BrightGauge vs. Microsoft Power BI

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
BrightGauge is a BI tool from ConnectWise that puts essential information in one place, providing visibility for more informed decisions. The user can customize BrightGauge dashboards and sync other business tools in its BI dashboard software for ultimate visibility. Users can also display data with embeddable gauges on public sites.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.
$10
per month per user
Pricing
BrightGaugeMicrosoft Power BI
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BrightGaugeMicrosoft Power BI
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BrightGaugeMicrosoft Power BI
Considered Both Products
BrightGauge
Chose BrightGauge
BrightGauge is essentially Power Bi at the reporting level. In Power Bi, the data must be modeled, and reports must be created, developed, and shared. BrightGauge is a buffet of report creation in a more straightforward form. I use Power BI more than BrightGauge in my current …
Chose BrightGauge
BrightGauge is by far the easiest to learn/use of the BI tools I have experienced. We had managers building their own dashboards with no outside help. It is not incredibly versatile though so if you want to get much more beyond taking the data and putting it in a chart or table …
Microsoft Power BI
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Power BI is a lot more versatile. I describe it to people as you can go as deep as you want/need to. This is somewhat of a pain point because sometimes I feel like I have to be a coder in order to accomplish something complex but most of the time it is incredibly user friendly …
Features
BrightGaugeMicrosoft Power BI
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
8.1
14 Ratings
1% below category average
Microsoft Power BI
8.4
193 Ratings
3% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.210 Ratings8.3164 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.814 Ratings8.8192 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.313 Ratings8.0175 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
7.7
14 Ratings
4% below category average
Microsoft Power BI
7.9
191 Ratings
1% below category average
Drill-down analysis8.514 Ratings8.2188 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.313 Ratings7.7188 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages4.77 Ratings7.3140 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.213 Ratings8.5186 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
7.9
14 Ratings
5% below category average
Microsoft Power BI
8.1
184 Ratings
2% below category average
Publish to Web9.410 Ratings8.3174 Ratings
Publish to PDF7.514 Ratings8.2169 Ratings
Report Versioning5.07 Ratings7.7141 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling9.114 Ratings8.3144 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.54 Ratings7.9107 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
5.9
12 Ratings
29% below category average
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
184 Ratings
1% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.012 Ratings8.2178 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.06 Ratings8.1163 Ratings
Predictive Analytics6.06 Ratings7.4133 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining2.52 Ratings7.434 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
8.6
14 Ratings
1% above category average
Microsoft Power BI
8.6
175 Ratings
1% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)9.414 Ratings8.8165 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.713 Ratings8.5143 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.213 Ratings8.4155 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.34 Ratings8.444 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.35 Ratings8.7137 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
6.8
7 Ratings
14% below category average
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
157 Ratings
2% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access8.56 Ratings7.8147 Ratings
Mobile Application6.01 Ratings7.7128 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.06 Ratings8.0150 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
7.4
8 Ratings
5% below category average
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
113 Ratings
0% above category average
REST API8.36 Ratings8.2101 Ratings
Javascript API9.62 Ratings7.682 Ratings
iFrames10.02 Ratings8.055 Ratings
Java API6.01 Ratings6.967 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)3.53 Ratings7.588 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)7.03 Ratings8.444 Ratings
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BrightGaugeMicrosoft Power BI
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Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
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User Ratings
BrightGaugeMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(14 ratings)
8.5
(195 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(7 ratings)
8.3
(111 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
9.8
(52 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
BrightGaugeMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
ConnectWise
BrightGauge lets us know when we have critical issues that need solving. A massive influx of tickets all at the same time triggers an investigation. Usually, it is tied to a server going down, which we can address. It would not be helpful for a small MSP or IT department with just a few daily tickets. The stats are better used to track a large amount of clients.
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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
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Pros
ConnectWise
  • SQL queries can be presented in many different ways to illustrate the data. They can be used in lists, graphs, meter, etc.
  • The datasets frequency of updates can be customized to from 5 minutes to annually. It's very granular in this respect.
  • It allows dashboards to be shared outside your organization with clients, partners, and vendors to maximize collaboration and reporting.
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
ConnectWise
  • Annual or more than annualized data is desperately needed for MSPs to show trends, current limitation is previous 240 days for ConnectWise tickets
  • Alerts when datasets do not sync properly, I have to rely on my team to notice vs get an automated alert from BrightGauge
  • Small thing, but it would be nice to have more options on the report scheduler to enable a start date. If you wish to do it quarterly, you have to start the schedule exactly 3 months from the next run.
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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.
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Likelihood to Renew
ConnectWise
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.
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Usability
ConnectWise
Usability is BrightGauge's strength. Granting the ability of virtually any user to be able to create a dashboard is incredibly valuable. If an organization very simple and straight forward reporting needs then BrightGauge is a perfect fit for them. Connecting to the dataset we used was very quick and easy and I imagine it would be the same for any major data source you would like to pull from.
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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.
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Support Rating
ConnectWise
Anytime I have reached out to the BrightGauge support team they have been quick, responsive, and solved my issue. They go out of their way to be helpful!
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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.
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Implementation Rating
ConnectWise
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
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Alternatives Considered
ConnectWise
I'm not aware of any other competitors to Bright Gauge that we selected. They seem to be very close to managed IT service providers and have been great at tailoring their support to the PSAs like ConnectWise, AutoTask, etc. I can see Bright Gauge getting more and more popular as time goes by
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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.
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Return on Investment
ConnectWise
  • We were purchased by a large PE firm because we could easily show CSAT ratings.
  • The easily trackable stats are suitable for the C-Suite to see which division is the most profitable.
  • We won 60,000 MRR by displaying to potential customers how we track important issues with the gauges.
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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