Microsoft Power BI Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Jul 9, 2013

Report Builder … the Red-Headed Stepchild of Self-Service BI Tools?

A conversation on Twitter earlier this week has inspired me to pose this question…Is Report Builder the “Red-Headed Stepchild” when it comes to the Microsoft Self-Service BI toolset? Report Builder doesn’t get much attention these days, for various reasons we’ll discuss below.

(Note: The perspective of this blog entry is Self-Service BI so Report Builder is the reference – however, everything stated is applicable to full-fledged Reporting Services as well.)

Is Report Builder Deprecated?

Nope! Report Models, however, are deprecated. As of SQL Server 2012, you can no longer create or update Report Models (SMDL files). You can continue to use Report Models currently, but it is recommended to move away from them as time allows. Report Builder itself is at version 3.0 and is a mature product.

Self-Service BI Tools

The primary set of Microsoft Self-Service BI tools includes Excel (+ add-ins for data modeling such as PowerPivot), Power View, and Report Builder. Some people actually wouldn’t include Report Builder in this list, but I do believe it has a valid place as one of the Self-Service BI tools (albeit, a smaller audience & used for specific purposes).

Drawbacks of Report Builder

Learning curve / ease of use for report designer. There are a significant number of properties and options. This offers significant control over the output – the cost for this significant control is ease of use because all the options in Report Builder can be a bit overwhelming for the casual business user. However, it’s not overly difficult to use for technically adept users who enjoy working with reporting tools and data.
Limited interactivity. While there are some interactive features (such as drill-down, drill-through, sortable columns), each has to be explicitly defined by the report designer. Report Builder isn’t dynamically interactive like Power View or even Excel – rather, Report Builder is far more suitable for fully formatted reporting needs.
Longer to develop. There’s some things that can be done with Power View or Excel that are inherently more work to do in Report Builder. The first example that comes to mind is hierarchies – with Power View or Excel, you drop a hierarchy onto the row & the navigation up/down works; with Report Builder you’d have to set up what is shown vs. hidden and the toggle properties. This is not overly difficult to set up, but could be frustrating for someone just getting started with Report Builder.
GUI support is limited. There is a drag & drop graphical interface for SQL Server and Analysis Services data sources (plus a couple of others). This limited support leaves the report designer writing query syntax sometimes – which is obviously not the most user-friendly for non-technical folks. Currently the nicest way for users to work with Report Builder is using a BISM data source (i.e., the data is stored in Analysis Services or PowerPivot). SQL Server (relational) can be ok for users to work with if the data sources are made to be understandable & easy to work with (ex: with reporting views or stored procedures) – this takes some effort from the IT Dept. or BI Center to make sure it’s made suitable for self-service.

Positives of Report Builder

Native connectivity to many data sources, including BISM. The Microsoft BI framework is very different from other BI tools (such as Cognos or Business Objects) which require a metadata layer – i.e., a report model between the data source & the reporting tool. Microsoft permits tremendous flexibility here – in fact, you can natively send queries from Report Builder to a variety of databases including non-Microsoft. Power View is very limited in terms of accepted data sources, and Excel can be somewhat limited (unless you bring the data into an intermediary PowerPivot model first – PowerPivot offers great flexibility in this regard, but do realize you are storing the data redundantly).
Significant formatting control. If you need a pixel-perfect highly formatted report, Report Builder is the tool for you. Ironically, this is the inverse of the “learning curve / ease of use” drawback listed above. With Excel you can exercise a lot of control over the look & feel of your report (except Pivot Tables – you have to use formulas if you need to "break” out of the Pivot Table). Power View has some text size control and some color schemes to choose from, but overall offers minimal user control over formatting (after all, it’s a data discovery tool meeting an entirely different need – and it is purposely trying to remain simple).
Consistent RDL file format. If a business user starts a report in Report Builder and needs some help with it, one of the IT or BI folks can open the report using their tool of choice (BIDS or SSDT in Visual Studio), make some updates, and send it back to the user with the file format intact. The consistent format is also helpful if a report is being promoted from the Self-Service environment to the Corporate BI environment.
Reusable elements. To facilitate Self-Service BI using Report Builder, things such as shared data sources (reusable data connections) are obvious but there are others as well. Shared datasets (reusable queries) can be really helpful to handle common things like Dates and Geography. Report parts (reusable charts, graphs, tables) can be helpful to display commonly used elements. Images can also be stored centrally for reuse. Setting up reusable elements does take some effort from the IT Dept. or BI Center though, but can improve the Self-Service user’s experience tremendously.
Parameterization. Reports with a number of parameters (within reason of course) can sometimes be thought of as “guided ad-hoc analysis” because one report can yield many different combinations of results depending on parameter values. Report Builder handles parameterization well.
Subscriptions and alerts. If you wish to have reports delivered to you at a predefined frequency or based upon a condition, then Reporting Services is the tool to make that happen.
Export and RSS capabilities. Report Builder can export to many different file formats. It can also publish an RSS feed – this can be very useful for a business user to consume existing aggregated/calculated data that has been rendered by Report Builder without recalculating or reinventing anything. Utilizing published report data via RSS also helps with the elusive “one version of the truth” that’s a constant challenge.
Integration with SharePoint. With a Report Builder report, you can view or edit the report directly from the SharePoint document library (with appropriate permissions of course). Alternatively, a Report Manager portal can be used (although it would be used in isolation from other BI tools and reports).

So, even though sometimes Report Builder seems to be the “Red-Headed Stepchild” I very much appreciate having the tool in our toolbox. I hope it’s alive and well for a long time.

Got any thoughts on this subject? Leave a comment … I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Disclosure: The company I work for is a Microsoft Partner

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

it_user7656

BI Expert with 51-200 employees

Jul 9, 2013

SSAS Tabular Models: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly & the Beautiful

After working on a couple of serious tabular model projects, I’ve been talking to other BI practitioners lately about their thoughts regarding tabular model technology and I’m finding that there is little consensus among all these industry experts about which option to recommend for new BI projects. At SolidQ, I work with some of the most experienced Business Intelligence experts in the industry. At conferences and in discussion groups, there has been a lot of discussion about the choice between Analysis Services multidimensional models and the newer tabular semantic model technology introduced in SQL Server 2012. There are pros and cons for either side but I think there are some important factors to consider. Among some of the most experienced Analysis Services consultants, I have heard that some are primarily using and recommending tabular for most new projects and others are arguing that tabular offers little significant value over the tried-and-true multidimensional cubes and MDX script solutions.

As is typical for a newer product, the usability experience for the model designer isn’t perfect. In some ways, it’s different and just may take some getting used to, but in other ways there is clearly room for improvement. The question now is; do the advantages of tabular vs multidimensional outweigh the somewhat rocky design experience? I’m not taking sides in this comparison but merely offering an objective analysis of the state of tabular model option in SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services, Service Pack 1. I expect this product to go through changes so for future reference, this information is for the released product at the time of this posting in June of 2013.

The Good

The core VertiPaq (or xVelocity) query and aggregation engine is stable & reliable. Originally developed about five years ago and released with PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint in SQL Server 2008R2 over three years ago, this technology has proven to be ready for serious use.
Under most conditions, for analytic reporting, data scanned and aggregated from an in-memory data structure performs faster than other conventional options; including relational and multidimensional storage.
Tabular can be less complex than multidimensional, OLAP SSAS. The core design and usage concepts are easier for both those who design models and for those use use them for analysis and reporting.
Tabular models can be easier & faster to implement because the model structure is simpler and there may be fewer steps in the design process.
DAX, the core calculation expression language for tabular models, is fairly easy to learn. Fundamental DAX expression concepts can be easier to understand than equivalent MDX commands used in multidimensional modeling and calculations.

The Bad

Comparing features, tabular can be hard to justify when compared to multidimensional. Traditional SSAS cubes still have more capabilities than tabular models and for someone who already has OLAP skills and background, tabular design is a new learning curve.
PowerPivot is a version 2 product. As such, it’s simple and fairly reliable in the majority of design scenarios. In some, mostly rare, cases, error handling and debugging capabilities aren’t as mature and robust as more tenured technologies like SSAS multidimensional or relational.
Tabular SSAS is a version 1 product. As such, it has a list of well-known design annoyances and features that could (and should) improve in the next product go-round.
The recommended design patterns & best practices, both from Microsoft development and support teams and from members of the expert practitioner community, are still emerging.
One model.bim file = one developer working at a time. A departure from the long-time SSAS project development environment where every object (such as data sources, dimensions and cubes) were defined in isolated files managed by the project; SSAS tabular manages all of the database objects in a single model definition file. The model designer treats the model is more of a black box than a solution comprised of independent objects. However, the fact is that most of the same objects we work with in multidimensional/cube projects are all defined as XML elements in this file. It can be opened and properties manipulated,and there are a growing number of third-party tools to provide enhancements. Regardless, it is one big project file tat would need to be checked-out in source code management as a single project asset.
The tabular SSAS support community is thriving but still small. A core group of trusted professionals from all over the world are the loudest voices right now. They promote tabular solutions and provide active and collective support for one another.
The DAX expression editor in PowerPivot & the Visual Studio-based SSDT designer is quirky. You have to know is strengths and weaknesses and be willing to use it in that context. It attempts to assists with code completion but in the end, it doubles-up brackets and duplicates, rather then replaces old code, that it suggests. No doubt that the experience will get better as enhancements are developed and released but we must live with a product today that is useful and reliable a lot of the time but, it leaves plenty of opportunity for improvements.
The entire tabular model must fit in memory. There’s no caching, swapping or distributed processing option for large models. This means that very large models need very large hardware and there is currently no scale-out option to distribute work loads or fail-over. Got a lot of data? Get a lot of memory.

The Ugly

After you get into serious data with 30, 40 or 50 tables and some complexity to your model, the version 1.0 SSDT tabular model designer can be cumbersome and error-prone. I’ve seen it stop responding and throw errors when there were no errors. I will say that it’s helpful and reliable most of the time but on occasion, when it falls down, I often save and close my work; shut down Visual Studio all together and the fire it back up.
My biggest peeve about the SSDT model designer is that all design work is performed while connected to the workspace database. This means that for every table and column rename,and for every single property setting change, this information is written to the model workspace database on the local SSAS tabular server, and after the changes have been committed, control is given back to the model designer.
Some key SSAS features are not currently supported. These include things like parent-child hierarchies, many-to-many relationships, cube actions and display folders. Actually, this is not entirely true; actions and display folders can be added using after-market tools (like BIDS Helper, available in the CodePlex library) and by hand-writing the XMLA script, but they are not currently supported through the SSDT model designer. There is simply a category of features that didn’t find their way into this first version of the product. There are work-arounds and methods to enable these capabilities but they’re not supported, or at least not to the the same degree as they are in multidimensional SSAS.

The Beautiful

There is no doubt that in-memory, tabular model technology is the promise of the future. It just makes sense. Several vendors have come to the same conclusion and are developing products following this paradigm. Oracle just made a big announcement about adding in-memory column store to their future 12C product.
Data residing and processed in memory is faster than data residing in disk. This is what VertiPaq does; whether implemented as PowerPivot, an SSAS tabular model or as a SQL Server column store, it works efficiently and elegantly without the complexities and overhead of indexes, partitions, file groups and other techniques typically used to optimize on-disk data stores.
Even though tabular is fairly new, many useful & valuable features are supported today and work well.
PowerPivot models upgrade seamlessly to tabular models. This provides a path for business users and IT professionals to author models in familiar tools (Excel or Visual Studio) and then promote them to a server hosted environment.
Tabular models are managed and stored by SQL Server Analysis Services! Although some components of the tabular engine and the designer are new and still have wrinkles to be ironed-out, the core product is based on the solid and time-tested foundation of SSAS. This means that many of the features not implemented now will be available in future builds.
Client applications that support SSAS multidimensional will also support tabular. In fact, any application built to work with SSAS cubes will natively work with PowerPivot and tabular as if it were a cube. This is because SSAS tabular uses the same data provider that understands both MDX & DAX queries.

Disclosure: The company I work for is a Microsoft Gold Partner

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

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reviewer1162596

Data Analyst at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 15, 2022

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Cost effective, helpful support, but large datasets performance needed

Pros and Cons

"Microsoft BI's most valuable feature is flexibility."

"The performance of Microsoft BI could improve for large datasets and it would be beneficial to have more visualization features."

What is most valuable?

Microsoft BI's most valuable feature is flexibility.

What needs improvement?

The performance of Microsoft BI could improve for large datasets and it would be beneficial to have more visualization features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft BI for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable, but not as good as other tools I use.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft BI is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

The support of Microsoft BI is good.

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

Microsoft BI is very cost-effective and this is why we use it.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

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

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.

reviewer1556970

CEO Gerente General at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Apr 26, 2021

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Stable, efficient and has a straightforward setup

Pros and Cons

"We found the initial setup to be straightforward."

"The solution could use a faster speed on certain interactions and a refresh of the dashboards."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution across many company verticals and within every area of the company - including finance, accounting, operations, logistics, HR, et cetera.

How has it helped my organization?

In general, it's helping companies be more efficient, more productive.

What is most valuable?

There's not one specific feature we prefer. I would say it depends on the customer and the processes. What is important to one user may not be as important to another. There's no one feature that excels over another so that we don't see it like second place.

The product offers very good efficiency.

The solution is very stable.

The solution can scale well.

The documentation on offer is good.

We found the initial setup to be straightforward.

What needs improvement?

In Power BI, it would be ideal if we had the capability to import data with forms or similar methods.

It would be nice to have the ability to have a service price to offer customers of Power BI, without having the customer be part of Power BI, I would say. Maybe that could help us consult the suppliers.

The solution could use a faster speed on certain interactions and a refresh of the dashboards. It can sometimes get a bit slow.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been dealing with the solution for about five years or so. It's been a while.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is extremely stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable in terms of performance, but it is slow sometimes.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is easily scaled.

Most of our clients are quite large companies. The companies we deal with have thousands of users, however, only a few really use Power BI. Typically only the supervisors and managers use it, not everyone.

How are customer service and technical support?

We've never used customer support. We haven't needed to reach out to them.

The documentation on offer is okay. It can help you troubleshoot or learn about the product.

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

We also work with Tableau and and QlikView alongside Microsoft. We do use some others, however, to a much lesser extent.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment takes a good two days to finalize.

In terms of maintenance, we have a support team that covers all of our customers. There isn't really that much that needs to be done.

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

There are less expensive options on offer.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Tableau is always one of the solutions we would like to evaluate further, and ClickView is another one.

It is my understanding that ClickView is less expensive, whereas Tableau is more expensive. Really, the reason why most companies go through Microsoft is if they have a Microsoft Business Suite or Office and it's all tied in the same ecosystem. That's perhaps the biggest benefit. It's all within the same ecosystem.

What other advice do I have?

We are consultants and implementers so we usually resell software. We do the end-to-end automation for customers as well. In the case of Microsoft BI, our clients are the ones that buy the license and use it. We don't necessarily use it directly.

We're always working off the latest version, as the solution is constantly updated online.

I would recommend the solution to other companies and users.

I'd rate the solution at a nine 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.

reviewer1447446

Data Analyst at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Dec 12, 2020

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Easy to deploy and use, but it should support integration with more systems

Pros and Cons

"The user interface is easy to work with."

"More connections with other systems should be added, which would allow for other integrations."

What is our primary use case?

We are a service provider and Microsoft BI is one of the tools that we implement for our clients. We do not use it ourselves.

My primary use case is integration, but it is also used for reporting and data analysis services.

What is most valuable?

The user interface is easy to work with.

What needs improvement?

More connections with other systems should be added, which would allow for other integrations.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft BI for between eight and nine months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Microsoft BI is a stable product.

How are customer service and technical support?

I do not have experience with technical support. In cases where I have found an issue, I Google it, spend time learning about the problem, and then resolve it.

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

I have also used Alteryx and Informatica. We still may use one of these other products, depending on our client's requirements. If the client wants us to work using a specific product then that is their choice.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and the deployment will take an hour, or an hour and a half.

What about the implementation team?

We deployed this product ourselves. It is easy to work on.

What other advice do I have?

I primarily use Microsoft BI for integration, so it is difficult for me to say what needs to be improved. Overall, this is a good tool and I recommend it.

I would rate this solution a seven 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.

reviewer1679622

Head of Internal Control at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Oct 1, 2021

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Intuitive design, good support, and reliable

Pros and Cons

"The solution is very intuitive, you do not need to have too much programming knowledge to use it. Advanced Excel users can use it very easily."

"The solution could improve by providing more free visuals. A lot of them are very nice but you have to purchase them."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Microsoft BI for various reports, such as overall cost management, credit overview, and sales.

What is most valuable?

The solution is very intuitive, you do not need to have too much programming knowledge to use it. Advanced Excel users can use it very easily.

What needs improvement?

The solution could improve by providing more free visuals. A lot of them are very nice but you have to purchase them.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft BI for approximately four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution has been stable. Everything has been running smoothly.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Microsoft BI is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

The support has been good.

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

We previously used Cognos.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultant for the implementation of the solution.

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

The solution is affordable.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft BI a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

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

reviewer1482141

Strategic Market Development Sr. Manager at a pharma/biotech company with 201-500 employees

Jul 23, 2021

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Easy to use, flexible, but mobile application needs improvement

Pros and Cons

"The solution is easy to use and flexible."

"The solution could improve the mobile application design. It is difficult to use compared to the desktop version."

What is our primary use case?

I am using this solution to monitor the dashboards that someone else has created.

What is most valuable?

The solution is easy to use and flexible.

What needs improvement?

The solution could improve the mobile application design. It is difficult to use compared to the desktop version. Additionally, we have experienced a problem when attempting to update the desktop application. When we click to update we are unable to open the file to update.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found the solution to be stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have approximately 50 people using this solution in my organization.

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

I have previously used Microsoft Excel.

How was the initial setup?

The installation was simple and it takes approximately five minutes.

What about the implementation team?

I did the implementation of the solution.

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

We have a professional license for Microsoft BI and the price is fair.

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.