Microsoft Power BI gives a true self-service tool to the user. The IT team can focus on ensuring that the database is in a good place. It is also in the cloud, which makes it easy for mobile access of reports and data.
Head of IT at a construction company with 10,001+ employees
Users already using Excel can generate new reports and dashboards within minutes
Pros and Cons
- "It is in the cloud, which makes it easy for mobile access of reports and data."
- "Users already using Excel can generate new reports and dashboards within minutes."
- "Initial setup was very straightforward. Users can get up and running reporting on databases within minutes."
- "Real-time refreshing for SAP BW would be nice. We know its on the radar for the development team at MS. "
- "Not having to login again after a mobile app upgrade. A simple login on mobile would be great."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
The business users have taken to Microsoft BI like a duck to water. It requires a low amount of training. Users already using Excel can generate new reports and dashboards within minutes.
What needs improvement?
- Real-time refreshing for SAP BW would be nice. We know its on the radar for the development team at MS.
- Not having to login again after a mobile app upgrade. A simple login on mobile would be great.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
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.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
None.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
None.
How are customer service and support?
They are fabulous.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The previous products include Tableau, Cognos, BusinessObjects, and Sisense. All of them have high price tags! Why pay and get ripped off for these products when you have Power BI? It will give you just as much, growing every month at an acceptable cost model.
Want to waste a lot of money? Then go for the others, I can recommend BusinessObjects as a great way to burn your money.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was very straightforward. Users can get up and running reporting on databases within minutes. I can read a number of databases including a good old Excel spreadsheet.
What about the implementation team?
Internal Team. It is that easy. However, we did get a third party to do the training to key users for us. The course was tailored to our business.
What was our ROI?
Paid for itself in the first month.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Make it low in cost. It is a no-brainer!
Remove the cost of a licence to show a dashboard within SharePoint. Why should readers of a dashboard have to pay to view?
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Globally, we evaluated a number of products, including Salesforce's product, Microsoft won on the ground of simple functionally and cost.
What other advice do I have?
Love that fact that we have a great development team that is moving the product forward every month.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Generative AI Developer at Rack Ai Private Limited
Useful for creating reports and dashboards
Pros and Cons
- "What I liked most about the tool is that we can use text queries to create projects and modify columns according to our needs. There are hundreds of YouTube courses on how to use it."
- "I found data cleaning in the solution to be quite difficult. If I could add a feature, I'd include Excel's Flash Fill function. This allows you to set a formula for one row and column and automatically apply it to thousands of rows, making data sorting much easier."
What is our primary use case?
During my internship, I used Microsoft Power BI to create reports for a project we were working on. I also made a dashboard to help a company grow its business.
What is most valuable?
What I liked most about the tool is that we can use text queries to create projects and modify columns according to our needs. There are hundreds of YouTube courses on how to use it.
What needs improvement?
I found data cleaning in the solution to be quite difficult. If I could add a feature, I'd include Excel's Flash Fill function. This allows you to set a formula for one row and column and automatically apply it to thousands of rows, making data sorting much easier.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I found the tool to be a stable product. One of my favorite features is connecting a SQL database to the tool to generate real-time reports. I was part of a group of 80+ students, but only five of us, including me, were offered internships and could use Microsoft Power BI.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't contacted the solution's support yet.
How was the initial setup?
Installing Power BI is easy—there are free and paid versions available. I used the free version, which you can download from the Microsoft Store and install, similar to installing an app on your phone.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I used the tool's free version.
What other advice do I have?
I'd recommend Microsoft Power BI for report generation - it's great software. I rate it a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Jul 30, 2024
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Microsoft Power BI
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Power BI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Head of BI and Data at a hospitality company with 201-500 employees
Easy to adopt and quite easy to roll out into the business for end-users
Pros and Cons
- "The various different ETL tools within it and the ability to have different data refreshes and scheduled refreshes [real-time data refresh capabilities] have most significantly improved the data analysis processes."
- "Licensing could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for data modeling, joining data from different data sources, and visualizing dashboards and reports for end-users and business process owners in the company.
How has it helped my organization?
The various different ETL tools within it and the ability to have different data refreshes and scheduled refreshes [real-time data refresh capabilities] have most significantly improved the data analysis processes.
What is most valuable?
Power BI is easy to adopt. It's quite easy to roll out into the business for end-users, and the functionality for modeling and such is quite extensive for the data department.
It has connected to quite a few different things. We use the Microsoft stack, so it's fairly connected.
What needs improvement?
Better structure and stability in terms of licensing and capacity. Microsoft is changing things with Microsoft Fabric and how it's impacting different functionality for premium users, capacity users, and pro users. So, that's where licensing could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it since it came out. It's been many years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability a seven out of ten.
Sometimes, updates can cause data refresh issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.
There are 100 end users in my organization. We use it daily.
How are customer service and support?
It takes a while to get the issue described, looked into, and resolved. It's a lot of troubleshooting and "try this, try that," rather than acknowledging that they've had this issue elsewhere. There doesn't seem to be a joined-up approach for people experiencing similar issues and how to resolve them.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used various different modeling tools and BI tools.
We used Tableau before, and general Excel modeling, etc.
How was the initial setup?
I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, with one being difficult and ten being easy.
It's cloud-based.
Initially, it's quite straightforward. It depends on how you want it set up, like with gateway refreshes, etc.
What was our ROI?
Just more visibility for end-users to use and interact with data.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Jul 24, 2024
Flag as inappropriateIT Cybersecurity and Compliance Coordinator at Plaenge
Good visibility, fast track support, reliable, and easy to install
Pros and Cons
- "One of the most valuable aspects of this tool is its ease of use and the ability to easily share information with others."
- "There is room for improvement in terms of pricing for the solution."
How has it helped my organization?
To gain insights into our sales and financial aspects, we use the Power BI solution, which provides us with valuable information and analytics.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable aspects of this tool is its ease of use and the ability to easily share information with others.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement in terms of pricing for the solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
We use Microsoft BI in our organization. I have been working with it for two years.
We have implemented the Power BI Pro solution in our organization.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten.
We have plans to increase our usage in the future.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the technical support a nine out of ten.
We use fast track support and it is very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have been acquainted with SolarCloud for three months.
I haven't worked directly with the solution, but I downloaded the eBook to learn more about it.
How was the initial setup?
Due to our extensive experience with the tool, the initial setup was straightforward and uncomplicated.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing for the solution is relatively higher compared to other alternatives.
What other advice do I have?
I am a cybersecurity analyst.
Knowing the numbers and having comprehensive insights are important for our organization. It holds significant importance for various teams, including finance and other departments, to make informed decisions and drive overall growth and success.
I would rate Microsoft BI a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Director at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enables us to do all of our self-service analytics and is dynamic in terms of frequent improvements
Pros and Cons
- "It's the analytic engine in terms of the interface on the Power BI environment, as opposed to pivot tables, and it's a mobile solution."
- "Right now, their premium pricing is keeping us out of the premium market. The premium price per user just doesn't make sense for us, but we haven't reached the limit of 500 users to justify the premium."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for all of our self-service analytics.
We have the analysis services on-prem and Power BI Pro in the cloud. We are using the latest version of Microsoft BI.
What is most valuable?
It's the analytic engine in terms of the interface on the Power BI environment, as opposed to pivot tables, and it's a mobile solution.
They have a new update every month. It seems to be pretty dynamic in terms of improvement every year.
What needs improvement?
Right now, their premium pricing is keeping us out of the premium market. The premium price per user just doesn't make sense for us, but we haven't reached the limit of 500 users to justify the premium.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We could scale up to premium or Azure. We're fine.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't really used it other than going on their documentation and seeing posts. I have never had to call for technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. I would rate it a 5 out of 5.
What about the implementation team?
Deployment was completed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate them 4 out of 5 for their current pricing. There are no additional costs to the standard licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution 9 out of 10.
They're a market leader. They're the best in class, so I would definitely use them over any analytic tool.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid 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.
Group DWH and BI Senior Manager at Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa
Scalable, easy to learn, and integrates well with the entire Microsoft Office Suite
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is straightforward."
- "Maybe they can enhance the UI a bit. Right now, it's very basic, I would say, compared to the MicroStrategy or Qlik."
What is our primary use case?
I mainly use it for sales analysis. We are in the telecom industry, so on a daily basis, we see a couple of trends in the number of activations of customers and registration, the performance of the dealer, and items like that.
What is most valuable?
Its integration with the Microsoft Office Suite is great. I can easily connect it to any of the Excel or any CSV files, and I can immediately create a dashboard.
It's like the higher level of pivot tables. For the people who mainly use Excel, this is like an advanced version. This is much more flexible and I don't have to train people to use it, as it's very user-friendly compared to Qlik. Qlik needs some expertise and a layman cannot immediately go to Qlik and do stuff unless he understands it. When it comes to Power BI it's a five minutes tutorial, he can definitely understand what needs to be done.
The solution is stable and scalable. So far I don't have any issues, however, it depends on the amount of data we use. I'm just running it on my PC.
The initial setup is straightforward.
The solution is free as it's bundled with Office 365.
What needs improvement?
Maybe they can enhance the UI a bit. Right now, it's very basic, I would say, compared to the MicroStrategy or Qlik.
They could also improve the mobile experience. If people are using this mobile app for BI, they need better performance there. The rendering of the objects, for example, if you create the dashboard on Power BI when someone sees that on the app, it comes in a different format. They can do some enhancements there to standardize it.
Once we expand it as a centralized repository, if I could find much more use cases, that would be ideal. However, now it's very limited in our organization.
For how long have I used the solution?
We don't use the solution filly and don't yet have a license for it. That said, I've had the chance to work with it for more than a year now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches and we don't have any trouble with it crashing or freezing. It's reliable and the performance is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
My understanding is that the solution is scalable.
I can easily load a billion rows in less than two or three minutes and play around with it. However, I haven't tested on big data files or anything like that.
Right now, we don't have too many users. It's just three to four people as of now, as our primary BI tool is still Qlik Sense. It's only for ad hoc use cases we use Power BI, and just myself and a couple of team members, as well as the BI specialist, that access it.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've never reached out to technical support in the past. If I run into issues, I tend to Google solutions to find answers to my questions. YouTube is also a good resource if you need information.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We currently use Qlik Sense as our BI product.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not complex or difficult. It's simple and straightforward.
It took, 10 to 15 minutes, if I remember correctly, to set everything up. It's just a .exe file installing. It's not hard and it's pretty fast.
What about the implementation team?
We did not need a consultant or an integrator to handle the implementation. I just played around a bit with it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We don't have a license on Power BI, so we don't publish anything. It's mainly for some ad hoc use cases that we use Power BI format.
Power BI is free; it comes with Office 365.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I've currently looked at MicroStrategy and am in the process of comparing a few other products.
What other advice do I have?
We are just a customer and an end-user.
We are using Power BI, however, not to the full scale. It's still unlicensed as of now, and I'm using desktop versions only.
I don't remember the version, as it comes with Office 365. I didn't give a thought to the version.
From my experience with the desktop version, I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.
From my experience, I'd recommend the solution to others.
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.
President at SIS.
Good visualization, automatic charts, and drill-down capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The drill-down capabilities and automatic charts are the best ones. The visualization is also very good. In terms of visualization, no competing product, such as IBM Cognos or any other product, has the same capabilities."
- "Microsoft BI comes under pressure when there is a lot of data to be crunched. It gets slower and slower, and the functionality becomes a bit of a problem. The performance goes down with data being fed into the system. The infrastructure requirement also increases if you have to increase the performance. This is the area that can be improved in my opinion. Initially, the product is good, but over the years, when data gets accumulated, it becomes a problem unless the old data is kind of archived and is no longer shown on the visualization. It has a feature by using which a user can query for a report through simple questions to a bot. So, if I want to look for the customer share of revenue by geography, I just simply state that in the chatbot. If I wanted it in a pie chart, then you say, "Please show it to me in a pie chart." It comes out well for basic charts. This feature should be improvised more so that people can very quickly get customized reports on the go."
What is our primary use case?
I take care of business transformations in the company, which includes solution transformation, and so on. We have a range of products that are legacy products. They are fairly old. We are substituting them with new age products, and one of them is Power BI. We are using its latest version currently.
What is most valuable?
The drill-down capabilities and automatic charts are the best ones. The visualization is also very good. In terms of visualization, no competing product, such as IBM Cognos or any other product, has the same capabilities.
What needs improvement?
Microsoft BI comes under pressure when there is a lot of data to be crunched. It gets slower and slower, and the functionality becomes a bit of a problem. The performance goes down with data being fed into the system. The infrastructure requirement also increases if you have to increase the performance. This is the area that can be improved in my opinion. Initially, the product is good, but over the years, when data gets accumulated, it becomes a problem unless the old data is kind of archived and is no longer shown on the visualization.
It has a feature by using which a user can query for a report through simple questions to a bot. So, if I want to look for the customer share of revenue by geography, I just simply state that in the chatbot. If I wanted it in a pie chart, then you say, "Please show it to me in a pie chart." It comes out well for basic charts. This feature should be improvised more so that people can very quickly get customized reports on the go.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a couple of years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is good. The only issue is the performance that degrades when more data comes in, but when it comes to scalability within a particular level of data, it is really good.
How are customer service and technical support?
I don't know. I am not technically so much involved in the day-to-day side of this.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a process by itself, so we have to take external help in terms of implementation. In terms of various reports and other things, I don't have an idea about the complexity of the implementation because we took expert advice, and an external consultant implemented it for us. I would guess that it is a bit extensive and needs a lot of work to be usable.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely recommend Power BI for those entities that are not complex. Unless and until there is a very high volume to be handled, I believe Microsoft Power BI is the best solution to go for, particularly when somebody buys a stack of Microsoft products, which includes Office, SharePoint, and so on. The whole Microsoft Office Suite is a brilliant product in its entirety, and there is good and easy integration with SharePoint, etc. This is a nice feature that other products don't have. There is a stack of IBM as well, but it is not as good as Microsoft.
I would rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten. I am pretty happy with this solution, and the two points are down because of the performance issue and probably the cost.
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.
Assistant Manager - Forensic Data Analytics at Grant Thornton
Intuitive, user-friendly, and enables to manage and share reports across different teams easily
Pros and Cons
- "The product is intuitive and user-friendly."
- "The solution struggles with large amounts of data."
What is our primary use case?
We use the tool for data analysis and reporting through dashboarding, identifying trends, and mapping.
What is most valuable?
The product is intuitive and user-friendly. It could be rolled out to anyone across the business. DAX is a good feature. The real-time dashboard updates are good. The ease of integration is good. We connect it to different databases. The clients we work with work on different databases. It is easy to manage and share Power BI reports across different teams and departments.
What needs improvement?
The solution struggles with large amounts of data. It has some limitations. Sometimes, we don't know if we have the full picture.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the tool’s stability a ten out of ten. I haven't come across any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the tool’s scalability an eight out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment is not difficult. It is relatively easy to maintain the product. For our needs, we need one person to maintain the tool.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have used MicroStrategy. Power BI is more user-friendly. When we roll it across the business, it's easier for the users to use. MicroStrategy can handle large amounts of data.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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