Andreas Bitterer, research vice-president at the firm, explained that hardly any companies considered using such applications until about 2004.
He explained that this situation is now changing, with more and more organisations adopting this form of business intelligence.
Mr Bitterer explained: "This submarket had developed nicely, having developed consistent growth rates over the last few years."
Gartner claimed that open-source business intelligence was previously only used by companies that were in dire straits financially and had no choice, but is now growing steadily in popularity.
It suggested that, while open-source software can often be of poorer quality than major commercial tools, price-conscious firms will often be happy to accept this.
Last week, Gartner predicted that the number of employees who will use their own notebooks as their primary work computer is set to increase to 14 per cent by the middle of next year.
