Altair Monarch vs. Microsoft Power BI

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Altair Monarch
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Altair Monarch (formerly Datawatch Monarch, acquired by Altair in December, 2018) works with both relational and multi-structured data including support for a wide range of formats including PDF, XML, HTML, text, spool and ASCII files. The product can access data from invoices, sales reports, balance sheets, customer lists, inventory, logs and more. According to the vendor, the system is easy to use, allowing users to quickly select any data source and automatically convert it into…N/A
Microsoft Power BI
Score 8.4 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
Altair MonarchMicrosoft Power BI
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Altair MonarchMicrosoft Power BI
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Altair MonarchMicrosoft Power BI
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Altair MonarchMicrosoft Power BI
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.2
138 Ratings
13% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings6.5118 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.0138 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.2126 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.0
139 Ratings
15% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings7.2138 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings6.4137 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.5102 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings7.0134 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
133 Ratings
7% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings8.1128 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.1121 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings7.3101 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.7103 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings6.773 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.5
135 Ratings
7% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings7.5130 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings7.8121 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings7.4101 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.2
126 Ratings
5% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings8.2120 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.8102 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.4110 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.694 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.9
117 Ratings
1% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings8.0111 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings7.493 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.4112 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.4
80 Ratings
6% above category average
REST API00 Ratings8.172 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings9.656 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings8.055 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings7.946 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings8.263 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.444 Ratings
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Altair MonarchMicrosoft Power BI
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IBM InfoSphere Information Server
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Score 8.1 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 8.1 out of 10
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User Ratings
Altair MonarchMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(6 ratings)
7.9
(140 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.2
(6 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(56 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(52 ratings)
User Testimonials
Altair MonarchMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
Altair Engineering, Inc.
The product is especially useful when you have real-time and/or time series data to analyze. If you have more mundane, simpler requirements, other products might do the job you need for less money (there are even some decent open source visualization tools you can find.) I know the product is very widely used in capital markets applications to monitor and analyze risk and price and volume changes; if you're working in that area, I don't think there's a better tool to use.
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Microsoft
In operations we use the tool for many different topics, from factory quality systems to high level reviews. We have created kind of an internal "App Store" based on Power BI where you have a lot of different dashboards for different solutions (cost, cash, health and safety, sales, factories, distribution centers...) and you as an user just need to get in that "App Store" and enter in whatever tool can be useful for you. It is open to all the operations employees and can use on demand. Also it has raised the imagination of our colleagues, as they are not only working by themselves creating new reports, but also raising fantastic ideas that can be extended for the usage of all the community.
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Pros
Altair Engineering, Inc.
  • Creating a basic model to extract data from a report is very easy.
  • Advanced features like Calculated Fields and External Lookups allow you to augment the raw data.
  • You can create a "project" to automate the data extraction. Combined with Datapump (a separate DW app), you can fully automate the process once the raw report is generated.
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Microsoft
  • 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.
Read full review
Cons
Altair Engineering, Inc.
  • Recently, we had some major sticker-shock when we wanted to upgrade Data Pump. It is an exceptional product, but when the price jumped from $6,000 to over $60,000, it was impossible to get the funds approved internally for the upgrade.
  • We also paid for yearly maintenance contracts which included Professional Services, but rarely found those services beneficial. However, we did receive all software upgrades for Datapump as part of the contract which we found to be very beneficial. However, with the new pricing, that is not longer the case.
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Microsoft
  • 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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Likelihood to Renew
Altair Engineering, Inc.
Even though we do not utilize it on a daily basis, I do hope my current company renews it's license. If not, I intend to purchase myself.
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Microsoft
I find it helpful and easy to use
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Usability
Altair Engineering, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
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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Support Rating
Altair Engineering, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
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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Alternatives Considered
Altair Engineering, Inc.
Datawatch is very good value of money compared to QlikView; QlikView is really more of a BI tool and has a lot of functions that I didn't need. Datawatch is very strong in the real-time area where Tableau, Panorama, and Qlik don't do very well. If you need to set up a visual monitoring dashboard, Datawatch is the best product I've seen for that. if you want to do a lot of in depth statistical analysis of large databases, Tableau is probably a good option.
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Microsoft
[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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Return on Investment
Altair Engineering, Inc.
  • Data Pump reduces complexity of report solutions by offering a standardized approach for organizing and scheduling
  • 97% service level for past 5 years for all of our jobs going through Data Pump
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Microsoft
  • 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.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Altair Monarch Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

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