Microsoft Power BI vs. ThoughtSpot

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
ThoughtSpot
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
ThoughtSpot is an AI-Powered Analytics company, that aims to create a more fact-driven world with an easy to use analytics platform. ThoughtSpot enables users to leverage natural language search powered by large language models to ask and answer data questions. Users within an organization can limitlessly engage with live data in any popular cloud data platform to create and interact with granular, hyper…
$95
per month
Pricing
Microsoft Power BIThoughtSpot
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
ThoughtSpot Analytics Team
$95
per month flat subscription
ThoughtSpot Analytics Pro
starts at $30,000
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
ThoughtSpot Analytics Enterprise
contact for pricing
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
ThoughtSpot Everywhere Pro
contact for pricing
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
ThoughtSpot Everywhere Enterprise
contact for pricing
per year consumption-based pricing, pay for what you use
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
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 …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft Power BIThoughtSpot
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
ThoughtSpot
6.8
77 Ratings
19% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports6.5118 Ratings6.021 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.0138 Ratings6.777 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.2126 Ratings7.725 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
ThoughtSpot
6.9
78 Ratings
16% below category average
Drill-down analysis7.2138 Ratings7.778 Ratings
Formatting capabilities6.4137 Ratings5.877 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.5102 Ratings6.345 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration7.0134 Ratings7.976 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
ThoughtSpot
7.7
73 Ratings
8% below category average
Publish to Web8.1128 Ratings7.647 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.1121 Ratings8.168 Ratings
Report Versioning7.3101 Ratings7.918 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.6103 Ratings8.656 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers6.873 Ratings6.629 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
ThoughtSpot
7.2
74 Ratings
12% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.5130 Ratings8.073 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.8121 Ratings7.569 Ratings
Predictive Analytics7.4101 Ratings6.657 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings6.86 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
ThoughtSpot
8.4
73 Ratings
2% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.2120 Ratings8.371 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.8102 Ratings8.364 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.4110 Ratings8.468 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control7.01 Ratings8.56 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.694 Ratings8.360 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
ThoughtSpot
7.7
45 Ratings
3% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access8.0111 Ratings7.943 Ratings
Mobile Application7.493 Ratings7.427 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.4112 Ratings6.939 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
ThoughtSpot
7.0
43 Ratings
12% below category average
REST API8.172 Ratings7.134 Ratings
Javascript API9.656 Ratings6.828 Ratings
iFrames8.055 Ratings7.026 Ratings
Java API7.946 Ratings7.013 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.263 Ratings7.127 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.344 Ratings7.115 Ratings
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Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
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User Ratings
Microsoft Power BIThoughtSpot
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(140 ratings)
8.2
(78 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.7
(6 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(56 ratings)
8.5
(73 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(3 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.7
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(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
-
(0 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)
7.7
(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
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
ThoughtSpot
Well suited for my clients for a Macro view of business insights, credit risk, ESG insights, etc. However, I think ThoughtSpot needs to make exploring underlying data easier, adding a feature where you can click on charts and filters will help users and especially business users to easily understand the granularities as well.
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
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
  • 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
ThoughtSpot
  • Ability to build a single dashboard tile containing the main value, a sparkline, and a percent change over time
  • Easy way to build a user experience that allows for selecting different metrics to trend from a drop-down on a multi-axis graph
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
I find it helpful and easy to use
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
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
ThoughtSpot
The tool is easy to use if you know what you are doing and looking for. I know as they work towards improvements and simple language it will become even easier, but as of now they are doing a great job but there is room for improvement.
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
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
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
No answers on this topic
ThoughtSpot
Understand use case and model and design accordingly
Read full review
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
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
  • 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
ThoughtSpot
  • Positive ROI immediately seen for first POC.
  • Saved an immense amount of time for a sole analyst on a team by enabling the end-users to ask their own questions instead of always turning to her, allowing her to focus on other priorities.
  • Immediate answer to question on second POC that led to personnel changes.
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 ThoughtSpot home screenScreenshot of A Liveboard for drill downScreenshot of Live query, to connect to cloud data platformsScreenshot of Search to analyze and visualize dataScreenshot of A look at queries runScreenshot of Consuming insights on iOS app