Microsoft Power BI is a robust business intelligence tool for real-time data visualization and analysis. Its user-friendly interface and comprehensive features allow businesses to make informed, data-driven decisions, discover insights, and promote growth. Power BI connects to various data sources, enables creation of interactive dashboards and reports, and provides secure sharing with team members and stakeholders. It also offers advanced analytics like predictive modeling and machine learning for improved data analysis and forecasting. Essentially, Power BI simplifies data management, encourages data exploration, and supports informed decision-making for businesses across different scales.

  • 01Pros and cons from reviewers
  • 02Main features
  • 03What is Microsoft Power BI?
  • 04How Microsoft Power BI compare to similar software?
  • 05Who is Microsoft Power BI best for according to our reviewers?
  • 06Microsoft Power BI Reviews

What is Microsoft Power BI?

Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence and analytics software that enables organizations to visualize and analyze data in real-time. It provides an intuitive platform for creating interactive dashboards and reports, facilitating data-driven decision-making. As a SaaS solution, it offers extensive data connectivity options, allowing businesses to connect to various data sources, either on-premises or in the cloud. Power BI's advanced data modeling capabilities allow users to convert raw data into valuable insights, revealing hidden trends. It also features AI and machine learning for predictive analysis, aiding businesses in forecasting future outcomes. In essence, Microsoft Power BI is a crucial tool for businesses aiming to maximize their data's potential and promote growth through informed decision-making.

Pros from reviewers

  • Integration with other Microsoft tools: Power BI integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft tools, making it a good fit for environments already using Microsoft software

  • Wide variety of chart types and customization options: Power BI offers a broad range of chart types and customization options, providing all the necessary functionality to create real-time updating dashboard infrastructures for several departments

  • Time-efficient report creation: Power BI significantly reduces report creation time, making it a powerful tool for data aggregation and dashboard creation.

  • Easy to learn and teach: Microsoft Power BI is user-friendly and easy to learn, making it simple to teach to colleagues with low IT literacy once a template is created

  • Capability for deep data analysis without requiring code or SQL: Power BI allows for deep data analysis without the need for code or SQL, making it user-friendly for small to medium businesses to gain insights from data

Cons from reviewers

  • Limited sharing and visualization in free version: The free version of Microsoft Power BI does not allow sharing and account specific data visualization, limiting its usability for collaborative work

  • Inadequate data connectivity and report maintenance: Power BI has significant issues with data connectivity and report maintenance, particularly when extracting data from third-party products, making it less effective for comprehensive data analysis

  • Absence of live support feature: Unlike some other BI tools, Power BI does not offer a live support feature, which can make troubleshooting and learning the software more challenging

  • Slow loading and crashing with large data: The software often takes too long to load embedded charts and can crash when the data is too large, affecting efficiency and productivity

  • High demand on computing power: Power BI requires significant computing power and can be slow when loading large data sets, which can limit its performance and usability.

Main features

Starting Price

N/A

Free Plan

No

Data analysis made easy

Integrate with your existing tools

Collaborate and share

Insights on the go

Interactive dashboards

Who is Microsoft Power BI best for according to our reviewers?

  • Clients: Power BI's reporting, analysis, and data visualization capabilities, along with its shareability and third-party tool integration, make it a preferred choice for clients who are already familiar with it

  • Casual Users: Even those who only use Power BI a few times a week can find its basic functions helpful in assessing work and learning data analysis on their own, although they may need hardware that can handle the volume of data they want to work with.

  • Business Analysts: These professionals can leverage Power BI's wide variety of chart types and customization options to create real-time updating dashboard infrastructures for several departments

  • IT Professionals: Despite some limitations in data connectivity and report maintenance, IT professionals can still find value in Power BI's native integrations and initial setup ease, especially if they are already using other Microsoft tools

  • Small to Medium Business Owners: Power BI's user-friendly interface and deep data analysis capabilities without requiring code or SQL make it a valuable tool for SMBs looking to gain insights from their data

  • Microsoft Power BI Reviews

    4.7

    Microsoft Power BI rating

    4.0

    Ease of use

    4.0

    Customer service

    4.5

    Value for money

    4.3

    Likelihood to recommend

    4.4

    Features

    19 Microsoft Power BI Reviews

    4.7 (19 reviews)
    Leave a review
    • Alexis R

      Exploring Online Forums: Troubleshooting and Learning Resources

      there are numerous online forums and resources available for troubleshooting and learning new techniques.

      August 12, 2024

    • Madison Jones

      Microsoft Power BI: A Complimentary Tool for Easy Data Analysis

      Even though I only use Microsoft Power BI a few times a week, I find its basic functions helpful in assessing my colleagues' work who use this software in our company. Its primary strength is its user-friendliness, allowing me to learn data analysis on my own without much difficulty. It also lets me generate reports from the data collected by the software. While I appreciate the free plan, I find the paid plans somewhat expensive compared to similar products. Regarding data analysis, it demands hardware that can handle the volume of data I want to work with. For example, if I want to work with large data volumes, I need a processor that can manage it, or else the performance will be insufficient.

      August 3, 2024

    • Cynthia Johnson

      Flexible Customization and Exceptional Community Support: Power BI Review

      I can tailor my reports and dashboards to meet specific needs. Lastly, the community support for Power BI is excellent

      July 30, 2024

    • Margaret B

      Unveiling the Realities of PowerBI

      My experience with Microsoft Power BI has been challenging. I've found it hard to administer and support, and the documentation hasn't been very helpful. There are many access levels, but it's unclear what each one involves. While the free version seemed like a good option at first, it hasn't met our needs. Despite these issues, I recognize that Power BI has great potential for Business Intelligence. However, I'm frustrated with the difficulty of importing data from AWS into Power BI, and the apparent need to install SQL Server on-premises for real-time data. We chose Power BI thinking it would integrate well with our 365 environment, but sadly, this hasn't been the case.

      July 21, 2024

    • Ashley Rodriguez

      Effortless Report Updates with Power BI's Drill-Down Feature

      I no longer have to manually update my reports each time new data comes in. The drill-down feature in Power BI is particularly useful

      July 16, 2024

    • Marilyn

      Power BI: The Market's Top Choice for Data Visualization

      I utilize Microsoft Power BI for reporting, analysis, and data visualization. It's advantageous because my clients are familiar with it and it integrates easily with third-party tools. I appreciate its graphics and shareability. However, it demands significant computing power and loading large data sets can be slow. I selected Microsoft Power BI as my clients are satisfied with the reports it produces.

      July 7, 2024

    • Donna

      User-friendly and Highly Customizable: A Superior Data Visualization Tool

      I've been a user of Excel and Power BI for a long time. What I value most is its capability to conduct deep data analysis without requiring code or SQL. This makes it user-friendly for small to medium businesses like ours to gain insights from data. It provides a range of chart types and the option to include custom elements. I highly endorse it. The interface, which is heavily influenced by Excel, was easy for me to navigate due to my extensive experience with Excel. However, I do wish it offered a live support feature like some other BI tools. I opted for Power BI over Tableau because I was already comfortable with the Microsoft environment.

      July 1, 2024

    • Gregory Williams

      Effective Reporting Tool for Select Microsoft Products, Limited Use Beyond Microsoft Ecosystem

      As a follower of Microsoft Power BI, often hailed as a "Tableau destroyer", I want to highlight some significant issues with its data connectivity and report maintenance. Despite my feedback, the Product Team has disregarded these problems as "not in scope", rendering Power BI virtually ineffective for extracting data from third-party products, particularly cloud-based ones. My review is based on my experience with Power BI as of mid-March 2017, which includes testing, community interaction, and numerous tickets with Power BI Pro Support. My focus is on data acquisition via Web Services, in line with Microsoft’s "Cloud First" Strategy.Firstly, Power BI Online, which is cloud-based, does not permit HTTP calls. Power BI Desktop does, but only with static authentication parameters. Power BI Online is the "master" that enables you to share and publish your reports, but its design experience is hindered by HTML limitations and restricted data connectivity.

      June 24, 2024

    • Carolyn A

      Uncovering Hidden Insights: Exploring Data at a Granular Level with Impressive Customization

      it allows me to explore data at a granular level and uncover hidden insights. The software's capacity for customization is impressive

      June 18, 2024

    • Abigail

      PowerBI: My Go-To Dashboard Solution

      I consider Microsoft Power BI a powerful tool for data aggregation and dashboard creation, which I can share with my teams. It does require some training to fully understand and learn the PowerBI language. I switched to Microsoft Power BI as it drastically cut down my report creation time from over 2 hours to roughly 30 minutes per week.

      June 10, 2024

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