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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Excel

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Excel is a spreadsheet application available as part of Microsoft 365 (Office 365), or standalone, in cloud-based and on-premise editions.

    $6.99

    per month

    Microsoft Power BI

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft 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.

    $168

    per year per user

    Pricing
    Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Power BI
    Editions & Modules
    Excel with Microsoft 365
    $6.99
    per month
    Excel for 1 PC or Mac
    $139.99
    perpetual license
    Power BI Pro
    $14
    per month (billed annually) per user
    Power BI Premium
    $24
    per month (billed annually) per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Power BI
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Power BI Desktop is the data exploration and report authoring experience for Power BI, and is available as a free download.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Power BI
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Out of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, IBM SPSS, and Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel is by far the most common tool used for anything data-related across organizations. Accordingly, our organization has also implemented Microsoft Excel as a first-step tool. We recently …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Integrates well with Power BI, since the company for both apps is Microsoft.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Compatibility is the main issue. It is frustrating to send an Excel workbook to someone who can't open it. Also, user interfaces are not as slick and intuitive.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Microsoft Excel is legacy software and no one till now had matched the functionality of Excel. We can even automate daily tasks easily with help of macros. Also one can connect various data base to it and you are good to go without any other hassle. Google Sheets is …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Actually, Power Bi and Planful can be [used] with Excel, each solution has strengths, Power Bi is more focused on graphics, and Planful is more on the financial database, but compared with Google Sheets, Excel is better, first, you can use out of browser, it has a specific …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Excel is much better than Google Sheets. It has better features and compatibility, especially for windows. For mac, I don’t see a big difference as excel needs some significant improvement for mac os. The Cloud version of excel is very similar to mac and I don’t see a lot of …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Excel is easier to use with one-off data sets, if data needs to be reported on a continual basis, PowerBI is great to use for repetitive reporting. PowerBI is great for custom visualizations, but it's easier in Excel to create quick graphs and pivot tables and pivot charts on …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Excel is not as expensive as other softwares and is easy to use. It has a lot of functions and customization as compared to other softwares.
    It can also be used as a data source.
    It does not require to be setup by a separate infrastructure team and can be installed by anyone.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Excel
    Excel is the most basic of the options I have used. Basic does not mean bad it just means it is not as beefed up as some of the other tools out there. When you get into Macros and VBA coding the doors of excel open up, but where it has its downfall is with processing power. The …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Microsoft Power BI is more flexible and can also handle more complex reporting scenarios. While Microsoft Excel is a great tool for analyzing data building visuals is not what it is made for. It is complicated to create Excel reports that will be interactive as a use wants to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    We were able to bundle Power BI with other Microsoft products we rely on heavily. This and the customization options were the main sellers for us.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    While excel can be useful for a very quick data dump, Microsoft Power BI is able to bring that data to life, and show trends and the actual story of what is happening. Microsoft Power BI is the ultimate display tool, and allows us to share information quickly to the CORRECT …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    After several years using Google Looker Studio and BigQuery, Microsoft Power BI is a step-up in terms of visualizations. It is also much more powerful, leading to less errors and has a more intuitive interface. Looker Studio has a focus on Google Analytics whereas Microsoft …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    NA - did not use any other software, yet. Happy with the services and features provided by Microsoft Power BI which helps us navigate through the client requests on a daily basis while also providing actionable insights / solutions with maximum efficiency and that too in a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    For Visualization and Reporting Power BI is way ahead of MS Excel, not only it has the functionality of MS Excel for cleaning and processing of data in the advance Query tab but also the add-on of more eye appealing and customizable Visualizations.
    MS Excel is more focused on …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    99%
    Would buy again
    78 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    110 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    70 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    103 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    76 Answers
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    112 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    46 Answers
    99%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    69 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    54 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    73 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Power BI
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.1
    198 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.1169 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.6197 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.7180 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.9
    196 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.4193 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings7.7193 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.4143 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.2191 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.9
    189 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings8.1179 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.7174 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings7.7145 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.3148 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings7.9111 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.7
    189 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.3183 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.1168 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings7.2138 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.339 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.3
    180 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings8.6169 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.1148 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.1160 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.149 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.5141 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.9
    162 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings7.6152 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings7.5133 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.8155 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power BI
    Feature
    Microsoft Excel
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Power BI
    7.6
    116 Ratings
    2% below category average
    REST API00 Ratings7.7104 Ratings
    Javascript API00 Ratings7.485 Ratings
    iFrames00 Ratings8.055 Ratings
    Java API00 Ratings6.769 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.391 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.444 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Power BI
    Small Businesses
    Stackby
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Google Sheets
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Sheets
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Sisense
    Score6.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Power BI
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (78 ratings)
    8.6
    (199 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.9
    (7 ratings)
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (23 ratings)
    8.3
    (115 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (52 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (82 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (81 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft ExcelMicrosoft Power BI
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    I don't really know another program as powerful as Excel. I've used Google Doc programs but do not feel they come close. So far, anytime I've needed a table of some sort for data, whether it's budget oriented or information off a survey, the best system has been Excel. We do web audits on occasion and we create an Excel worksheet featuring every URL of the pages we're auditing, notes, data about the content, information about files attached to the page and other information to help us determine what pages need updating, deleting or otherwise. We also use Excel primarily to export our Google Analytics to in order for us to create reports for clients that need to see specific information about their traffic.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • It is very good at embedded formulas and tying cells to one another
    • It allows me to compare deals terms on a side-by-side basis and talk my clients through it easily.
    • It is very helpful as well in terms of allowing me to filter/sort results in many different ways depending on what specific information I am most interested in prioritizing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • Excel offers collaboration features that allow multiple users to work on the same spreadsheet, but managing changes made by different users can be challenging. Excel could improve its features by offering more granular control, better tracking of changes, and more robust conflict resolution tools.
    • Itcan be a barrier to productivity when importing and exporting data from other applications or file formats. To improve its features, it should offer better support for standard file formats and more robust error handling and reporting tools.
    • Excel can be challenging for finance students and working professionals, but it can be improved by offering more robust tutorials, better documentation, and more user communities and support forums.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    Excel remains the industry standard for spreadsheets and has maintained simple and straight-forward formula writing methods. Although there is a learning curve to do more complex calculations, there are countless help sites and videos on the Internet for almost any need.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    I'm giving it a 7 because it is my go to. But the fact other prefer Google Sheets when working with a team does get irritating. I've used the online version of Microsoft Excel that other teams can get into and it still seems behind Google Sheets. It's a little clanky and slow? If that's even a term.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    I have rarely, if ever, had issues with its availability.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Microsoft
    Excel load and performs calculations immediately. It integrate well with all Microsoft Office applications and does not slow them down.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    I have not had to use it often, but it is good.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    Out of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, IBM SPSS, and Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel is by far the most common tool used for anything data-related across organizations. Accordingly, our organization has also implemented Microsoft Excel as a first-step tool. We recently adopted Microsoft Power BI (the free version), and use it occasionally (mostly for creating dashboards), but it is less commonly understood by stakeholders across our organization and by our clients. Accordingly, Microsoft Excel is more user-friendly and because of its popularity, we can easily look up how to do things in the program online. Google Sheets is a comparable alternative to Microsoft Excel, but because it's cloud-based and we have sensitive data that needs to be protected, we chose against using this software. Finally, a few users (including myself) have access to and utilize IBM's SPSS. For my role, it's a helpful tool to do more rigorous analyses. However, because of its cost and limited functionality as a simple spreadsheet, we only use it for more complex analyses.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Microsoft
    N/A I was not involved in this process.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Microsoft
    Each user can use it to whatever level of expertise they have. It remains the same so users can contribute to another's work regardless of whether they have more or less expertise
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • Excel has positively impacted the business as it has increased our efficiency.
    • It also saves us the time that we would have spent on making the calculations that it does for us.
    • Since it works on all devices and is compatible with both Windows and Mac, we do not have to invest in any other alternative.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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