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Microsoft Power BI vs SAS Visual Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.9
Microsoft Power BI is cost-effective, user-friendly, and enhances data analysis, offering strong ROI for various businesses.
Sentiment score
6.0
SAS Visual Analytics offers advanced features but competes with lower-cost tools like Tableau for efficient data analysis and reporting.
In a world surrounded by data, tools that allow navigation of large data volumes ensure decisions are data-driven.
Power BI is easy to deploy within an hour, providing robust security against data leaks.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Power BI's responsive customer service is praised, but some report inconsistency, relying on community and third-party support.
Sentiment score
6.7
SAS Visual Analytics customer service has varied feedback, with generally good technical support but inconsistent experiences due to outsourcing.
Unfortunately, with Microsoft, you must accept the product as it is.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Power BI offers scalable growth but faces challenges with large datasets, needing expertise and infrastructure adjustments for optimal performance.
Sentiment score
7.8
SAS Visual Analytics offers excellent scalability for large enterprises, though costs may be high for smaller organizations.
You expect only a small percentage of users concurrently, but beyond a thousand concurrent users, it becomes difficult to manage.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Power BI is generally stable, reliable, but may need adjustments for large datasets and complex queries.
Sentiment score
7.0
SAS Visual Analytics is generally stable, with some users noting occasional performance issues and others appreciating technical support.
In terms of stability, there's no data loss or leakage, and precautions are well-managed by Microsoft.
It's not a bad grade, as I know of better products in this field.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Power BI needs better mobile support, integration, intuitive interfaces, clearer error messages, and improved customization for users.
SAS Visual Analytics is costly and complex, with integration issues and limited features, deterring smaller companies due to licensing costs.
Access was more logical in how it distinguished between data and its formatting.
This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Power BI offers flexible pricing from free for individuals to scalable premium plans for enterprises with bundled options.
SAS Visual Analytics is costly for small businesses but valued by enterprises for self-service capabilities, despite complex licensing.
Power BI isn't very cheap, however, it is economical compared to other solutions available.
I found the setup cost to be expensive
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Power BI offers robust integration, user-friendly tools, real-time processing, and advanced analytics, enhancing business intelligence efficiency.
SAS Visual Analytics offers user-friendly data analysis, reporting, and visualization with robust AI integration and intuitive non-technical access.
In today's data-driven environment, these tools are of substantial value, particularly for large enterprises with numerous processes that require extensive data analysis.
The entire ETL process is easy and supports many databases, allowing data pipelines from multiple sources to be gathered in one place for visualization.
The solution makes it easy for me to develop reports and publish them.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Power BI
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
318
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (1st), Reporting (1st)
SAS Visual Analytics
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft Power BI is designed for BI (Business Intelligence) Tools and holds a mindshare of 22.6%, up 22.5% compared to last year.
SAS Visual Analytics, on the other hand, focuses on Data Visualization, holds 5.0% mindshare, down 6.6% since last year.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

Shoury Priyanshu - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Robert Heck - PeerSpot reviewer
A great solution for big organizations, complex business requirements, and highly sophisticated and specialized statistics
There are a few little things that are predefined and can be done out of the box immediately. There is no business intelligence application that is predefined, which is something some customers or prospects would love to have. Small and mid-sized companies would struggle with it because they prefer something standard that has been predefined by somebody else. For instance the system does not come with a pre-defined accounting, budgeting or planning model for a particular industry. Some competitors come with such a model (e.g. for retail companies) which makes the implementation of course easier if the customer can comproise with this predefined model. SAS does not provide such models but does not demand customers to comply with a foreign business model.
report
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831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
8%
 

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 ...
What do you like most about SAS Visual Analytics?
The most solution's notable aspect, in my view, is the ability to integrate various data sources and harness advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This helps w...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Visual Analytics?
It's about an average of five. It's easy to scale, but it comes with cost.
What needs improvement with SAS Visual Analytics?
Some capabilities are missing compared to Power BI, especially when working with spreadsheet types. Furthermore, Excel is more customizable compared to SAS Visual Analytics, which can be quite rigi...
 

Also Known As

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

Learn More

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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
Staples, Ausgrid, Scotiabank, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Xcel Energy, and Triad Analytics Solutions.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Power BI vs. SAS Visual Analytics and other solutions. Updated: January 2022.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.