Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Microsoft Power BI vs XLCubed comparison

Microsoft and Fluence Technologies are both solutions in the Reporting category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.9, while Fluence Technologies is ranked #29. Microsoft holds a 26.8% mindshare in RT, compared to Fluence Technologies’s 0.2% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of Fluence Technologies users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Power BI
Read 318 Microsoft Power BI reviews
  • 16,446 Views
  • 13,136 Comparison Views
93% willing to recommend
XLCubed
Read 2 XLCubed reviews
  • 220 Views
  • 165 Comparison Views
50% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between Microsoft Power BI and XLCubed 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.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT
To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Power BI vs. XLCubed Report (Updated: January 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI vs. XLCubed
January 2025
Download the complete report
Helped 831,265 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
318
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (1st)
XLCubed
Ranking in Reporting
29th
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 26.8%, up from 25.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of XLCubed is 0.2%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting
 

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Facilitates seamless data aggregation with some outdated visual elements hindering user appeal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.
Read full review
it_user1391316 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cost effective with great capability, performance, flexibility and visuals
In general, we're happy with the solution but we're always looking to see what else is out there. The thing we've struggled with is our partnership with Tagetik UK, the consultants, and the issue we had gaining access to consultants to develop the solution on our behalf. Thankfully we connected directly with XLCubed and now have a pretty close and good relationship with them so the earlier problem we had of actually getting resources to help us develop has now been solved. One of the things that we've been asking for and would like as an additional feature is a sort of benchmarking functionality. The ability to be able to benchmark, directly against the company digital corporate numbers. That said, there seems to be improved functionality within the latest release that could help us develop that 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

"The most valuable features are the easy creation of reports, dashboards, and the ability to perform analysis. It is important for us to create reports because we have some operations during certain hours and we can use this tool to track the information."
"Data integration is very useful in Power BI. It lets me collect data from many sources. For example, I can get data from Oracle databases and SQL Server databases at the same time."
"The data can be accessed from anywhere."
"I also find connecting to different data sources is quite simple. Other solutions we were using before were complicated."
"The main feature I find valuable is the possibility to work with an extensive amount of data."
"In my opinion, Microsoft BI is a low-cost solution, and it could be an interesting solution for a tourism company."
"There is a feature in Microsoft BI that allows JSON data to SQL on the dashboards effectively and quickly."
"I like the flexibility it offers."
More Microsoft Power BI pros
"I am looking forward to testing their full graphics that are available, as they looked very interesting in the demo."
"Great capability, performance, flexibility, visuals, and the solution is also very cost effective."
 

Cons

"The real-time data refresh capabilities is one of the things I had issues with"
"I'm not overly technical, and so I can't really speak to any shortcomings from a technical standpoint."
"One opportunity for improvement would be on the Power Query side. As a consultant, I know Power Query is not the main strength of Power BI. It is not where Power BI shines, but many customers use Power Query to do full ETL workloads for deliverable cookies."
"My main complaint is that the error messages need to be made more clear. Currently, they are either too generic or outright misleading, and finding the real problem is like searching for a needle in a haystack."
"The integration in Microsoft BI could improve for other solutions, such as Oracle DB and PostgresSQL. Additionally, the reporting from the databases to Microsoft BI should be in real-time and the overall performance could be better."
"It should be more user-friendly and simple."
"BI is scalable, but there are some problems with limited online storage."
"The integration with third-party products could be more stable."
More Microsoft Power BI cons
"There should be a better or an easier way to establish that connection to external sources."
"Would like the ability to be able to benchmark."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to what's available on the market, I think we pay a fair price."
"In general, Microsoft BI's price is lower compared to Alteryx."
"There are a few options available for purchasing a license. Typically the number of users you have will determine the price of the license. The more users you have the more you will pay."
"The price of the license can be better."
"I have never worked on licensing, but I have heard that it is reasonable."
"The premium licensing is approximately $5,000 per month which is pretty expensive."
"It's straightforward licensing."
"Once the trial period for the BI service is over, the cost is approximately $10 USD per user, per month, so it's quite reasonable."
More Microsoft Power BI pricing and cost advice
"14,000 Pounds per year for licensing."
"I am still using the two-week trial, but at first sight, the price is reasonable."
report
See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Reporting solutions are best for your needs.
See recommendations
831,265 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…
Read full review
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
43%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Insurance Company
7%
 

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...
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
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Comparisons

Tableau vs Microsoft Power BI Logo
Tableau vs Microsoft Power BI
Compared 16% of the time
Domo vs Microsoft Power BI Logo
Domo vs Microsoft Power BI
Compared 9% of the time
Amazon QuickSight vs Microsoft Power BI Logo
Amazon QuickSight vs Microsoft Power BI
Compared 8% of the time
Databricks vs Microsoft Power BI Logo
Databricks vs Microsoft Power BI
Compared 6% of the time
KNIME vs Microsoft Power BI Logo
KNIME vs Microsoft Power BI
Compared 6% of the time
More Microsoft Power BI Competitors
No data available
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI
January 2025
Microsoft Power BI reportDownload Microsoft Power BI product report
Buyer's Guide
Reporting
December 2024
XLCubed reportDownload XLCubed 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
 

Learn More

Microsoft
Video not available
Fluence Technologies
 

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.

Produce insightful, interactive reports on, company-wide metrics for any business audience. Now all in Excel.
Pixel-perfect financial reporting with the skill sets you already have. No IT required.
Meet XLCubed: The data-connected Excel add-in for all your reporting needs.

 

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
Marshalls Ltd, BP Exploration and Production, Thorntons, Ted Baker, Bristol-Myers, Rank Group, ING Bank Genve, Cargill Value Investment, Chloride Power, Auchan, Erste, UEFA, Novartis, Porsche Informatik, Raiffeisen Bank International
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI vs. XLCubed
January 2025
Free Report: Microsoft Power BI vs. XLCubed
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Power BI vs. XLCubed and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our Microsoft Power BI vs. XLCubed report.
See our list of best Reporting vendors.

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.