports contain conventions, exceptions, formatting rules, and business logic that has grown over time.
An adaptable migration path is much more useful than a “one-size-fits-all” promise.
Easier Deployment & Modern Reporting Features
List & Label also reduces development friction. It supports xcopy deployment, so no special database drivers or complex setup routines are needed. In many cases, the required files can simply be copied with the application. That makes deployment easier to understand, automate, and support.
The product also covers what teams expect from a mature reporting solution: rich designer objects, many export formats, more than 30 data providers, custom data provider support, web controls, different viewer controls, and a Report Server option for web, cloud, and REST API scenarios.
A Designer Inside Your Application
For end users, the integrated report designer is a major difference. Instead of opening a separate tool or process, the designer can become a first-class part of your application. Users work with reports where they already work, while you decide which functionality they can access.
Why the European Alternative Matters
And for European software companies, there is another reason to care: List & Label's manufacturer combit is based in Germany. For teams that prefer a European vendor and a reporting partner closer to their regulatory and procurement context, List & Label is a serious alternative to consider. Read more about this here:
List & Label—the European reporting alternative.
Moving Reporting Forward
Switching reporting tools is not something anyone does for fun.
But if Crystal Reports has become a source of deployment pain, technical debt, or product friction, List & Label gives developers a migration path, an embeddable designer, flexible deployment, web and cloud options, and a European vendor behind it.
You do not have to rebuild your reporting strategy from scratch. You can move it forward.
Visit this site for further informations or to get the free List & Label trial: Alternative to Crystal Reports.
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