We are using this tool for management reporting.
Executive HR- Talent Acquisition at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Management reporting and data analytics tool with good stability and scalability, but its serviceability needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "Management reporting solution that's very stable and scalable."
- "One area for improvement in Microsoft Power BI is serviceability. Compared to one of its competitors: Tableau, there are a lot of things which you cannot do in this tool, that can be done in Tableau."
What is our primary use case?
What needs improvement?
One area for improvement in Microsoft Power BI is serviceability. If I compare this tool with Tableau, there are a lot of things which I cannot do in Microsoft Power BI that I can do in Tableau.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Microsoft Power BI for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Power BI is a very stable tool.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI
February 2025
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft Power BI is a scalable tool.
How was the initial setup?
As we are using the cloud service of this tool, the initial setup for it is fine.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I pay for the Microsoft Power BI license on a yearly basis.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I was able to evaluate Tableau.
What other advice do I have?
I've been using these BI (business intelligence) tools: Microsoft Power BI and Tableau.
I'm somewhat satisfied with the performance of Microsoft Power BI.
We've all been using Microsoft Power BI in the company, from the time it was introduced.
For the deployment and maintenance of this tool, we have a team of 20 who are currently in charge of full-time development. These are the users who are the main developers. Scalability will be for the end users, e.g. the business users, and could be increased to more than 2,000.
I've contacted the Microsoft Power BI technical support team a lot of times.
I'm recommending this tool to others who want to start using it.
On a scale of one to ten, I'm rating Microsoft Power BI a seven.
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.
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Assistant Manager Databases at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
User-friendly, good customization, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft BI's most valuable features are the user interface, which is easy to use and light."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Microsoft BI for data analysis.
What is most valuable?
Microsoft BI's most valuable features are the user interface, which is easy to use and light.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft BI for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is okay, but the real-time integration is lacking.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Microsoft BI is fine.
We have approximately 45 people using the solution. We do not use the solution daily, but we use it frequently.
How are customer service and support?
We have not contacted technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before we were using Microsoft BI we used Tableau and an open-sourced solution called PHP.
We ended up switching to Microsoft BI because it has proper tools, easy to use, and is user-friendly.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Microsoft BI was not complex. The deployment took a long while with our twin databases.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Microsoft BI is expensive. We found the price of Tableau to be less expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others because it is easy to use and can be customized.
I rate Microsoft BI an eight 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.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI
February 2025
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Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Power BI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
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Technical coordinator at a university with 201-500 employees
Reliable, problem-free, and easy to set up
Pros and Cons
- "We have found the product very stable and reliable."
- "The reporting needs to be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it, for instance, to figure out some indicators in regards to our students including the number of students, which are graduating, et cetera.
What is most valuable?
The initial setup was pretty simple.
The solution runs without issues. It's been problem-free.
We have found the product very stable and reliable.
The scalability seems to be fine for us.
What needs improvement?
We'd like to have the ability to relate different reports by common factors from the user side, including relating different reports directly instead of fetching the data to enter into an external tool like Excel or something like that. The reporting needs to be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for about three to six months or so.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability has been good. There aren't bugs or glitches really. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's pretty reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For our use case, the solution offers reasonable scalability. We haven't run into issues.
We have 40 to 50 people using the product right now. They are across different roles.
I'm not sure if we have a plan to increase usage at this time. We likely will not.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't had a need to reach out to technical support as it's largely been problem-free. I can't speak to how they would be for support. I do not know if they are helpful or responsive.
How was the initial setup?
We found the initial implementation process to be straightforward and simple. It's not overly complex or difficult.
I cannot recall the exact amount of time it actually took to deploy the product.
What other advice do I have?
I'm an end-user. However, I'm not sure which exact version of the solution we're using.
I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We've largely been very satisfied with its capabilities.
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.
Assistant General Manager at ELEVATE Solutions Limited
Easy to manage and simple to set up with good customization potential
Pros and Cons
- "We have found that the reporting and publishing are great."
- "You need to purchase upgraded support separately."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the product for some data tasks such as data binding and reporting. That's it.
What is most valuable?
The customization and management are very easy.
We have found that the reporting and publishing are great. Sometimes people like to use the report for their teams.
The initial setup is quick and easy.
The solution is scalable.
It's reliable and the performance has been good.
The cost of the product is not too high.
What needs improvement?
You need to purchase upgraded support separately.
The marketing will need to increase more now. Power BI is a good product, however, from Microsoft, and I'm not getting too much marketing information about new features or anything like that. People don't know the capabilities and they really should.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We find the solution to be stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. it's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product can scale. It's not an issue.
How are customer service and support?
You do need to purchases specific support in order to get a good amount of attention. If you are a company that needs 24/7 support, you need to pay for it.
The basic support is good, although it is a little slow.
The Microsoft support model has it set up so that a first call will only get a user to their ambassador. Okay. Their ambassador will not have too much knowledge. They just identify what is the issue then they escalate to their team. Microsoft support could improve their services to attempt to have a first call resolution. Right now, in most cases, the first call resolution is not possible.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use a different solution previously.
How was the initial setup?
Power BI is a fast application. Therefore, the setup is very, very easy. You just license it, sign up, and you can use it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is reasonable. It's not overly expensive, although you will need to pay for extra support if you think you will need assistance regularly.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We only looked at Microsoft. We did not consider other options.
What other advice do I have?
We are Microsoft partners.
I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PMO at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Highly performance, easy to use, but needs more data flexibility
Pros and Cons
- "What I have found valuable about Microsoft BI is its performance and ease of use. The interface is very simple and it is accessible to everyone. If someone is new to this type of solution it is straightforward to understand."
- "In the future, Microsoft BI can be better by increasing user-friendliness"
What is our primary use case?
I use Microsoft BI for the reports and our displaying the data in different ways. As a project manager, I need to follow the budget and receive confirmation about our projects. We have an SAP database and we follow and check all the budget data of the project including data usage.
What is most valuable?
What I have found valuable about Microsoft BI is its performance and ease of use. The interface is very simple and it is accessible to everyone. If someone is new to this type of solution it is straightforward to understand.
What needs improvement?
The solution could improve by having more options to manipulate the views of the data on the dashboards. I sometimes need to make them myself but there should be more customizable with drag-and-drop elements and filters on that data differently than it was designed. There are filters in the design stage but there are times you need something else other than how it was designed. For example, if you did not have some of the information at the time of the design. Having the ability to design, or request the data from the database as an end-user is very important. It would be beneficial to have more autonomy on the design of the requested data. You are not able to change the fields or the request data because it was done in the backend and you are not able to see how that request happened. Sometimes you need to make your own requests or have different requests regarding the data. We do not have access because we are not administrators.
In the future, Microsoft BI can be better by increasing user-friendliness.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have found it to be scalable.
We have approximately 1,000 people using the solution in my organization.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used QlikView and Qlik Sense.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.
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.
BI Solution Engineer at DataSelf
Easy to use for buildings charts and graphs and doing calculations
Pros and Cons
- "It is a little easier at buildings charts and graphs than Tableau."
- "It has limited performance capabilities in terms of connecting to large transactional databases, but it is fine for simple and quick queries from Excel spreadsheets or one table. The premium level is going to be more applicable for the higher transaction-level databases."
What is our primary use case?
I've been a consultant, so I've built some reports for some clients. I use and prefer its desktop version.
What is most valuable?
It is a little easier at buildings charts and graphs than Tableau.
What needs improvement?
At the enterprise level, it is a little expensive. To get the full capacity of integrations, you need to go premium.
It has limited performance capabilities in terms of connecting to large transactional databases, but it is fine for simple and quick queries from Excel spreadsheets or one table. The premium level is going to be more applicable for the higher transaction-level databases.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been in the Business Intelligence Industry for about seven years. I use this product off and on.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is complex to scale. There are just too many things you have to put in place. You got to have the gateways, and you got to have the premium service. There are a lot of components that get involved. It is not very straightforward.
We sell our own BI tool. So, we have hundreds of clients. They are mid-sized organizations. We're building out our Power BI stack because people do like it, but right now, we have most of our stuff in Tableau.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also use Tableau. They're very comparable products. I worked for different companies that built their own proprietary stuff, and mainly for visualization, Tableau and Power BI were the connectors to go to. So, there wasn't a switch.
I really like Tableau's web version over Power BI's web version. It is just easier to drag and drop things and blend data on the backend. It has a little simpler process in that regard. I don't like the charting in Tableau. Its charting is a little more complex than Power BI's charting.
Calculations are a little harder in Tableau. They can be a little more complex in Tableau as compared to Power BI. Tableau is a little more detailed in terms of creating calculations. You can't just add two columns together. Tableau should have the ability to add or subtract columns. They should make it like a wizard.
How was the initial setup?
The simple stuff is easy. When you want to get into the calculations and building DAX-type formulas, I don't think DAX is that great. I find Tableau's coding a little easier.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its pricing is reasonable for the desktop stuff, but for enterprise-level, it is a little expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others to just do their research and figure out what they want to do with it so that they know if it is going to be hard or easy.
I would rate Microsoft BI an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Technical Director at Progetti e Soluzioni
Intuitive, stable, customizable, and has a lot of powerful functions
Pros and Cons
- "It is stable enough. It has a lot of powerful functions. It can also be customized with the DAX language. It is also intuitive enough and incremental. You can start with something simple, and then step-by-step, you can increase the reports and dashboards according to your needs."
- "When you go to the cloud, its licensing is not intuitive. It is a little bit complex. When you have to purchase a new license, it is difficult to understand on their website what exactly you need to pay and how you can group. It is something that is applicable to all Microsoft products. They're not always so simple and clear when it comes to licensing. Their support can also be better in terms of explaining how they resolved an issue and what steps they took to resolve it. They are able to resolve the issue, but they can be better at explaining the approach they took to resolve the issue. It could have something in the direction of machine learning. It can have some kind of integration with machine learning where you can ask for some reports with natural language."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it for analyzing transactions. In the products that we develop and supply to our customers, there are some applications that are connected to payments. We analyze the trend of transactions or payments that are done in our system by our clients. We want to understand how our clients are using our solution and if there are some conditions that are making them use our product more than others. We also analyze who is paying and how much, and how and at what time are they using our system.
What is most valuable?
It is stable enough. It has a lot of powerful functions. It can also be customized with the DAX language.
It is also intuitive enough and incremental. You can start with something simple, and then step-by-step, you can increase the reports and dashboards according to your needs.
What needs improvement?
When you go to the cloud, its licensing is not intuitive. It is a little bit complex. When you have to purchase a new license, it is difficult to understand on their website what exactly you need to pay and how you can group. It is something that is applicable to all Microsoft products. They're not always so simple and clear when it comes to licensing.
Their support can also be better in terms of explaining how they resolved an issue and what steps they took to resolve it. They are able to resolve the issue, but they can be better at explaining the approach they took to resolve the issue.
It could have something in the direction of machine learning. It can have some kind of integration with machine learning where you can ask for some reports with natural language.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable enough.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is easy to make it grow as a product. Our organization is not big. We have a total of 10 to 15 people who access this solution. We will continue to use it for sure.
In general, we are producing applications that we sell to our clients in a SaaS model. All data of our clients is inside our database. The clients have to manage the service. All this data that they are loading in our server can have interesting information for them. So, we are using it to understand our clients and the behavior of the user.
How are customer service and technical support?
We had to use some support for licensing. They were fast enough, but sometimes, they were not very clear. We had a few calls with them. In the end, they solved the problem, but they didn't have a very clear approach. It was more of a communication problem. Their support can be better in terms of explaining how they resolved an issue and what steps they took to resolve it.
How was the initial setup?
Its installation is easy on the cloud as well as on the desktop. You can also easily move and publish from desktop to the cloud. We had issues with licensing, but after you have received licenses, it is easy.
It is also good how the data that is being collected on some servers for different data centers is automatically synchronized. It is easy enough to do automatic scaling or collect the data from the source and the publisher.
What about the implementation team?
We did it ourselves. At the moment, we are not using a consultant. It is intuitive enough for our use, and there is one type of analysis and one type of role. However, in the future, we might require a consultant for customizing the dashboard and the reports and splitting the data according to different roles. We would require analysis of different roles based on different sets of data. For machine learning, we'll surely require a consultant.
For its deployment and maintenance, we have three or four people for each specific competency. Some of them are more experienced in the data that has to be collected, and some of them are experienced in how data can be collected from the in-house server. There are also some people who are more competent in the business domain.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay for users who are publishing on the cloud. The desktop version is free.
Its licensing is on a yearly basis.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. It has many features that are good. It mostly needs improved licensing.
I would rate Power BI a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
New Build Completion & Commissioning at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Powerful, user-friendly, and easy to set up
Pros and Cons
- "The product can go easily go and extract data and it can put it into any format."
- "I'm not overly technical, and so I can't really speak to any shortcomings from a technical standpoint."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the product for running the reports and all data extraction in our organization.
What is most valuable?
The solution is a wonderful tool overall.
Power BI is very powerful and very easy to use. Its user-friendliness is one of its most valuable aspects. It has a very nice user interface that makes everything easy to navigate.
The product can go easily go and extract data and it can put it into any format.
It's a very good data analytic tool.
The initial setup is pretty easy. It's pretty straightforward in general.
What needs improvement?
I can't say that anything glaring is missing from the offering at this time.
Microsoft is doing a lot of research on it and they're coming up with a lot of good release items.
I'm not overly technical, and so I can't really speak to any shortcomings from a technical standpoint.
I'd like to have more time with the solution to evaluate it to see if there's really anything missing. We don't really go in-depth with the product.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution since about 2017. It's been a few years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good. It's a Microsoft product and therefore they wouldn't put anything out that wasn't tested and worthy of release. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's quite reliable and offers good performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
While the scalability is there, the cost is what you have to factor in. It has to scale as if there's more data, it needs to meet that demand and be able to extract and analyze it.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support for the most part has been very good. They are helpful and responsive. We are satisfied with the level of support we receive. On a scale of one to 25, I would give it a mark of 20.
How was the initial setup?
We've found the initial setup to be pretty straightforward. It's not complex. A company shouldn't have too much trouble getting everything up and running.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure of the exact cost of the solution. It's not an aspect of the product I need to worry about.
I am aware that we currently have an enterprise license.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I personally haven't evaluated or compared any other solutions. I don't have any knowledge in terms of how it compares to other options.
What other advice do I have?
We are customers and end-users. We don't have a specific business relationship with Microsoft.
I would rate the solution eight out of ten overall. We've been pretty satisfied with the product.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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