Microsoft Power BI Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

BI Expert at a tech company with 10,001+ employees

Dec 8, 2013

Comparing BO Webi vs SSRS

Webi from BO and SSRS from Microsoft are always in competition with each other. Both of them are good products catering to similar business needs in different styles. I have been using Webi and SSRS for my projects and i always think first which one should i use before starting a new one. Here i would be doing this comparison that may help others to opt between the two.

Formatting - SSRS provides you good flexibility in formatting your reports but Webi does it better. In webi you can align your components charts with better look and feel than SSRS. Also formatting is easier in webi as its all gui based while in SSRS its all visual studio like environment so bit of complexity. Hence i would give webi 5 and SSRS 4
Rendering - SSRS rendering is really bad when it comes to PDF, they don't give bookmarks for tabs in report. Also quality of formatting in Webi generated PDF is better. Here SSRS looses and webi wins. Hence Webi gets 5 and SSRS 3
Ease of use - Again webi takes advantage here. SSRS is too complex for a new beginner. Like tablix concept, conditional formatting and all, everything is expression based which makes it too much to code. i will give webi 4 and SSRS 3
Flexibility - Here SSRS is champ. you have got every thing to be modified as per your requirement. You can use custom functions, custom codes, colors, borders, text, and any property can be made dynamic using expressions. While in Webi only limited things are there to be modified. so Webi gets 2 and SSRS gets 5
Error reporting - When you schedule webi and if it gets failed, Webi gives you error details specifically. While, in SSRS error details is mostly generic. Webi gets 5 and SSRS gets 3
Managing History Instances - SSRS have tried to do a lot but less when comparing to Webi. Webi is better. Webi 5 and SSRS 4
Error prone - While working with webi, there have been many instances where you just cant explain the erroneous behavior of Webi reports. Some times your report tabs goes away, some times you formatting your webi formatting is corrupted. And most of all java creates a lot of problem while working with webi. In case of SSRS its completely free of such errors. So SSRS 5 and webi 2

Finally total scores : Webi - 28 and SSRS - 27

Over all if you are looking for better formatting and easy to use gui Webi is for you. But if you want better flexibility and less rework then SSRS can be the choice.

Please Note: these are my views based on my experience. Some people may have different opinions.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user3876Database Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees

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Jan 14, 2014

Hi Sambhav Jain. I am using Microsoft BI products since many years. But now I also want to try webi. Can you please tell me that what is the license cost and installation requirement of webi?

it_user7509

Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Jul 3, 2013

Business Intelligence Forecasting in SQL and Cognos

Note: This article is an update of a presentation given when I was at the University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center. At that time, I was using Cognos version 7.3. This article is updated for Cognos 10 and SQL Server Analysis Server 2012. Revisiting this subject ten years later, my opinion is that Microsoft has finally surpassed IBM Cognos.

Most businesses, including medical clinics, want some method for forecasting business trends. The Cognos BI powerplay presentation tools contain the tools needed for basic forecasting. The trick in getting accurate forecasting is select the correct algorithm.

I recommend trying the model against only a portion of your data, to see how closely forecasts the remaining data. For example, if you have 2 years worth of data, try entering only 18 months of data into the model and let it predict the final 6 months. Then you have some actual data with which to measure ‘fit’ of the prediction. The new Microsoft SQL tools mentioned below, allow training data and measuring fitness.

Forecasting SSAS vs Cognos

Microsoft SSAS Models	IBM Cognos Models
Microsoft Association Algorithm
Microsoft Clustering Algorithm
Microsoft Decision Trees Algorithm
Microsoft Linear Regression Algorithm	Auto Regression Model
Microsoft Logistic Regression Algorithm	Growth Forecast
Microsoft Naive Bayes Algorithm
Microsoft Neural Network Algorithm
Microsoft Sequence Clustering Algorithm
Microsoft Time Series Algorithm	Time Trending

IBM Cognos Forecast Models:

The old Cognos website used to list more details about each model, but that has long since been eaten by IBM’s user un-friendly website. I’m sure a few of my friends still enjoy ‘Recreational Math’ magazine, so here are some algorithms to play with in your spare time.

For more details, read about the terms of service and limitations of liability on their forecasting algorithms pages.

Microsoft SQL Analysis Services

If you are using the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack, there are several data mining options in Analysis Services (SSAS). The SQL team has worked hard to lower the barriers to entry and learning curves for data mining. The Excel add-in makes the SSAS data mining models easily accessible to business users at the desktop. I will have more about these tools soon.

Again, for details and limitations, see the Microsoft articles on each algorithm.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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it_user6897

Marketing at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Jun 5, 2013

Microsoft BI vs. QlikView

Disclosure: My company is a Microsoft Partner.

The use of databases has long been an art of managing information and creating informed practices in the computing world. But in recent times, with the advent of Data Warehouses, new methods of intelligence have been possible to embed into these erstwhile databases and make them extremely productive meeting a host of Business intelligence purposes both in the Government and Corporate Information worlds.

However, here it is important to go a little into the history of Database Management and how Databases have said to be have been evolving over the years. The first known databases, existed as i) File systems then came the ii) The Network Models then the iii) Hierarchical models and then the iv) The Relational Models and so on v) Object oriented Databases and finally vi) Object Relational Database Systems.

Database gurus, in the United States, now believe that Object Relational Systems are here to stay especially with modern data-sets that are very huge and or that which, are growing very fast! Can only or usually be best comprehended alone using Data Visualization (DV).

Again, having an ability to interact with data through visual drill-down capabilities and dashboards make it absolutely necessary for the latest Data Visualization systems to make ample use of Object Relational Database Systems as their back bends.

When it comes to assuming intelligence from a business warehouse, there are a multitude of interests that these Systems will have to cater to the business owner and or designated authorities in companies as the business world increasingly moves into a transparent and hectic horizon of new age realities, where always intelligence is key.

Some of the options that managers would want the BI systems to cater include new ways of drilling down on keywords, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), metrics leading to better searches, be able to easily comprehend data, preference on visual drill down capabilities, able to monitor Business transactions and being a highly interactive platform with all the right Data Visualization protocols set to make them enabled for use over the Internet.

However, in this document we are attempting a comparison between two of the very famous Data Visualization tools namely, QlikView and Microsoft BI mainly focusing on their salient features with brief comments.

There is a wide spread confusion amongst people in the DV markets in confidently answering as to which tool is the best Data Visualization product?

The below are 2 key factors for tool selection that are immediately obvious:

- Which makes it easy to comprehend the data

- Price-performance

Here it is important to remind ourselves that products only vary in their reasons for importance in comparison to other products, for e.g.

a) A product may have the best web client and analytical functionality.

b) The other may have the best ability to interact with the back end i.e. the data sets or the OLAP cubes etc.

So, facts about the product comparison between QlikView and Microsoft BI tool go about highlighting the features of both the products one after another as described below:

To being with, QilkView is seen by many as the best visualization product for interactive drill-down capabilities. But, QlikView is increasingly seen as expensive with a third of its customers according to a survey feeling this as a hindrance to its wide spread use.

There are serious flaws in the pricing model as also a larger deployment necessary to more users that are not rendering it possible for the investment of RAM required to support the increasing numbers of concurrent users.

Also, users find QlikView’s strengths lie in its user-driven approach to BI and say that, its ease of use lies in its intuitive interface. However, critics feel that QlikView has no expansive product strategy beyond its current offering.

Though it has a roadmap for incremental improvements to the current product, many feel that QlikView has not laid out a clear vision elucidating how it will maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Despite all this, analysts believe that QlikView still delivers one among the best performance in the market.

On the other hand, Microsoft BI platform provides better price-performance ratio and works good as a backend for DV (with release of SQL Server) or for people who wish to build own frontend DV. It also performs excellently on Enterprise readiness and long-term viability.

Since the Partners are key to SMB market it is always safe when it comes to Long-term viability with Microsoft as they are 35+ years into the Global market which is a direct advantage over other tools.

Microsoft is also the pioneer of the Visualization business in the IT industry, being the original inventor of Windows and so when it comes to business Interactive Visualization, they have an edge.

Again, most users value Visualization over Modeling Development – therefore, the Visual environment of consulting excels in interest over their competitors, i.e. their UI & set of Visual Controls that integrate Data Visualization components in toto.

It also scores a point when it comes to interactive visualization to match standards and metrics set as necessary by global delivery model along the above lines.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user4401Developer at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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Jul 28, 2013

I totally agree with the comparison. In my opinion, QlikView needs fewer tech people than the same solution created with the Microsoft platform. QlikView's scripting and importing capabilities are a little clunky, but once the user gets past that, things aren't very difficult.

RaphaelBilecki Freitas

Business Intelligence Coordinator Latam at a construction company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jan 26, 2022

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Easy to share contents of reports

What is our primary use case?

We use this as a data validation tool.

How has it helped my organization?

It has improved the organization because now we can connect Power BI directly with the Microsoft team. So it creates a more direct feed among the teams.

What is most valuable?

I like how it has the capacity to share the contents of the report easily. The data validation is great, too. It's easy to learn, so it's easy to teach how to use the Power BI for a team, and it's easier to build the parts.

What needs improvement?

The performance, the ETL, is not so good. Also, I believe Power BI could improve how to add filters to the visualization dashboard because we don't see an easier way how to apply them. We can't filter the table directly, so we always have to do separate filtering for parts of the dashboard.

In the next release, I'd like to see the option to share personalized validation of the users, let them see one another. I'd also like to see the capacity to get filters in the table.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for about two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is not so great because when you have to improve your performance, you have to double your storage, so sometimes it becomes very expensive.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

When you have to scale up, you must to pay double because you can't just scale up 10 or 15%. You need to double your extra storage, so it's really bad.

How are customer service and support?

The customer support is good, they have great technical support. Sometimes they can't help with some features, but most of the times that we've had a problem, they were able to solve it for us. So, it's good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. Really simple. The deployment took about a week.

What about the implementation team?

The reseller was Dell, who was great. I have no complaints about the seller. They have a good number of consultants that know all about Power BI, so getting help was easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Licensing is done on a yearly basis, and it is a standard fee.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. I would suggest using Power BI with a good detail tool behind it, and just using Power BI as a validation tool, not for the whole BI process.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

reviewer1752738

BI and data chief consultant at a media company with 11-50 employees

Jan 7, 2022

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Allows you to create dashboard presentations

Pros and Cons

"We would like it if they added more Python libraries in the Power BI service. For Power BI service right now, you can use Python, but it is limited to a few libraries or a few packages from Python."

What is our primary use case?

We are implementing it for dashboard presentation. For example, one of our customers is in the energy sector. Another one is in the government sector, so it's dashboards mainly.

What is most valuable?

The ability to create dashboard presentations for various sectors is a valuable feature. It's an excellent product.

What needs improvement?

We would like it if they added more Python libraries in the Power BI service. For Power BI service right now, you can use Python, but it is limited to a few libraries or a few packages from Python. Other than that, it's an excellent product.

Another area that could be improved is maybe more extensions or more visuals.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Power BI for four or five years. I am working with the latest version. It's a monthly release.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft BI is scalable.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 9 out of 10.

For someone who is looking into implementing this product, my advice is to check between the two versions because Microsoft Power BI is not one solution. You have one solution which is coming with SQL services on-prem and you have the cloud solution. You need to check because there are differences in the features. Anyone who is implementing Power BI needs to be careful on which platform they're using: on-premise or on the cloud. There is a difference in the features between the two solutions.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer

reviewer1128801

Director of Analytics and Cognitive Computing at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Jan 7, 2022

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Quick chart building tools, responsive technical support, but more attractive charts needed

Pros and Cons

"The solution is easy to use and charts can be built quickly with the tools."

"The solution could improve by having more attractive graphical charts."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft BI for dashboards and monitoring tools and dashboards. We mostly use it to produce charts and graphs for our customers.

What is most valuable?

The solution is easy to use and charts can be built quickly with the tools.

What needs improvement?

The solution could improve by having more attractive graphical charts.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft BI for two and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft BI has been stable in my usage.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Microsoft BI is good.

We have approximately 2,000 users using this solution.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is very good, they have been available when we needed them.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is straightforward.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others would be to compare Microsoft BI to all the other similar solutions and see what fits their use case best. If they're looking for nice looking charts then perhaps, they should compare this solution to the others. If you are looking for a solution that is easy to use and quick to learn then Microsoft BI could be the right fit.

I rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer

reviewer1121292

MCSE at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Dec 5, 2021

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Helpful support, plenty of useful features, and stable

Pros and Cons

"I like all the tools in Microsoft BI because they all have different purposes. There are a lot of people using Microsoft BI, and everybody is using it. The users have adapted well to the technology."

"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."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft BI in out data warehouse for analytics. We use it for many purposes.

What is most valuable?

I like all the tools in Microsoft BI because they all have different purposes. There are a lot of people using Microsoft BI, and everybody is using it. The users have adapted well to the technology.

There are plenty of visualization tools, a lot of functionality, and documentation.

What needs improvement?

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 engine of Synapse Analytics and the ability to export the data that has been published to the web could improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Microsoft BI within the past 12 months. I have been working with Microsoft BI tools for approximately 20 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft BI is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 30 people using the solution in my organization. This includes experts that make reports.

How are customer service and support?

The support is good. We created approximately two or three cases, and they had the solution for us, or they had meetings with us to find a solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Microsoft BI is easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If you purchase a license for a server, for users, or the professional version, you might not have to. The free version I think it can satisfy many customers' needs.

What other advice do I have?

Synapse Analytics is the engine of the data that Power BI consumes.

I would advise those that use the solution to check all the license modes that the tool has because it's very confusing sometimes. You cannot just buy the product, you need to know who needs the product, who will use it, and who will be publishing. There are many aspects to figure out that when you do it will be better for you.

I rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

reviewer1047609

Founder & CEO at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Dec 2, 2021

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Effective dashboard data transfer, stable, and scalable

Pros and Cons

"There is a feature in Microsoft BI that allows JSON data to SQL on the dashboards effectively and quickly."

"I have found using Microsoft BI is not easy. For example, trying to use the auto-refresh feature is not simple."

What is our primary use case?

We provide improved dashboards for our own customers by using Power BI.

What is most valuable?

There is a feature in Microsoft BI that allows JSON data to SQL on the dashboards effectively and quickly.

What needs improvement?

I have found using Microsoft BI is not easy. For example, trying to use the auto-refresh feature is not simple.

If you like to use Microsoft BI as an embedded solution, you need to do many things in the Azure, BI, and 365 portals. it can be complicated. This whole procedure should be simplified.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft BI for approximately two months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Microsoft BI is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not scaled the solution very much but I know it is highly scalable.

We have approximately five dashboard creators in my organization that is working on the solution.

How are customer service and support?

The customer service was very nice and responsive, when I opened a ticket they called me and emailed me but they could not solve the problem we had.

We have three technicians and one of them is dedicated to the maintenance of Microsoft BI.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have previously used another solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very complex.

What about the implementation team?

I used a consultant company to help me do the implementation and it took approximately one month.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

In the beginning, the solution cost approximately $1,000 per month, we have a Microsoft startup subscription. There is a subscription pack for startups company which we are able to have for one year.

My customers will increase their usage of the solution and they will be additional costs for their usage.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated other solutions before choosing Microsoft BI, such as Tableau. I have found that Tableau does not have a solution that can be embedded. The dashboard should be inside of our applications.

What other advice do I have?

If someone wants an embedded solution then Microsoft BI is very good because it works on many types of data, such as JSON.

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?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.