Microsoft Power BI vs. Sigma Computing

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Power BI
Score 8.5 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
Sigma
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Sigma Computing headquartered in San Francisco provides a suite of data services such as code free data modeling, data search and explorating, and related BI and data visualization services.N/A
Pricing
Microsoft Power BISigma Computing
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Power BISigma
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsContact us for pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Power BISigma Computing
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Power BI
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 …
Sigma
Chose Sigma Computing
I'd rate Sigma to be extremely similar to Sisense except it looks not as nice. I would say that as a tool, Sigma is more user-friendly than Tableau, Power BI, Trevor, and Metabase.

I do feel that Looker is far more powerful and looks great, but I also recognize that Looker does …
Chose Sigma Computing
Sigma computing has better pricing than the competitors. We're always looking for what is good for the price but also gives us all we need to complete our reporting. It also brings about a lot of updates that are nice to see. The embedding helps other BI tools sometimes.
Chose Sigma Computing
Sigma is the easiest to use from a workbook developer perspective, and from a non-technical end user perspective. Everything from administration, semantic layer setup, to creating dashboards is easier in Sigma than these other tools. Developing content in Sigma is enjoyable, …
Chose Sigma Computing
I have found that Tableau can be used to create a greater variety of custom and complex visuals, though these visuals are far more difficult to create in a quick turnaround. While Sigma may be more limited in terms of what types of visuals can be create or how customized they …
Chose Sigma Computing
Less visually appealing. Feels like fewer pixels. Harder to make graphs and visuals. Really good integration with Snowflake and intuitive usage for custom equations and filters.
Chose Sigma Computing
2 biggest reasons for Sigma were easy of use for power users, and cost of having a large amount of viewers of the data.
Chose Sigma Computing
sorta in the middle.
One thing that differs than Domo or power bi, is that those softwares bring in the data into the platform, instead of how sigma runs a query against our data warehouse each time a user interacts with the dashboard (there is some small caching, so not always)
Chose Sigma Computing
Sigma is by far the best. It is easiest to learn and easiest to use on a day to day basis. I never have to wait for dashboards to load and it's very easy to understand the variables that are going into my visualizations. Best of all I can manipulate the data within Sigma …
Chose Sigma Computing
flexibility, works really well with Snowflake, export capability, level of support, the fact that Sigma Computing is a start up and improving so quickly. Web based software
Chose Sigma Computing
Sigma is user-friendly and target non technical users as well.
Sigma focuses on native cloud integration.
Sigma Computing also emphasizes collaboration, enabling multiple users to work together on the same data sets and share insights.
Chose Sigma Computing
microstrategy is too complex and expecting data warehouse in perfect Snowflake layout, otherwise all automated joins are getting messed up. Power BI requires to do tons of complex DAX transformations for even getting simple answers and has power limitations.
Chose Sigma Computing
Sigma beats them all in terms of ease of use and interface. Tableau is more customizable than Sigma, particularly with custom graphics. Sigma is far more feature-rich than Metabase as a basic reporting tool. Sigma makes PowerBI look like a 1980s desktop tool. Dataiku is more …
Chose Sigma Computing
ease of implementation , easy to train the resources to get used to the tool as it has very user friendly user interface, the 14 days trial where sales and sigma technical team helped us understand the advantages and the helpline chat which is always helpful . licensing when it …
Chose Sigma Computing
Sigma isnt as strong in Scripting compared to above but with the seamless integration with Snowflake I can utilize the full power of SQL, Python etc.

Sigma also doesn't have a 3rd party marketplace to get visualizations and other customizations compared to these products
Chose Sigma Computing
Sigma offered a novel approach to data analysis with its Excel-like functionality.
Chose Sigma Computing
Sigma still has a long ways to go compared to Power BI or Tableau. There needs to be more functionality features added to Sigma.
Chose Sigma Computing
We selected Sigma computing because it fully integrates with Snowflake (the platform our data currently sits on), and with Sigma, we don't need external technical resources. We have full control over our product development.
Chose Sigma Computing
N/A - I was not part of selection process.
Chose Sigma Computing
Sigma Computing is the best at adaptability in terms of how easy it is for an organization to adopt and derive value from without being technically apt.
Chose Sigma Computing
Not involved in the selection process.
Chose Sigma Computing
Sigma was chosen for three reasons. 1. Excel-like workflow. Many of our researchers have a background in excel, and the excel-like workflow Sigma offers enabled them to get up and running quickly. 2. Embeds. We can easily embed dashboards into our SAS platform 3. Price. Sigma …
Chose Sigma Computing
The decision to move to Sigma was mainly a business decision based on cost, as the vast majority of our users are external customers of ours. Sigma is basically on par with the others for its core functionality but still falls short in pure customization options. Additionally, …
Features
Microsoft Power BISigma Computing
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.3
196 Ratings
1% above category average
Sigma Computing
7.9
163 Ratings
4% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.3167 Ratings6.5104 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.7195 Ratings9.3161 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.0178 Ratings7.8133 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
194 Ratings
0% below category average
Sigma Computing
7.7
166 Ratings
4% below category average
Drill-down analysis8.3191 Ratings8.4155 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.8191 Ratings7.2163 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.4143 Ratings7.35 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.4189 Ratings8.0162 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
187 Ratings
3% below category average
Sigma Computing
7.9
156 Ratings
4% below category average
Publish to Web8.2177 Ratings8.1103 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.0172 Ratings7.9130 Ratings
Report Versioning7.7144 Ratings7.5120 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.2147 Ratings8.1132 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers7.9110 Ratings7.768 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
187 Ratings
3% below category average
Sigma Computing
6.8
149 Ratings
16% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.2181 Ratings8.6147 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.1166 Ratings5.626 Ratings
Predictive Analytics7.4136 Ratings6.218 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining7.437 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.5
178 Ratings
0% below category average
Sigma Computing
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)8.7168 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.4146 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.4158 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.347 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.6140 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
160 Ratings
3% above category average
Sigma Computing
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access7.7150 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application7.6131 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.9153 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
7.8
115 Ratings
1% above category average
Sigma Computing
-
Ratings
REST API8.1103 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API7.684 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames8.055 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API7.068 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.690 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.444 Ratings00 Ratings
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User Ratings
Microsoft Power BISigma Computing
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(197 ratings)
8.3
(170 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(3 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(113 ratings)
7.6
(48 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(52 ratings)
10.0
(47 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Power BISigma Computing
Likelihood to Recommend
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
Read full review
Sigma Computing
We were able to set up client-facing embedded reports with ease and security. The interface is not difficult to learn, although we may not be aware of or lack the necessary expertise to utilize more advanced features that would likely benefit us.
Read full review
Pros
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.
Read full review
Sigma Computing
  • Allows end users to easily dive into the data without having direct access to the table in our database management software.
  • Can easily turnaround dashboards that are detailed and visually pleasing.
  • Sigma is intuitive and as new features are rolled out it is easy to adopt and incorporate them into new and existing dashboards.
Read full review
Cons
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.
Read full review
Sigma Computing
  • Sigma Computing does not allow custom ordering of pivot fields in pivot tables easily
  • Sigma Computing lacks functionality for creating tables or sections that dynamically adjust to the browser window's height while maintaining a fixed height textbox at the bottom
  • Sigma Computing does not provide straightforward options for formatting totals in tables, such as renaming 'Total' to 'Average', 'Team Total', etc
  • Sigma Computing does not support searching by individual tab names within a workbook
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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
Sigma Computing
Sigma has helped us a lot and has become an integral part of our daily workflow. It would be difficult to switch to another platform and have to rebuild the numerous metrics and performance reports that we have already established
Read full review
Usability
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.
Read full review
Sigma Computing
It has a clean and modern interface. However, it is not completely intuitive. I think it would be better and easier to navigate with more Windows style drop down menus and/or tabls. There is a significant learning curve, but that may be due in part to the technical nature of this type of software tool.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Sigma Computing
Yes, as long as you don’t conduct user error sigma is always up and running and waiting for you to complete your dashboards
Read full review
Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Sigma Computing
It depends, it loads quickly for smaller dashboards but when loading larger amounts of data it takes more time to do so
Read full review
Support Rating
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.
Read full review
Sigma Computing
They are very friendly and informative. They are quick in resolving our queries and help us understand very minute things as well. They are quick in creating feature tickets based on our custom requirements, and they would also create a bug ticket if there is any discrepancy and get that checked on time.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
Read full review
Sigma Computing
Was not involved in implementation
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
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.
Read full review
Sigma Computing
With Looker, to be effective, a substantial amount of coding & modeling needs to happen in LookML. Being another language to learn, users have to context switch again from at a minimum either SQL or Python into LookML. The concept of being able to source control, code review, and deploy your models is a plus though.
Tableau is the gold standard for data visualization, no question. Power users will be able to create dazzling content that Sigma won't necessarily be able to easily match. However, since development usually happens via an extract, helping other users troubleshoot is an arduous process. Trying to re-do or un-do all the transformations and calculations that cause a certain number is very difficult.
With Sigma, all the queries happen directly against Snowflake and you can see the query logs. The data modeling happens right in a tabular, spreadsheet-like manner, so within only a few minutes, substantial transformations can happen, with visualizations just a few more clicks away.
Read full review
Scalability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Sigma Computing
It is a cloud service offering that is able to expand based on your usage
Read full review
Return on Investment
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.
Read full review
Sigma Computing
  • Monitoring health of cloud platform has allowed the company to anticipate issues before they affect customers – Sigma prompted us building a canary monitoring process that provides customer container health.
  • Customer success has used an activity report to discover customers running runaway processes that they were unaware of, creating an alert to contact the customer and prevent an embarrassing situation.
  • Customer success uses the activity report to prompt conversations regarding increases or declines in behavior that led to increasing contract limits or addressing churn concerns.
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