Microsoft BI (MSBI) Reviews & Ratings 2025

Overview

What is Microsoft BI (MSBI)?

Microsoft BI is a business intelligence product used for data analysis and generating reports on server-based data. It features unlimited data analysis capacity with its reporting engine, SQL Server Reporting Services alongside ETL, master data management, and data cleansing.

Learn from top reviewers

Good tool for analyzing your office working data with real time sharing.

Rating: 10 out of 10

April 11, 2025

Vetted ReviewVerified User

It was short tenure that i used on trial basis. I used for managing & tracking my client job openings, individual performance of my team member, tracking all the rejection...

Von Varun Pasan

Account Manager - Human Resources

Sr. Account Manager

Pinnacle Technology

1 year of experience

MSBI : a new boom in the digital world!

Rating: 9 out of 10

January 4, 2024

Vetted ReviewVerified User

I use MSBI specifically for data generation and data analytics. It has helped me to create a data way more simpler and easy to understand. It improved the frequent usage of da...

Verified user

Administrator

2 years of experience

Multiple tools in single package.

Rating: 8 out of 10

September 28, 2022

IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User

In my organization, we are using MSBI to create, maintain and deploy reposts. We use all three component of MSBI like SSIS, SSRS, SSAS. We use ETL packages to maintain Datawar...

Lakhan Suri

Engineer - Information Technology

SQL AND BI Developer

Carmen Solutions

4 years of experience

In the world of data visualization, this is one of the best virtualization tools

Rating: 9 out of 10

November 13, 2021

Vetted ReviewVerified User

With Microsoft BI (MSBI), we can create our own data sets, goals, and records with no difficulty. We have a wide range of options and features to choose from when it comes to ...

Aononna Tazin

Consultant - Information Technology

Customer Relationship Management Specialist

Green Light Ltd

1 year of experience

"Easy To Use BI Platform With Effective Reporting"

Rating: 9 out of 10

November 1, 2021

IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User

I can connect to Oracle, Snowflake, SQL Server, Excel, CSV, text files, and create custom visualizations with Microsoft Power BI Desktop. Our team can generate reports and ana...

Nilufa Hossain

Team Lead - Research & Development

IT Specialist

Lamda I-TECH

1 year of experience

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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

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Pricing

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Power BI Pro

$14

Cloud

per month per user

Power BI Premium

$24

Cloud

per month per user

Entry-level set up fee?

No setup fee

For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power…

Offerings

Free Trial
Free/Freemium Version
Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

$14 per month per user

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Features

BI Standard Reporting

Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.

9.5

Avg 8.2

Ad-hoc Reporting

Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.

9.6

Avg 8.0

9.6
Drill-down analysis
(44) Ratings
Drill down analysis is the ability to get to a further level of detail by going deeper into the hierarchy.
9.3
Formatting capabilities
(49) Ratings
Ability to format output e.g. conditional formatting, lines, headers, footers.
9.6
Integration with R or other statistical packages
(39) Ratings
Integration with the open-source R predictive modeling environment.
9.6
Report sharing and collaboration
(49) Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration is the ability to easily share reports with others.

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

9.6

Avg 8.3

9.6
Publish to Web
(44) Ratings
9.6
Publish to PDF
(44) Ratings
9.6
Report Versioning
(40) Ratings
Report versioning is the assignment of version numbers to each version of a report to help in tracking.
9.6
Report Delivery Scheduling
(43) Ratings
Report Delivery Schedule is the ability to have reports delivered to a destination at a specific data and time.
9.6
Delivery to Remote Servers
(24) Ratings
Ability to deliver reports to remote servers

Data Discovery and Visualization

Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.

9.6

Avg 7.9

9.6
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
(47) Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats are canned visualization types that can be selected to visualize different kinds of data.
9.6
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
(44) Ratings
Location analytics is the visualization of geographical or spatial data.
9.6
Predictive Analytics
(42) Ratings
Predictive Analytics is the ability to build forecasting models based on existing data sets.
9.6
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
(2) Ratings
Pattern recognition and data mining mean the ability to recognize hidden patterns in large quantities of data.

Access Control and Security

Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.

9.6

Avg 8.6

9.6
Multi-User Support (named login)
(46) Ratings
Named model access means that users have access based on name and password.
9.6
Role-Based Security Model
(43) Ratings
Role-based access means that access to data is determined by job or position in the corporation.
9.6
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
(46) Ratings
Multiple access permission levels means that different levels of users have different rights.
9.6
Report-Level Access Control
(2) Ratings
Report-level access control means that the type of report determines who has access to it.
9.6
Single Sign-On (SSO)
(28) Ratings
Allows users to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

8.7

Avg 7.8

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding

APIs are a set of routines, protocols, and tools for used for embedding one application in another

9.6

Avg 7.7

9.6
REST API
(19) Ratings
REST is an architecture style for designing networked applications
9.6
Javascript API
(19) Ratings
A Javascript API is a type of API
9.6
iFrames
(18) Ratings
An iFrame is an HTML document embedded inside another HTML document on a website
9.6
Java API
(17) Ratings
A Java application programming interface (API) is a list of all classes that are part of the Java development kit (JDK)
9.6
Themeable User Interface (UI)
(18) Ratings
A themeable user interface means that a specific visual them can be applied to it
9.3
Customizable Platform (Open Source)
(17) Ratings
A customizable, open source API Gateway is a fast and scalable type of API

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Product Details

About
Competitors
Tech Details
FAQs

What is Microsoft BI (MSBI)?

Microsoft BI (MSBI) benefits from the ubiquity of SQL server and the set of tools built around the database, including an ETL layer, master data management, data cleansing, report and reporting.

The reporting engine is SQL Server Reporting Services which does not have the visualization capabilities of visualization tools like Tableau or Qlik. Excel has historically been the platform visualization tool. Power BI for Office 365 has done much to improve the discovery and visualization capabilities of Excel.

Microsoft now offers Power BI cloud as the visualization platform with geospatial 3D, natural-language query generation, and self-service ETL along with charting and other data visualizations that can be uploaded and shared through the Power BI service.

The Power BI platform also provides live access to on-premises Microsoft SQL Server instances, and self-service access to third-party cloud sources including Salesforce, Marketo, Zendesk, and GitHub. Mobility is supported through a native iPad app, an iPhone app.

This new platform is viewed by Microsoft as a visualization layer sitting on top of their earlier generation of installed SQL-based technology.

Microsoft BI (MSBI) Competitors

Microsoft BI (MSBI) Technical Details

Deployment Types	Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating Systems	Unspecified
Mobile Application	No

Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft BI is a business intelligence product used for data analysis and generating reports on server-based data. It features unlimited data analysis capacity with its reporting engine, SQL Server Reporting Services alongside ETL, master data management, and data cleansing.

Microsoft BI (MSBI) starts at $14.

Oracle Analytics Server and Spoom are common alternatives for Microsoft BI (MSBI).

Reviewers rate Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Microsoft BI (MSBI) are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).

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Comparisons

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Reviews From Top Reviewers

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(1-5 of 25)

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Great value for money with Microsoft's BI

Rating: 9 out of 10

January 15, 2016

RG

Robert Goodman

Director, Business Intelligence & Analytics

Georgetown University (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

Verified User

11 years of experience

Likelihood to Renew

10

We are pleased with the Microsoft BI solution, its cost, benefit, and our ability to easily find resources to support this technology stack.

Microsoft BI provides the best bang for your buck, now and into the future.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

March 21, 2015

CU

Chris Utter

Regional BI Practice Director

Neudesic (Information Technology and Services, 201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

Verified User

10 years of experience

Likelihood to Renew

10

The primary reason I give this a 10 is because of my previous experience with Microsoft. While I can be effective with other tools and solutions, my experience is primarily focused on the Microsoft solution stack and surrounding tools. Some people are Java-centric, some are C#-centric; I am Microsoft SQL Server-centric. Even with the explosion of "big data" tools, I always seem to gravitate toward the Microsoft solution because I know and understand it better than any other solutions.

"MS BI" = $$$

Rating: 8 out of 10

June 10, 2015

SV

Senthil Vallinayagam

Sr RDBMS/ETL Developer

RSi (Computer Software, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

Verified User

8 years of experience

View profile

Likelihood to Renew

4

Renewal is unlikely due to the rise in licensing premium.

Why is Microsoft BI Right for Me?

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 04, 2015

SW

Steve Wake

Consultant

RevGen Partners (Management Consulting, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

Verified User

12 years of experience

Likelihood to Renew

10

Flexibility and ease of use! I have not found something that I can't do with the Microsoft BI tools. Some things may be a struggle, but that comes with any tool. The online community support for developers and users of Microsoft is tops as well. If you have a problem you can post in the forums provided by Microsoft or just post on Twitter and you will get an answer from the experts in the field in no time. There is no better community out there for technology that is very supportive and will not bash you even for asking the most basic question. There are plenty of options for support that don't require you to contact Microsoft and that helps save a lot of dollars and time. The tools are keep up-to-date and are constantly evolving.

Microsoft BI -- Say GoodBI to the Competition for the Moment.

Rating: 9 out of 10

February 03, 2015

LC

Lee Cullom

President

Northcraft Analytics (Computer Software, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

Verified User

6 years of experience

View profile

Likelihood to Renew

10

Microsoft BI is fundamental to our suite of BI applications. That being said, Northcraft Analytics is focused on delighting our customers, so if the underlying factors of our decision change, we would choose to re-write our BI applications on a different stack. Luckily, mathematics are the fundamental IP of our technology... and is portable across all BI platforms for the foreseeable future.

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Power BI Pro

$14

Power BI Premium

$24

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