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Microsoft Power BI vs Sigma comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 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
318
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (1st)
Sigma
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
18th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.6
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 22.6%, up from 22.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sigma is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Q&A Highlights

PS
Apr 29, 2023
 

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Facilitates seamless data aggregation with some outdated visual elements hindering user appeal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 Visualization could be improved as it appears outdated.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.
Ariel Hatav - PeerSpot reviewer
A user-friendly and efficient platform with seamless integration, empowering users with quick and intuitive data analysis, while providing substantial time savings and a reliable support system
You have the flexibility to easily add or delete reports in Sigma, including incorporating new ones without any complications. In terms of users, the advantage lies in the fact that viewers are free and their allocation is unlimited. This has been particularly beneficial for us, as the majority of our users fall into the viewer category. This simplified the process, allowing anyone who simply requires viewing access to be added without any limitations. For users needing additional capabilities, such as making adjustments or creating content, a license purchase is required. However, these users with extended functionalities are limited, and we don't have a substantial number of users falling into this category. We have future plans to expand and continue our utilization of Sigma.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Initial setup was very straightforward. Users can get up and running reporting on databases within minutes."
"The interface is very fluid."
"This product has a lot of features and most of them are user-friendly."
"The good part of it is that you can do whatever you want with it when it comes to building BI. In terms of languages, it supports Python, and it also natively supports R."
"The feature I find most valuable is the ability to publish Power Bi reports, using an embedded link, directly onto a website."
"It ingegrates nicely with Office 365."
"It is easy to work with and very chic."
"Provides data feeds for enterprise KPI reporting."
"The most valuable aspect for me is having real-time data."
"Sigma is a great software for non-technical business users. If someone's familiar with pivot tables or Excel or Google Sheets, they should be able to pick up Sigma pretty quickly. There is a very low bar for onboarding."
"The tool's interface is easy to use. The functions listed as a part of the menu items are easy to use."
 

Cons

"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."
"Microsoft BI could improve by allowing large-size data sources. We have large data sources, and we have problems loading them in Microsoft BI."
"It should be more user-friendly and simple."
"As Copilot and further integrations continue to develop, they will enhance Power BI's functionality."
"The product doesn't support unstructured data. It doesn't support video, streaming, and strings of files."
"Areas for improvement would be the construction of reports and the dashboard budget."
"The challenge of this product is in truncating the table data."
"I have a little problem with Synapse Analytics because it's very new. It's a product that has many capabilities, but it is not very well developed. I have to see the list of permissions from one object. I can't do this in Synapse. I have to search on the web for a solution because I don't have the tool for it."
"The product's roadmap regarding introducing new features in the solution or new versions of the tool can be made better in the future."
"The only minor area for improvement lies in handling highly complex visualizations."
"I would like to see better visualization options. That would allow me to build out more visually pleasing dashboarding in Sigma."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is affordable."
"The solution is less expensive than other PowerBI tools, which is why most people go with it, although it does cost more than MSBI tools."
"Microsoft BI is considered to be competitively priced when compared to other similar solutions in the market."
"It is somewhere in the middle in terms of price. Licensing is quite clear."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Microsoft BI is not expensive. Compared to the price of other BI products, the price is very fair."
"No comment on pricing."
"Setup is easy, and the cost is economical. You do sometimes need to pay additional costs for third party products which "plug-in" to Microsoft BI."
"The retail price is set at one thousand dollars per creator per year."
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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…
 

Answers from the Community

PS
Apr 29, 2023
Apr 29, 2023
This market comparison chart....https://www.gartner.com/doc/re...;ct=230130&st=sb
See 2 answers
Ronald Chavez - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 29, 2023
The two are similar, it is cars but of different brands; I ask 1-) the users use Windows 2-) you have Office 365 3-) They will use Excel for the data. If you answer yes to the 3, better BI due to integration, and learning is easier for the user. If they are non-Microsoft databases, investigate on the provider's side, for example, SAP, IBM, etc. I have trained end users in Power BI. I know that Power BI has the majority of connectors. I hope my comment is helpful. Regards
Ronald Chavez - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 29, 2023
This market comparison chart....https://www.gartner.com/doc/re...;ct=230130&st=sb
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
42%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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 Sigma?
The tool's interface is easy to use. The functions listed as a part of the menu items are easy to use.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sigma?
The viewer license is free, and the available licenses are for creators. The retail price is set at one thousand dollars per creator per year. Additionally, there is a platform fee of thirty thousa...
What needs improvement with Sigma?
I have used the product on the cloud and the browser and found no issues with it. The product's roadmap regarding introducing new features in the solution or new versions of the tool can be made be...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI
No data available
 

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
Snowflake, Fivetran ,Autodesk, Flowspace, Super League Gaming, Zumper, Clover, Volta, Olivela
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Power BI vs. Sigma and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,071 professionals have used our research since 2012.