Microsoft Power BI

RATING:

4.6

(1476)

About Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is a web-based business analytics and data visualization platform that is suitable for businesses of all sizes. It monitors important organizational data and also from all apps used by organizations. Microsoft Power BI provides tools to quickly analyze, transform and visualize data, and also share reports. Microsoft Power BI offers SQL Server Analysis Services through which users can quickly build reusable models using the overall data. The software enables users to integrate their apps, so as to deliver reports along with real-time dashboards. Microsoft Power BI also provides self-service access to major third-party cloud sources such as GitHub, Zendesk, Marketo and Salesforce. Microsoft Power BI is available both in free and paid (Pro) versions. ...

Awards and Recognition

FrontRunner 2023
Software Advice's FrontRunners report ranks top products based based on user reviews, which helps businesses find the right software.

Microsoft Power BI Pricing

Power BI Pro: $9.99 per user, per month Power BI Premium: $20 Per user/month and $4,995 Per capacity/month

Starting price: 

$9.99 per month

Free trial: 

Available

Free version: 

Not Available

Metrics dashboard
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Microsoft Power BI Reviews

Overall Rating

4.6

Ratings Breakdown

Secondary Ratings

Ease-of-use

4

Customer Support

4

Value for money

4.5

Functionality

4.5

Most Helpful Reviews for Microsoft Power BI

1 - 5 of 1,448 Reviews

Eric

11 - 50 employees

Used free trial

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

Reviewed March 2023

Makes Excel-based Data Pretty

User Profile

Andrew

Verified reviewer

Computer Hardware, 10,000+ employees

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

3

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed August 2019

There are plenty of competitors, but Power BI is tops

Power BI allows me to manipulate data and present it in visually appealing and flexible formats.

PROS

I have used Tableau and Google Data Studio - among other alternatives. Nothing has seemed to compare to the functionality that Power BI offers. Everything about the program is made with the full spectrum of analysis in mind - from the designer to the data 'wrangler' to the end consumer (ie. others within the enterprise). In this way, Power BI is extremely powerful because it can be used for so many different types of projects; the data-analysis intensive to the more visual 'data-presentation' dashboards.

CONS

Sharing dashboards and reports in Power BI is easy and it has a lot of options for doing so. However, the requirement that all users must have a Pro Account to view dashboards created in Pro is a bit of a hindrance in a global organization where it does not make economical sense for every employee to have a Pro account. It seems like it would be a great addition to allow limited sharing to everyone - even those without a Pro account, as most of my internal team does not have an account.

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Power BI

Data Studio has limited functionality, which is understandable since it is free. Power BI has more built-in data analysis and data processing abilities.

User Profile

Federico

Verified reviewer

Banking, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed November 2022

Great tool for Data Analysis and Dashboards

My overall experience is great, using it to compile, perform ETL, prepare reports and create Dashboards is simply powerful.

PROS

This is a great tool that integrates perfectly with Microsoft Excel (they are from the same family) it really makes life easy. Another great feature is the possibility to connect with a wide variety of sources such as Google Analytics, Facebook, SQL, data files, cloud files, and the list goes on. Free to use and very affordable price. Finally their visualization features are also impressive.

CONS

Like any other tool, we found a high amount of the time required to train and master it, when you try to go beyond create reports, you would need to learn about additional tools like Gateways and Report Server. In addition, their language DAX is not the easiest language to work with, but nothing some training and research can't solve.

Reason for choosing Microsoft Power BI

When performing our cost / benefit analysis it came with the highest rate.

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Power BI

Power BI presented better tools to perform Data Analysis and work with Data.

Anonymous

501-1,000 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed July 2023

Switch from Excel to pretty Dashboard and easy Data Analysis

PBI is not for everyone. It is not easy to use. I would say that everything corresponds to Microsoft's style: sometimes, what can be done easily, they make it difficult. But at the same time, it is an indisputably powerful tool for processing and visualizing data.

PROS

PBI is really great and powerfull tool for your data. You can integrates data from a large number of sources: FB, Google Analytics, SQL, your first party data etc..

CONS

For me, the biggest minus is definitely the complexity. Especially the initial settings.

User Profile

Imi

Verified reviewer

Government Administration, 1,001-5,000 employees

Used weekly for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

1

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed March 2021

Excellent tool for small offices and datasets but can lead to frustration overtime

I am generally satisficed with the product, price and ease of learning with lots of YouTube video and the Power BI community, there is always something new to learn and implemented to improve or help meet your reporting requirements.

PROS

Easy to get started with Power BI if you are on the Microsoft 365 platform. Power Bi provides an easy to connect and interactive method for pulling data in real time from data collection system such as the SharePoint online, MS Excel and others. The ease of connecting with SharePoint is the strong point for my review. Having the Power Bi connected to the SharePoint system provides the opportunity to have real time dashboards and dynamic reports for any small organization that is wishing to provide real or near to real-time reporting without the heavy upfront implementation cost for software, training and human resource. Microsoft has indeed liberated the Dynamic Reporting with Power BI, and has also allowed for some very elegant web reporting to be created by non technical users. My simple work flow , SharePoint for data collection, PowerBi for reporting.

CONS

The main issues are around the changes that are made by Microsoft, this will always be a learning curve for the users. The lack of consistency on certain actions will be the biggest issue.

Reason for choosing Microsoft Power BI

Cost, Familiarity and given that is is a free offer within the MS Offfice 365 or M365 platform, it leads to an easy choice.