Microsoft Power BI vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services comparison

Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services are both solutions in the Reporting category. Microsoft Power BI is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.9, while Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.9. Microsoft Power BI holds a 26.9% mindshare in RT, compared to Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services’s 3.6% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Microsoft Power BI users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Power BI

Read 319 Microsoft Power BI reviews

15,963 Views
12,670 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Microsoft SQL Server Report...

Read 20 Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services reviews

3,123 Views
2,137 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft SQL Server Report...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Reporting solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Power BI vs. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI vs. Microsoft SQL Servering Services

January 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 837,501 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Power BI

Ranking in Reporting

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

319

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (1st)

Microsoft SQL Server Report...

Ranking in Reporting

6th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 26.9%, up from 25.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is 3.6%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Reporting

Featured Reviews

James Balbach

Executive Director, Decision Support at Community Health Network

Robust system consistently elevates data visualization and seamlessly updates with user-driven advancements

Power BI is a general-use visualization system. I can express the performance of our network through high-level key performance indicators. It allows me to show detailed improvements in quality and safety and patient experience. I create improvement dashboards for task forces and work teams. I have built analytic dashboards that guide analytics, enabling research and dataset manipulation.

Read full review

Gnanavel-Chakkarapani

Junior Consultant at CMA CGM

Offers useful templates but needs to improve the connectivity offered

In Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, not much of the interface part is used. With Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, its users face issues with the interface after they use Excel or create Microsoft SSIS Packages. The tool's interface is an area of concern requiring improvement. There needs to be an improvement in the product's connectivity so that the tool can connect easily with other third-party databases. In the dashboard, drag and drop functionality needs to improve, especially when compared to other tools like IBM Cognos Analytics and Qlik Sense. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is useful only for standard reports. In IBM Cognos Analytics, query studio can be used by users to drag the data and simply download the reports, so the user doesn't need to have any technical knowledge like developers. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is to be improved to offer features like query Studio, which is provided in IBM Cognos Analytics.

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

"The advantages of Microsoft Power BI stem from the fact that it is really easy to use. The drag and drop facilities provided by the product are good."

"Key features are its dashboard functionality and ease of integration with various data sources."

"The product's most valuable features are DAX functions for formulas and calculations."

"It is stable enough. It has a lot of powerful functions. It can also be customized with the DAX language. It is also intuitive enough and incremental. You can start with something simple, and then step-by-step, you can increase the reports and dashboards according to your needs."

"There is a feature in Microsoft BI that allows JSON data to SQL on the dashboards effectively and quickly."

"It is quite easy to use and it helps me to achieve the projects that I've been assigned."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft BI are the variety of possibilities to connect to various data sources. The visualizations are easily done, have useful rollover functions, and there are continuous updates being made to the system. You can benefit from the various improvements."

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

More Microsoft Power BI pros

"The stability of SSRS has been reliable, with minimal issues encountered during our usage."

"We were able to embed the report builder within our internal proprietary systems, improving our reporting capabilities."

"In Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, the installation and configuration are easy."

"The tool's valuable features are its drill-down feature, graphs, and charts."

"I'm very satisfied with the customer service. And usually, whenever we have any issue or details, we get to the person for the support. I'm really satisfied with the service. Within a few minutes or within a few hours, the support person will be available."

"It is scalable."

"We can create quality reports in real time."

"The SQL Server Reporting Services makes it very easy to get the data whenever we need it."

More Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services pros

Cons

"I think that the product would benefit by increasing the range of visuals and graphics readily available, as opposed to using a third party included as part of the product."

"The admin view could be improved by making it more simplified to manage a users' activity and other things."

"It is not the right tool to do deeper analysis or predictions. When you have some data and you want to do some deep analysis, there is no feature to help you with this."

"We did have some issues building the Microsoft blog."

"Creating dashboards could be easier."

"Although there are many visualizations, most of them are paid separately because they have been developed by private developers. The visualizations that come off the shelf are quite few."

"The solution could be more customizable and you do not have too much freedom on the code."

"A lot of people work on Excel, so being able to export an Excel file as part of a subscription would be an improvement."

More Microsoft Power BI cons

"It would be really nice to have better integration between the solution and Power BI."

"The product should improve its performance."

"In this solution, the cost should be reduced for the enterprise edition."

"We encounter some barriers while trying to build a report."

"Technical support is in minor need of improvement so that they can solve problems in a more timely manner."

"The solution's interface is old."

"We have had issues with the refresh interval since we have too many reports scheduled. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is also expensive."

"They could improve the scalability and stability of SQL Server Reporting Services."

More Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Regarding cost, the initial investment wasn't too high, but ongoing licensing could add up."

"Microsoft BI is free for the personal edition, but there is also a paid-for professional version."

"This product offers good value for the money."

"The costs are small and the benefits are high."

"The pricing is good. It's pretty competitive because I have worked on a few other tools as well, and Power BI is on the cheaper side."

"Remove the cost of a licence to show a dashboard within SharePoint. Why should readers of a dashboard have to pay to view? "

"For my primary use case, i.e. teaching students, the free version of Power BI is adequate."

"Compared to what's available on the market, I think we pay a fair price."

More Microsoft Power BI pricing and cost advice

"The solution is expensive."

"Value-wise, the solution's pricing is good for the price that we pay."

"The price is pretty good."

"The pricing is high."

"The solution is cheaper than its alternatives."

"The solution is free to use for developers."

"The tool's licensing costs are expensive."

"The product pricing is reasonable in terms of suitable features for business."

See which vendors are best for you

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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

Educational Organization

43%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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 ...

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What do you like most about Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?

I mainly use the solution for the ease of reporting and for executive dashboards.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services should be okay if you're within the budget. We're just using open-source solutions if you're not within the budget. Sometimes, we use MySQL or something simi...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?

QL Server can support the customer language in the long term, so we can use another language to build some components.

See all answers

Comparisons

Tableau vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 8% of the time

Domo vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 8% of the time

Databricks vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 7% of the time

KNIME vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 6% of the time

More Microsoft Power BI Competitors

TIBCO Jaspersoft vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Compared 22% of the time

Tableau vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Compared 13% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Compared 7% of the time

More Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI

February 2025

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft SQL Servering Services

February 2025

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services report

Download Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services product report

Also Known As

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

SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft SSRS, SSRS, MS SQL Server Reporting Services

Overview

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

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is grounded in both the world in which we live and the future we strive to create. Today, we live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and the transformation we are driving across our businesses is designed to enable Microsoft and our customers to thrive in this world.

We do business in 170 countries and are made up of 114,000 passionate employees dedicated to fulfilling our mission of helping you and your organization achieve more.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

CMS Wire, The New York Times

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI vs. Microsoft SQL Servering Services

January 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Power BI vs. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Power BI vs. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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We monitor all Reporting reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.