Microsoft Power Automate vs. Power BI For Office 365 (discontinued)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Power Automate
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Power Automate is an advanced automation platform offering a range of features, including AI-powered automation, robotic process automation (RPA), business process automation (BPA), digital process automation (DPA), and process/task mining. The platform aims to empower organizations to securely automate their operations at scale by leveraging low-code and AI technologies.
$15
per month per user
Power BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Power BI for Office 365 allowed users to model and analyze data, and query large datasets with complex natural language queries. It has been discontinued in favor of other editions of Power BI going forward.N/A
Pricing
Microsoft Power AutomatePower BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
Editions & Modules
Power Automate Premium
$15
per month per user
Power Automate Process
$150
per month per bot
Hosted RPA add-on
$215
per month per bot
Process Mining add-on
$5,000
per month per tenant
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Power AutomatePower BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Power AutomatePower BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft Power AutomatePower BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power Automate
-
Ratings
Power BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
9.0
11 Ratings
9% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power Automate
-
Ratings
Power BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
9.5
11 Ratings
16% above category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings10.011 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power Automate
-
Ratings
Power BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
9.5
11 Ratings
13% above category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings10.011 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings9.64 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.73 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power Automate
-
Ratings
Power BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
10.0
11 Ratings
21% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings10.011 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power Automate
-
Ratings
Power BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
9.8
10 Ratings
13% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings10.09 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power Automate
-
Ratings
Power BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
9.5
10 Ratings
18% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings10.09 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power Automate
-
Ratings
Power BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
7.8
3 Ratings
2% below category average
REST API00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft Power AutomatePower BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
Small Businesses
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft Power AutomatePower BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(71 ratings)
8.0
(15 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(2 ratings)
9.2
(4 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(6 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(11 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.8
(26 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Power AutomatePower BI For Office 365 (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Microsoft Power Automate is the best tool to extend Microsoft services you already use. Hands down. Prototyping workflows is very easy in Microsoft Power Automate. It's also the best choice for sending custom cards through Teams and email. It's the easiest way to get data from Microsoft Graph.
Read full review
Microsoft
If you're already using Office 365, Power BI for O365 is an easy choice. Start playing around with the free version and then easily add individual Pro licenses with little risk. However, if you anticipate using this with many users, it can get expensive quickly.
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • Sending confirmation email to clients and user once the flow is triggered.
  • Fetching or Dumping files from one location to another if the flow is triggered.
  • Schedule flow helps to send alerts and triggers the flow at a specific interval of time to carry out the required task.
  • Power Automate also be used to convert any file format to a specific file format and save it to the required location
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Easy to make visual dashboards from SQL queries. Previously we had to use a third party application that had to run on a web server that was so complex to setup and run. PowerBI removes all that.
  • Ability to control who/which group has access to each dashboard or report. Ties in well with the rest of the Office 365 ecosystem.
  • Has many connectors to allow pulling data from various systems, both onsite (via gateway) or external (via APIs), and join the data to create a report/dashboard.
  • Ability to show data but also export the data, if permitted.
  • Easy to show PowerBI dashboards on SharePoint or on other websites via embedded code.
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • Many times it doesn't feel very "low-code" or intuitive. AI builder is helping more and more.
  • Workflows should have a longer lifespan in days, we have approval processes that take months and it's very annoying to fix if the instance is stopped.
  • Better debugging and quick fix help
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Licensing: Currently, Microsoft has a fixed pricing model for Office 365 users, regardless of role/function of the user. Most organizations have a small number of "power users" that create usable content and many more "consumers" that simply view/run reports created by power users. Microsoft does not differentiate between these users, and thus the pricing limits organizations from large deployments of the software.
  • Version incompatibility: Excel 2010 and 2013 workbooks are compatible with each other. However, workbooks created in 2010 that include PowerPivot databases must be upgraded to 2013 format to run in 2013. Subsequently, you cannot open these upgraded PowerPivot workbooks in 2010. This requires ALL users to be on the same version.
  • Visualization: Excel charting with PowerPivot workbooks is adequate for many users. Power View also contains a number of GREAT visualizations, including animated bubble charts and a very flexible dashboard/report design canvas. However, compared to some of the other self-service BI solutions, it is still limited in its visualization capabilities.
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
my employer is absolutely fearful of ever changing anything, ever.
Read full review
Microsoft
I will continue to recommend this suite to folks looking for a reporting and analytics solution, as I find in MOST cases, it's great at meeting almost every requirement I've been given by a multitude of clients across a range of industries. I've built Capacity Planning solutions that allowed end user input which was then submitted to SharePoint, Executive Dashboards, custom applications, simple analytical tools for teams to easily slice and dice data, and super simple reports as well as some very complicated ones. If you haven't seen the demos online, do a search, and see for yourself - this is a great BI suite! (I do not work for Microsoft, although I do consult out there from time to time. I do occasionally make a recommendation for a different BI reporting tool, but in general, find Excel can accomplish quite a bit for less money and in less time.)
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
Power Automate has an intuitive interface that is easy for novices to use. It doesn't require programming knowledge, however having that experience will help troubleshoot potential issues if they do arise. There are advanced features that allow the use of "code-like" steps that will help power users get more advanced automations set up quickly.
Read full review
Microsoft
We are satisfied with the functionality and capabilities of Power BI. Product is cost effective and full-fill the reporting requirements of the organization. You can perform most of the report level complex analysis with the help of DAX which makes Power BI very powerful analytic tool. Power BI for Office 365 has gone away and Power BI is the next evolution of it. Power BI comes with your Office 365 E5 subscription or you can purchase licensing for it separately.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
I really have had a need to contact Win Automation support, but when I do google how to do a task, Win Automation has an extensive message board with a broad number of topics and questions answered where I could see how other people were able to solve similar problems to the ones I have.
Read full review
Microsoft
as of now there is strong community for Power BI, you can get solution for most of your problems from there. Also you can send your error to Microsoft as well. After every 15 days they release updates to overcome all the issues of defects.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Microsoft
after reviewing the main features of Power Automate, the Microsoft trainer focused on some of our real life use cases implementation, from simple to more advanced.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Microsoft
although it was productive, it is more difficult to stay focused and in a 7 hours a day online training (including screen share issues and the fact that the trainer just can't precisely show the exact location of your mistake)
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
I had to migrate from Robocorp to Power Automate. The automation was using API and sharepoint. So it was better to use Power Automate instead of Robocorp so we did the migration. in some areas the migration was easy but creating flows and making it smaller codes was difficult. Debugging the code was tough so we took lots of time.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Power Automate is a no-code/low-code solution tailored for workflow automation, data integration, and AI integration, making it an excellent choice for Microsoft-centric organizations. OutSystems, on the other hand, is a comprehensive application development platform, offering rapid app development with both low-code and traditional development options. This platform is well-suited for organizations seeking custom application development. Nintex specializes in workflow and process automation with a strong focus on SharePoint and Office 365 integration. It also includes advanced features like document generation and robotic process automation (RPA).The choice among these platforms should align with your organization's specific needs, considering factors like integration requirements and the desired level of technical expertise. In the bottomline, it's up to cost and licensing.
Read full review
Microsoft
Oracle was nice, super expensive to implement if it's not in use already. JobDiva is choppy and heavy on the system while does not give great reports. Salesforce is good; remote access is good however their support is terrible
Read full review
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • It has encouraged everyday users to get a feel for low code no code without the detailed technical programmings skills
  • This has encouraged the use of Power Automate to replace what was once an excel filled with complex macros and VBA!
  • It has significantly saved time for someone like myself from chasing people for information and now I can create an auto alert using PA
Read full review
Microsoft
  • As a Microsoft Partner implementing Business Intelligence solutions, Power BI has removed the barrier for our clients to begin the "BI journey". So often, projects get hung up in that early phase of procuring and installing/configuring expensive hardware and software. Just simply getting started and designing a beginning solution has allowed our clients to see results in 1-2 weeks using their data that might have taken months to achieve otherwise.
  • One significant ROI example is process improvement. In many cases, individuals or teams are spending days each month gathering data from multiple sources for reporting to their constituents. We are reducing these times to minutes by automating many of the data collection and integration processes that were previously manual.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Microsoft Power Automate Screenshots

Screenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Work Queues, Initial pageScreenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Signed-in web portal home pageScreenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Signed-in web portal create pageScreenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Desktop designerScreenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Hosted RPAScreenshot of Microsoft Power Automate (Interface Screenshot) - Display of DLP violations (on Run)