Microsoft Power BI vs SAP Crystal Reports comparison

Microsoft and SAP are both solutions in the Reporting category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.9, while SAP is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4. Microsoft holds a 26.9% mindshare in RT, compared to SAP’s 2.7% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of SAP 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

SAP Crystal Reports

Read 49 SAP Crystal Reports reviews

2,101 Views
1,654 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Microsoft Power BI

SAP Crystal Reports

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Power BI and SAP Crystal Reports 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. SAP Crystal Reports Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI vs. SAP Crystals

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)

SAP Crystal Reports

Ranking in Reporting

8th

Average Rating

8.4

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 SAP Crystal Reports is 2.7%, down from 4.0% 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

MVD Prasad

Assistant General Manager at Soma Enterprise

Helps analyze your data by creating richly formatted, pixel-perfect, and multiple reports from virtually any data source, delivered in over a dozen formats

It has significantly enhanced security features, especially when compared to the standard security features of the earlier PeerSpot version I purchased. I've observed improvements in security, and overall, it's quite commendable. Regarding potential enhancements for the next release of this solution, I haven't closely examined SAP Crystal Reports 53. I've only encountered it briefly, perhaps once or twice. However, I anticipate that it likely offers advanced features distinct from its predecessor. I believe there may be notable improvements and additions in the latest version, and I look forward to exploring them further.

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

"With the out-of-the-box Data Platform and Business Intelligence ecosystem, you get the entire platform with a single license."

"Everything that's in M Query and DAX is the heart of Power BI because with these tools you can make up for a lot of other missing features."

"We can see that it's really improved the way end users can do their own graphs and pick their own fields of information and present that in a nice way."

"The solution is very easy to use."

"What Power BI is, is a whole collection of templates of small amounts of data that can be used to do something for a real world project, that can be easily set up and become the business intelligence environment or a data warehouse for a large amount of data, for a real world customer. That's what is remarkable."

"What I liked most about the tool is that we can use text queries to create projects and modify columns according to our needs. There are hundreds of YouTube courses on how to use it."

"The most valuable features in Microsoft BI are the analysis using the feature drag and drop function. It's very easy to load and use different data sources."

"It is in the cloud, which makes it easy for mobile access of reports and data."

More Microsoft Power BI pros

"We use SAP Crystal Reports for operational reporting."

"SAP Crystal Reports offers a plethora of features, many of which were available much earlier than in the Crystal Reports we previously used. We extensively use its capabilities for generating general reports, working with Kaspersky data, and even incorporating images into our reports. The range of functions available in SAP Crystal Reports is diverse, and we leverage them across various systems for our needs."

"I find Crystal Reports very easy to use, even for a non-technical person."

"It is an user-friendly solution."

"The overall environment is the best. Data management, graphs, and layout – everything is the best, in my opinion."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a fantastic way of generating reports."

"The initial setup of the solution is pretty easy."

"The most valuable feature is that from a user's point of view, it is easy to use and requires just a simple click to generate a report."

Cons

"Our expectation is putting BI to work in real-time data collection systems in the maritime environment."

"The biggest thing with Microsoft right now is better support. There should be more timely support. We can do 90% of it ourselves by the same token. When we're into the 10%, we do not get timely support via Microsoft's support team."

"My data is restricted to my DB and I'm not sure how this would handle an extremely large dataset."

"Integrating it with the physics build model or the engineering model should be included."

"Automation could be improved and performance enhanced."

"The setup took a lot of tinkering with InfoSec to allow us to do stuff."

"There is no column-level security in Microsoft BI, and this is a feature that most of our customers are looking for. That is something that should be implemented."

"This solution's performance when handling big data could be improved. Right now, if you're handling big data, the application becomes slow and the performance is very low."

More Microsoft Power BI cons

"SAP Crystal Reports has some compatibility issues with third-party products."

"The financing part needs improvement."

"Maybe some Power BI-related features could be added, like dashboards or direct editing in reports."

"SAP Crystal Reports should provide better support for dynamic connectors."

"A real improvement would be a simpler system that allows users to play with the visualization without needing specialized skills and code."

"If at all possible, a little bit of improvement on the analytical side is needed."

"It has significantly enhanced security features, especially when compared to the standard security features of the earlier PeerSpot version I purchased. I've observed improvements in security, and overall, it's quite commendable. Regarding potential enhancements for the next release of this solution, I haven't closely examined SAP Crystal Reports 53. I've only encountered it briefly, perhaps once or twice. However, I anticipate that it likely offers advanced features distinct from its predecessor. I believe there may be notable improvements and additions in the latest version, and I look forward to exploring them further."

"There could be improvements made to the analytics capabilities."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe that the price is reasonable, at least for an enterprise solution."

"I used a two months free trial to see if it had what I needed."

"This product offers good value for the money."

"Its licensing cost is very high. It is $20 per user, which is very high, but it is a good product, so you pay for it."

"The cost of the solution is more flexible for us because the desktop is free and we pay as we use it in the cloud."

"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with one being cheap and ten being expensive."

"They have a free Power BI Desktop version, but it has limitations."

"The price of Microsoft BI is reasonable. Other solutions such as SAP Cloud are more expensive."

More Microsoft Power BI pricing and cost advice

"I feel that SAP Crystal Reports is a reasonably priced product."

"We pay fifteen hundred dollars as licensing fee."

"SAP Crystal Reports is a very expensive solution."

"The cost of licensing can be a significant factor to consider when upgrading or transitioning to a new version of SAP Crystal Reports. It's important to evaluate the benefits and features offered by the new version against the associated costs to ensure it aligns with your organization's needs and budget."

"This product costs a lot of money."

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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

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

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 ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP Crystal Reports?

Maybe some Power BI-related features could be added, like dashboards or direct editing in reports. We use query language to build reports; this area could be improved more.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAP Crystal Reports?

We use SAP Crystal Reports for reporting. We use it for financial reports like statements of accounts, trial balances, and other management reports, salary slips, and many other purposes.

See all answers

What do you like most about SAP Crystal Reports?

We use SAP Crystal Reports for operational reporting.

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 SAP Crystal Reports

Compared 21% of the time

IBM Cognos vs SAP Crystal Reports

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services vs SAP Crystal Reports

Compared 9% of the time

MicroStrategy vs SAP Crystal Reports

Compared 9% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs SAP Crystal Reports

Compared 6% of the time

More SAP Crystal Reports Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI

February 2025

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Crystals

January 2025

Download SAP Crystal Reports product report

Also Known As

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

No data available

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

Turn information from almost any data source into a sophisticated, interactive report with SAP Crystal Reports. This powerful, user-friendly application for small businesses and departments can help you deliver key insights to the right decision maker, at the right time, in the right format.

Click here for a free trial

SAP

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

City of Buenos Aires, ASR Group, Citrix, EarlySense, Usha International Limited, Automotive Resources International (ARI), LivePerson, Coelba (Grupo Neoenergia), RZD Russian Railways, National Basketball Association - NBA, TALLY WEiJL, El Machetazo, Young Heroes, Mozzart, Mitsui Knowledge Industry (MKI) , Surgutneftegas Open Joint Stock Company, The VELUX Group, AOK Bundesverband, AL-KO KOBER GROUP

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI vs. SAP Crystals

January 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Power BI vs. SAP Crystal Reports

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Power BI vs. SAP Crystal Reports and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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