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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft BI (MSBI)

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft 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.

    $14

    per month per user

    Spotfire

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/ASpotfire, formerly known as TIBCO Spotfire, is a visual data science platform that combines visual analytics, data science, and data wrangling, so users can analyze data at-rest and at-scale to solve complex industry-specific problems.N/A
    Pricing
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Spotfire
    Editions & Modules
    Power BI Pro
    $14
    per month per user
    Power BI Premium
    $24
    per month per user
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Spotfire
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—For Enterprise engagements, contact Spotfire directly for a custom price quote.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Spotfire
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    TIBCO Spotfire is better in loading multiple data sources, a bit faster on data mining, but not so nice on the dashboard side if this needs to be accessed by several users. On the other hand, Microsoft BI is perfect for an online dashboard.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Microsoft BI is definitely catching up, especially with monthly updates.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Microsoft BI is a great tool when it comes to various integration with line of business applications and its own ecosystem which contains office applications widely used all over the world. Hence, it is well suited for organizations that are complex and have global foot-print. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Spotfire is very powerful, but the learning curve is pretty steep.
    Incentivized
    Cloud Software Group
    Chose Spotfire
    We have tried both Microsoft products. While we are still heavy users of Access, the reporting capabilities of Spotfire are much more useful. We often have to build individual reports in a short time frame. These reports take time to build in Access but can be thrown together …
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    Cheaper, easy Office integration, faster deployment, but more complex to develop, since it's newer, to create robust high-efficiency reporting and analytics.
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    Ease of integration with open source R and mapping feature are positive.
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    Spotfire does a few things very well compared to the other software. It has its own pros and cons. Spotfire was selected because of its mobility support, 1-click 1-step easy reports and capture of analytics. Geographical location can be captured with this tool which was a major …
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    We used MS BI, Qlik and also a homegrown application. While some of these did have features Spotfire was the easiest to implement and manage.
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    I have been using Spotfire for a while, so I like it and really dont want to change. But I think it is hard to understand for others, and Power BI would be something I might consider since it is similar to the same language as Microsoft Access and SQL.
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    Spotfire is the clear choice above Oracle BI, which is less user friendly and non compatible with standardized features (such as easily inputting raw SQL). The reporting visualizations are easier to set up, have more in depth options, and are visually more appealing. For tech …
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    Tableau and Microsoft BI. Tableau was too expensive for the functionality. Microsoft wasn't as easy to use.
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    • More user friendly Interface.
    • Easier to configure the access to data bases and other data types.
    • Easier to build aggregations within the graphs.
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    We evaluated on Mobility, Dashboarding, Web Based User Interface and Analytical capability. At the forefront was the user experience which accounted for just over half of our evaluation criteria. No platform was a 10/10 in all four categories - SAS Visual Analytics excelled in …
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    Our analysis suggested that Spotfire stacked up very well against all of the other vendors. When we looked at our evaluations, Spotfire did not win in any particular category. However, it did very well in all of the categories. Our evaluation also involved a pan-enterprise …
    Incentivized
    Chose Spotfire
    The usual suspects:
    • Microsoft
    • Tableau
    • Qlickview
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    15 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    46 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    15 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    39 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    15 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    48 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    32 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    33 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Spotfire
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    9.0
    53 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Spotfire
    -
    Ratings
    Pixel Perfect reports8.546 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards9.653 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates8.951 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.5
    53 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Spotfire
    -
    Ratings
    Drill-down analysis8.548 Ratings00 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.253 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages8.342 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.953 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.5
    52 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Spotfire
    -
    Ratings
    Publish to Web9.348 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publish to PDF9.148 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Versioning7.444 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.547 Ratings00 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers8.426 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.7
    52 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Spotfire
    -
    Ratings
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.651 Ratings00 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.748 Ratings00 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics7.745 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining8.76 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    9.3
    53 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Spotfire
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-User Support (named login)9.449 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model9.347 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.949 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control9.36 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)9.431 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.0
    42 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Spotfire
    -
    Ratings
    Responsive Design for Web Access8.239 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Application8.030 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.839 Ratings00 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.5
    24 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Spotfire
    -
    Ratings
    REST API9.221 Ratings00 Ratings
    Javascript API8.821 Ratings00 Ratings
    iFrames8.820 Ratings00 Ratings
    Java API8.718 Ratings00 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)8.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)7.319 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform Connectivity
    Comparison of Platform Connectivity features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    -
    Ratings
    Spotfire
    7.2
    8 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Connect to Multiple Data Sources00 Ratings7.88 Ratings
    Extend Existing Data Sources00 Ratings7.48 Ratings
    Automatic Data Format Detection00 Ratings7.88 Ratings
    MDM Integration00 Ratings6.05 Ratings
    Data Exploration
    Comparison of Data Exploration features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    -
    Ratings
    Spotfire
    9.1
    8 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Visualization00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Interactive Data Analysis00 Ratings9.28 Ratings
    Data Preparation
    Comparison of Data Preparation features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    -
    Ratings
    Spotfire
    7.4
    8 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Interactive Data Cleaning and Enrichment00 Ratings7.28 Ratings
    Data Transformations00 Ratings8.08 Ratings
    Data Encryption00 Ratings7.05 Ratings
    Built-in Processors00 Ratings7.55 Ratings
    Platform Data Modeling
    Comparison of Platform Data Modeling features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    -
    Ratings
    Spotfire
    7.6
    8 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Multiple Model Development Languages and Tools00 Ratings7.57 Ratings
    Automated Machine Learning00 Ratings8.55 Ratings
    Single platform for multiple model development00 Ratings7.68 Ratings
    Self-Service Model Delivery00 Ratings6.76 Ratings
    Model Deployment
    Comparison of Model Deployment features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Spotfire
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    -
    Ratings
    Spotfire
    7.4
    7 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Flexible Model Publishing Options00 Ratings7.87 Ratings
    Security, Governance, and Cost Controls00 Ratings7.07 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Spotfire
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    RapidMiner
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Anaconda
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Sisense
    Score6.9 out of 10
    IBM Watson Studio
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Spotfire
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (77 ratings)
    8.4
    (351 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (25 ratings)
    9.6
    (30 ratings)
    Usability
    8.9
    (19 ratings)
    8.0
    (27 ratings)
    Availability
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (14 ratings)
    Performance
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.1
    (14 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (15 ratings)
    8.7
    (27 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    6.9
    (3 ratings)
    8.3
    (52 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (55 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.6
    (7 ratings)
    8.4
    (17 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.1
    (3 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.5
    (42 ratings)
    8.5
    (36 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.4
    (41 ratings)
    9.3
    (36 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (4 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Spotfire
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Microsoft BI has a lot of features and is a very powerful tool, especially if you have folks on your team that know how to utilize all of its capabilities. To truly unlock all that it can do, it does require people to have a deep understanding of its capabilities. That's where the software really shines. If you are looking for a simpler, more basic reporting tool, there are other programs available that do not require such a steep learning curve.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    A high level of data integration is available here it supports various data sources and so on. Collaborating features allow users to give access to the dashboard and merge data analytics with other team members. It can meet the demands of both small and large size business enterprises. A customized dashboard and reports are provided to meet the specific needs and get support of extensibility through APIs and customized scripts.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    • It has the best coding integration (python, R) of any BI product
    • The ability to work with very large datasets (10 mil+) is better than competitors
    • Export options are more complete and have better functionality
    • The data canvas is the best tool to join and transform data vs. competitors
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • MSBI designs can work on increasing data processing capabilities enough to handle the huge datasets etc.
    • It would be a lot better if it is a little low on cost.
    • it needs to create opportunities little more than they do regarding customization of some very unique visualization effects
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    • The donut chart is I guess a powerful illustrations but I hope it should be done quite simple in Spotfire. But in Spotfire there are lots of steps involve just to build a simple donut chart.
    • Table calculation (like Row or Column Differences) should be made simple or there should be drag and drop function for Table Calculation. No need for scripting.
    • Information Link should be changed. If new columns are added to the table just refreshing the data should be able to capture the new column. No need extra step to add column
    Incentivized
    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
    Cloud Software Group
    -Easy to distribute information throughout the enterprise using the webplayer. -Ad hoc analysis is possible throughout the enterprise using business author in the webplayer or the thick client. -Low level of support needed by IT team. Access interfaces with LDAP and numerous other authentication methods. -Possible to continually extend the platform with JavaScript, R scripts, HTML, and custom extensions. -Ability to standardize data logic through pre-built queries in the Information Designer. Everyone in the enterprise is using the same logic -Tagging and bookmarking data allows for quick sharing of insights. -Integration with numerous data sources... flat files, data bases, big data, images, etc. -Much improved mapping capability. Also includes the ability to apply data points over any image.
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    Basic tasks like generating meaningful information from large sets of raw data are very easy. The next step of linking to multiple live data sources and linking those tables and performing on the fly analysis of the imported data is understandably more difficult.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    The product has been reliable.
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    Even though, it's a rather stable and predictable tool that's also fast, it does have some bugs and inconsistencies that shut down the system. Depending on the details, it could happen as often as 2-3 times a week, especially during the development period.
    Read full review
    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
    Cloud Software Group
    Generally, the Spotfire client runs with very good performance. There are factors that could affect performance, but normally has to do with loading large analysis files from the library if the database is located some distance away and your global network is not optimal. Once you have your data table(s) loaded in the client application, usually the application is quite good performance-wise.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    MSBI natively has a site that allows you to vote on user enhancements and bug fixes. This allows the largest nagging issues to float to the top and the development team can prioritize accordingly. As mentioned earlier, the large community base of MSBI developers assist technical resources in handling technical questions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    Support has been helpful with issues. Support seems to know their product and its capabilities. It would also seem that they have a good sense of the context of the problem; where we are going with this issue and what we want the end outcome to be.
    Incentivized
    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
    Cloud Software Group
    The instructor was very in depth and provided relevant training to business users on how to create visualizations. They showed us how to alter settings and filter views, and provided resources for future questions. However, the instructor failed to cover data sources, connecting to data, etc. While it was helpful to see how users can use the data to create reports, they failed to properly instruct us on how to get the dataset in to begin with. We are still trying to figure out connections to certain databases (we have multiple different types).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Cloud Software Group
    The online training is good, provides a good base of knowledge. The video demonstrations were well-done and easy to follow along. Provided exercises are good as well, but I think there could be more challenging exercises. The training has also gone up in price significantly in the last 3 years (in USD, which hurts us even more in Canada), and I'm not sure it is worth the money it now costs (it is worth how much it cost 3 years ago, but not double that.)
    Incentivized
    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
    Cloud Software Group
    The original architecture I created for our implementation had only a particular set of internal business units in mind. Over the years, Spotfire gained in popularity in our company and was being utilized across many more business units. Soon, its usage went beyond what the original architectural implementation could provide. We've since learned about how the product is used by the different teams and are currently in the middle of rolling out a new architecture. I suggest:
    • Have clearly defined service level agreements with all the teams that will use Spotfire. Your business intelligence group might only need availability during normal working hours, but your production support group might need 24/7 availability. If these groups share one Spotfire server, maintenance of that server might be a problem.
    • Know the different types of data you will be working with. One group might be working with "public" data while another group might work with sensitive data. Design your Library accordingly and with the proper permissions.
    • Know the roles of the users of Spotfire. Will there only be a small set of report writers or does everyone have write access to the Library?
    • ALWAYS add a timestamp prompt to your reports. You don't want multiple users opening a report that will try and pull down millions of rows of data to their local workstations. Another option, of course, is to just hard code a time range in the backing database view (i.e. where activity_date >= sysdate - 90, etc.), but I'd rather educate/train the user base if possible.
    • This probably goes without saying, but if possible, point to a separate reporting database or a logical standby database. You don't want the company pounding on your primaries and take down your order system.
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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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    Spotfire is significantly ahead of both products from an ETL and data ingestion capability. Spotfire also has substantially better visualizations than Power BI, and although the native visualizations aren't as flexible in Tableau, Spotfire enables users to create completely custom javascript visaualizations, which neither Tableau or Power BI has. Tableau and Power BI are likely only superior to Spotfire with respect to embedded analysis on a website.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Cloud Software Group
    In an enterprise architecture, if Spotfire Advanced Data services(Composite Studio),data marts can be managed optimally and scalability in a data perspective is great. As the web player/consumer is directly proportional to RAM, if the enterprise can handle RAM requirement accomodating fail over mechanisms appropraitely, it is definitely scalable,
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    • It is costly, so not suitable for small scale implementations.
    • Dashboards are as good as the developer, so need experience to get most out of it
    • You need to be on Spotfire 11 at least to implement out of the box visualizations
    • Integration with Python and R is a game changer, it comes very handy to onboard data scientists without much hassle
    • performance is exceptionally well.
    • Secure
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Spotfire Screenshots

    Screenshot of Smart Visual AnalyticsScreenshot of Geospatial AnalyticsScreenshot of Intelligent Data WranglingScreenshot of Point-and-click Data ScienceScreenshot of Real-time Streaming Analytics