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Microsoft Power BI vs SAP Analytics Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

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 BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
319
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (1st)
SAP Analytics Cloud
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Predictive Analytics (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 21.4%, down from 22.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Analytics Cloud is 4.8%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

James Balbach - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
RamasamyTelungupalayam - PeerSpot reviewer
Seamless integration, collaborative features, and enhances data exploration
There are several areas for improvement in SAP Analytics Cloud. Firstly, features available in SAP Lumira are missing in SAP Analytics Cloud. Secondly, the predictive analytics functions, although promising, are currently only suitable for Proof of Concepts (POCs) and not for industrial-scale use. Lastly, the pricing model for the planning functionality is quite high and presents an entry barrier.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We have a lot of servers and applications from which we want reports, and it allows us to create reports from an SQL source or some other source."
"The dashboard is very nice and it is very simple to understand every single component."
"The scalability is good. We have 20 people in my organization using this solution and plan to increase usage."
"I also find connecting to different data sources is quite simple. Other solutions we were using before were complicated."
"The reports are easy to create."
"The solution is quite scalable."
"As it was my first time using Power BI, I can say that it was fairly easy to learn, especially if you already know BI-type tools."
"Connectivity, installation, and configuration are pretty fast and seamless compared to Cognos."
"I have found that the feature to drag and drop widgets based on the data source, and import them into stories to be valuable. This way it helps the end user to create stories themselves."
"The product's native integration with SAP ERP systems is particularly valuable."
"It offers good backup capabilities."
"Technical support is helpful."
"I would recommend this solution for companies that are SAP dependent with users working in this environment."
"The Smart Predict, Smart Insights, and Smart Discovery predictive analysis features are quite good."
"It is scalable."
"The most useful feature of SAP Analytics Cloud is planning because it helps users with making predictions and forecasts. Clients can forecast, make data allocations, and other actions. The solution is useful for planning."
 

Cons

"The integration with other solutions could be improved for reporting aspects."
"The formatting template could be improved."
"There are some connector-related issues in their MSBA solution."
"The admin view could be improved by making it more simplified to manage a users' activity and other things."
"It is too slow. I hope in future it will be a comparable big data tool, such as, for example, Data Lake."
"Most clients have MacBooks. Therefore, they use Tableau as Power BI Desktop is not available for the MacBook right now."
"The smart phone application could be improved, along with better graphics and faster updating."
"They can improve the user interface a little bit to make it more user-friendly. When creating a dashboard, it is not very user-friendly. You have to click on a certain style and use your keyboard keys to move it. You cannot drag and drop it."
"SAC, which is the cloud version, lost some good features from the previous planning product, like BPC or BPS."
"It still lacks a lot of functionalities as compared to other tools such as Power BI or Tableau. Sorting is not working as well as it works in Tableau. A lot of other things are also not at the same level. Their technical support is not perfect and could be better. It takes a lot of time to have lacking functionalities implemented. Its integration with the BW backend should be better. Both solutions are from the same vendor. They position SAP Analytics Cloud as a reporting tool on top of the BW environment, but the integration between both is not yet 100%. For example, user management is still not synchronized."
"I expect more integration from SAP Analytics Cloud."
"I think it would be easier if there was another module created to retrieve only data."
"If the application has many pages or a page with more charts, it tends to load slowly."
"Sometimes there are speed issues with big deletion data."
"We are currently working on connectivity with S/4HANA, but we would like to have better connectivity with our legacy systems."
"Some of the standard visualizations, such as a speedometer or a goal chart, are not there and should be added."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is somewhere in the middle in terms of price. Licensing is quite clear."
"We have enterprise licenses and some of the other tools or features come as a package and others you have to purchase separately."
"The costs are small and the benefits are high."
"Remove the cost of a licence to show a dashboard within SharePoint. Why should readers of a dashboard have to pay to view? ​"
"We pay on a monthly basis which is approximately $10 per user on the Microsoft Power BI Pro license. At the moment we are still down at 400 users, but once we reach 500 users, we will move to the premium edition. The premium is $5,000 for unlimited users. Currently, with the 40 users, the cost is roughly $500."
"There is room for at least 45% discount as compared to the initial price."
"Microsoft BI for desktop is free to use, and you can download and use it."
"Make it low in cost. It is a no-brainer!"
"Compute and storage features should be sold separately."
"Its licensing is on a monthly basis."
"This solution offers value for money and you get what you pay for."
"The premium option is very expensive at five thousand dollars. I use the nine hundred and ninety-nine dollar option."
"The pricing of this product is reasonable."
"The tool's pricing is medium, and licensing costs are yearly."
"It's not that costly as such for the time being."
"SAP Analytics Cloud can be quite expensive."
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
43%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Government
5%
Educational Organization
26%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

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...
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...
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 ...
Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?
Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...
What do you like most about SAP Analytics Cloud?
In the data warehouse, you're free to make changes. You can make everything text, meaning it's always a string. Even numbers appear as text, giving you the flexibility to work with all columns.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Analytics Cloud?
The pricing model for SAP Analytics Cloud is quite competitive, but the cost for the planning functionality is high and can be a barrier to entry. The overall cost can be managed with better billin...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

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
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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Power BI vs. SAP Analytics Cloud and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.