Azure Data Lake Analytics vs. Microsoft Power BI

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Data Lake Analytics
Score 5.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's Azure Data Lake Analytics is a BI service for processing big data jobs without consideration for infrastructure.N/A
Microsoft Power BI
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Power BI is a visualization and data discovery tool from Microsoft. It allows users to convert data into visuals and graphics, visually explore and analyze data, collaborate on interactive dashboards and reports, and scale across their organization with built-in governance and security.
$168
per year per user
Pricing
Azure Data Lake AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Power BI Pro
$14
per month (billed annually) per user
Power BI Premium
$24
per month (billed annually) per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Data Lake AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPower BI Desktop is the data exploration and report authoring experience for Power BI, and is available as a free download.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure Data Lake AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI
Considered Both Products
Azure Data Lake Analytics
Chose Azure Data Lake Analytics
Azure Data Lake simplifies extensive data analysis. It runs Hadoop, HDInsight, and Data Lakes, and even complex queries run smoothly and quickly. We write queries to transform data and extract insights instead of configuring hardware. It can handle any size job by adjusting the …
Chose Azure Data Lake Analytics
ADL Analytics supports big data such as Hadoop, HDInsight, Data lakes. Usually, a traditional data warehouse stores data from various data sources, transform data into a single format and analyze for decision making. Developers use complex queries that might take longer hours …
Microsoft Power BI

No answer on this topic

Features
Azure Data Lake AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Lake Analytics
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.2
198 Ratings
0% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.2169 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.7197 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.8180 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Lake Analytics
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.9
196 Ratings
2% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.3193 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings7.7193 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.4143 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.3191 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Lake Analytics
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
189 Ratings
3% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings8.1179 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.9174 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings7.7145 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.3148 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings7.9111 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Lake Analytics
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.7
189 Ratings
4% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.3183 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.1168 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings7.3138 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.339 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Lake Analytics
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.4
180 Ratings
1% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings8.7169 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.2148 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.2160 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.249 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.6141 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Lake Analytics
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.9
162 Ratings
2% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings7.6152 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings7.5133 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.9155 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Lake Analytics
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.6
116 Ratings
2% below category average
REST API00 Ratings7.9104 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings7.585 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings8.055 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings6.869 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.491 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.444 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure Data Lake AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

Yellowfin
Yellowfin
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies

No answers on this topic

Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

Kyvos Semantic Layer
Kyvos Semantic Layer
Score 9.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure Data Lake AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(6 ratings)
8.5
(197 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(3 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(113 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(52 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Data Lake AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Azure Data Lake Analytics services are beneficial when working with a lot of data. It can process enormous amounts of data extremely quickly. Service is secure and easy to set up, build, scale, and run on Azure. Regarding big data analytics and reporting, parallel processing has a significant impact. It consolidated our analytics from multiple systems and increased our analysis productivity. This tool has excellent support for reporting tools like Power BI and is very quick when performing analytics.
Read full review
Microsoft
Has significantly improved collation of data and visualisation especially with business across Europe. Has given me the ability to see the Site availability at the click of a button to see which Site is in the "money" and seize opportunities based on Market data
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • Process large data transformation jobs using pretty much any language needed.
  • Native integration with Azure storage.
  • Top notch security that fulfills all audit needs.
  • Easy to consolidate enterprise data under one location - Single source of truth.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Options for data source connections are immense. Not just which sources, but your options for *how* the data is brought in.
  • Constant updates (this is both good and bad at times).
  • User friendliness. I can get the data connections set up and draft some quick visuals, then release to the target audience and let them expand on it how they want to.
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • There's a bit of bias towards cloud with ADL Analytics. Depending upon a company's infra strategy and investment plans, there are some challenges with migration and integeration.
  • Not worth the time/effort/money if the organization doesn't have "Volume" of data. Cost effective only when daily loads exceed around 1million.
  • While training materials are available online, Adoption rate - Yet to pick up.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • It would be easier for users could Microsoft Power BI and Excel used the same programming languages.
  • Would like to see the online version of Microsoft Power BI be as powerful as the desktop version.
  • Publishing a Microsoft Power BI file online and then having to save the file is somewhat redundant.
  • Would like to export each page or chart as an image.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Microsoft Power BI is an excellent and scalable tool. It has a learning curve, but once you get past that, the sky is the limit and you can build from the most simple to the most complex dashboards. I have built everything from simple reports with only a few data points to complex reports with many pages and advanced filtering.
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Automating reporting has reduced manual data processing by 50-70%, freeing up analysts for higher-value tasks. A finance team that previously spent 20+ hours per week on Excel-based reports now does it in minutes with Microsoft Power BI's automated Real-time dashboards have shortened decision cycles by 30-40%, enabling leadership to react quickly to sales trends, operational bottlenecks, and customer behavior.
Read full review
Support Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It is a fantastic tool, you can do almost everything related with data and reports, it is a perfect substitutive of Power Point and Excel with a high evolution and flexibility, and also it is very friendly and easy to share. I think all companies should have Power BI (or other BI tool) in their software package and if they are in the MS Suite, for sure Power BI should be the one due to all the benefits of the MS ecosystem.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
We did some research about Alibaba Cloud Data Lake Analytics and even being cheaper than Azure Data Lake Analytics, we decided to go for the second one once we noticed they have more features and better documentation. Another thing we considered during this process was the fact that we have more people that already have Azure Cloud knowledge.
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft Power BI is free. If I didn't want to create a custom platform (i.e. my organization insisted on an existing platform that I *had* to use), I'd use Microsoft Power BI. For any start-up or SMB, I'd just use Claude & Grok to build it quickly, also for free. Would not pay for Tableau or Sigma anymore. Not worth it at all.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • It lets us manage and scan data, making our work easy and efficient.
  • It helped me manage real-time data, process it, and send it to reporting.
  • Data centralization or data warehousing projects are being implemented with its help.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Power BI usage reduced the effort of analytical reports creation by about 80%
  • Empowered all the level of employee to be more vigilant of the data and business insights, gained the profit of 8% overall.
  • AI-powered predictive analytics improved forecasting accuracy by 17%, that topped the overall sales.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Microsoft Power BI Screenshots

Screenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Turns insights into impact for business usersScreenshot of Power BI integrates easily with Microsoft 365Screenshot of Microsoft Power BI - AI-Powered CapabilitiesScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Copilot can be used to create reportsScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Data HubScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Scales as organizational needs grow