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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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Recent Reviews

Power Packed Microsoft Power BI

8 out of 10
October 04, 2023
I used Microsoft Power BI for regular data analysis and report generation.
I use to deal with a lot of financial data and Microsoft Power …
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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

Popular Features

View all 29 features
  • Customizable dashboards (138)
    8.0
    80%
  • Drill-down analysis (138)
    7.2
    72%
  • Report sharing and collaboration (134)
    7.0
    70%
  • Formatting capabilities (137)
    6.4
    64%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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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.

7.2
Avg 8.2

Ad-hoc Reporting

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

7
Avg 8.1

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

7.8
Avg 8.4

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.

7.6
Avg 8.1

Access Control and Security

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

8.2
Avg 8.6

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

7.9
Avg 8.0

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding

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

8.4
Avg 7.9
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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 Javascript API highest, with a score of 9.6.

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

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Reviews and Ratings

(1780)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 120)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Just because we wanted single-party integration environment and a player which can take ownership of Big Data Analysis. Microsoft Power BI is better in these features as compared to other key BI players like Tableau.
Mohamed Adil Shaikh | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
For Visualization and Reporting Power BI is way ahead of MS Excel, not only it has the functionality of MS Excel for cleaning and processing of data in the advance Query tab but also the add-on of more eye appealing and customizable Visualizations.
MS Excel is more focused on data analyzing and handling whereas Power BI is more focused on Visualization and Dashboards.
David Shi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In any [Microsoft] Power BI to Tableau comparison, especially in organizations that uses both platforms the most important aspect is which platform came first. As any platform that is widely adopted first will naturally have the 'first mover' advantage.

In this case where in my organization we had Tableau first, [Microsoft] Power BI is only picked in cases where Tableau licensing costs become an issue. Whereas in other organizations where [Microsoft] Power BI is the first option, Tableau is rarely picked as an alternative as [Microsoft] Power BI is deemed to be 80% 'good enough' for 10% of the cost. The only major issue being if you needed that extra 20% in which [Microsoft] Power BI will struggle to deliver.
Scott Kennedy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Power BI from a price perspective is the lowest cost (probably even from a total cost of ownership perspective) of all the offerings I have ever evaluated. The piece that really stands out for Power BI is the data transformation layer called Power Query. This section allows you to manipulate data in great detail.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It has more than 200 plus visuals in-store and is very easy to access. It has a great user community to help each other with an ample amount of responses. Almost all kinds of data sources are available to use and develop the reports Easy to use and learn with a lot of training videos.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Since our organization runs on Microsoft based solutions Power BI was our first obvious choice to investigate. Our analisys proved that Power BI will deliver what we need with adequate cost and within a reasonable timeline. As a solution within our IT environment without the need for any additional, external integrations it was simply the right choise to make.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Power BI was perfectly integrated in our Microsoft ecosystem what makes everything easier also, the fast evolution that has happened over the last years and their reaction to our needs is something that makes the differents.
They listen to the customer and as they do a lot of releases with new capabilities, they try to include in the new realeses what is relevant for the customers.
Afia Tamanna | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
In my opinion, Zoho Analytics appears to be too complicated and unintuitive. Basic charts and tables take a long time to load. There are some difficulties in gaining access to the platform through the internet. The sales team will demonstrate. The most robust data visualization tool ever created is Microsoft Power BI. Personalization options are more extensive and customizable with this app version.
Colin Sebastian | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Tableau's end product was visually more pleasing, but the ease of inputting data and manipulating it with Power BI makes Power BI the choice for our group. Tableau's input function was often clunky and more time consuming than the import feature in Power BI. Also Power BI interface with other Microsoft tools was a big plus.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Compared to Amazon QuickSight, if your dataset is coming from Amazon S3, it is much easier to just use QuickSight. However, if you are building a pipeline using prefect to transfer data, MS Power BI would potentially be a good tool to use and visualize the data by some none coding colleagues.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft Power BI is the leader of this category, but it is a little expensive. It could use some more customization features, but other than that, it gives stellar returns for your investment.
Blake Baron | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We selected Power BI because we could push a single source out to a group of people for instant viewing and reporting. They could select from pre-created filters that we selected, but also land on a default view. It's intuitive to use and gets the job done in an enterprise supported way.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
The most well-known competitor for [Microsoft] Power BI that can actually compete with the rich feature set it provides is Tableau, it is an excellent product, providing almost all of the features that Power BI provides, however, when we made the purchasing decision, Tableau was much more expensive than Power BI, like really expensive, and comes with a complex licensing model.

[Microsoft] Power BI on the other hand is fairly priced for the Pro version with a Free version that does well, while I believe that Tableau is a very powerful product, it is not something I would recommend to anyone, it would be more reasonable to be used by specific data analysts, Power BI on the other hand is more "useful and easier to use for the common business person", and surely much cheaper.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The primary other visualization tool I think of is Tableau. Tableau is fine and both options are usable as long as the underlying data architecture is good. I still prefer Power BI because I think it works better with the other Microsoft Applications and I find it cleaner to use.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Power BI integrates very easily with Microsoft based products like excel and sql server database and makes it easy to modify data. It also provides several different types of visualization and forecasting tools that are absent from other products. It is comparatively cheaper than other products out there.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Zoho Analytics is too complex-looking and unintuitive. It is not agile and takes a lot of time to load even basic tables and charts. It looks hideously archaic and insipid. Unlike Power BI, there are practically no online resources for one to learn the platform on their own. You will have to rely on countless demos from their sales executives.
Greg Watkins | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Unfortunately, I was not part of the decision making process so I can't speak for what we were searching on before we made the decision to purchase. I will say that we have new team members who came from SAP, selling their SAP analytics product which is a direct competitor to PowerBI, They have said that it's light-years ahead in terms of speed and flexibility and by far a better product.
Dustin Ghia | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[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 .
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cost-effective but has a lot of features to offer. The perfect tool to build reports and dashboards with a large amount of data and complex data modeling. End users do not require much knowledge to get used to the tool. Regular updates from Microsoft to add new features and has a great developer community.
Alex Brielmann | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Again, I would say [Microsoft] Power BI stacks up right in the middle against their competitors. It gets the job done in terms of data aggregation and visualization, but it lacks user experience and ease of building. Most sales reps I spoke with didn't like the tool because it wasn't easy to look at or pretty. And most developers didn't prefer building on it because it was clunky and we had a lot of bugs. At the end of the day it was usable and not the worst, so we dealt with it as we were a Microsoft company.
April 30, 2021

The Industry Standard

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I haven't used a tool similar to Microsoft Power BI before, however, it seems to be the industry standard for these types of reports and tool integrations. We operating in a "Microsoft shop" as I think many organizations do, and it just amkes sense to use Microsoft Power BI as our tool.
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