I use this for its analysis service.
BI Analyst at Infosys Technology
Has valuable reporting and printing features
Pros and Cons
- "I find Power BI's reporting feature the most valuable. The solution has improved a lot. There are new features getting added day by day. In the past, they didn't even have the printing feature, but now they have it."
- "If you look at the new tool, even though they promised that you could do data modeling, that you could do everything from the Power BI side, if your data is really large in volume, sometimes it doesn't work on the Power BI. More feature testing from their side would certainly help users."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
I find Power BI's reporting feature the most valuable. The solution has improved a lot. There are new features getting added day by day. In the past, they didn't even have the printing feature, but now they have it.
What needs improvement?
Every tool has room for improvement. Microsoft also has a lot of room for improvement. If you look at the new tool, even though they promised that you could do data modeling, that you could do everything from the Power BI side, if your data is really large in volume, sometimes it doesn't work on the Power BI. More feature testing from their side would certainly help users.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used this for eight years. I've used this solution within the last 12 months.
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Microsoft Power BI
March 2025

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable. It's a nice solution to have.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is very much scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good. It's not really very helpful sometimes, but it is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used a different solution for a different location, a different customer. If a customer decides to go for one vendor, they stick to that vendor, so changing a vendor is not an option most of the time.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup is straightforward, but it depends on the business case. It's straightforward, but sometimes it is complex, but compared to any other tool, the setup for this solution is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
My experience with them is okay.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I wasn't able to evaluate other options before choosing because it was already chosen by the customer.
What other advice do I have?
Deployment for this solution in our organization is mixed: on-premise and through Microsoft cloud.
If you have a source on the Microsoft side then it's always easier to use one vendor for end-to-end solution. Even if there are some other sources, Microsoft has a big and varied area. Take the reporting ETL analysis as an example, everything's built as part Microsoft. It's always good to have one vendor than multiple vendors.
How long deployment of this solution takes all depends on how much data you have. Sometimes it takes a long time if you have a billion rows of data e.g. it could take hours. It also depends on the architecture. It depends on so many things.
There are a hundred users of this solution in our organization. The real users are customers who require reporting to make business decisions. Mostly the users are business analysts.
This solution is pretty much automated, so no maintenance. For AD, some are there as a team, so they help.
No plans of increasing usage of this solution. Maybe in the future, but not right now.
My advice to other people looking into implementing Power BI is to go for it. It's one tool that has everything, and they should always try to evaluate Microsoft compared to open source. Like in open source, you'll always have a lot of libraries, a lot of different tools that you would be using. It's great to try Microsoft Suite because at the end, you'll only have to deal with one vendor so maintenance will be less.
The lesson that I have learned from using Power BI is to try it out. Don't just rely on the features and promises about the solution. You first try it out, then share your experiences with the customer.
My rating for this solution would be seven or eight out of ten because it has everything in it and I don't see anything missing in it. It is efficient for our needs.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Managing Director at Innovative Business Analytics
Reasonably priced, with excellent virtualization
Pros and Cons
- "The virtualization of Microsoft BI is very good."
- "The DAX in Microsoft BI is quite difficult."
What is our primary use case?
I am surveying and researching this solution, in order to provide it to my customer.
Microsoft BI is used to create a dashboard or reports in the customer's environment.
I implement Power BI on desktops for my customers to use for sales and financial analysis. The customer must purchase Power BI Pro from their company, and then they can use it.
What is most valuable?
The virtualization of Microsoft BI is very good.
What needs improvement?
The DAX in Microsoft BI is quite difficult.
The DAX is where the soft data is accessed. The DAX command is used for coding.
I would like to see the DAX simplified, and the number of pages in Microsoft BI should not be limited to one. You should be able to scroll endlessly left, right, up, and down. Typically, Power BI has a page. On this page, the limit could be eight or ten objects that fill the entire page, and you must proceed to the next page. If possible, I'd like Power BI to do the scroll up, scroll down, with unlimited scrolling on one page.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Microsoft BI for a few months.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is good. They have a free Power BI Desktop version, but it has limitations.
They also offer Power BI Pro at a reasonable price. Power BI Pro is appropriate for large enterprises with at least 500 users. The price may be very expensive per month.
The pro version is not suitable for the majority of my customers, who have five or ten users.
What other advice do I have?
If you are a single person using this solution, I would recommend using the desktop version. Power Pro can be used for multiple users ranging from 20 to 50, eliminating the need to invest in Power BI Premium.
Maybe, in the long run, I can be a Microsoft partner, but first I need a large number of customers.
I would rate Microsoft BI an eight out of 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.
Buyer's Guide
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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Lead Data Engineer at Sensilab
A powerful and easy-to-use platform with a lot of connectors
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature would be the abundance of connectors. It is also easy to use."
- "It is easy enough. I don't see any real substantial improvements that are needed. It is great as it is, but its interface could be a bit modern."
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature would be the abundance of connectors. It is also easy to use.
It is a very powerful platform for BI. It has everything that you want from BI.
What needs improvement?
It is easy enough. I don't see any real substantial improvements that are needed. It is great as it is, but its interface could be a bit modern.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for six years. I am using the online version. So, it is the latest one.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It has improved over the years. There were problems a few years ago, but now, it is way better.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is fine. I had to reach technical support a few times, and they have been very good in the last two years.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Compared to others, I think it is reasonable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I tested a few other similar products before deciding on Power BI.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others to just try it. I would rate it a 10 out of 10.
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.
Project Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
User-friendly with a straightforward setup and good stability
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
- "It seems that the solution could use more analytics to help users draw more contextual business insights. Right now, you need other solutions for that."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution to run our industry reports. We get the data from data warehouse we are creating. I use it to export the data.
We have been using Microsoft BI for one of the customers. That was completely in the customer environment. That's all. We did not have that solution for us in-house. However, we are working towards introducing it for our own purposes in the near future.
What is most valuable?
The product is very user-friendly.
The solution can be used with any BI tool you have.
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
The solution has been very stable for our customers.
It appears the solution has the capability to scale, although we have yet to try to do so.
What needs improvement?
We have yet to implement the solution completely. We're still exploring features and capabilities. It's too early to discuss items that may be lacking.
It seems that the solution could use more analytics to help users draw more contextual business insights. Right now, you need other solutions for that.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for the past five years now. It's been a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product has been quite stable so far. The performance is good. It's reliable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not attempted to scale the solution yet. We are in the initial stage of exploring different features on it. We believe it to be a scalable product, however, we have not attempted it ourselves yet. We might in the future.
We don't have any customers on the solution right now as we are just trying to figure things out.
How are customer service and technical support?
We haven't used technical support. I wouldn't be able to speak to how helpful or responsive they are.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are also using Tableau. We use Tableau right now, and we are likely introducing Microsoft BI in-house in the near future. For now, we just have customers that use it.
How was the initial setup?
We found the initial setup to be straightforward. It's not a difficult implementation and I wouldn't describe it as complex. A company setting up the solution for the first time shouldn't have any problem doing so.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We're still in the process of licensing the model. We don't have it set up yet. My understanding is that we will pay for licensing on a yearly basis. I don't have the exact figures in terms of the costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Right now, I am looking to do a comparison between Tableau, Power BI, MicroStrategy, and Pyramid Analytics. I have not had a chance to really dig too deep into research.
What other advice do I have?
We are just customers and end-users. We don't have a business relationship with Microsoft.
We are using the most recent version of the solution at this time.
We're still exploring the solution and haven't fully implemented it yet.
I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten. It's very user-friendly and so far I have had a good experience.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private 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.
Advisory Software Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Interactive, user friendly, and efficient in terms of performance
Pros and Cons
- "The best thing about this solution is that it is very user friendly. It is interactive in terms of visualizations. It is very eye-catching, and it attracts users. There are a lot of options to visualize the data in different drafts and views. I have used different visualization tools, and I found Power BI to be more efficient in terms of performance, user-friendliness, and ease of use."
- "A few features available in Tableau are not available in Power BI. For example. Tableau has the ability to make up the physical layer and all other stuff at runtime. In Power BI, we have to develop a proper physical layer to connect it. The limitation that we normally face is related to the direct query mode. When it comes to the direct query mode, most of the functionality is not working, which is an issue for us. We have to use the direct query mode frequently because the client needs real-time data. They should work on this limitation. There are a lot of other technical things that need to be improved. I am also following the Power BI platform and Microsoft Support Center platform on the web where users have put their requirements. Microsoft is also working on improving this solution. In every update, they add new features to this solution."
What is most valuable?
The best thing about this solution is that it is very user friendly. It is interactive in terms of visualizations. It is very eye-catching, and it attracts users. There are a lot of options to visualize the data in different drafts and views.
I have used different visualization tools, and I found Power BI to be more efficient in terms of performance, user-friendliness, and ease of use.
What needs improvement?
A few features available in Tableau are not available in Power BI. For example. Tableau has the ability to make up the physical layer and all other stuff at runtime. In Power BI, we have to develop a proper physical layer to connect it.
The limitation that we normally face is related to the direct query mode. When it comes to the direct query mode, most of the functionality is not working, which is an issue for us. We have to use the direct query mode frequently because the client needs real-time data. They should work on this limitation.
There are a lot of other technical things that need to be improved. I am also following the Power BI platform and Microsoft Support Center platform on the web where users have put their requirements. Microsoft is also working on improving this solution. In every update, they add new features to this solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for more than four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. I haven't found it hanging. It consumes a lot of memory on the local system but not while developing the reports. It also depends on the data on which we are working, but generally, it is light and stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
My overall experience with Microsoft is actually quite good. We have contacted their technical support once or twice. It was something related to the Power BI visualization, where we needed to visualize some data, but they had some kind of limitation in personalization. We also wanted to connect Power BI with other servers, but we were facing some performance issues. The reports were not working fine. I don't think they managed to solve our issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked on SiteSense and Oracle OBIEE. I feel more satisfied when I'm working with Power BI. It is more convenient as compared to other solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. I didn't find any complexity in it. It can be difficult if the end users don't know how to use it. If they are trained on it, then after a week or a month, it gets easier for the end users.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its cost seems to be unreasonable if you have many users, but for a lesser number of users, it is reasonable. It is $10 per month. Clients easily accept this option, so they must think it is reasonable.
It is quite cheap as compared to other tools, such as Tableau. One of the best things about this solution is that it has a trial version.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CEO at a tech services company
Tool is easy to use, DAX coding language is good for creating formulae
Pros and Cons
- "The DAX coding language is good for creating formulae."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for visualization, to create presentations and dashboards. It works pretty well.
How has it helped my organization?
We are using Power BI because it is one of the best tools. It has been very good for all situations. The DAX coding language is good for creating formulae.
What is most valuable?
It is easy to work with. The tool is very complete.
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 good, no problem. We haven't had any trouble with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Our solutions are not for very many people, say 25 users. For them, it works very well. I don't know how it works with more users than that.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The customers we work with didn't have very elegant solutions. They were using traditional ERP and were getting default reports. Now, with programming code, it is fantastic. They are very happy with our solutions with Power BI.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Qlik Sense and QlikView are very good tools, very close to Power BI. Tableau is also a competitor but we haven't used it.
What other advice do I have?
When selecting a vendor we look for expertise, a company that understands the problems and knows the market, solutions, tools; and one that creates successful products. That is the most important criterion. Also, when you are in front of your clients, you need to know who is supporting you from the back.
I would rate Power BI at eight out of 10 because it enables us to do all the things we want to do. Moving forward, for more than 5,000 users, or for very complex dashboards, we don't know how it works.
I always recommend Power BI. It's very good.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Information Technology Architect at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
A good solution that supports the Microsoft ecosystem and is easy to install
Pros and Cons
- "It is very good, and it supports the Microsoft ecosystem, including Excel, etc."
- "The handling of the workspaces can be made more granular for user access rights. It can be managed a little bit better in terms of the connection to Active Directory so that we have more granular access rights. I am not sure if this is really possible or if we can solve it differently, but we need a lot of workspaces, and we are not sure how we can deal with it from the access rights perspective."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Power BI for reporting.
What is most valuable?
It is very good, and it supports the Microsoft ecosystem, including Excel, etc.
What needs improvement?
We have been using it only for a couple of months, and we are at the beginning of our learning. The area of improvement is difficult to say. The handling of the workspaces can be made more granular for user access rights. It can be managed a little bit better in terms of the connection to Active Directory so that we have more granular access rights. I am not sure if this is really possible or if we can solve it differently, but we need a lot of workspaces, and we are not sure how we can deal with it from the access rights perspective.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a couple of months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are not sure because we currently have a simple installation on the PC, but the idea is to scale it via Office 365 cloud implementation.
It seems suitable for small, medium, and large enterprises. It should be able to scale up. Based on the marketing slides, it should be able to handle all kinds of enterprises.
How are customer service and support?
We have not had any problems, so we had no requirement to use technical support.
How was the initial setup?
It is quite easy. You just need to install a program and use the connectors and drivers, and that's it.
What about the implementation team?
I did it myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are end-users, and we don't take care of the prices and accounting. We get a product and pay the fee to our internal service provider, but its price should be reasonable. Otherwise, they wouldn't have bought it.
What other advice do I have?
We are not very experienced in it. So, I don't know if I can recommend it, but we are using it because it is very good.
I would rate it an eight out of 10.
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.
MIS Specialist at a agriculture with 201-500 employees
It's easy to conduct analysis but needs more work to make it stable
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft BI is better than most solutions we have. It's pretty easy to conduct analysis with it."
- "Microsoft needs to do some more research and development to make it more stable."
What is our primary use case?
In our sector, we're dealing with lots of FinDocs and routine FinDoc activities. So all these things are managed locally, with data coming from some secondary source. By that, I mean our in-house technicians provide a data service that is locally developed on our end, and we analyze data in Microsoft Power BI. We have about 10 to 12 users working with it.
What is most valuable?
Microsoft BI is better than most solutions we have. It's pretty easy to conduct analysis with it.
What needs improvement?
Microsoft needs to do some more research and development to make it more stable.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using Microsoft BI for about six months.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think Microsoft BI is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We have some technical partners from Microsoft, so we contact them for any issues.
How was the initial setup?
Installing Microsoft BI is fast and easy. We just downloaded it from Microsoft. That's it. It only takes about half an hour. It takes a little longer for the overall deployment, depending on the data volume. If we're getting the data from a secondary source, it depends upon both the source and volume. The greater the volume, the greater the time. Usually, we can manage to get it done in one or two hours plus the testing. It takes around four people to deploy and manage the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We haven't thought much about licensing because we're still dealing with some administrative hang-ups. Once all these things are resolved, then we go for the license. It is in process.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft BI six out of 10. I would recommend it.
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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