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Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI

Overview

What is Microsoft Power BI?

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…

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Learn from top reviewers

Real-Time Dashboards and Seamless Microsoft Integration with Microsoft Power BI

Rating: 9 out of 10
March 25, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
I found Microsoft Power BI to be very user-friendly and efficient. The smooth integration with Excel and SQL databases is a real saver, allowing for real-time data access and ...
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Manan Soni
Technician - Information Technology
Application Engineer
Citrix
Microsoft Power BI1 year of experience

Microsoft Power BI is Powerful

Rating: 8 out of 10
March 7, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
I use Microsoft Power BI to prepare an analysis of web content audits - what is completed, late, and coming up. The report pulls data from a SharePoint list and filters based ...
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Sherri MacCheyne
Director - Marketing
Director, Strategic Operations
UNC Greensboro
Microsoft Power BI2 years of experience
Verified on LinkedIn

AI probably wins out but Free Microsoft Power BI beats other traditional dashboarding software.

Rating: 7 out of 10
March 7, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
I've used Microsoft Power BI at various locations throughout my career. Currently use it as a metrics dashboard for executives & decision makers. Ideally, we have this imp...
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Tanner Ingalls
Manager - Product Management
Data Product Manager & Data Scientist
REDX
Microsoft Power BI8 years of experience

Microsoft Power BI Changes Your Data Powerfully

Rating: 8 out of 10
March 4, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We use Microsoft Power BI for a lot of financial projections, data analysis and budgeting purposes. The features provided make data consolidation and presentation much quicker...
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Luke Holocher
Professional - Finance and Accounting
Business Manager
Jefferson Academy Elementary
Microsoft Power BI2 years of experience

Microsoft Power BI - a powerful scalable solution

Rating: 8 out of 10
February 24, 2025
Vetted ReviewVerified User
Complex calculations and pulling data from multiple sources or objects. We use it when Salesforce reporting becomes insufficient to show the number of data points we want in a...
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David Jensen
Contributor - Corporate
Operations Manager, Customer Success
SaltClick
Microsoft Power BI4 years of experience
Verified on LinkedIn
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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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Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://powerbi.microsoft.com/en…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $10 per month per user
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Product Demos

Microsoft Power BI Guided Tour

powerbi.microsoft.com
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Features

BI Standard Reporting

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

8.4
Avg 8.2

Ad-hoc Reporting

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

7.9
Avg 8.0

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

8.1
Avg 8.3

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.

7.8
Avg 7.9

Access Control and Security

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

8.6
Avg 8.5

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

8
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

7.8
Avg 7.8
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Product Details

What is Microsoft Power BI?

Power BI: Comprehensive Business Intelligence Platform


Capabilities:

  • Discover Insights with AI: Utilizes advanced data-analysis tools, AI features, and a report-creation tool to transform complex data into accessible visuals, making it easier to uncover valuable insights.

  • Consolidate Data with OneLake: Integrates datasets from diverse sources into OneLake, creating a centralized, reliable source of truth for data. This integration reduces data duplication and simplifies analysis.

  • Drive Decision-Making: Infuse actionable insights into everyday applications like Microsoft 365, enhancing decision-making processes across the organization.

  • Empower Data Teams with Microsoft Fabric: Revolutionizes organization's data management and usage by incorporating Microsoft Fabric into the Power BI experience.


Key Differentiators:

  • Scalability: Power BI offers exceptional scalability, capable of transforming petabytes of data and supporting thousands of users without compromising performance.

  • Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem: Seamlessly embed and share insights across Microsoft services like Teams, PowerPoint, Excel, and the Power Platform, ensuring coherent and unified data handling.

  • Advanced AI Capabilities: Features AI tools that automatically find patterns, generate reports, and provide insights, enhancing efficiency and accuracy.

  • Robust Data Governance: Ensures data security and compliance with Microsoft's comprehensive governance and protection measures.


Copilot in Power BI:

  • Efficient Report Generation: Generates reports rapidly using conversational language. Copilot in Power BI enables quick creation of DAX calculations, summaries, and tailored reports.


Integration with Microsoft Fabric:

  • Enhanced Accessibility: Allows interaction with reports and data across Microsoft Fabric workloads, even for users without paid licenses.

  • OneLake Data Hub: Facilitates the connection and curation of data from varied sources, promoting efficient data engineering.


Power BI PRO:

  • Self-Service Analytics: License individuals for self-service analytics, enabling them to publish and share reports, fostering a culture of self-service BI.


Free Account Options:

  • Power BI Desktop & Free Trial: Offers a free app for data connection, modeling, and visualization, along with an easy-to-use report canvas.

  • Comprehensive Training: Access step-by-step Microsoft training courses to fully leverage Power BI capabilities.


Key Benefits:


  • Unified Data Management: Connect disparate data sources to establish a governed, unified source of truth.

  • Empower All Users: Ensures accessibility and ease of use for everyone, supported by free training resources and numerous accessibility features.

  • Immediate Start: Quickly begin with report creation, AI-generated reports, and a wide range of templates.

  • Customer Engagement: Enhance user engagement in apps by embedding Power BI reports.



Microsoft Power BI Features

BI Platform Features

  • Supported: Administration via Windows App
  • Supported: Administration via Web Interface
  • Supported: Live Connection to External Data
  • Supported: Snapshot of External Data
  • Supported: In-memory data model
  • Supported: OLAP (Pre-processed cube representation)
  • Supported: ROLAP (SQL-layer querying)
  • Supported: Multi-Data Source Reporting (Blending)
  • Supported: Data warehouse / dictionary layer
  • Supported: ETL Capability

Supported Data Sources Features

  • Supported: MS Excel Workbooks
  • Supported: Text Files (CSV, etc)
  • Supported: Oracle
  • Supported: MS SQL Server
  • Supported: IBM DB2
  • Supported: Postgres
  • Supported: MySQL
  • Supported: ODBC
  • Supported: Cloudera Hadoop
  • Supported: Hortonworks Hadoop
  • Supported: EMC Greenplum
  • Supported: IBM Netezza
  • Supported: HP Vertica
  • Supported: ParAccel
  • Supported: SAP Hana
  • Supported: Teradata
  • Supported: Sage 500
  • Supported: Salesforce
  • Supported: SAP
  • Supported: Google Analytics

BI Standard Reporting Features

  • Supported: Pixel Perfect reports
  • Supported: Customizable dashboards
  • Supported: Report Formatting Templates

Ad-hoc Reporting Features

  • Supported: Drill-down analysis
  • Supported: Formatting capabilities
  • Supported: Predictive modeling
  • Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
  • Supported: Report sharing and collaboration

Report Output and Scheduling Features

  • Supported: Publish to Web
  • Supported: Publish to PDF
  • Supported: Output Raw Supporting Data
  • Supported: Report Versioning
  • Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling
  • Supported: Delivery to Remote Servers

Data Discovery and Visualization Features

  • Supported: Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
  • Supported: Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
  • Supported: Predictive Analytics
  • Supported: Support for Machine Learning models
  • Supported: Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
  • Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages

Access Control and Security Features

  • Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
  • Supported: Role-Based Security Model
  • Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
  • Supported: Report-Level Access Control
  • Supported: Table-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
  • Supported: Field-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
  • Supported: Single Sign-On (SSO)

Mobile Capabilities Features

  • Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
  • Supported: Mobile Application
  • Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding Features

  • Supported: REST API
  • Supported: Javascript API
  • Supported: Java API
  • Supported: Themeable User Interface (UI)

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 growScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Data Governance

Microsoft Power BI Competitors

Microsoft Power BI Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Mobile Web
Supported CountriesAsia Pacific, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States
Supported LanguagesArabic, Basque - Basque, Bulgarian - Български, Catalan - català, Chinese (Simplified) - 中文(简体), Chinese (Traditional) - 中文(繁體), Croatian - hrvatski, Czech - čeština, Danish - dansk, Dutch - Nederlands, English - English, Estonian - eesti, Finnish - suomi, French - français, Galician - galego, German - Deutsch, Greek - Ελληνικά, Hebrew, Hindi - हिंदी, Hungarian - magyar, Indonesian - Bahasa Indonesia, Italian - italiano, Japanese - 日本語, Kazakh - Қазақ, Korean - 한국어, Latvian - latviešu, Lithuanian - lietuvių, Malay - Bahasa Melayu, Norwegian (Bokmål) - norsk (bokmål), Polish - Polski, Portuguese (Brazil) - Português, Portuguese (Portugal) - português, Romanian - română, Russian - Русский, Serbian (Cyrillic) - српски, Serbian (Latin) - srpski, Slovak - slovenčina, Slovenian - slovenski, Spanish - español, Swedish - svenska, Thai - ไทย, Turkish - Türkçe, Ukrainian - українська, Vietnamese - Tiếng Việt

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Microsoft Power BI starts at $10.

Tableau Cloud, Looker, and Domo are common alternatives for Microsoft Power BI.

Reviewers rate Customizable dashboards and Multi-User Support (named login) highest, with a score of 8.8.

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

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Reviews From Top Reviewers

View all reviews
(1-5 of 108)

Microsoft Power BI Desktop is it good ?

Rating: 9 out of 10
February 07, 2022
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Food Production Company, 10,001+ employees
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft Power BI
6 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We are using Microsoft Power BI widely in the Company, together with more than 80 associates were are the Gurus of Power BI, we help people to develop their own reports. Using Microsoft Power BI really facilitate and make the data showing easier, in the old days we used to create a report on Excel and they send this to a lot of people or copy and paste the info on PowerPoint and then share it across many teams. But now we use Microsoft Power BI to load a lot of different source data points (CSV, Excel, DB, etc), combine and enrich this data and then publish the report into Microsoft Power BI Services and from there we share the list across the teams. We have some reports that are being used by more than 800 people. Microsoft Power BI definitely was a step up on how the data is consumed. The only big problem that I see is that some users don´t have the full knowledge about it making it now well developed or organized resulting in a heavy Report that takes longer to load.
Pros
  • Deal with different sources at the same report (CSV, Excel, SQL, etc).
  • Easy to load and refresh the Data.
  • How that data is displayed in a visual, is super easy and fast to do it.
  • Easy to add new visuals other than the built-in ones.
Cons
  • Make a way for multiple people to collaborate in the same file.
  • Create a tool that you can design and create your own visual.
Likelihood to Recommend
I believe Microsoft Power BI is one of the best tools in the market and because is from Microsoft it fit in all the other applications from Microsoft. Every application has room to improve but the built-in feature and all the possibilities that open make it one of the best for sure.

Power BI: Best data visualization tool if you are a Microsoft user!

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized
May 21, 2018
GC
Gabriel Chiararia
Marketing Consultant
Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business (Consumer Electronics, 201-500 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft Power BI
2 years of experience
View profile
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
I was the president of an MBA Analytics Class, and Power BI was our main tool for data visualization. We chose this tool because it is the cheapest one to purchase for professional purposes. We know that sometimes organizations don't want to spend money buying new software, so we decided to go with Power BI since it is cheap and easy to getting approval for purchase within any organization. The idea behind the class and the use of Power BI is to learn how to find data insights, help students become more data-driven, and better use data to support recommendations.
Pros
  • Price: The biggest advantage of Power BI is its price. All other data visualization tools can cost thousands of dollars per year, but Power BI would cost way less than $100/month. Most companies have Power BI in their agreement with Microsoft, so it might be even free for most of you.
  • It's a Microsoft tool: Well, all of us are used to Microsoft Excel, right? So, the learning curve to use Power BI is not steep since we are all used to how Microsoft organizes their software, especially compared to other tools such as Tableau.
  • Powerful cloud: Running a lot of data can be an expensive task for many computers. Since Power BI is cloud-based, all the processing power is done on powerful servers, so you can run complicated graphs and tool will handle super well and fast!
  • Add-ins: Power BI has a good stand library of standard features. However, if you need more advanced graphs, such as heat maps, correlation charts, and Sankey charts, they are all available for free.
Cons
  • Connectivity with non-Microsoft tools: Power BI is great to integrate with other MS tools, but if you want to connect it with statistical or machine learning tools (R, Python, Mathlab, JMP, etc.) you might get in trouble. Tableau, for example, has an easy integration with R and Python.
  • Not all features are available in the online version: If you want to use more advanced features, you will probably need to download the desktop version of Power BI.
  • No desktop version for Mac: So, I use a Mac and I needed to use some extra features on Power BI. When I tried to download the more complete desktop version, I realized that there's no desktop version of Power BI for Mac! I had to borrow a PC from a colleague to run the analysis I wanted.
Likelihood to Recommend
Well suited:
- The best scenario to use Power BI is if your organization already has an agreement with Microsoft and you can get it for super cheap or even for free;
- Another good scenario is to make your organization more data-driven since it is usually very user-friendly. Or, if your organization is extremely focused on Excel and you want them to improve their data visualization skills.
Less appropriate:
- You might want to look somewhere else if you have a lot of datasets coming from several different systems (Oracle, SAP, Nielsen, Neogrid, etc) and you want to integrate them under the same umbrella;
- If you have a team of analysts/consultants experienced in analytics you might want to use another tool since Power BI does not integrate well with other analytics tools.

Data will never be the same again, thanks to PowerBI

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized
June 22, 2021
Verified User
C-Level Executive in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 201-500 employees
Vetted Review
Reseller
Microsoft Power BI
4 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We have different uses cases for [Microsoft] Power BI (Desktop and Pro), from the Desktop side, we have many vendor exported CSV financial data, this data is generated every month with tens of thousands of rows and hundreds of columns, this data needs to be crunched and converted into human readable reports.
We import these CSVs to a central data source (SQL Server) and then use Power BI Desktop to transform this data into phenomenal interactive drilldown reports for the executive and financial departments to easily review and take immediate decisions, the transformation is fairly easily and intuitive and the outcomes are very satisfying.

On the [Microsoft] Power BI Pro side, we have it connected to a few online data sources from the cloud, with its automated refresh functionality, we are getting fresh and up to date reports and analytics that help our management make decisions quickly and effectively, [Microsoft] Power BI is an amazing product!
Pros
  • Easy to setup and develop solid reports
  • Supports a substantial number of data sources to import from and connect to
  • Great reports designer with many chart types and customizations
  • Intuitive interface
  • Desktop and Pro versions are reasonably priced
Cons
  • 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
Likelihood to Recommend
I would definately recommend [Microsoft] Power BI, its an amazing product, despite of the cons, the product is still remarkable and unique in the values that it provides.

If you have scattered data left undiscovered, or need solid reporting and analytics, or even just simply want to impress your management with detailed, beautiful and organized reports that are automatically refreshed with fresh content, Power BI is absolutely the tool to go for.
It can import data from an overwhelming amount of sources, such as Excel, SQL Server, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, Sales Force, MySQL, Amazon Redshift and many others, and it allows you to quickly and easily build and publish beautiful reports that always impresses the executives and management.

[Microsoft] Power BI is one of a few products that I would recommend to literally anyone who uses a computer, there is always a use case for Power BI, especially the desktop version, the moment you create your first report you realize how much time and effort it saves and how much insights it gives on your data, personally, Power BI is an essential part of my work and I truly enjoy building reports and gathering/transforming data using it.

Power BI - great "free" BI tool for analysts and developers.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Incentivized
April 05, 2021
Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 10,001+ employees
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft Power BI
3 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
[Microsoft] Power BI is being used by our BI team (developers) and business analysts in selected Departments. It is a tool of choice for a quick data analysis and dashboard creation primary for 311 city services (service requests), Health/Vaccination (COVID) public facing analysis and purchasing improvement process.
Pros
  • Ability to connect to many different data sources
  • Ease of access (basic version is free)
  • Integration with office modules
  • Cloud based (Azure) architecture
Cons
  • Confusing licensing for Pro and Premium
  • Steep learning curve
  • Too many features are hard to find
Likelihood to Recommend
Since virtually all organizations are using Microsoft's products, Power BI comes "baked in" with your Office 365 licensing. To end users, it is free, and you can do a lot with this free desktop version. Analysts and developers with data source knowledge can very quickly create pretty advances and interactive visualizations - with zero additional costs. You can even share your output with another Power BI desktop user, or via free Power BI viewer tool.

Problems start if you want to distribute and share your work on a broader scale. You need to purchase additional licenses, which to us was kind of confusing (pro vs premium) and expensive. If you are not a Microsoft shop, this can be a showstopper.

Does the job

Rating: 8 out of 10
Incentivized
June 06, 2018
Verified User
Analyst in Marketing
Information Technology and Services Company, 501-1000 employees
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft Power BI
3 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
PowerBI is used across our entire organization which includes sales, marketing, customer service, customer success and executive team. It's used to visualize data aggregated from multiple sources through interactive dashboards for effortless user consumption. Having all data sources aggregated and connected at a level and being able to build reports and dashboards with very little effort is a major plus point.
Pros
  • Intuitive and Interactive dashboards can be easily constructed
  • Many custom visuals available in the PowerBI library
  • Import of data in any format is quick and simple.
Cons
  • Online PowerBI lacks a lot of the functionality that is present in the desktop version
  • There are other visualization software that offers a larger breadth of functionality
Likelihood to Recommend
PowerBI is well suited for creating sales pipeline dashboards. It can be integrated with Salesforce and building dashboards in PowerBI is a lot easier and offer more functionality that building them straight off Salesforce.
The online version of PowerBI prevents the creation of custom fields such as fields based on conditional logic etc. and you have to make do with default fields in your dataset.
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