HCL Actian Data Platform vs. Microsoft Power BI

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
HCL Actian Data Platform
Score 8.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
The HCL Actian Data Platform (formerly Actian Avalanche) hybrid cloud data warehouse is a fully managed service that aims to deliver high performance and scale across all dimensions – data volume, concurrent user, and query complexity – at a lower cost than alternative solutions. Avalanche has built-in self-service data integration that can be deployed on-premises as well as on multiple clouds, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, enabling users to migrate or offload applications and data to…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
HCL Actian Data PlatformMicrosoft Power BI
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HCL Actian Data PlatformMicrosoft Power BI
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
HCL Actian Data PlatformMicrosoft Power BI
Features
HCL Actian Data PlatformMicrosoft Power BI
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
HCL Actian Data Platform
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.3
195 Ratings
2% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.3166 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.8194 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings8.0177 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
HCL Actian Data Platform
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
193 Ratings
0% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.3190 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings7.8190 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.4142 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.4188 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
HCL Actian Data Platform
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
186 Ratings
3% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings8.3176 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.0171 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings7.7143 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.2146 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings7.9109 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
HCL Actian Data Platform
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
186 Ratings
2% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.2180 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.1165 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings7.4135 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.436 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
HCL Actian Data Platform
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.5
177 Ratings
0% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings8.8167 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.4145 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.4157 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.346 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.7139 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
HCL Actian Data Platform
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
159 Ratings
3% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings7.7149 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings7.6130 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.9152 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
HCL Actian Data Platform
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
115 Ratings
1% above category average
REST API00 Ratings8.1103 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings7.684 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings8.055 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings7.068 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.690 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.444 Ratings
Best Alternatives
HCL Actian Data PlatformMicrosoft Power BI
Small Businesses
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Score 8.7 out of 10
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Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Snowflake
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Score 8.8 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 8.8 out of 10
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Score 9.5 out of 10
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User Ratings
HCL Actian Data PlatformMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(2 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
HCL Actian Data PlatformMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
HCL Technologies
This is a tool geared for smaller to mid-sized business that has disparate sources of data from different platforms in varying incarnations. It’s a great ETL tool to solve the problems a scenario like that causes, but you can also achieve that with good BI Tools like Qlik Sense. So be careful that you really need an ETL tool, as opposed to an end-use tool with a built-in ETL component. If you are going ELT and have a lot of data an not a lot of corporate resources, this is a better option than Microsoft or Informatica
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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
HCL Technologies
  • Quick response for queries involving multi-million rows
  • Low cost
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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
HCL Technologies
  • As I said before, more training or greater visibility to training tools/options would be a plus. It’s easy to publish YouTube videos these days, I think they should make more of them.
  • Differentiation would help, there’s not a lot out there to drive you to buy the product if you are well informed in the market. If you know the market, you steer towards the large or trendy products. It’s a good product, but lost in the noise of the field I think.
  • Hitching the wagon to a major software brand (like Mule did to Salesforce) would help grow the user base, and thus increase the activity in the support community. More users also translates into product champions.
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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
HCL Technologies
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
HCL Technologies
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.
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Support Rating
HCL Technologies
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.
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Implementation Rating
HCL Technologies
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
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Alternatives Considered
HCL Technologies
Oracle>DB2>MS SQL Server>GreenPlum>Vectorwise
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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
HCL Technologies
  • We had to move out of VectorWise after using the database for 2 years. Hence no positive impacts.
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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.
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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