Microsoft Power BI

4.6
Overall rating
Reviews

4.6
Overall rating
Reviews

About Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is a comprehensive data visualization tool that forms part of the Power Platform suite of products. Power BI enables users to connect to and visualize data from various sources, seamlessly integrating visualizations into everyday applications. With a focus on uncovering valuable insights and translating them into actionable outcomes, Power BI offers a range of features and capabilities to support data-driven decision-making across organizations. One of the key strengths of Power BI lies in its ability to leverage advanced data-analysis tools, artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, and a user-friendly report-creation interface. Users can easily turn their raw data into visually appealing charts, graphs, and reports to communicate insights effectively. The platform also facilitates the creation of datasets from diverse data sources, allowing organizations to establish a single source of truth within the OneLake data hub. Power BI empowers users to make informed decisions by embedding insights directly into the applications they use daily, such as those within the Microsoft 365 suite. By activating Microsoft Fabric within the Power BI experience, organizations can reshape how they access, manage, and act on data. The platform offers enterprise-grade ingestion and semantic modeling to handle large datasets and scale across thousands of users seamlessly. Sharing insights generated through Power BI is effortless, as reports can be embedded and distributed within various Microsoft services like Teams, PowerPoint, Excel, and the Power Platform. Additionally, Power BI incorporates artificial intelligence features to find patterns in data, generate reports instantly, and deliver answers promptly, enhancing productivity and decision-making efficiency. To ensure data governance, security, and compliance, Power BI provides robust features that meet regulatory requirements and offer end-to-end visibility into data management. Using conversational language, users can create reports, generate DAX calculations, and derive answers swiftly, simplifying the data exploration process. The platform also allows open access for users without paid licenses to interact with reports and access Microsoft Fabric workloads. Power BI supports self-service analytics, enabling users to create and publish reports effortlessly, fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making within organizations. Users can license individual users with modern analytics capabilities for publishing reports and accessing content. By integrating Power BI Pro with other Microsoft 365 applications, users can leverage industry-leading security features at a competitive price point. For those interested in exploring the capabilities of Power BI, a free account option is available for creating interactive reports with visual analytics features. Additionally, Power BI Desktop offers a free application for connecting, modeling, and visualizing data through a user-friendly report canvas with a wide range of visuals. Users can also sign up for a free trial of the Microsoft Fabric suite to access the full range of services, including Power BI offerings. Power BI caters to a wide range of business needs, allowing organizations to establish a governed source of truth, combine enterprise-scale and self-service BI for insights, seamlessly embed data experiences within applications, empower users with data exploration capabilities, and kickstart their data journey with AI-generated reports and templates. The platform supports reducing time-to-market by customizing BI reports for embedding in applications and branding as your own. In terms of industry recognition, Microsoft Power BI has been lauded in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms for its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. Additionally, independent studies like The Total Economic ImpactTM showcase the cost savings and business benefits enabled by Microsoft Fabric, including a significant return on investment over a three-year period. Power BI serves as a valuable tool for organizations looking to extract meaningful insights from their data, foster a data-driven culture, and drive innovation across all levels. With its intuitive interface, advanced analytics capabilities, seamless integration with Microsoft applications, and robust security features, Power BI stands as a prominent solution for businesses seeking to leverage their data effectively for informed decision-making and business growth.
Microsoft Power BI Software - Microsoft Power BI
Data-analysis tools
Microsoft Power BI Software - Microsoft Power BI
Dataset creation
Microsoft Power BI Software - Microsoft Power BI Infusing insights into apps
Microsoft Power BI Software - Microsoft Power BI
Data-analysis tools - thumbnail
Microsoft Power BI Software - Microsoft Power BI
Dataset creation - thumbnail
Microsoft Power BI Software - Microsoft Power BI Infusing insights into apps - thumbnail

Microsoft Power BI pricing

Microsoft Power BI has a free version and does not offer a free trial. Microsoft Power BI paid version starts at US$10.00/month.

Starting Price:
US$10.00/month
Free Version:
Yes
Free trial:
No

Alternatives to Microsoft Power BI

Power BI Connector for Shopify

Power BI Connector for Shopify is a business intelligence tool that helps extract data from a company’s Shopify store...

Microsoft Power BI Reviews for UK Users

Feature rating

Value for Money
4.4
Functionality
4.5
Ease of Use
4.1
Customer Support
4.1
5 reviews of 1,737 View all reviews
Sai
Sai
  • Industry: Internet
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

4
Reviewed on 28/07/2023

Strong visualization platform

Experience with Microsoft Power BI was really good and their support is a strong plus

Pros

Microsoft Power BI is very versatile with creating dashboards and reports. Controlling access levels is efficient

Cons

Microsoft Power BI is not that easy to use when compared to Looker. Looker has stronger features and capabilities.

James
  • Industry: Publishing
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
4

5
Reviewed on 18/11/2024

Easy to use & a great visualisation tool

Really good! I've been using Power BI for over 3 years and am an avid user of it. After demo-ing the product it my organisation, it became the primary software for visualisation replication Google Data Studio. There are very helpful forums and videos everywhere that assist with all tasks but the main aspect that i love is the integration into GA4 and adobe analytics!

Pros

Incredibly easy to use, has fantastic integrations with a wide range of products and the web portal makes it incredibly easy to access for both staff and clients. Highly recommend

Cons

The main issue i would say is speed of the desktop app, it's very slow and can cause your laptop to use the majority of CPU to run it.

Kathy
  • Industry: Veterinary
  • Company size: 5,001–10,000 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

3
Reviewed on 16/11/2024

Sluggish but useful

Used for reporting for corporate monthly wellness program enrollments, monthly fiance breakdowns

Pros

Holds a lot of information, able to look at data as charts ans graphs

Cons

Slow, often times out when in the program

Bernhard
  • Industry: Computer Software
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Functionality
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
4

5
Reviewed on 07/08/2024

Power BI - Excel on steroids

I learnt Power BI capabilities first through Excel Power Pivot and then rolled out Power BI at my company. I liked it so much that I moved to consultancy and now support companies in rolling out Power BI as a career. I only work with Power BI as I genuinely prefer it over other BI tools.

Pros

Coming from a business background I found Power Bi easy to access, learn and ultimately master. It combines the best of both worlds: easy access and powerful capabilities.

Cons

There’s a few (isolated) things where competitive solutions may have a better capabilities : maps are one of them.

Alternatives Considered

Qlik Sense, Tableau, Alteryx Designer and SAP Analytics Cloud

Reasons for Choosing Microsoft Power BI

Integration with Microsoft office and ease of data integration

Switched From

Qlik Sense and SAP Analytics Cloud

Reasons for Switching to Microsoft Power BI

Cost, simplicity, functionality, Integration with Microsoft office and ease of data integration
Harlan
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Functionality
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
4

5
Reviewed on 25/11/2024

Power Bi is a god send

Very positive, we are planning on migrating all of our reports back onto power BI after some issues we have had with the google suite. Learning it was very simple given some basic prior knowledge but more advanced knowledge is required to access the full extent of the application.

Pros

I love power query and the many options which are available for report customization. I really like how intuitive it all was for me especially merging complex data sets. The DAX code allows complex functions when processing data to divine advanced insights.

Cons

My least favourite thing about power bi is definitely the formatting options. In terms of making things the same size and auto aligning correctly it can sometimes be quite a hassle.

Related categories