Microsoft Power BI vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Power BI
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 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.
$10
per month per user
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Salesforce Sales Cloud is a platform for sales with a community of Sellers, Sales Leaders, and Sales Operations, who use the solution to grow sales and increase productivity. The AI CRM for Sales features data built right in, so that companies can sell faster, sell smarter and sell efficiently. Salesforce Sales Cloud is used for, and supports: Buyer Engagement Sales Engagement Enablement Sales AI Sales Analytics Team…
$25
per month
Pricing
Microsoft Power BISalesforce Sales Cloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Starter
$25.00
Per User/Per Month
Professional
$80.00
Per User/Per Month
Enterprise
$165.00
Per User/Per Month
Unlimited
$330.00
Per user/Per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Power BISalesforce Sales Cloud
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Power BISalesforce Sales Cloud
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Power BI
Chose Microsoft Power BI
With Microsoft Power BI it is easy to load the data and transform it, with its competitor product Tableau, an enterprise would need a separate tool known as Tableau Prep.
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Again, I would say [Microsoft] Power BI stacks up right in the middle against their competitors. It gets the job done in terms of data aggregation and visualization, but it lacks user experience and ease of building. Most sales reps I spoke with didn't like the tool because it …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Power BI is, in my opinion, the overall best visualization tool on the market today. While there are niche areas where others may have small advantages, the overall feature/functionality, approachability, and value proposition that Power BI provides give it the edge. Cost is …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is part of the MS product family, and since we are a Microsoft shop (Office365, Azure, SQL DB) it fits into our environment with centralized management/administration. This alone justified additional costs (licensing). Tableau and SAP Business Objects are …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Tableau is a solution with more tools; is more robust, able to handle large volumes of data, but Power BI has a cost-benefit ratio superior to other existing solutions in the market. It gives you what you need at a very low cost, even free.
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Power BI, Tableau, and QlikView are the market leaders when analyzed on Gartner`s magic quadrant for business intelligence tool. One of the critical drawbacks of all these visionary tools is the absence or expensive back end that are needed to support the infrastructure. …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
I have not used any Alternative products. A couple of the people that I work with have, but I have not.
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Power BI performs quite well in comparison to it's competitor's products. We compared it mainly to GoodData and Tableau. Power BI has a great pricing. It's affordable and efficient with mid-sized datasets. Hence many companies go for it. Competitive products like Tableau are …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
I thought the learning curve of Power BI was much easier than some of the other tools that I had tried. There were pieces that were not as robust, but nothing that was a show stopper for my needs.
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft Power BISalesforce Sales Cloud
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
7.3
138 Ratings
12% below category average
Salesforce Sales Cloud
-
Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports6.5118 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.0138 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.2126 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
7.0
139 Ratings
15% below category average
Salesforce Sales Cloud
-
Ratings
Drill-down analysis7.2138 Ratings00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities6.4137 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.5102 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration7.0134 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
133 Ratings
7% below category average
Salesforce Sales Cloud
-
Ratings
Publish to Web8.1128 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.1121 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Versioning7.3101 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.6103 Ratings00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers6.873 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
7.6
135 Ratings
6% below category average
Salesforce Sales Cloud
-
Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.5130 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.8121 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics7.4101 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.2
126 Ratings
5% below category average
Salesforce Sales Cloud
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)8.2120 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.8102 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.4110 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.694 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
7.9
117 Ratings
1% below category average
Salesforce Sales Cloud
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access8.0111 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application7.493 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.4112 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.4
80 Ratings
6% above category average
Salesforce Sales Cloud
-
Ratings
REST API8.172 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API9.656 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames8.055 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API7.946 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.263 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.344 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Force Automation
Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
-
Ratings
Salesforce Sales Cloud
7.8
242 Ratings
1% above category average
Customer data management / contact management00 Ratings8.6242 Ratings
Workflow management00 Ratings7.9233 Ratings
Territory management00 Ratings7.5186 Ratings
Opportunity management00 Ratings8.5236 Ratings
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)00 Ratings7.5221 Ratings
Contract management00 Ratings7.2193 Ratings
Quote & order management00 Ratings7.5176 Ratings
Interaction tracking00 Ratings7.6207 Ratings
Channel / partner relationship management00 Ratings7.7168 Ratings
Customer Service & Support
Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
-
Ratings
Salesforce Sales Cloud
7.4
84 Ratings
1% below category average
Case management00 Ratings7.884 Ratings
Call center management00 Ratings7.366 Ratings
Help desk management00 Ratings7.268 Ratings
Marketing Automation
Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
-
Ratings
Salesforce Sales Cloud
7.7
221 Ratings
2% above category average
Lead management00 Ratings7.9216 Ratings
Email marketing00 Ratings7.5185 Ratings
CRM Project Management
Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
-
Ratings
Salesforce Sales Cloud
7.5
224 Ratings
1% below category average
Task management00 Ratings7.5213 Ratings
Billing and invoicing management00 Ratings7.260 Ratings
Reporting00 Ratings7.9177 Ratings
CRM Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
-
Ratings
Salesforce Sales Cloud
7.8
237 Ratings
2% above category average
Forecasting00 Ratings7.4206 Ratings
Pipeline visualization00 Ratings7.8225 Ratings
Customizable reports00 Ratings8.2234 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
-
Ratings
Salesforce Sales Cloud
8.1
228 Ratings
7% above category average
Custom fields00 Ratings8.2226 Ratings
Custom objects00 Ratings8.1216 Ratings
Scripting environment00 Ratings8.0160 Ratings
API for custom integration00 Ratings8.2189 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
-
Ratings
Salesforce Sales Cloud
8.7
230 Ratings
5% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.8197 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.6203 Ratings
Social CRM
Comparison of Social CRM features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
-
Ratings
Salesforce Sales Cloud
7.5
145 Ratings
3% above category average
Social data00 Ratings7.6144 Ratings
Social engagement00 Ratings7.5141 Ratings
Integrations with 3rd-party Software
Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
-
Ratings
Salesforce Sales Cloud
7.8
197 Ratings
9% above category average
Marketing automation00 Ratings7.8193 Ratings
Compensation management00 Ratings7.8130 Ratings
Platform
Comparison of Platform features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
-
Ratings
Salesforce Sales Cloud
7.2
208 Ratings
4% below category average
Mobile access00 Ratings7.2208 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft Power BISalesforce Sales Cloud
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Salesmate
Salesmate
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft Power BISalesforce Sales Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(140 ratings)
8.4
(374 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(56 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(56 ratings)
7.6
(120 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.8
(27 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(52 ratings)
5.7
(91 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(11 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(15 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(18 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(9 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(33 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(8 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Power BISalesforce Sales Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
In operations we use the tool for many different topics, from factory quality systems to high level reviews. We have created kind of an internal "App Store" based on Power BI where you have a lot of different dashboards for different solutions (cost, cash, health and safety, sales, factories, distribution centers...) and you as an user just need to get in that "App Store" and enter in whatever tool can be useful for you. It is open to all the operations employees and can use on demand. Also it has raised the imagination of our colleagues, as they are not only working by themselves creating new reports, but also raising fantastic ideas that can be extended for the usage of all the community.
Read full review
Salesforce
Sales Cloud is very well suited for the daily leads and opportunity pipeline management as well as user management. Sales process automation are very helpful for repetitive tasks. It integrates well with other platforms. It's easy to customize and report on data. Sales Cloud can be pricey so is only open to larger org's that need complex CRM. User adoption is slow to any new users that have no prior experience.
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • Quickly filter and view granular data sets with easily configurable reporting figures.
  • The ability to quickly switch between tabs allows for historical data comparisons and progress tracking.
  • It's helpful to dive into the data and break it down from high levels to small.
  • Achieve actionable insights faster by using real-time data. It's incredible to have online access to reports.
Read full review
Salesforce
  • Logging notes: SF makes it easy to log notes in the timeline or static notes that live in an easy-to-see spot for longevity.
  • Logging activities: It's easy to post a call, text, email, etc.
  • API data: Once connected, SF is critical to automation, such as website activity, login activity, pages visited, etc., which saves the Customer Success side time in understanding account activity.
  • Custom fields: you can add custom fields to really personalize your experience. We use quite a few and it's brilliant.
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • The desktop app is great but needs a lot of performance improvements
  • No MacOS Version for the Desktop app, this is a big limitation for business since executives prefer Macs
  • Premium Cloud Version of Power BI is awfully expensive
  • On-Premise Version of the Power BI Reports Server is bundled only with SQL Server Enterprise License and cannot be purchased separately and requires Software Assurance Subscription
  • On-Premise Power BI Report Server doesn't support ADFS, AzureAD or any Claims-Based authentication platform, a sad disadvantage for enterprises
Read full review
Salesforce
  • I have hard-coded the auto-update of the phone number format and state format from some codes shared by the community, but I do not know where to do it. I cannot reset it either.
  • It is unclear what functionalities each version has. We use the enterprise version, and it seems we can only have one design of the pipeline. But different business segments would have very different sales cycles, and hence, pipeline tracking would be different. It would be nice to have this available in our version.
  • It seems I cannot create a report to pull notes logged at the account levels.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
I find it helpful and easy to use
Read full review
Salesforce
There are days when I wish we hadn't switched, but I know that if we put in the time, we will get to where we want to be with the software and that it has many more capabilities than anything else we looked at. However, the amount of time and onboarding we need to do is also far greater than we realized/were told when we originally bought the product. They told us we should hire onboarding support, but at the end, after we had already reached our budget maximum for this, so it's been slower than we had hoped.
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
At this point, I think we all know who has taken the lead in the business intelligence and analytics market worldwide. With fresh new updates every other day on top of an already robustly built product with all features that one can dream of is a no brainer, I feel. Microsoft will invariably be synonymous with quality and professionalism.
Read full review
Salesforce
Salesforce has been designed on the basis of "Clicks, not code". So anyone willing to learn the Salesforce user interface (which is quite good as far as management software platforms go) is able to become a Salesforce user or even a Salesforce administrator. You don't have to know coding language to work in the Salesforce environment. Also, Salesforce has one of the best software training resources (Trailhead) that I have ever encountered. It is free to all, easy to use, and most importantly it is interactive. No scrolling through endless text in a user manual. There are hands-on modules and related videos interlaced and through it all you earn points and badges to display your level of learning.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Salesforce is always available securely from any internet-capable device anywhere in the world, UNLESS you choose to set security measures so that ONLY trusted IP ranges may access the system at certain times of the day. It's all about choice and flexibility with Salesforce products.
Read full review
Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Salesforce performance in general is excellent. "The cloud infrastructure beneath Force.com has been fine-tuned over the past 10 years. It powers nearly 100,000+ businesses running more than 185,000 applications that 3 million users count on every day."
Points per Salesforce -
1) Multitenant kernel - With a multitenant platform, each business that uses the app doesn’t have its own copy. Instead, all businesses share a single copy and then customize it for their specific needs.
2) ISO 27001 certified security - You can’t compromise when it comes to enterprise-level security. Force.com is road-tested and trusted by nearly 100,000+ companies, including many of the world’s most security-conscious organizations, such as banks and health care providers.
3) Proven reliability - All Force.com apps run on world-class data centers with backup, failover, and disaster-recovery facilities. Force.com has had a proven 99.9 percent uptime record for years.
4) Proven, real-time scalability - Force.com is used by many of the world's largest enterprises, including Cisco, Japan Post Network, and Symantec. Applications can automatically scale from a few users to millions of page views, as needed.
5) Real-time query optimizer - You need fast access to your data. The Force.com query optimizer delivers under 300ms response time, at a massive scale.
6) Real-time transparent system status - You can always see real-time system performance, availability, and security information at trust.salesforce.com.
7) Real-time upgrades - Unlike traditional software platforms, our upgrades never break your customizations, code, or integrations. We upgrade the platform for you 3 to 4 times each year. As a result, you’re always on the latest version, with access to the latest features, performance, and security enhancements.
8) Real-time sandbox environments - With a single click, you can create copies of your applications, configuration, and data in separate environments for development, testing, and training.
9) Three global production data centers and disaster recovery - Force.com runs on three geographically dispersed, mirrored data centers with built-in replication, disaster recovery, a redundant network backbone, and no single points of failure
Read full review
Support Rating
Microsoft
I can't really speak to the support overall, [but] I will say that in the almost three years I have used the system, I have only needed to contact their support team once. I think the team was helpful, but it did take some time for us to resolve the issues/ request that they had. I guess the good news is that the system is pretty stable, and I personally have rarely needed to contact their technical support team.
Read full review
Salesforce
The overall support has been good. More and more features are being released quite frequently. Very small features are also making big difference in how the tool can be adapted and used better. If there is anything we need or are stuck, the support team sets up a call and helps in resolving the issue/provides workarounds.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
I attended two training sessions. I would rate them a 4 as an advanced user. It was very basic – great for someone new – would give 8+ for new person.

I had 3 years of experience at the time. I skipped basic and went onto advanced and still not helpful. A lot of it was best practices that didn’t feel relevant for our business
Read full review
Online Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
I have gone through multiple. The content that’s delivered is quite basic – I wish they had more advanced training.

We are grandfathered into premium support plus training. We get unlimited access to instructor led and online training for free. We have taken advantage of this
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Implementation Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Just from an organizational standpoint - we standardized our data prior to moving to Salesforce. But we essentially standardized it wrong. That's created a big disgusting mess for us know that I'll have to deal with as the Admin. Be sure you think through use cases prior to doing something like that - seek outside opinions on how the data will work best, especially depending on what else you're going to integrate with Salesforce.
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
[Microsoft] Power BI is practical and effective, like a hammer for a nail, it is easy to use and produces very quickly the results that in most cases are urgently required by clients (nice reports to share on the web). To start using [Microsoft] Power BI you need a business email address, with that you create an account in Power BI Service and in less than 1 hour you will have installed Power BI Desktop, a report will have been created and it will have been published on the web .
Read full review
Salesforce
Salesforce Sales cloud is well integrated with a lot of other marketing and sales technology SAAS products that we use within our business, which is a big part of why I enjoy using it. Compared to NetSuite, it is a lot more user friendly, a modern platform that provides better visual understanding of sales pipeline and contains more useful data across the customer journey.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Salesforce is the most widely used CRM system. Professionalism tends to increase when things go wrong for market leaders. Salesforce considers us as users because they own the market. Having all of our data in one place and all of our teams working within Salesforce. Anyone who uses Salesforce is impacted by it, even if they don't.
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Scalability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
I don't think there is a limit to Sales Cloud's scalability; at least, I haven't encountered one or heard of one. My data is not enormous, so perhaps some companies might encounter lags, but nothing from my end. I think I'll be able to use Sales Cloud from now until infinity.
Read full review
Professional Services
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Using Salesforce.com has made my daily routines more efficient and simplified the manual tasks I had to perform independently. I can now access data from any device, online or offline, and provide better guidance to my team about the forecasts provided by the built-in artificial intelligence (AI). A chat with a Salesforce support specialist would be great. The knowledge base has a community forum where Salesforce users can ask questions and learn more about the product.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • It helps us track and achieve company goals.
  • It shows us [our] performance in areas we could not previously track and allows us to see and work on how to improve their performance.
  • Quick easy access for executives to use in helping teams and addressing issues.
Read full review
Salesforce
  • All tools we've implemented with Salesforce had a pretty quick positive ROI with the exception of CPQ & Billing. That was a very large project that I would only suggest for businesses with many SKUs that tend to be packaged together.
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

Salesforce Sales Cloud Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of