Microsoft BI (MSBI) vs. Microsoft Project

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft BI is a business intelligence product used for data analysis and generating reports on server-based data. It features unlimited data analysis capacity with its reporting engine, SQL Server Reporting Services alongside ETL, master data management, and data cleansing.
$9.99
per user/per month
Microsoft Project
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Project is a project management software. It provides core PM functionality, including agile workflow support and resource management. Project can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise.
$10
per user/per month
Pricing
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Microsoft Project
Editions & Modules
Power BI Pro
$9.99
per user/per month
Power BI Premium
4,995
per month
Project Plan 1
$10
per user/per month
Project Plan 3
$30
per user/per month
Project Plan 5
$55
per user/per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Microsoft Project
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Microsoft Project
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Microsoft Project
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.6
49 Ratings
5% above category average
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports9.042 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.049 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.947 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.7
49 Ratings
7% above category average
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Drill-down analysis8.944 Ratings00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.049 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.939 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.949 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.9
48 Ratings
6% above category average
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Publish to Web9.044 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.044 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Versioning8.940 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.943 Ratings00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.924 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.0
48 Ratings
11% above category average
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.947 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.944 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.942 Ratings00 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
9.0
49 Ratings
5% above category average
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)8.946 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.943 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.046 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)9.028 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.5
39 Ratings
6% above category average
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access8.036 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application8.027 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile9.936 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
8.8
21 Ratings
10% above category average
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
REST API8.919 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API8.919 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames9.018 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API9.017 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.918 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.017 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
8.0
107 Ratings
6% above category average
Task Management00 Ratings9.0106 Ratings
Resource Management00 Ratings6.9103 Ratings
Gantt Charts00 Ratings10.0103 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings9.9105 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings8.582 Ratings
Team Collaboration00 Ratings7.795 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology00 Ratings7.679 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology00 Ratings8.279 Ratings
Document Management00 Ratings7.276 Ratings
Email integration00 Ratings6.081 Ratings
Mobile Access00 Ratings7.966 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking00 Ratings8.472 Ratings
Change request and Case Management00 Ratings8.462 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management00 Ratings6.382 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
Microsoft Project
7.0
76 Ratings
6% below category average
Quotes/estimates00 Ratings7.053 Ratings
Invoicing00 Ratings7.044 Ratings
Project & financial reporting00 Ratings6.973 Ratings
Integration with accounting software00 Ratings6.949 Ratings
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Microsoft BI (MSBI)Microsoft Project
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Score 8.3 out of 10
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Reveal
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Score 9.9 out of 10
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Jaspersoft Community Edition
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Score 9.7 out of 10
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Score 9.2 out of 10
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User Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Microsoft Project
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(73 ratings)
6.5
(107 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(25 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(14 ratings)
8.0
(5 ratings)
Availability
9.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(15 ratings)
8.2
(34 ratings)
In-Person Training
6.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.6
(7 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Microsoft Project
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Microsoft BI is well suited for Stream analytics, easy data integration, report creation and UI/UX designs (limited but what all available are great ones) Microsoft BI may be less appropriate for handling huge number of datasets and difficult queries. It may also be difficult for a company with heavy data.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Project Online is suited to Turnkey Projects where more Collaboration is required in Project Progress monitoring, risk assessment and conveying, issue recording and tracking. It is less appropriate when ERP Suites other than MS Dynamics are used, i.e when Enterprises need to integrate Finance / Accounting with It and having straight project management workflow
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • Comparatively easy to use compared to other data analytics solutions, collaborating with other colleagues on data work is simple.
  • Using Visual Studio for database, ETL, reporting, and analytics development save time and money.
  • Transfer of data from one application to another via Excel and comparison of data attributes between applications
  • Dashboard functionality, as well as Python support, are available, allowing you to add additional charts and graphs.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • I love the Gantt Chart that Microsoft Project offers me, because it provides me with a view from various aspects, it provides me with exact details about the fulfillment of tasks over a period of time, it also allows me to make comparisons with the necessary data and the fulfilled data. by the employees, in order to know exactly if the project's expectations have been met.
  • I love the Gantt Chart that Microsoft Project offers me, because it provides me with a view from various aspects, it provides me with exact details about the fulfillment of tasks over a period of time, it also allows me to make comparisons with the necessary data and the fulfilled data by the employees, in order to know exactly if the project's expectations have been met.
  • The alert system for the fulfillment and delay of assignments is perfect. Microsoft Project allows me to configure the task system, I can assign the necessary tasks to fulfill the project, and the software alerts me immediately if the managers are fulfilling the assignments.
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • The race to perfect gathering of Non-Traditional datasets is on-going; with Microsoft arguably not the leader of the pack in this category.
  • Licensing options for PowerBI visualizations may be a factor. I.e. if you need to implement B2C PowerBI visualizations, the cost is considerably high especially for startups.
  • Some clients are still resistant putting their data on the cloud, which restricts lots of functionality to Power BI.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Seems overly complicated for users sometimes in using Project and its functionalities
  • Hard to share files for those folks who do not have MS Project, and then have to print out for them
  • Can be confusing since it looks and feels like MS Excel
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
Microsoft BI is fundamental to our suite of BI applications. That being said, Northcraft Analytics is focused on delighting our customers, so if the underlying factors of our decision change, we would choose to re-write our BI applications on a different stack. Luckily, mathematics are the fundamental IP of our technology... and is portable across all BI platforms for the foreseeable future.
Read full review
Microsoft
I like using Microsoft Project. It simplifies building a schedule
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
The Microsoft BI tools have great usability for both developers and end users alike. For developers familiar with Visual Studio, there is little learning curve. For those not, the single Visual Studio IDE means not having to learn separate tools for each component. For end-users, the web interface for SSRS is simple to navigate with intuitive controls. For ad-hoc analysis, Excel can connect directly to SSAS and provide a pivot table like experience which is familiar to many users. For database development, there is beginning to be some confusion, as there are now three tool choices (VS, SSMS, Azure Data Studio) for developers. I would like to see Azure Data Studio become the superset of SSMS and eventually supplant it.
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft Project was for many years the reference tool when you were talking about project management software, even if it has some gaps. However, in the last several years, other tools emerged and covered those gaps and are getting more and more users. Microsoft needs to keep up with the trends as they did with adding Project Server. However, that needs a significant rework.
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
The product has been reliable.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Performance
Microsoft
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) can drag at times. We created two report servers and placed them under an F5 load balancer. This configuration has worked well. We have seen sluggish performance at times due to the Windows Firewall.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Microsoft
While support from Microsoft isn't necessarily always best of breed, you're also not paying the price for premium support that you would on other platforms. The strength of the stack is in the ecosystem that surrounds it. In contrast to other products, there are hundreds, even thousands of bloggers that post daily as well as vibrant user communities that surround the tool. I've had much better luck finding help with SQL Server related issues than I have with any other product, but that help doesn't always come directly from Microsoft.
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Microsoft
Microsoft in recent years has transformed itself and gives a positive feeling when one interacts with the company. The company is focusing on its customers and willing to go extra mile to make customers happy.The company continues to invest in its products and bringing new features from time to time. Overall it is a positive feeling to be associated with such an iconic company.
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In-Person Training
Microsoft
This training was more directed toward what the product was capable of rather than actual programming.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Microsoft
I have used on-line training from Microsoft and from Pragmatic Works. I would recommend Pragmatic Works as the best way to get up to speed quickly, and then use the Microsoft on-line training to deep dive into specific features that you need to get depth with.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
We are a consulting firm and as such our best resources are always billing on client projects. Our internal implementation has weaknesses, but that's true for any company like ours. My rating is based on the product's ease of implementation.
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Microsoft
I wasn't part of it so I don't know
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
We have used the built in ConnectWise Manager reports and custom reports. The reports provide static data. PowerBI shows us live data we can drill down into and easily adjust parameters. It's much more useful than a static PDF report.
Read full review
Microsoft
While many of the above tools are extremely well-versed, Microsoft Project's largest advantage comes from it being related to the largest business productivity company in the world. Project does have its sharing limitations - but regardless, offers one of the most robust tools in the market today. Microsoft Project is built with large-scale projects in mind but is more than up to the task for smaller projects as well. However, there are options available (especially cloud-based options) that may be more fitting for higher-level projects that do not require going into the weeds.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • As a SaaS provider we see being able to provide self-service BI to our client users as a competitive advantage. In fact the MSSQL enabled BI is a contributing factor to many winning RFPs we have done for prospective client organisations.
  • However MSSQL BI requires extensive knowledge and skills to design and develop data warehouses & data models as a foundation to support business analysts and users to interrogate data effectively and efficiently. Often times we find having strong in-house MSSQL expertise is a bless.
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Microsoft
  • Project saved me, as the project manager, countless hours of digging through tickets and schedules to plan everything out. It also saved me time in adjusting the project triangle as needed, since it does so much automatically.
  • It is costly, and since it requires extensive training to master, it's not just the high licensing cost that you need to take into account.
  • The reporting features - even just printing out Gantt charts - makes it far easier to communicate with stakeholders. That means less time for PMs doing all of this manually, and it means less follow-up questions and delays moving forward.
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ScreenShots