Microsoft Power BI vs. ThoughtSpot

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
ThoughtSpot
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
ThoughtSpot is an Agentic Analytics Platform for enterprises where users ask data questions using natural language and get answers with AI. Code-first for data teams and code-free for business users, ThoughtSpot can handle large, complex cloud data at scale.
$1,500
per year (5 users)
Pricing
Microsoft Power BIThoughtSpot
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Thoughtspot Analytics - Pro
$50
per month (billed annually) per user (25-1000 users)
Thoughtspot Analytics - Enterprise
Custom
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Power BIThoughtSpot
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Power BIThoughtSpot
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Power BI
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Power BI is a good tool overall. The price tag is way lower than Tableau which is a plus, but as you can expect, with a lower price you will probably miss out on a feature here or there. Tableau definitely is more feature rich with the customization and functionality of …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
I thinking Microsoft Power BI is a great start for someone who wants something more powerful and distributable than Excel. During my relatively short evaluation, I did not find Power BI to be up to the task of more powerful tools. However it might compete well if properly …
ThoughtSpot
Chose ThoughtSpot
Great ease of use for business users and self-service capabilites
Chose ThoughtSpot
It stacks up well against these modern BI tools. These are the most popular tools and its ability to perform well with live connections gives it an advantage. However, having more control over formatting/customization would allow it to go further. Plus, developing a stronger …
Chose ThoughtSpot
I think PBI was terribly slow and clunky. UI was outdated. Solution was expensive for what we needed. ThoughtSpot was worlds different (in a better way).
Chose ThoughtSpot
It is more flexible and PowerBI, easier work online, and share information with many users. Also the dashboards and beautiful, and the user experience is better. Performance used to be faster.

We use Looker for different use cases but, when it comes to reporting and sharing …
Chose ThoughtSpot
ThoughtSpot provided a twist on the typical Analytics / report builder interface. The natural language query building is just so much easier to use.
Chose ThoughtSpot
we were looking for something which provides self service capabilities and something which very eay to use from users perspective.
Chose ThoughtSpot
ThoughtSpot has more possibilities, is easier to use and can combine much more info to get the report you want.
Also, because you can replace other software, it's cheaper.
Chose ThoughtSpot
ThoughtSpot is the leader in embedded analytics and is much easier to work with massive volumes of data. None of the other tools listed had both of those functionalities, which were most important to us. There are other features that they have such as easier drill down, …
Chose ThoughtSpot
ThoughtSpot is my top choice from the above two as the UI is the most modern and user-friendly as well.
Chose ThoughtSpot
Compare to Kibana, which was we used previously, ThoughtSpot is definitely better in terms of UI, visualizations, usability, and the SpotIQ/ML components. The only disadvantage for ThoughtSpot is the lack of drill-down function/click-on filters.
Chose ThoughtSpot
much more extensible and much easier to embed
Chose ThoughtSpot
The main reason for selecting Thoughtspot was to share reporting with other external vendors and ease of doing business.
Chose ThoughtSpot
We selected ThoughtSpot with the promise that it would evolve into a Google search for business insights. To date, it has not gotten close in my opinion.
Chose ThoughtSpot
I have only used ThoughtSpot. I have not used any other product like it before.
Chose ThoughtSpot
I think it took me less time to learn how to use ThoughtSpot, and that I could use it for doing a lot more things.
Chose ThoughtSpot
In ad-hoc reporting...ThoughtSpot is superior in speed-to-results. The other products are capable, however, they require SQL coding and setup that ThoughtSpot only requires on initial load of data. Both PowerBI and ThoughtSpot use a text-based "natural language" query engine, …
Chose ThoughtSpot
ThoughtSpot is just as good at creating the initial graphic for the end user, it might even be better because the user really does not need much technical knowledge in order to create a basic graphic. Currently, ThoughtSpot cannot yet compete with the other tools when it comes …
Features
Microsoft Power BIThoughtSpot
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
ThoughtSpot
7.3
89 Ratings
11% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.3167 Ratings6.021 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.7195 Ratings8.289 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.0178 Ratings7.725 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
ThoughtSpot
7.5
91 Ratings
7% below category average
Drill-down analysis8.3191 Ratings8.590 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.8191 Ratings7.290 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.4143 Ratings5.749 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.4189 Ratings8.688 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
ThoughtSpot
8.3
84 Ratings
1% above category average
Publish to Web8.2177 Ratings8.355 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.0172 Ratings8.678 Ratings
Report Versioning7.7144 Ratings7.918 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.2147 Ratings8.464 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers7.9110 Ratings8.135 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
ThoughtSpot
7.4
86 Ratings
8% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.2181 Ratings7.685 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.1166 Ratings7.679 Ratings
Predictive Analytics7.4136 Ratings7.565 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining7.437 Ratings6.913 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
ThoughtSpot
8.1
86 Ratings
5% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.7168 Ratings8.282 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.4146 Ratings8.074 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.4158 Ratings7.878 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.347 Ratings7.916 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.6140 Ratings8.672 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
ThoughtSpot
7.5
53 Ratings
4% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access7.7150 Ratings7.351 Ratings
Mobile Application7.6131 Ratings7.234 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.9153 Ratings7.046 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
ThoughtSpot
7.1
51 Ratings
9% below category average
REST API8.1103 Ratings6.942 Ratings
Javascript API7.684 Ratings6.535 Ratings
iFrames8.055 Ratings8.134 Ratings
Java API7.068 Ratings7.013 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)7.690 Ratings7.335 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.444 Ratings7.115 Ratings
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Microsoft Power BIThoughtSpot
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User Ratings
Microsoft Power BIThoughtSpot
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(197 ratings)
8.6
(91 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(3 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(113 ratings)
8.3
(85 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(52 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
4.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Power BIThoughtSpot
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
ThoughtSpot
It is well suited when the same data is consumed by many different people with different analytics and visualization requirements because, if you have the data available in ThoughtSpot, every user can prepare different views. Also, it is a good reporting tool, you can get rid of slides if you have a good dashboard prepared, gaining flexibility and agility.
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
ThoughtSpot
  • Beautiful visualizations. The visuals are distinct, clean, and easy to discern from one another.
  • Intelligent querying functionality. When looking to manipulate the data, the search function makes it easy to manipulate the features in the data, along with aggregating them in the way you'd like.
  • Embedding! It has been a smooth process thus far for our product & technical teams to work with ThoughtSpot and bring it into our product.
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
ThoughtSpot
  • It would be great if ThoughtSpot can add the feature to filter by clicking on visualizations. i.e if I click on a particular data point in the chart if the full dashboard can filter just for that particular data point.
  • Color coding the heatmap with different colors like green to orange to red.
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
ThoughtSpot
I give it just waiting because passport is brilliant and it has helped our organisation In advancing to the next stage in the age of AI. It has allowed or non-tech people to better service and clients in a cost-effective way. George port has allowed us to create new products for us and for our clients increasing our revenue streams and reducing clients churn
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
ThoughtSpot
The rating is because of the ease of use of the interface as it has a no code interface that makes it easy to setup data pipelines without extensive programming. Cloud native integration: It integrates seamlessly with cloud based data warehouses. Automated data loading, Scalability, Cost Effective, Transformations, Data Governance and security.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
ThoughtSpot
it's available unless there is a server or system update etc. sometimes the timing of this is bad (for example during a month end close)
Read full review
Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
ThoughtSpot
It does what it is supposed to. Would be nice to have a bit more insights
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
ThoughtSpot
I give it this meeting because the team is not only help able to help us in the current solutions but also amazing and taking feedback and feeding it back to their development team which includes more products and features into ThoughtSpot
Read full review
In-Person Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
ThoughtSpot
inhouse in-person training. Took a bit to long to get the basics.
Read full review
Online Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
ThoughtSpot
poor instructions
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
Read full review
ThoughtSpot
Understand use case and model and design accordingly
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
ThoughtSpot
We also explored Tableau Ask Data. Tableau is our standard for BI in our organization. We want to use the smallest amount of tools in our company to have the best adaption. ThoughSpot will fill a few gaps that we have with our current set up and will also enhance out offering for our employees in the transition of being more data driven within in near future
Read full review
Scalability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
ThoughtSpot
Because it is very reliable, inside the situation, we need strong internet connection to access a lot of data but easily never had any downtime except during the upgrades
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
ThoughtSpot
  • Time to market ROI is massive vs hiring the full-time dedicated team to build and maintain a frontend multi-tenant SaaS data viz product.
  • It will be interesting to see over time how the advanced features play out in terms of usability and end value, such as Natural Search, which we are very excited about, and the machine learning tools.
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

ThoughtSpot Screenshots

Screenshot of the ThoughtSpot home screenScreenshot of SpotIQ, which offers AI-driven insightsScreenshot of the Spotter AI agent that surfaces insights through natural language queriesScreenshot of AI Assist producing SQL in real timeScreenshot of SpotIQ, which offers AI-driven insightsScreenshot of the integration with dbt models and metrics