Microsoft BI (MSBI) vs. SAP HANA Cloud

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
SAP HANA Cloud
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
SAP HANA is an application that uses in-memory database technology to process very large amounts of real-time data from relational databases, both SAP and non-SAP, in a very short time. The in-memory computing engine allows HANA to process data stored in RAM as opposed to reading it from a disk which means that the data can be accessed in real time by the applications using HANA. The product is sold both as an appliance and as a cloud-based software solution.
$0.95
per month Capacity Units
Pricing
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP HANA Cloud
Editions & Modules
Power BI Pro
$9.99
per user/per month
Power BI Premium
4,995
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP HANA Cloud
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsIncludes a one year free trial.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP HANA Cloud
Considered Both Products
Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Microsoft BI is mainly based on Microsoft SQL Server, so it is perfectly integrated. Many of the Microsoft BI components require using SQL Server as the database engine. Generally, the functionalities that are achieved when using SQL Server as a database engine are greater than …
SAP HANA Cloud
Chose SAP HANA Cloud
SAP is implementing in-memory computing and making all of their processes compatible and realistic in nature. SAP HANA can process a large amount of data. We can analyze the data built the reports with ease. Data handling is simple in SAP HANA. It is very fast and there no lag …
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP HANA Cloud
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
SAP HANA Cloud
-
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
SAP HANA Cloud
-
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
SAP HANA Cloud
-
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
SAP HANA Cloud
-
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
4% above category average
SAP HANA Cloud
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)8.946 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.943 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.946 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
7% above category average
SAP HANA Cloud
-
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
SAP HANA Cloud
-
Ratings
REST API8.919 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API8.919 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames8.918 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API8.917 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.918 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.017 Ratings00 Ratings
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Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP HANA Cloud
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Score 8.9 out of 10
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Reveal
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Score 9.9 out of 10
SingleStore
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Score 9.7 out of 10
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Score 9.7 out of 10
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User Ratings
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP HANA Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(73 ratings)
8.3
(294 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(25 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(14 ratings)
9.1
(10 ratings)
Availability
9.5
(2 ratings)
3.6
(1 ratings)
Performance
7.0
(2 ratings)
3.6
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(15 ratings)
8.4
(254 ratings)
In-Person Training
6.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.6
(7 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(2 ratings)
3.6
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
3.6
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft BI (MSBI)SAP HANA Cloud
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
SAP
It is well organized. One can use it for the company's portfolio management. Various tasks can be done for managerial purposes. One can track the material from start to end product: for example, raw material, packing material & consumable material to formulated bulk and formulated drug product. This can help to manage spending as well as finding costing of the product.
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
SAP
  • Real-time reporting and analytics on data: because of its in-memory architecture, it is perfect for businesses that need to make quick decisions based on current information.
  • Managing workload with complex data: it can handle a vast range of data types, including relational, documental, geospatial, graph, vector, and time series data.
  • Developing and deploying intelligent data applications: it provides various tools for such applications and can be used for machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate tasks, gain insights from data, and make predictions.
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
SAP
  • Requires higher processing power, otherwise it won't fly. How ever computing costs are lower. Incase you are migrating to cloud please do not select the highest config available in that series . Upgrading it later against a reserved instance can cost you dearly with a series change
  • Lack of clarity on licensing is one major challenge
  • Unless S/4 with additional features are enabled mere migration HANA DB is not a rewarding journey. Power is in S/4
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
SAP
At this moment we are not focusing on SAP, however would love to in the future. This is primarily because of our limited ability to generate more revenue to fund for SAP partnerships and products. Our initial tryst with SAP Partneredge open ecosystem didn't go as planned and we have shelved that for now. Hope we can revive in the future
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
SAP
In addition to the points described in the previous parts of the review, I believe that as I gain more experience with the product over time, I will be able to better describe my experience with this tool. Meanwhile, I can confirm that the possibilities presented to my organization by the change to SAP HANA, at the moment, have been very important to evolve the analytical and strategic field towards a new path.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
The product has been reliable.
Read full review
SAP
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
SAP
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
SAP
One specific example of how the support for SAP HANA Cloud impacted us is in our efforts to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues. Whenever we encountered an issue or had a question, the support team was quick to respond and provided us with clear and actionable guidance. This helped us avoid downtime and keep our analytics operations running smoothly.
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
SAP
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
SAP
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.
Read full review
SAP
Professional GIS people are some of the most risk-averse there are, and it's difficult to get them to move to HANA in one step. Start with small projects building to 80% use of HANA spatial over time.
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
SAP
I have deep knowledge of other disk based DBMSs. They are venerable technology, but the attempts to extend them to current architectures belie the fact they are built on 40 year old technology. There are some good columnar in-memory databases but they lack the completeness of capability present in the HANA platform.
Read full review
Scalability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
SAP
Limitation of training deliverable by organization
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
SAP
  • ROI has always been high in terms of the functionality that it offers and the security features it comes with.
  • Managing large volumes of data in real-time is not an easy task, but it does it pretty well with faster data processing.
Read full review
ScreenShots