Databricks vs Microsoft Power BI comparison

The compared Databricks and Microsoft solutions aren't in the same category. Databricks is ranked #1 in Data Science Platforms , with an average rating of 8.2, and holds a 19.2% mindshare in the category. Microsoft is ranked #1 in BIT , with an average rating of 7.9, and holds a 22.4% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Databricks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Microsoft Power BI and Databricks are competitors in the data analysis tool market. While both have unique strengths, Microsoft Power BI is recognized for cost-effectiveness and strong customer support, whereas Databricks is favored for its advanced features that justify its higher costs.

Features: Microsoft Power BI offers integration with Microsoft products, intuitive dashboards, and rich visualization options. It also provides customizability and comprehensive reporting features. Databricks features strong machine learning capabilities, scalability, and seamless integration with AWS and Azure. Its ability to handle big data efficiently is a standout feature.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Power BI faces challenges in real-time data processing, advanced analytics, and performance with large datasets. Users of Databricks indicate it could benefit from a more intuitive setup, better documentation resources, and simplifying the learning curve for its advanced features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Power BI is easy to deploy in Microsoft-centric environments, supported by extensive customer service. Databricks, despite its complex deployment due to comprehensive capabilities, receives support from a responsive technical team, addressing user challenges.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Power BI is seen as accessible in terms of initial cost, offering strong ROI for immediate analytics and visualization. Databricks justifies its higher pricing through significant long-term ROI, providing extensive data engineering and machine learning capabilities, appealing to organizations needing scalable analytics solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Science Platforms Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Data Science Platforms

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

IBM SPSS Statistics

Mindshare comparison

Data Science Platforms

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

Md Masudul Hassan

Agricultural Finance and IT Researcher at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University

Comprehensive data analysis capabilities with a user-friendly interface, providing an efficient and reliable platform for researchers and analysts

I believe that offering short-term SPSS licenses, perhaps when customer sourcing is available, could make it more affordable. These licenses shouldn't include features tailored for universities or large sales organizations. Instead, they could offer discounts or additional facilities for smaller entities to access the software. In developing countries, it would be beneficial to provide certain features to users at no cost initially, while also customizing pricing options. For example, offering basic features to the first hundred users can help them become familiar with the software and its capabilities. This approach encourages users to upgrade to higher tiers as they become more experienced and require additional functionality.

Read full review

Dunstan Matekenya

Data Scientist at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Process large-scale data sets and integrates with Apache Spark with notebook environment

Databricks integrates natively with Apache Spark, which I use as a processing engine for large-scale datasets. This native integration is one of its strengths. Another strength is that the platform makes it very easy to manage resources. For example, setting up a cluster of five or fifteen nodes is straightforward with Databricks. The notebook environment is also excellent, making it easy to perform various tasks.

Read full review

Amol Rane

Solutions Architect M365 at Sogeti UK

Supports AI initiatives in terms of predictive analytics

The only issue is with permissions. Sometimes, despite granting granular permissions, dashboards are visible to people who shouldn't have access. It's difficult to understand why the permissions slip out. Sometimes dashboards are visible to stakeholders even though they should not have permission. It's a bit difficult to understand why the permissions slip out. The dashboards lack a user-friendly appearance, and the permissions should be easier to understand. At this point, we have to go through a lot of details. It takes a lot of time to understand the permissions, so if there were better options available within the Power BI setup, it would be quite beneficial, especially for admins. So, there should be a more user-friendly dashboard appearance and easier-to-understand permissions.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Since we are using the software as a statistical tool, I would say the best aspects of it are the regression and segmentation capabilities. That said, I've used it for all sorts of things."

"It is a modeling tool with helpful automation."

"The most valuable features mainly include factor analysis, correlation analysis, and geographic analysis."

"The SPSS interface is very accessible and user-friendly. It's really easy to get information in it. I've shared it with experts and beginners, and everyone can navigate it."

"It is perfectly adequate if all you need are the results and not the trail of evidence."

"It has helped our analyst unit deliver work with more transparency and confidence, given that we can always view the dataset in totality, after each step of data transformation."

"One feature I found very valuable was the analysis of variance (ANOVA)."

"It has the ability to easily change any variable in our research."

More IBM SPSS Statistics pros

"The solution's features are fantastic and include interactive clusters that perform at top speed when compared to other solutions."

"The most valuable feature of Databricks is the integration of the data warehouse and data lake, and the development of the lake house. Additionally, it integrates well with Spark for processing data in production."

"I like cloud scalability and data access for any type of user."

"It's great technology."

"One of the features provides nice interactive clusters, or compute instances that you don't really need to manage often."

"Imageflow is a visual tool that helps make it easier for business people to understand complex workflows."

"Databricks helps crunch petabytes of data in a very short period of time."

"Databricks is a unified solution that we can use for streaming. It is supporting open source languages, which are cloud-agnostic. When I do database coding if any other tool has a similar language pack to Excel or SQL, I can use the same knowledge, limiting the need to learn new things. It supports a lot of Python libraries where I can use some very easily."

More Databricks pros

"The most interesting feature of Microsoft Power BI is that it's very user-friendly."

"One of the most valuable aspects of this tool is its ease of use and the ability to easily share information with others."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the graphic representation."

"It's easy to create reports and it's easy to download the data from the corresponding report."

"Microsoft BI is scalable."

"Implementation is very quick and the solution is very user-friendly."

"The scalability is good. We have 20 people in my organization using this solution and plan to increase usage."

"Management reporting solution that's very stable and scalable."

More Microsoft Power BI pros

Cons

"One of the areas that should be similar to Minitabs is the use of blogs. The Minitabs blog helps users understand the tools and gives lots of practical examples. Following the SPSS manual is cumbersome. It's a good, exhaustive manual, but it's not practical to use. With Minitabs, you can go to the blogs and find specific articles written about various components and it's very helpful. Without blogs, we find SPSS more complicated."

"Needs more statistical modelling functions."

"There is a learning curve; it's not very steep, but there is one."

"Better documentation on how to use macros."

"The solution needs to improve forecasting using time series analysis."

"I know that SPSS is a statistical tool but it should also include a little bit of analytical behavior. You can call it augmented analysis or predictive analysis. The bottom line is it should have more graphical and analytical capabilities."

"The statistics should be more self-explanatory with detailed automated reports."

"I feel that when it comes to conducting multiple analyses, there could be more detailed information provided. Currently, the software gives a summary and an overview, but it would be beneficial to have specific details for each product or variable."

More IBM SPSS Statistics cons

"While Databricks is generally a robust solution, I have noticed a limitation with debugging in the Delta Live Table, which could be improved."

"There are no direct connectors — they are very limited."

"Anyone who doesn't know SQL may find the product difficult to work with."

"The product could be improved by offering an expansion of their visualization capabilities, which currently assists in development in their notebook environment."

"The interface of Databricks could be easier to use when compared to other solutions. It is not easy for non-data scientists. The user interface is important before we had to write code manually and as solutions move to "No code AI" it is critical that the interface is very good."

"The solution could improve by providing better automation capabilities. For example, working together with more of a DevOps approach, such as continuous integration."

"Costs can quickly add up if you don't plan for it."

"The product needs samples and templates to help invite users to see results and understand what the product can do."

More Databricks cons

"Microsoft BI's visualization could be better. Though Power BI's visualization has steadily improved over the years, it's not on the level tools like Tableau and SAS or some of the more expensive products on the market."

"Microsoft BI lacks some of the scheme features. It would be beneficial if there were a way to show how we move values in a different way."

"The integration with other solutions could be improved for reporting aspects."

"Its setup and support should be improved. We would like to see more material for developers that provides clear explanations about how we can do data mining by using Microsoft BI. It would also be good if we can connect a feature to other customized machine learning solutions."

"The data source definition is all over the place."

"Technical support could be a bit better."

"I would like to see a more user-friendly interface with Microsoft BI."

"Automation could be improved and performance enhanced."

More Microsoft Power BI cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's quite expensive, but they do a special deal for universities."

"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."

"SPSS is an expensive piece of software because it's incredibly complex and has been refined over decades, but I would say it's fairly priced."

"The price of this solution is a little bit high, which was a problem for my company."

"While the pricing of the product may be higher, the accompanying service and features justify the investment."

"Our licence is on a yearly renewal basis. While pricing is not the primary concern in our evaluation, as products are assessed by whether they can meet our user needs and expertise, the cost can be a limiting factor in the number of licences we procure."

"The price of IBM SPSS Statistics could improve."

"The pricing of the modeler is high and can reduce the utility of the product for those who can not afford to adopt it."

More IBM SPSS Statistics pricing and cost advice

"We have only incurred the cost of our AWS cloud services. This is because during this period, Databricks provided us with an extended evaluation period, and we have not spent much money yet. We are just starting to incur costs this month, I will know more later on the full cost perspective."

"The solution is a good value for batch processing and huge workloads."

"Databricks is a very expensive solution. Pricing is an area that could definitely be improved. They could provide a lower end compute and probably reduce the price."

"Databricks uses a price-per-use model, where you can use as much compute as you need."

"Licensing on site I would counsel against, as on-site hardware issues tend to really delay and slow down delivery."

"The cost for Databricks depends on the use case. I work on it as a consultant, so I'm using the client's Databricks, so it depends on how big the client is."

"Whenever we want to find the actual costing, we have to send an email to Databricks, so having the information available on the internet would be helpful."

"I rate the price of Databricks as eight out of ten."

More Databricks pricing and cost advice

"If it has to be applied on the cloud, then it costs around $10 per month per user. For a pro license and for a premium license it's around $20 per month per user. If it has to be applied on-premises then, depending on the course of your server, you have to buy a software assurance version of the database."

"The pricing for the solution is relatively higher compared to other alternatives."

"I would rate them 4 out of 5 for their current pricing. There are no additional costs to the standard licensing fees."

"I am satisfied with its price. Its price is very less as compared to Tableau and QlikView."

"It's straightforward licensing."

"It would be better if the price was cheaper."

"The premium licensing is approximately $5,000 per month which is pretty expensive."

"The price for this solution is reasonable. However, there is an additional cost if you want to publish the dashboard privately."

More Microsoft Power BI pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user79932

Senior Manager - BI Head at NVidia

Feb 4, 2015

Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho

1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

University

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Educational Organization

42%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM SPSS Statistics?

The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM SPSS Statistics?

The cost of IBM SPSS Statistics is managed by organizations, not individual researchers. It is a very expensive produ...

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What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Statistics?

IBM SPSS Statistics does not keep you close to your data like KNIME. In KNIME, at every stage, you can see the result...

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Which do you prefer - Databricks or Azure Machine Learning Studio?

Databricks gives you the option of working with several different languages, such as SQL, R, Scala, Apache Spark, or ...

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How would you compare Databricks vs Amazon SageMaker?

We researched AWS SageMaker, but in the end, we chose Databricks. Databricks is a Unified Analytics Platform designe...

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Which would you choose - Databricks or Azure Stream Analytics?

Databricks is an easy-to-set-up and versatile tool for data management, analysis, and business analytics. For analyti...

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Seeking lightweight open source BI software

There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I wou...

See all answers

Is Power BI a complete platform or only a visualization tool?

Power BI is an advanced visualization tool oriented to big data with a very complete set of widgets to visualize info...

See all answers

How does Oracle OBIEE compare with Microsoft BI?

Oracle OBIEE is great in allowing design and creativity per the individual needs of the organization. Dashboards are ...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM SPSS Modeler vs IBM SPSS Statistics

Compared 16% of the time

Alteryx vs IBM SPSS Statistics

Compared 13% of the time

TIBCO Statistica vs IBM SPSS Statistics

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio vs IBM SPSS Statistics

Compared 12% of the time

Amazon SageMaker vs IBM SPSS Statistics

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM SPSS Statistics Competitors

Dataiku vs Databricks

Compared 11% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs Databricks

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon SageMaker vs Databricks

Compared 8% of the time

Dremio vs Databricks

Compared 8% of the time

Tableau vs Databricks

Compared 5% of the time

More Databricks Competitors

Tableau vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 16% of the time

Domo vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 8% of the time

KNIME vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Power BI Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM SPSS Statistics

December 2024

Download IBM SPSS Statistics product report

Buyer's Guide

Databricks

December 2024

Download Databricks product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI

November 2024

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Also Known As

SPSS Statistics

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI

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IBM

Databricks

Microsoft

Overview

IBM SPSS Statistics is a powerful data mining solution that is designed to aid business leaders in making important business decisions. It is designed so that it can be effectively utilized by organizations across a wide range of fields. SPSS Statistics allows users to leverage machine learning algorithms so that they can mine and analyze data in the most effective way possible.

IBM SPSS Statistics Benefits

Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy IBM SPSS Statistics include:

Ease of use. SPSS Statistics enables users to simply and intuitively take control of their statistical needs. The solution is designed so that analysts who do not know how to code can easily make full use of the various tools and capabilities that SPSS Statistics has to offer. Its command language is so straightforward that it does not require users to undergo special training before they use it.

Comprehensive and flexible build. SPSS Statistics is designed to be both a comprehensive and highly flexible analytics solution. It enables users to utilize a variety of integrations that make it easy for users to add features that they might feel they are missing.

Automation. SPSS Statistics makes it simple for users to automate basic tasks that they might otherwise devote too much time worrying about. Tasks like calculation or data gathering can be delegated to the system while more conceptual tasks like data analysis are given to an organization’s analysts to handle.

IBM SPSS Statistics Features

Intuitive user interface. SPSS Statistics enables users to deploy an intuitive interface that makes the process of system management simple. Among the other components of this interface is a drag-and-drop feature that makes analysis and management possible for anyone who wants to use it.

Advanced data visualizations. Analysts that employ SPSS Statistics gain access to tools that empower them to create and export data visualizations. These visualizations can be formatted in many different ways depending on what the user needs.

Local data storage. SPSS Statistics has the ability to securely store data on a user’s computer. This enables them to add layers of security that would not necessarily be present if the data was stored in the cloud.

Reviews from Real Users

IBM SPSS Statistics is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are the wealth of functionalities that it provides and its high level of accessibility.

An Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at a university writes, "The most valuable feature of IBM SPSS Statistics is all the functionality it provides. Additionally, it is simple to do the five-way analysis that you can in a multidimensional setup space. It's the multidimensional space facility that is most useful."

A Director of Systems Management & MIS Operations at a university, says, “The SPSS interface is very accessible and user-friendly. It's really easy to get information from it. I've shared it with experts and beginners, and everyone can navigate it.”

Databricks is utilized for advanced analytics, big data processing, machine learning models, ETL operations, data engineering, streaming analytics, and integrating multiple data sources.

Organizations leverage Databricks for predictive analysis, data pipelines, data science, and unifying data architectures. It is also used for consulting projects, financial reporting, and creating APIs. Industries like insurance, retail, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals use Databricks for data management and analytics due to its user-friendly interface, built-in machine learning libraries, support for multiple programming languages, scalability, and fast processing.

What are the key features of Databricks?

User-friendly interface: Simplifies operations and usability.
Built-in machine learning libraries: Facilitates machine learning tasks.
Support for multiple programming languages: Enhances flexibility.
Scalability: Efficiently handles growing data needs.
Fast processing: Improves performance and speed.
Automated optimization: Reduces manual efforts.
Data visualization: Provides insightful visuals.
Collaborative features: Enhances teamwork.
Delta Lake performance: Boosts data management.
Seamless cluster management: Simplifies system operations.

What are the benefits or ROI to look for in Databricks reviews?

Efficiency in handling large datasets: Ensures smooth processing.
Interactive workspace environment: Improves user collaboration.
Integration with platforms: Provides connectivity benefits.
Performance optimization: Enhances overall system performance.
Support for data governance and security: Ensures data integrity and protection.

Databricks is implemented in insurance for risk analysis and claims processing; in retail for customer analytics and inventory management; in manufacturing for predictive maintenance and supply chain optimization; and in pharmaceuticals for drug discovery and patient data analysis. Users value its scalability, machine learning support, collaboration tools, and Delta Lake performance but seek improvements in visualization, pricing, and integration with BI tools.

Microsoft Power BI is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization. This tool stands out for its ability to merge and analyze data from various sources. Widely adopted across different industries and departments, Power BI is instrumental in creating visually appealing dashboards and generating insightful business intelligence reports. Its intuitive interface, robust visualization capabilities, and seamless integration with other Microsoft applications empower users to easily create interactive reports and gain valuable insights.

Sample Customers

LDB Group, RightShip, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Capgemini Consulting, TEAC Corporation, Ironside, nViso SA, Razorsight, Si.mobil, University Hospitals of Leicester, CROOZ Inc., GFS Fundraising Solutions, Nedbank Ltd., IDS-TILDA

Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware

Accenture Adidas Aetna AIG Airbus Alibaba Allstate Amazon American Express Aon AT&T Audi Bank of America BASF Bayer Berkshire Hathaway Boeing Coca-Cola Comcast Cisco Coca-Cola Dell Disney Emirates Equinix FedEx Ford GE Google H&M Home Depot Honda IBM Intel JPMorgan Chase Kellogg's Kroger L'Oréal McDonald's Merck MetLife Microsoft Nike Oracle P&G PepsiCo Procter & Gamble Prudential Financial SAP Siemens Snapchat Spotify Starbucks Target Toyota T-Mobile Unilever Visa Walmart WeWork World Bank Xerox

Buyer's Guide

Data Science Platforms

December 2024

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