Anaplan vs Microsoft Power BI

What users are saying about

Score 8.9 out of 10

Based on 362 reviews and ratings

Score 8.4 out of 10

Based on 1276 reviews and ratings

Feature Set Ratings

Anaplan ranks higher in 2 feature sets: Report Output and Scheduling, Access Control and Security
Microsoft Power BI ranks higher in 3 feature sets: BI Standard Reporting, Data Discovery and Visualization, Mobile Capabilities
Anaplan and Microsoft Power BI are tied in 1 feature set: Ad-hoc Reporting

BI Standard Reporting

7.6

Anaplan

76%

8.4

Microsoft Power BI

84%

Microsoft Power BI ranks higher in 3/3 features

Pixel Perfect reports

6.4

64%

1 Rating

8.2

82%

119 Ratings

Customizable dashboards

8.7

87%

105 Ratings

8.9

89%

138 Ratings

Report Formatting Templates

N/A

0 Ratings

8.2

82%

127 Ratings

Ad-hoc Reporting

8.4

Anaplan

84%

8.4

Microsoft Power BI

84%

Microsoft Power BI ranks higher in 3/4 features

Drill-down analysis

8.6

86%

2 Ratings

8.7

87%

138 Ratings

Formatting capabilities

8.2

82%

2 Ratings

8.0

80%

137 Ratings

Report sharing and collaboration

8.2

82%

2 Ratings

8.6

86%

135 Ratings

Integration with R or other statistical packages

N/A

0 Ratings

8.1

81%

103 Ratings

Report Output and Scheduling

8.5

Anaplan

85%

8.3

Microsoft Power BI

83%

Microsoft Power BI ranks higher in 3/5 features

Publish to Web

9.1

91%

1 Rating

9.0

90%

128 Ratings

Publish to PDF

8.2

82%

107 Ratings

8.9

89%

120 Ratings

Report Versioning

8.5

85%

93 Ratings

7.8

78%

100 Ratings

Report Delivery Scheduling

8.3

83%

3 Ratings

8.5

85%

103 Ratings

Delivery to Remote Servers

N/A

0 Ratings

7.4

74%

75 Ratings

Data Discovery and Visualization

8.0

Anaplan

80%

8.3

Microsoft Power BI

83%

Microsoft Power BI ranks higher in 2/3 features

Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)

8.6

86%

2 Ratings

8.4

84%

130 Ratings

Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization

8.2

82%

2 Ratings

8.5

85%

121 Ratings

Predictive Analytics

7.3

73%

2 Ratings

7.9

79%

102 Ratings

Access Control and Security

9.2

Anaplan

92%

8.8

Microsoft Power BI

88%

Anaplan ranks higher in 4/4 features

Multi-User Support (named login)

9.1

91%

2 Ratings

8.8

88%

120 Ratings

Role-Based Security Model

9.4

94%

108 Ratings

8.7

87%

103 Ratings

Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)

9.1

91%

2 Ratings

8.6

86%

111 Ratings

Single Sign-On (SSO)

9.1

91%

2 Ratings

9.0

90%

94 Ratings

Mobile Capabilities

7.7

Anaplan

77%

8.5

Microsoft Power BI

85%

Microsoft Power BI ranks higher in 3/3 features

Responsive Design for Web Access

8.6

86%

98 Ratings

8.7

87%

112 Ratings

Mobile Application

7.4

74%

81 Ratings

8.3

83%

94 Ratings

Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile

7.6

76%

91 Ratings

8.4

84%

113 Ratings

Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting

8.9

Anaplan

89%

Microsoft Power BI

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

Anaplan ranks higher in 5/5 features

Long-term financial planning

9.1

91%

185 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Financial budgeting

9.3

93%

189 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Forecasting

9.3

93%

200 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Scenario modeling

9.1

91%

201 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Management reporting

7.8

78%

199 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Consolidation and Close

7.0

Anaplan

70%

Microsoft Power BI

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

Anaplan ranks higher in 7/7 features

Financial data consolidation

8.2

82%

150 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Journal entries and reports

7.2

72%

116 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Multi-currency management

6.2

62%

11 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Intercompany Eliminations

6.0

60%

8 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Minority Ownership

6.0

60%

7 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Local and consolidated reporting

8.1

81%

140 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Detailed Audit Trails

7.4

74%

148 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Financial Reporting and Compliance

8.3

Anaplan

83%

Microsoft Power BI

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

Anaplan ranks higher in 4/4 features

Financial Statement Reporting

8.1

81%

162 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Management Reporting

8.2

82%

173 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Excel-based Reporting

7.9

79%

159 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Automated board and financial reporting

9.0

90%

13 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Analytics and Reporting

8.7

Anaplan

87%

Microsoft Power BI

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

Anaplan ranks higher in 6/6 features

Personalized dashboards

8.9

89%

199 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Color-coded scorecards

8.6

86%

183 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

KPIs

8.1

81%

19 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Cost and profitability analysis

8.6

86%

162 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Key Performance Indicator setting

9.0

90%

172 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Benchmarking with external data

8.7

87%

13 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Integration

8.8

Anaplan

88%

Microsoft Power BI

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

Anaplan ranks higher in 3/3 features

Flat file integration

9.3

93%

198 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Excel data integration

8.7

87%

184 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Direct links to 3rd-party data sources

8.4

84%

163 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding

Anaplan

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

8.0

Microsoft Power BI

80%

Microsoft Power BI ranks higher in 6/6 features

REST API

N/A

0 Ratings

8.3

83%

72 Ratings

Javascript API

N/A

0 Ratings

8.2

82%

57 Ratings

iFrames

N/A

0 Ratings

8.0

80%

56 Ratings

Java API

N/A

0 Ratings

7.7

77%

47 Ratings

Themeable User Interface (UI)

N/A

0 Ratings

7.9

79%

63 Ratings

Customizable Platform (Open Source)

N/A

0 Ratings

7.9

79%

46 Ratings

Attribute Ratings

Anaplan is rated higher in 3 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Usability, Support Rating
Microsoft Power BI is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Renew

Anaplan

91%

214 Ratings

8.7

Microsoft Power BI

87%

140 Ratings

Anaplan

88%

6 Ratings

10.0

Microsoft Power BI

100%

1 Rating

Anaplan

90%

4 Ratings

8.5

Microsoft Power BI

85%

56 Ratings

Anaplan

91%

3 Ratings

Microsoft Power BI

N/A

0 Ratings

Anaplan

91%

3 Ratings

Microsoft Power BI

N/A

0 Ratings

Anaplan

91%

6 Ratings

8.4

Microsoft Power BI

84%

52 Ratings

Anaplan

30%

1 Rating

Microsoft Power BI

N/A

0 Ratings

Anaplan

91%

2 Ratings

Microsoft Power BI

N/A

0 Ratings

Anaplan

91%

25 Ratings

Microsoft Power BI

N/A

0 Ratings

Anaplan

91%

2 Ratings

Microsoft Power BI

N/A

0 Ratings

Pros

Flexibility - the tool can be built the suite the company's needs. It allows for maximum customization for even the most complex business models.
Data Integrations - the tool has the ability to connect to many different data sources so that data can be passed seamlessly.
Connected Planning - the tool allows for teams across the organization to pass information and data back and forth between models, enhancing the ability to do connected planning

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Verified User

Professional in Finance and Accounting

Information Technology & Services Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 214 answers on this topic

Quickly filter and view granular data sets with easily configurable reporting figures.
The ability to quickly switch between tabs allows for historical data comparisons and progress tracking.
It's helpful to dive into the data and break it down from high levels to small.
Achieve actionable insights faster by using real-time data. It's incredible to have online access to reports.

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Afia Tamanna

Information Technology Business Consultant

Alfa NET+Information Technology & Services, 11-50 employees

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Cons

Considering a collaborative platform, workflow features need to be more sophisticated to handle event-based triggers.
ALM governance is tedious in multiple developers set up, as it does not allow to migrate changes by each developer rather forces to migrate at a model level that includes all changes by all developers.
Reporting ability is still limited, many times dependency on other reporting tools is unavoidable.
Time referencing (e.g. default today's date) is not possible without engaging an integration interface.
NUX pages are rich in features but building pages for DEV/UAT and PROD are not straightforward.

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Bikash R Shil

Master Architect

Anheuser Busch In BevFood & Beverages, 10,001+ employees

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The desktop app is great but needs a lot of performance improvements
No MacOS Version for the Desktop app, this is a big limitation for business since executives prefer Macs
Premium Cloud Version of Power BI is awfully expensive
On-Premise Version of the Power BI Reports Server is bundled only with SQL Server Enterprise License and cannot be purchased separately and requires Software Assurance Subscription
On-Premise Power BI Report Server doesn't support ADFS, AzureAD or any Claims-Based authentication platform, a sad disadvantage for enterprises

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 201-500 employees

View all 140 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

Starting Price

—

Anaplan Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

Starting Price

$9.99 per month

Microsoft Power BI Editions & Modules

Edition

Power BI Pro	$9.99¹
Power BI Premium	$20.00¹
Power BI Premium	$4,995.00²

Per User/Per Month
Per Capacity/Per Month

Additional Pricing Details

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Likelihood to Renew

Anaplan 8.8

Based on 6 answers

In any line of work, a tool that is flexible and would allow different departments of your company to easily interact and exchange valuable insights, is highly anticipated and needed. For me, what Anaplan provides to a business, be it a smaller one or an enterprise customer, is an easily scaling, agile planning and modeling platform that can meet almost any need and give a high-end solution to the problems any company faces on a daily basis.

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Alexander Denchev

Anaplan Solution Architect

B EYE LtdInformation Technology & Services, 51-200 employees

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Microsoft Power BI 10.0

Based on 1 answer

I find it helpful and easy to use

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jim paroly

Freelance Photographer

j. paroly photoGraphic Design, 1-10 employees

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Usability

Anaplan 9.0

Based on 4 answers

There is a dependency in this rating - in that I find Anaplan extremely easy to use, but I've spent the necessary time developing a strong understanding of the platform. Once you understand how to use it, the platform is flexible, easy to use, and fun to use.

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Chris Friederich

Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

Cherwell SoftwareComputer Software, 201-500 employees

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Microsoft Power BI 8.5

Based on 56 answers

At this point, I think we all know who has taken the lead in the business intelligence and analytics market worldwide. With fresh new updates every other day on top of an already robustly built product with all features that one can dream of is a no brainer, I feel. Microsoft will invariably be synonymous with quality and professionalism.

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Tanish Pruthi

Marketing Associate

Mercer-MettlInformation Technology and Services, 501-1000 employees

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Reliability and Availability

Anaplan 9.1

Based on 3 answers

In nearly 3 years, I have only had 1 issue of being unable to access my model for an unplanned maintenance. Even planned maintenance windows are handled during low traffic hours on the weekend.

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Performance

Anaplan 9.1

Based on 3 answers

Everything is calculated in memory in the cloud. It's nearly instantaneous updates when you make changes. The only time things get a little slow is when you have a massive model with very intricate calculations...but "slow" for Anaplan is not what I would call "slow" for something like Hyperion. We used to have Hyperion calcs that ran for 60 mins before you could use data. The equivalent would be 60 seconds in Anaplan.

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

Anaplan 9.1

Based on 6 answers

I feel like the support team is a little lacking in product knowledge. Several times I have contacted them to get help, and ended up finding a solution to my own problem before the team could get back to me with anything useful. I have also submitted a few bugs, and never got updates to when they were fixed in later releases.

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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Microsoft Power BI 8.4

Based on 52 answers

I can't really speak to the support overall, [but] I will say that in the almost three years I have used the system, I have only needed to contact their support team once. I think the team was helpful, but it did take some time for us to resolve the issues/ request that they had. I guess the good news is that the system is pretty stable, and I personally have rarely needed to contact their technical support team.

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Greg Watkins

Senior Customer Success Manager (Strategic Accounts)

TipaltiFinancial Services, 201-500 employees

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In-Person Training

Anaplan 3.0

Based on 1 answer

The in-person training is simply not worth the cost. After a few weeks of playing in Anaplan, I went to the basic training and knew more than the person teaching it. a year down the road, I was the first person to complete the advance training, and again could have been teaching the class better than the person running the session. Spend some time on your own trying out different things and you will get all the understanding you need to be successful.

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Online Training

Anaplan 9.1

Based on 2 answers

Learning made easy . One of the best trainings i have attended. Training was very detailed training by the trainer, which helped me understand the basics of the model building. Level 1 training was easy and instructor was most helpful here. Level 2 training was challenging but was able to go thru due to understanding of the basics.

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Sai Bandaru

Anaplan Consultant

EnqueroComputer Software, 501-1000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

Anaplan 9.1

Based on 25 answers

Agile methodology and breaking the work down into sprints was very helpful. Implementation required a deeper dive into our data than expected for the consultants to be able to construct the data model. But once it was in place, the focus on knowledge transfer enabled us to be able to use the product effectively after the team rolled off.

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Steve Ridgley

Head of Sales Compensation

Robert HalfStaffing and Recruiting, 10,001+ employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

Anaplan works well where you have a requirement for complete flexibility, such as in business structure, or in calculation methodology that is bespoke. You can tailor the system to your exact requirements, whereas some products come with pre-built modules that you might struggle to do certain things with. All in all [it] depends on the business requirements as there is a different tool for a different job. Anaplan succeeds in being a very strong all [arounder].

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Professional Services

Computer Software Company, 1-10 employees

View all 214 answers on this topic

[Microsoft] Power BI is practical and effective, like a hammer for a nail, it is easy to use and produces very quickly the results that in most cases are urgently required by clients (nice reports to share on the web). To start using [Microsoft] Power BI you need a business email address, with that you create an account in Power BI Service and in less than 1 hour you will have installed Power BI Desktop, a report will have been created and it will have been published on the web .

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Dustin Ghia

Lead Consultant - Solutions Architect - Software Engineer

Ghia & Associates Engineering and Consulting GroupComputer Software, 1-10 employees

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Scalability

Anaplan 9.1

Based on 2 answers

It's going to handle most of what you can throw at it. The problem lies in the sparsity of some datasets. When you have over 5ish dimensions of sparse data, the size of the model gets bloated for not much value. In several cases, I have had to adapt my model to account for sparsity in a way that minimized use of space, but also made interacting with the data more cumbersome.

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Return on Investment

The agile implementation methodology used to deploy the system has helped our clients to use and realize the benefits of the system right from the early stages of the implementation.
The system can be easily managed and maintained by the end users reducing dependency on IT teams and making business more self-sufficient.

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Pavan Kiran Bellamkonda

Senior Consultant

Deloitte India (Offices of the US)Information Technology & Services, 5001-10,000 employees

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It helps us track and achieve company goals.
It shows us [our] performance in areas we could not previously track and allows us to see and work on how to improve their performance.
Quick easy access for executives to use in helping teams and addressing issues.

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christian Maxwell

Process Manager

Okland ConstructionConstruction, 501-1000 employees

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Screenshots

See All (6) Anaplan Screenshots

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