Microsoft BI (MSBI) vs. Pega Platform

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
Pega Platform
Score 5.9 out of 10
N/A
Pega Platform is a combined business process management and robotic process automation (RPA) platform with advanced workforce analytics from Pegasystems.
$35
per month per user* (or $0.45 per case**)
Pricing
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Pega Platform
Editions & Modules
Power BI Pro
$9.99
per user/per month
Power BI Premium
4,995
per month
Low-code Factory Edition
$35
per month per user* (or $0.45 per case**)
Standard Edition
$90
per month per user* (or $0.80 per case**)
Enterprise Edition
Custom Quote
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Pega Platform
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details*500 named user minimum. Additional users available in blocks of 100. Billed annually. Based on a 3-year term. **350,000 cases / year minimum. Additional cases available in blocks of 150,000.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Pega Platform
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Pega Platform
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
Pega Platform
-
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
Pega Platform
-
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
Pega Platform
-
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
Pega Platform
-
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
Pega Platform
-
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
Pega Platform
-
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
Pega Platform
-
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
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
Pega Platform
8.7
62 Ratings
7% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings9.061 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings8.661 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings8.660 Ratings
Process Engine
Comparison of Process Engine features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
Pega Platform
8.7
64 Ratings
3% above category average
Process designer00 Ratings9.463 Ratings
Process simulation00 Ratings9.655 Ratings
Business rules engine00 Ratings9.663 Ratings
SOA support00 Ratings7.049 Ratings
Process player00 Ratings9.447 Ratings
Support for modeling languages00 Ratings5.46 Ratings
Form builder00 Ratings9.658 Ratings
Model execution00 Ratings9.854 Ratings
Collaboration
Comparison of Collaboration features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
Pega Platform
8.0
49 Ratings
2% below category average
Social collaboration tools00 Ratings8.049 Ratings
Content Management Capabilties
Comparison of Content Management Capabilties features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
-
Ratings
Pega Platform
4.4
9 Ratings
60% below category average
Content management00 Ratings4.49 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Pega Platform
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Square 9 Softworks
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Square 9 Softworks
Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Pega Platform
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(73 ratings)
4.4
(72 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(25 ratings)
10.0
(7 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(14 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
9.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(15 ratings)
10.0
(7 ratings)
In-Person Training
6.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.5
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.6
(7 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft BI (MSBI)Pega Platform
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.
Read full review
Pegasystems
Pega Platform has introduced the low code feature, using app studio seasonal and professional developer can develop application easily and quickly. The initial application can be build by Business analyst and product owner who has less knowledge of Pega Platform, further application can be enhanced/extended by professional developer. We can develop end to end application and promote to higher environment. Easily we can perform parallel development using branch.
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
Pegasystems
  • Quick development time. Much of the Pega "rules" are easy to configure and implement.
  • Visually friendly and modern. Much of the UI/UX elements in the system are continuously supported and updated, giving a nice feel to the apps.
  • Many of the configurations and rules Pega gives to the developers can also be delegated to business users. The organization and structure of the client's business can easily be adapted in the Pega platform.
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
Pegasystems
  • Need more learning materials. For Beginners who have previous programming experience with another language takes more time to learn.
  • If the developer is met with an issue in pega platform , they have to rely on Pega supporting team to fix it.
  • Customization is available but is not encouraged. Pega does not support faults that occur in customized solutions.
Read full review
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
Pegasystems
Pegasystems has continued to demonstrate a strong partnership with our organization and investment in their product that aligns with our overall vision and need. Pegasystems has engaged us at every level, with the assistance of minor defects to the overall roadmap planning and alignment of our goals
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
Pegasystems
Pega Platform is enhancing its product and launching new features day by day which help to achieve customers needs. If I talk about the earlier version of Pega Platform (i.e. pega v5 and 6.3) there were many numbers of limitations in Pega Platform and if we need to do some customization then needed to write custom java and jave scripts to achieve the functionally. Now I can say Pega Platform is running with market trends and demand. Pega Platform is giving all the options which support the current technologies like decisioning capabilities, real time processing, mashup, process fabrics etc..
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
The product has been reliable.
Read full review
Pegasystems
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
Pegasystems
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.
Read full review
Pegasystems
It’s very slow sometimes, but that may be our servers. Also the Knowledge Library needs some work - again, not sure if it’s our setup or what- but I’m unable to search the body of an article for content, so I have to be very intentional with tagging, but it’s not ideal.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Microsoft
This training was more directed toward what the product was capable of rather than actual programming.
Read full review
Pegasystems
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.
Read full review
Pegasystems
The online training is an excellent one, but still it is missing hands on development.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Pegasystems
Implementation is totally depend up on the requirement
Read full review
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
Pegasystems
We did evaluate multiple products offerings with Pega Platform capabilities and observed that Pega PRPC rules engine and case management capabilities are better over so many BPM Tools. We also conducted a detailed study with developers to identify the best products out of Suite of BPM products. It's observed that Rules engines integration is very streamlined with forms in Pega whereas other tools multiple have powerful data model capabilities but lacks the ease of creating business rules.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Pegasystems
  • For one of the applications we worked on, we were able to reduce the processing time on a case from 2 days to 20 minutes by utilizing Pega
  • We were able to resolve the issue of the routing of cases to users based on a specific algorithm by use of Pega
  • Pega case management feature was extensively used in one of the application to establish a parent-child relationship which was very helpful for all the business users
Read full review
ScreenShots