MATLAB vs. Microsoft Power BI

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
MATLAB
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
MatLab is a predictive analytics and computing platform based on a proprietary programming language. MatLab is used across industry and academia.
$49
per student license
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
MATLABMicrosoft Power BI
Editions & Modules
Student
$49
per student license
Home
$149
perpetual license
Education
$250
per year
Education
$500
perpetual license
Standard
$860
per year
Standard
2,150
perpetual license
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MATLABMicrosoft 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
MATLABMicrosoft Power BI
Features
MATLABMicrosoft Power BI
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
MATLAB
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.4
193 Ratings
3% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.3164 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.8192 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings8.0175 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
MATLAB
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.9
191 Ratings
1% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.2188 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings7.7188 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.3140 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.5186 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
MATLAB
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.1
184 Ratings
2% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings8.3174 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.2169 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings7.7141 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.3144 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings7.9107 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
MATLAB
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
184 Ratings
1% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.2178 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.1163 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings7.4133 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.434 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
MATLAB
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.6
175 Ratings
1% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings8.8165 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.5143 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.4155 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.444 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.7137 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
MATLAB
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
157 Ratings
2% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings7.8147 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings7.7128 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings8.0150 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
MATLAB
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
113 Ratings
0% above category average
REST API00 Ratings8.2101 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings7.682 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings8.055 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings6.967 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.588 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.444 Ratings
Best Alternatives
MATLABMicrosoft Power BI
Small Businesses
IBM SPSS Statistics
IBM SPSS Statistics
Score 8.3 out of 10
Yellowfin
Yellowfin
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Alteryx Platform
Alteryx Platform
Score 9.1 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Alteryx Platform
Alteryx Platform
Score 9.1 out of 10
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
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User Ratings
MATLABMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(53 ratings)
8.5
(195 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(3 ratings)
Usability
9.9
(4 ratings)
8.3
(111 ratings)
Support Rating
9.5
(7 ratings)
9.8
(52 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
MATLABMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
MathWorks
MATLAB really does best for solving computational problems in math and engineering. Especially when you have to use a lot of functions in your solving process, or if you have a nonlinear equation that must be iteratively solved. [MATLAB] can also perform things like integration and derivation on your equations that you put into it.
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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
MathWorks
  • It has a very user friendly library which helps users learn this software fairly quickly in a short span of time.
  • The graphical user interface provided by the software is really good.
  • The code that a person writes allows options for debugging.
  • One can visualize the flow of control of their code inside MATLAB.
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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.
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Cons
MathWorks
  • MatLab is pricier than most of its competitors and because of this reason, many organizations are moving towards cheaper alternatives - mostly Python.
  • MatLab is inefficient when it comes to performing a large number of iterations. It gets laggy and often crashes. Python is better in this regard.
  • There is a limited number of hardware options (mostly NI) that can be connected directly to the data acquisition toolbox.
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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
MathWorks
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
MathWorks
MATLAB is pretty easy to use. You can extend its capabilities using the programming interface. Very flexible capabilities when it comes to graphical presentation of your data (so many different kinds of options for your plotting needs). Anytime you are working with large data sets, or with matrices, MATLAB is likely to be very helpful.
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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
MathWorks
The built-in search engine is not as performing as I wish it would be. However, the YouTube channel has a vast library of informative video that can help understanding the software. Also, many other software have a nice bridge into MATLAB, which makes it very versatile. Overall, the support for MATLAB is good.
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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
MathWorks
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
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Alternatives Considered
MathWorks
How MATLAB compares to its competition or similar open access tools like R (programming language) or SciLab is that it's simply more powerful and capable. It embraces a wider spectrum of possibilities for far more fields than any other environment. R, for example, is intended primarily for the area of statistical computing. SciLab, on the other hand, is a similar open access tool that falls very short in its computing capabilities. It's much slower when running larger scripts and isn't documented or supported nearly as well as MATLAB.
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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
MathWorks
  • MATLAB helps us quickly sort through large sets of data because we keep the same script each time we run an analyzation, making it very efficient to run this whole process.
  • The software makes it super easy for us to create plots that we can then show to investors or clients to display our data.
  • We are also looking to create an app for our product, and we will not be able to do that on MATLAB, therefore creating a limiting issue and a new learning curve for a programming language.
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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