The use case for power BI is to generate dashboards for high-end management and operational dashboards.
Principal System Developer at HHRC
Is easy to install, stable, and scalable, and helps to quickly create dashboards
Pros and Cons
- "What I like about Power BI is how fast you are able to create dashboards and how fast you are able to fetch the data. You can connect to the database or data source, and then you can design your dashboards very easily."
- "There are some limitations in Power BI; you have to work in the Power BI base. However, if you want something not out-of-the-box and you want something custom, you have to do a lot of work."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Microsoft BI, if used properly, can provide insights that will help management to take better decisions and can benefit from cost optimizations, reduce risks, etc.
What is most valuable?
What I like about Power BI is how fast you are able to create dashboards and how fast you are able to fetch the data. You can connect to the database or data source, and then you can design your dashboards very easily.
The best thing about Power BI is that you can manipulate the data within Power BI, so you don't have to update the data source to have filtration or conditional formatting. You can easily do those things under Power BI.
It is easy and has rapid development.
It is stable and scalable as well.
What needs improvement?
There is an issue with Microsoft because the on-premises Power BI is behind the cloud Power BI. So, the on-premises Power BI is six months or one year behind the cloud version because Microsoft published the cloud features first, and then they published the on-premises version. This has been an issue. They should be on the same level of capability.
There are some limitations in Power BI; you have to work in the Power BI base. However, if you want something not out-of-the-box and you want something custom, you have to do a lot of work. Microsoft can provide some easy way to customize the dashboards.
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Microsoft Power BI
March 2025

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For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for two to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable, but there is an issue with Microsoft because the on-premises Power BI is behind the cloud Power BI. The features of on-premises Power BI are six months or one year behind the cloud version. They are not on the same level of capability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Power BI is quite good.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft technical support could be more knowledgeable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switched to Power BI because it is easy, and there is rapid development.
How was the initial setup?
Installation is easy and took about half an hour.
What about the implementation team?
It requires a little bit of effort, and we needed the help of a consultant.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Power BI comes with enterprise Microsoft licensing. So for the user, you don't have to pay, but you do have to pay a one-time cost.
What other advice do I have?
If you want to use Power BI, you should go for the cloud version. Don't use the on-premises version because the cloud version has a lot of features which the on-premises version doesn't have.
Also, if you are going to use Power BI, you should know what all your capabilities are. Otherwise, if you try to do some things such as develop a dashboard which is not supported by Power BI, it will be a showstopper for you.
I would rate this solution at eight on a scale from one to ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Accounting Services Finance Manager M&S at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees
User-friendly, offers helpful reports, and has good dashboards
Pros and Cons
- "It's a very easy-to-use solution."
- "The initial installation is difficult."
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use the solution for the reports. We use it a lot for self-reporting.
What is most valuable?
We're making a dashboard that can show specific details and can be easily customized. It's very useful for creating dashboards.
The reporting is good.
The solution is stable.
We can scale it if we need to.
It's a very easy-to-use solution. The product is quite user-friendly.
What needs improvement?
The initial installation is difficult.
The pricing is a bit high and we'd like it to be less expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for two years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable. Its performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good. If a company wants to, it can expand.
We have about 15 to 20 people that use the solution.
We're not sure if we will expand usage in the future or not. That's still to be decided.
How are customer service and support?
We manage technical support ourselves. We do not need to reach out to Microsoft for help. Therefore, I can't speak to how helpful or responsive they would be.
How was the initial setup?
I found the initial setup to be difficult. It's not exactly straightforward. The deployment might take about an hour.
We use three people for deployment and maintenance tasks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have to pay for licensing. I've paid for a license in the past.
We'd like for it to be a little less expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend the solution to others based on its ease of use.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Microsoft Power BI
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Power BI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
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Cloud business Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Easily customizable, good reporting, and offers self-serve analytics
Pros and Cons
- "The amount of customization that you can do is good, and it's relatively straightforward to do."
- "The look and feel should be updated in terms of the types of dashboards and graphs that you can produce. They aren't as visual as some of its competitors."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and Microsoft BI is one of the products that we implement for our customers. It is used for customized dashboarding, reporting, and self-serve analytics, on a broad scale in enterprise.
What is most valuable?
The amount of customization that you can do is good, and it's relatively straightforward to do. People with limited experience in terms of coding can implement this themselves. If an organization doesn't have a high amount of skill, internally, then it's something that they can still spin up themselves, relatively well.
What needs improvement?
It could be changed to the point where it's more suited for self-serve analytics.
The look and feel should be updated in terms of the types of dashboards and graphs that you can produce. They aren't as visual as some of its competitors.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been selling and using Microsoft BI for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft BI is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product is scalable.
We have dozens of customers that use it.
How are customer service and support?
The Microsoft technical support is not great. You need to have a partner in place that's able to handle these services for you. Customers aren't going to get answers quick enough if they're going directly to the vendor.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with a couple of other similar products but I'd only downloaded the free versions of these tools to play around with. One of these is Tableau.
Tableau is a solution that would be used more at the enterprise scale. It may be more suitable for analytics.
These days, from a visual perspective in terms of analytics, dashboards, and customized dashboards, I tend to use Google products.
How was the initial setup?
The complexity of the installation depends on what you're using it for. If you're doing anything relatively complex, such as working with AI or machine learning, then you would probably want to have a specialist service provider do it for you.
We've seen that people are tending to use solutions that compete with it, just because they are easier to automate. From a large-scale point of view, the installation could be simpler.
That said, in its simplest form, it can be used for self-serve analytics.
What about the implementation team?
A company can handle the deployment and maintenance in-house on its own. Or, if they're doing a large-scale project, they might be in need of two engineers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My customers pay a yearly licensing fee.
From a cost point of view, it's competitive in the enterprise space, although it's not as competitive when you add up all of the additional costs. Things like integrations cost extra and it's probably where Microsoft makes more of the money.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Senior Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Good visualizations, dashboards, and scalability, but needs better user interface, rule-based security, and support
Pros and Cons
- "Its visualizations and dashboards are most valuable. Power BI is great in terms of visualizations and dashboards. The reports that we previously had were not very nice in terms of visualization. It also provides the ability to play with the data."
- "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."
- "They can improve it in terms of rule-based security. Currently, it has very limited rules."
- "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."
- "Their technical support can be better. They normally take too long to escalate and resolve a case."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for reporting. We are using its latest version.
What is most valuable?
Its visualizations and dashboards are most valuable. Power BI is great in terms of visualizations and dashboards. The reports that we previously had were not very nice in terms of visualization. It also provides the ability to play with the data.
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.
What needs improvement?
They can improve it in terms of rule-based security. Currently, it has very limited rules.
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.
Their technical support can be better. They normally take too long to escalate and resolve a case.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Power BI for five or six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I am at the initial stage of using it. We have just deployed a report in our organization, and it is working fine so far. It seems to be stable. I am not sure if we faced any issues with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is good in terms of scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have had only one interaction with them, and it was a bad one. They took around a month to resolve a simple issue. We also had to escalate the case. The resolution was very simple, and ideally, they should have found it on the first day. They normally take too long when it comes to the escalation of cases.
How was the initial setup?
As a first-time user, I found it to be of medium complexity. You have to connect it with the SQL database or your data source. You might not find it very straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
It can also be deployed on-premises. If you have it on-premises, make sure that you meet all the prerequisites and have all permissions. You should sort these things out before deploying Power BI. I faced some issues because I missed one of the prerequisites, and it took me one month to get it resolved. That's why I recommend completing all prerequisites.
I would rate Microsoft Power BI a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technical Director, Information Management at a construction company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Good reports, dashboards, and visualizations, but needs more report outputs and better documentation
Pros and Cons
- "Reports, dashboards, and visualizations are most valuable."
- "It should have more report outputs. They should expand the report outputs. Its documentation should also be better."
What is our primary use case?
It is used for data visualization and analytics. We have its latest version.
How has it helped my organization?
It has provided better and deeper analytics for our data. It has also been helpful for custom visualizations as per client requirements.
What is most valuable?
Reports, dashboards, and visualizations are most valuable.
What needs improvement?
It should have more report outputs. They should expand the report outputs.
Its documentation should also be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is fairly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable based on licensing. You would need premium and additional organizational licenses. Mostly everyone in the organization uses this feature. We have around 4,000 users of this solution in our organization, which includes a lot of project management people.
We don't have any plans to increase the usage in the future. We are currently content with its usage.
How are customer service and technical support?
They exceed expectations and provide good quality support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had other solutions, but they were some form of ad hoc databases and spreadsheets. We switched to this solution for integrating various data sets from different data sources and for richer analytics.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward. It took two weeks.
What about the implementation team?
It was an in-house job. For its maintenance, we probably have a staff of about 20 people.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten. It is a really well-developed product, but it has some room for improvement.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Manager, BI & Analytics at Perceptive Analytics
User-friendly, offers a flexible measure creation capability, scalable to large datasets, and has good community support
Pros and Cons
- "Two valuable most features are the ability to create columns and create measures."
- "In my opinion, the software is a little bit limited in terms of the flexibility it offers, with regard to the design of the visualization."
What is our primary use case?
I am currently a management consultant and, before my current employment, I was a management consultant as well. I also had a stint with an online retailer in India. My usage with Power BI has been in the area of practical day-to-day operations, web host operations, and equipment status monitoring.
What is most valuable?
Two valuable most features are the ability to create columns and create measures.
The create measures feature offers you a little bit more flexibility. You can define what kind of measure you need using a formula, and the way Power BI works is very similar to Excel. In fact, most of the functions that you use in Excel are present in Power BI as well. When you create measures or columns, you just write the formula as you would in Excel, which will allow you to visualize that data in the way that you want.
What needs improvement?
In my opinion, the software is a little bit limited in terms of the flexibility it offers, with regard to the design of the visualization. By comparison, if you look at some other visualization tools, such as Tableau, for instance, the range of designs, or the range of graphics that you can create with Tableau is far greater than what you can do with Power BI.
Of course, they do provide an option to download templates and use them, but every time, you have to go to the Power BI store, search for those templates, download them and then use them. I think it's a growing universe of visualizers that they have, so probably, they are also working on the same thing. I believe, in terms of the designs of the visualizations that the tool can create, there is some room for improvement.
One more aspect that needs improvement is the formatting of visualizations that we create. Formatting in this context is the colors or the font style or font sizes. The formatting options, I believe, could be made a bit more user-friendly than the way things are right now. It's a little hard to figure out where to go and how to change the formatting of a particular chart or graph. So, I think the formatting options could be made a little bit more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Power BI for more than three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft BI is definitely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product is scalable and in fact, I have worked on it with fairly large datasets. It also gives you the option of publishing onto a server. When the dashboard/report is published to the Power BI server, we get a link that can be shared with others in the organization. At the enterprise level, it is possible to give access to a list of users who will have a need to look at the report frequently. These users can just click on the link and view the report whenever they want to. It is also possible for them to use filters and interact with the report.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am fairly comfortable with the tool and to this point, I really haven't felt the need to reach out to Microsoft with regard to the specific features of the tool. In case I do need some help on a particular feature, what I usually do is Google what I am trying to find and I get some links to the Microsoft community, or something similar, which answers my question.
To that extent, it has been very convenient to find help in whatever we are required to do with the software. The simple things are taken care of automatically. In case there is some trouble with the visualizations, you can always find help or assistance on the Microsoft community pages.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have also worked with Tableau and I think that each of these tools has its advantages.
I believe the cost of the software plays a deciding factor in a company's decision to implement either of the two. While each product has its pros and cons, if you're looking for something that's more value for money, then I think Power BI is the better choice.
On the other hand, if you are willing to choose an expensive option that gives you a lot more flexibility, then I think that Tableau would be a better choice.
It ultimately depends on what you are going to use it for. If you're using it for a variety of visualizations that you want to create, Tableau will be a better choice. On the other hand, if people have budget constraints then Power BI will provide a good value for the money.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. You just download the software from their website, install it, and sign in.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product offers good value for the money.
What other advice do I have?
In a nutshell, I recommend this product and I would suggest implementing it. It has a very good range of features that it offers. For organizations starting on their business intelligence journey, I believe Power BI is a very good tool to start with. It's very user-friendly and it provides a graphical user interface where users can just drag and drop their required fields into particular templates of visualizations. It means that you get the charts quickly. There's no complex learning curve involved. From that perspective, I would say that it's definitely worth a try.
My biggest complaint is that it's a bit limited right now, in terms of the choice of visualizations it offers.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Identifies customer purchasing patterns and provides good visualization
Pros and Cons
- "It has provided customer purchase patterns and great visualization."
- "This solution needs integration with SAS and more deep analysis functionality."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use for this solution is geospatial analysis.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution has provided an accurate analysis of our customers repurchasing the same plan for telecom Jio. It has provided customer purchase patterns and great visualization.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the visualization and integration with Office365.
What needs improvement?
This solution needs integration with SAS and more deep analysis functionality.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft BI for five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Interim Manager Supply Chain / IT at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
It is connected to every database: Whatever and wherever it is
Pros and Cons
- "It is easy to work with and very chic."
- "Its connection to every database: Whatever and wherever it is."
- "The look is simple, and could be a little more professional."
What is our primary use case?
Its primary use case is for CIPs from the purchasing department. It performs perfectly. It is very quick and easy to use.
How has it helped my organization?
We approve it for use with SAP BI, so it has been more effective for our users and much cheaper. So, the costs are small and the benefits are high.
What is most valuable?
Its connection to every database: Whatever and wherever it is.
It is easy to work with and very chic.
What needs improvement?
The look is simple, and could be a little more professional.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good. We have no problems.
We receive an update every month with new functions, so we are not missing anything.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good. It works for a large community just fine.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not needed to use technical support. We are able to do everything by ourselves. That is one of the main reasons that we like the product.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have SAP BI working. It has cost us more than a million Euro, and it does not work. This was one of the reasons to change.
Power BI is very easy to use and much sleeker.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. 30 minutes, and it runs perfectly.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Power BI as the best working solution.
Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: Usability of the solution.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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