TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AInformatica PowerCenter was data integration technology designed to form the foundation for data integration initiatives, application migration, or analytics. It is a legacy product.N/A

    Microsoft Power BI

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft 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
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)Microsoft 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
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)Microsoft Power BI
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Power 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
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)Microsoft Power BI
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Would buy again
    110 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    103 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    112 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    69 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    73 Answers
    Features
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)Microsoft Power BI
    Data Source Connection
    Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    8.5
    18 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Microsoft Power BI
    -
    Ratings
    Connect to traditional data sources9.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL8.014 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Transformations
    Comparison of Data Transformations features of Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    7.5
    18 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Microsoft Power BI
    -
    Ratings
    Simple transformations8.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Complex transformations7.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Modeling
    Comparison of Data Modeling features of Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    8.2
    18 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Microsoft Power BI
    -
    Ratings
    Data model creation9.015 Ratings00 Ratings
    Metadata management8.016 Ratings00 Ratings
    Business rules and workflow9.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Collaboration6.116 Ratings00 Ratings
    Testing and debugging9.017 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Governance
    Comparison of Data Governance features of Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    9.0
    15 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Microsoft Power BI
    -
    Ratings
    Integration with data quality tools9.015 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with MDM tools9.013 Ratings00 Ratings
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.1
    198 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.1169 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.6197 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.7180 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.9
    196 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.4193 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings7.7193 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.4143 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.2191 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.9
    189 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings8.1179 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.7174 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 Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    -
    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 Ratings7.2138 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.339 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.3
    180 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings8.6169 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.1148 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.1160 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.149 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.5141 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    -
    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 Ratings7.8155 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Informatica PowerCenter (legacy) and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.6
    116 Ratings
    2% below category average
    REST API00 Ratings7.7104 Ratings
    Javascript API00 Ratings7.485 Ratings
    iFrames00 Ratings8.055 Ratings
    Java API00 Ratings6.769 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.291 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.444 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)Microsoft Power BI
    Small Businesses
    Skyvia
    Score10 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM InfoSphere Information Server
    Score10 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SolarWinds Task Factory
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)Microsoft Power BI
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (21 ratings)
    8.6
    (199 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    8.3
    (115 ratings)
    Performance
    9.4
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (52 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (82 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (81 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Informatica PowerCenter (legacy)Microsoft Power BI
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    1.- Scenaries with poor sources of data is not recomended (Very bad ROI). The solution is for medium-big enterprises with a lot of sources of data and users. 2.- Bank and finance enviroment to integrate differente data form trading, Regulatory reports, decisions makers, fraud and financial crimes because in this kind of scenary the quality of data is the base of the business. 3.- Departments of development and test of applications in enterprises because you can design enviroments, out of the production systems, to development and test the new API's or updateds made.
    Incentivized
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Informatica Powercenter is an innovative software that works with ETL-type data integration. Connectivity to almost all the database systems.
    • Great documentation and customer support.
    • It has a various solution to address data quality issues. data masking, data virtualization. It has various supporting tools or MDM, IDQ, Analyst, BigData which can be used to analyze data and correct it.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • There are too many ways to perform the same or similar functions which in turn makes it challenging to trace what a workflow is doing and at which point (ex. sessions can be designed as static or re-usable and the override can occur at the session or workflow, or both which can be counter productive and confusing when troubleshooting).
    • The power in structured design is a double edged sword. Simple tasks for a POC can become cumbersome. Ex. if you want to move some data to test a process, you first have to create your sources by importing them which means an ODBC connection or similar will need to be configured, you in turn have to develop your targets and all of the essential building blocks before being able to begin actual development. While I am on sources and targets, I think of a table definition as just that and find it counter intuitive to have to design a table as both a source and target and manage them as different objects. It would be more intuitive to have a table definition and its source/target properties defined by where you drag and drop it in the mapping.
    • There are no checkpoints or data viewer type functions without designing an entire mapping and workflow. If you would like to simply run a job up to a point and check the throughput, an entire mapping needs to be completed and you would workaround this by creating a flat file target.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    Our team enjoys using Informatica and feels that it is one of the best ETL tools on the market.
    Read full review
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Positives; - Multi User Development Environment - Speed of transformation - Seamless integration between other Informatica products. Negatives; - There should be less windows to maintain developers' focus while using. You probably need 2 big monitors when you start development with Informatica Power Center. - Oracle Analytical functions should be natively used. - E-LT support as well as ETL support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    PowerCenter is robust and fast, and it does a great job meeting all the needs, not just the most commercially vocal needs. In the hands of an expert power user, you can accomplish almost anything with your data. It is not for new users or intermittent users-- for that the Cloud version is a better fit. Be prepared for costly connectors (priced differently for each source or destination you are working with), and just be planful of your projects so you are not paying for connectors you no longer need or want
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    Informatica power center is a leader of the pack of ETL tools and has some great abilities that make it stand out from other ETL tools. It has been a great partner to its clients over a long time so it's definitely dependable. With all the great things about Informatica, it has a bit of tech burden that should be addressed to make it more nimble, reduce the learning curve for new developers, provide better connectivity with visualization tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    While Talend offers a much more comfortable interface to work with, Informatica's forte is performance. And on that front, Informatica Enterprise Data Integration certainly leaves Talend in the dust. For a more back-end-centric use case, Informatica is certainly the ETL tool of choice. On the other hand, if business users would be using the tool, then Talend would be the preferred tool.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • The data pipeline automation capability of Informatica means that few resources are needed to pre-process the data that ultimately resides in a Data Warehouse. Once a workflow is implemented, manual intervention is not needed.
    • PowerCenter did require more resources and time for installation and configuration than was expected/planned for.
    • The lack of or minimal support of unstructured data means that newer sources of dynamic/changing data cannot be easily processed/transformed through PowerCenter workflows.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    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