Databricks vs Microsoft Power BI comparison

The compared Databricks and Microsoft solutions aren't in the same category. Databricks is ranked #9 in CDW , with an average rating of 8.4, and holds a 9.2% mindshare in the category. Microsoft is ranked #1 in BIT , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 9.4% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Databricks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Databricks

Read 91 Databricks reviews

18,651 Views
1,865 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Microsoft Power BI

Read 327 Microsoft Power BI reviews

22,037 Views
13,663 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Databricks

Microsoft Power BI

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Microsoft Power BI and Databricks compete in the business intelligence platforms category. Power BI takes the lead with its exceptional data visualization capabilities, while Databricks excels in large-scale data processing and machine learning.

Features: Microsoft Power BI offers robust integration with Microsoft services, enabling seamless report creation and sharing. Its comprehensive suite of data visualization tools is appreciated for its user-friendly interface, allowing non-technical users to create interactive reports effortlessly. Additionally, Power BI is recognized for its ease of integrating various data sources. Conversely, Databricks stands out with its Spark-based architecture, providing powerful data analytics and real-time data processing. It supports complex data science projects and offers robust machine learning capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Power BI needs enhancement in handling large datasets, improvement in mobile support, and better DirectQuery data source integration. Users often find the complexity of error messages and the interface challenging. Databricks, on the other hand, should focus on improving its predictive analysis libraries, expanding visualization capabilities, and deepening its integration with other BI tools such as Power BI and Tableau.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Power BI offers versatile deployment options, including on-premises, public, and private cloud environments, supported by a strong customer support framework and community resources. Databricks primarily operates in public and private cloud environments, praised for its scalability and performance, with reliable customer service, although users sometimes seek clearer licensing details.

Pricing and ROI: Power BI provides significant value with competitive pricing through its subscription model, featuring various tiers suitable for different organizations. Users report a high ROI from streamlined data visualization processes. Databricks, being more expensive, justifies its cost with advanced analytics capabilities, offering flexibility with a pay-as-you-go pricing model. However, users express a need for improved cost management tools.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloud Data Warehouse Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Data Warehouse

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

6.6

Organizations benefit from Databricks' cost-effectiveness and efficiency, though some find evaluating immediate gains challenging due to specific contexts.

Sentiment score

6.8

Microsoft Power BI enhances efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and user satisfaction through scalability, ease of use, and robust security features.

For a lot of different tasks, including machine learning, it is a nice solution.

Parag Bhosale

Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees

When it comes to big data processing, I prefer Databricks over other solutions.

IshwarSukheja

Head CEO at bizmetric

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

In a world surrounded by data, tools that allow navigation of large data volumes ensure decisions are data-driven.

Michael Ostfeld

Corporate HR Financial Controller at STMicroelectronics Holding

Power BI is easy to deploy within an hour, providing robust security against data leaks.

Shoury Priyanshu

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.1

Databricks customer service is praised for responsiveness and expertise, despite occasional delays and communication issues via Microsoft.

Sentiment score

6.6

Microsoft Power BI's support is praised for resources and community but needs improvement in response time for complex queries.

Whenever we reach out, they respond promptly.

Parag Bhosale

Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees

As of now, we are raising issues and they are providing solutions without any problems.

Prabhakar Bonam

Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA

I rate the technical support as fine because they have levels of technical support available, especially partners who get really good support from Databricks on new features.

Lax Kas

Data Engineer at CRAFT Tech

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

The significant drawback I notice is that Microsoft's size makes it hard to get specific change requests addressed unless they involve a bug.

Michael Ostfeld

Corporate HR Financial Controller at STMicroelectronics Holding

We have a partnership with Microsoft, involving multiple weekly calls with dedicated personnel to ensure our satisfaction.

James Balbach

Executive Director, Decision Support at Community Health Network

The support is good because there is also a community available.

MohammedHamad

Business Development Director at a tech consulting company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.4

Databricks provides excellent scalability, supporting diverse data sizes and sectors with high-performance cloud infrastructure and cost-effective management.

Sentiment score

6.9

Microsoft Power BI offers scalable solutions for various enterprises, excelling in integration yet facing challenges with large data volumes.

The patches have sometimes caused issues leading to our jobs being paused for about six hours.

Parag Bhosale

Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees

Databricks is an easily scalable platform.

Prabhakar Bonam

Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA

I would rate the scalability of this solution as very high, about nine out of ten.

Lax Kas

Data Engineer at CRAFT Tech

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

You expect only a small percentage of users concurrently, but beyond a thousand concurrent users, it becomes difficult to manage.

Shoury Priyanshu

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

With increasing AI capabilities, architectural developments within Microsoft, and tools like Fabric, I expect Power BI to scale accordingly.

James Balbach

Executive Director, Decision Support at Community Health Network

As more data is processed, performance issues may arise.

Raymond De Rooij

Product Owner at ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.7

Databricks is stable and reliable, with high performance and robustness, despite occasional minor issues resolved quickly.

Sentiment score

7.4

Microsoft Power BI is stable and reliable, but may face slowdowns and issues with large datasets and updates.

They release patches that sometimes break our code.

Parag Bhosale

Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees

Although it is too early to definitively state the platform's stability, we have not encountered any issues so far.

Prabhakar Bonam

Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA

Databricks is definitely a very stable product and reliable.

AvivCohen

Data Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

In terms of stability, there's no data loss or leakage, and precautions are well-managed by Microsoft.

Shoury Priyanshu

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

We typically do not have problems with end-user tools like Excel and Power BI.

James Balbach

Executive Director, Decision Support at Community Health Network

It is very stable for small data, but with big data, there are performance challenges.

MohammedHamad

Business Development Director at a tech consulting company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Room For Improvement

Databricks users desire advanced visualization, better integration, enhanced documentation, predictive analytics features, and improved user experience and tools.

Microsoft Power BI needs better integration, flexible pricing, enhanced features, improved data handling, and seamless compatibility with various platforms.

Adjusting features like worker nodes and node utilization during cluster creation could mitigate these failures.

ShubhamSharma7

Data Engineer at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees

We prefer using a small to mid-sized cluster for many jobs to keep costs low, but this sometimes doesn't support our operations properly.

Parag Bhosale

Senior Data Engineer at a logistics company with 51-200 employees

We use MLflow for managing MLOps, however, further improvement would be beneficial, especially for large language models and related tools.

Rama Subba Reddy Thavva

Solution Architect at Mercedes-Benz AG

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today.

Shoury Priyanshu

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

Access was more logical in how it distinguished between data and its formatting.

Michael Ostfeld

Corporate HR Financial Controller at STMicroelectronics Holding

Microsoft updates Power BI monthly based on user community feedback.

James Balbach

Executive Director, Decision Support at Community Health Network

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Setup Cost

Databricks' pricing is seen as high for large data volumes but competitive for batch processing on cloud platforms.

Microsoft Power BI is competitively priced, offering flexible licensing with free to premium options, viewed favorably against competitors.

It is not a cheap solution.

Prabhakar Bonam

Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

I found the setup cost to be expensive

Sebastien TOUSSAINT

Responsable du département Projets et Applications at CHD Vendée

Power BI isn't very cheap, however, it is economical compared to other solutions available.

Shoury Priyanshu

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

The pricing for Microsoft Power BI is low, which is a good selling point.

MohammedHamad

Business Development Director at a tech consulting company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Valuable Features

Databricks simplifies large-scale analytics with user-friendly UI, powerful integrations, and scalable features for enhanced performance and collaboration.

Microsoft Power BI provides seamless integration, intuitive visualizations, and real-time processing, ideal for organizations' efficient data analysis needs.

Databricks' capability to process data in parallel enhances data processing speed.

ShubhamSharma7

Data Engineer at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The platform allows us to leverage cloud advantages effectively, enhancing our AI and ML projects.

Prabhakar Bonam

Data Platform Architect at KELLANOVA

The Unity Catalog is for data governance, and the Delta Lake is to build the lakehouse.

Lax Kas

Data Engineer at CRAFT Tech

For more quotes and insights, download the Databricks report

In today's data-driven environment, these tools are of substantial value, particularly for large enterprises with numerous processes that require extensive data analysis.

Michael Ostfeld

Corporate HR Financial Controller at STMicroelectronics Holding

Within the organization, Microsoft Power BI is used to create dashboards and gain insights into data, enhancing data-driven decision-making.

Raymond De Rooij

Product Owner at ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

To reduce the need for highly skilled personnel, we can engage someone who is just familiar and has a basic understanding of Microsoft Power BI, while AI can handle the major tasks through either agent AI or requirement analysis.

Shrikrishna Kashid

Senior Technical Service Engineer Expert at Fujitsu

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Categories and Ranking

Databricks

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Warehouse (9th), Data Science Platforms (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (5th), Streaming Analytics (1st)

Microsoft Power BI

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

327

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (1st), Reporting (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. Databricks is designed for Cloud Data Warehouse and holds a mindshare of 9.2%, up 6.7% compared to last year.
Microsoft Power BI, on the other hand, focuses on BI (Business Intelligence) Tools, holds 9.4% mindshare, down 21.5% since last year.

Cloud Data Warehouse Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Databricks	9.2%
Snowflake	16.1%
Teradata	8.5%
Other	66.2%

Cloud Data Warehouse

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Power BI	9.4%
Tableau Enterprise	6.7%
Amazon QuickSight	3.7%
Other	80.2%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

ShubhamSharma7

Data Engineer at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Capability to integrate diverse coding languages in a single notebook greatly enhances workflow

Databricks offers various courses that I can use, whether it's PySpark, Scala, or R. I can leverage all these courses in a single notebook, which is beneficial for clients as they can access various tools in one place whenever needed. This is quite significant. I usually work with PySpark based on client requirements. After coding, I feed the Databricks notebooks into the ADF pipeline for updates. Databricks' capability to process data in parallel enhances data processing speed. Furthermore, I can connect our Databricks notebook directly with Power BI and other visualization tools like Qlik. Once we develop code, it allows us to transform raw data into visualizations for clients using analysis diagrams, which is very helpful.

Read full review

Shoury Priyanshu

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

Facilitates seamless data aggregation with some outdated visual elements hindering user appeal

Real-time data integration is an area for improvement. Although I've worked on several solutions involving real-time integration, it's not very user-friendly and often lags, especially with over a million data rows. This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today. There are challenges with scalability, requiring multiple pages in dashboards to manage these issues. Visualization could be improved as it appears outdated. Users, especially newcomers, find it unappealing and not user-friendly.

Read full review

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Comparison Review

it_user79932

Senior Manager - BI Head with 5,001-10,000 employees

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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	25
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	56

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	135
Midsize Enterprise	57
Large Enterprise	165

Questions from the Community

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 Python. It offers many different cluster choices and excellent integration with ...

See all answers

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 designed to accelerate innovation projects. It is based on Spark so it is very fast. It...

See all answers

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 analytics teams that have to interpret data to further the business goals of their orga...

See all answers

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 would recommend as follows: 1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle - look for SAP...

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 information, control users accessing information, the configuration of governance po...

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 fully customizable and very user-friendly. This solution is very stable. Oracle ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dataiku vs Databricks

Compared 6% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs Databricks

Compared 5% of the time

Dremio vs Databricks

Compared 4% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Databricks

Compared 3% of the time

Apache Flink vs Databricks

Compared 3% of the time

More Databricks Competitors

Tableau Enterprise vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 14% of the time

Domo vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 7% of the time

KNIME Business Hub vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 3% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Power BI Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Databricks

December 2025

Download Databricks product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI

December 2025

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Also Known As

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

Overview

Databricks offers a scalable, versatile platform that integrates seamlessly with Spark and multiple languages, supporting data engineering, machine learning, and analytics in a unified environment.

Databricks stands out for its scalability, ease of use, and powerful integration with Spark, multiple languages, and leading cloud services like Azure and AWS. It provides tools such as the Notebook for collaboration, Delta Lake for efficient data management, and Unity Catalog for data governance. While enhancing data engineering and machine learning workflows, it faces challenges in visualization and third-party integration, with pricing and user interface navigation being common concerns. Despite needing improvements in connectivity and documentation, it remains popular for tasks like real-time processing and data pipeline management.

What features make Databricks unique?

Notebook: Enables collaborative work among team members.
Delta Lake: Optimizes data management operations.
Unity Catalog: Provides governance over data assets.
Cloud Integration: Seamlessly connects with major cloud platforms.

What benefits can users expect from Databricks?

Versatility: Supports diverse applications in data science and engineering.
Performance: Delivers efficient handling of large-scale analytics tasks.
Collaboration: Enhances teamwork in data projects.
Unified Environment: Centralizes machine learning and analytics activities.

In the tech industry, Databricks empowers teams to perform comprehensive data analytics, enabling them to conduct extensive ETL operations, run predictive modeling, and prepare data for SparkML. In retail, it supports real-time data processing and batch streaming, aiding in better decision-making. Enterprises across sectors leverage its capabilities for creating secure APIs and managing data lakes effectively.

Databricks

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.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

Find out what your peers are saying about Snowflake Computing, Microsoft, Teradata and others in Cloud Data Warehouse. Updated: December 2025.

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