KNIME vs Microsoft BI comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Knime Logo
3,386 views|2,356 comparisons
Microsoft Logo
35,558 views|30,026 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Aug 28, 2022

We performed a comparison between KNIME and Microsoft BI based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Most users tell us the deployment of both solutions is easy and straightforward.
  • Features: KNIME users feel the visualization is extremely valuable. Other top features are the data wrangling and the solution’s ability to easily handle an unlimited amount of data. Users feel the solution could be more user friendly and improve the documentation. Many users feel the solution does not scale very well.

    Microsoft BI users appreciate that the solution allows them to perform numerous analyses very quickly. The interface is seamless and integrates easily with all Microsoft solutions. Many users feel the solution does not handle large amounts of data very well’ the overall performance can become sluggish and buggy.

  • Pricing: KNIME is open-source, offering a free option and also has some other options that are priced competitively. Microsoft BI users feel that the solution can get very expensive very quickly.
  • Service and Support: KNIME has a thriving supportive community that users rely on heavily, in addition to a formal support process that users are very happy with. For the most part. Microsoft BI users are also very satisfied with the support they receive.

Comparison Results: KNIME is a great alternative for organizations that are looking for a cost-saving, flexible, stable solution to handle their Data Mining and Data Science needs. Microsoft BI is a comprehensive, robust solution that performs well with Data Mining and Data Science in addition to exceptional performance as a Business Intelligence (BI) tool. As many PeerSpot users are heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, Microsoft BI is the consistent trusted choice.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Mining Report (Updated: November 2023).
745,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"One of the greatest advantages of KNIME is that it can be used by those without any coding experience. those with no coding background can use it.""We can deploy the solution in a cluster as well.""It's a huge tool with machine learning features as well.""What I like most about KNIME is that it's user-friendly. It's a low-code, no-code tool, so students don't need coding knowledge. You can make use of different kinds of nodes. KNIME even has a good description of each node.""Stability is excellent. I would give it a nine out of ten.""I would rate the stability of KNIME a ten out of ten.""It allows for a user-friendly approach where you can simply drag and drop elements to create your model, which is a convenient and effective idea.""The solution allows for sharing model designs and model operations with other data analysts."

More KNIME Pros →

"You don't need much support with Microsoft Power BI because it has such a large base of users who can answer your questions on their forums. There are also many video tutorials and webinars available online that offer solutions to whatever problems you may have.""What I like most is that I can do everything in Power BI that I can do in Excel.""There is a feature in Microsoft BI that allows JSON data to SQL on the dashboards effectively and quickly.""We have found the product very stable and reliable.""It is useful for bringing visualization to data. It calculates counts, ratios, etc.""Microsoft BI's initial setup is very straightforward.""The solution is not that difficult to install, although this will vary with the experience of the person responsible for its installation.""The virtualization of Microsoft BI is very good."

More Microsoft BI Pros →

Cons
"The solution is inconvenient when it comes to wrangling data that includes multiple steps or features because each step or feature requires its own icon.""KNIME's licensing and data management aren't as straightforward relative to Alteryx. Alteryx's tools are more sophisticated, so you need fewer to use it compared to KNIME. I think tab implementation could be easier, too.""To enhance accessibility and user-friendliness, there is a need for improvements in the interface and usability of deep learning and large-scale learning languages.""When deploying models on a regular system, it works fine. However, when accuracy is a priority, hyperparameter tuning is necessary. Currently, KNIME doesn't have the best tools for this which they could improve in this area.""It's difficult to provide input on the improvement area because it's more of self-learning. However, there are times when I am not able to do certain things. I don't know if it's because the solution doesn't allow me or if it's because of the lack of knowledge.""KNIME is not scalable.""I've had some problems integrating KNIME with other solutions.""KNIME could improve when it comes to large data markets."

More KNIME Cons →

"Areas for improvement would be the construction of reports and the dashboard budget.""Microsoft Power BI can be confusing, because it has two languages that you need to learn if you want to use it, and this makes it more difficult for nontechnical users.""I find the solution to be 70 percent stable.""The Power Query feature needs to be improved to handle large amounts of data. This feature is also slow for large data transfers making it better to use some kind of script.""Power BI's drillthrough feature could be improved. I didn't like drillthrough and those options much, but I did like it in MicroStrategy.""I'm missing collaborations functionality to operate or to work connected with multiple people on a data source or on virtualization. There should be more collaborations functions, such as in Confluence. We haven't explored the solution sufficiently in this area, but at this time it doesn't look sufficient.""Microsoft BI has its own challenges in terms of user interface and how quickly somebody can learn how to use it.""The integration in Microsoft BI could improve for other solutions, such as Oracle DB and PostgresSQL. Additionally, the reporting from the databases to Microsoft BI should be in real-time and the overall performance could be better."

More Microsoft BI Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The client versions are mostly free, and we pay only for the KNIME server version. It's not a cheap solution."
  • "Scaling to the on-premises version requires a licensing fee per user that is a bit expensive in comparison to R, Python, and SAS."
  • "This is a free open-source solution."
  • "For beginners, the free desktop version is very attractive, but the full server version can be more expensive. I have only used the free version and it offers a fair pricing system. I have been promoting it to others without any compensation or request from the company, simply because I am enthusiastic about it. I am not aware of the pricing for the server version, but it seems to be widely used."
  • "KNIME is an open-source tool, so it's free to use."
  • "They have different versions, but I am using the open-source one."
  • "KNIME is free and open source."
  • "KNIME is a cost-effective solution because it’s free of cost."
  • More KNIME Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "In the beginning, the solution cost approximately $1,000 per month, we have a Microsoft startup subscription. There is a subscription pack for startups company which we are able to have for one year."
  • "If you purchase a license for a server, for users, or the professional version, you might not have to. The free version I think it can satisfy many customers' needs."
  • "We have enterprise licenses and some of the other tools or features come as a package and others you have to purchase separately."
  • "We're charged a monthly subscription fee of 500 rupees per person."
  • "They have a free Power BI Desktop version, but it has limitations."
  • "It's straightforward licensing."
  • "I have not had a customer suggest the solution is too expensive. There are licenses to use the solution."
  • "Both cost-wise and implementation-wise, this product is a good choice."
  • More Microsoft BI Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Mining solutions are best for your needs.
    745,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:It allows for a user-friendly approach where you can simply drag and drop elements to create your model, which is a convenient and effective idea.
    Top Answer:The pricing needs improvement.
    Top Answer:There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows:  1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle  - look for SAP… more »
    Top Answer:Power BI is an advanced visualization tool oriented to big data with a very complete set of widgets to visualize information, control users accessing information, the configuration of governance… more »
    Top Answer:Oracle OBIEE is great in allowing design and creativity per the individual needs of the organization. Dashboards are fully customizable and very user-friendly. This solution is very stable. Oracle… more »
    Ranking
    1st
    out of 18 in Data Mining
    Views
    3,386
    Comparisons
    2,356
    Reviews
    20
    Average Words per Review
    487
    Rating
    7.9
    Views
    35,558
    Comparisons
    30,026
    Reviews
    89
    Average Words per Review
    515
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    KNIME Analytics Platform
    SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Power BI, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI
    Learn More
    Overview

    KNIME is an open-source analytics software used for creating data science that is built on a GUI based workflow, eliminating the need to know code. The solution has an inherent modular workflow approach that documents and stores the analysis process in the same order it was conceived and implemented, while ensuring that intermediate results are always available. 

    KNIME supports Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems and is suitable for enterprises of all different sizes. With KNIME, you can perform functions ranging from basic I/O to data manipulations, transformations and data mining. It consolidates all the functions of the entire process into a single workflow. The solution covers all main data wrangling and machine learning techniques, and is based on visual programming.

    KNIME Features

    KNIME has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Scalability through data handling (intelligent automatic caching of data in the background while maximizing throughput performance)
    • High extensibility via a well-defined API for plugin extensions
    • Intuitive user interface
    • Import/export of workflows
    • Parallel execution on multi-core systems
    • Command line version for "headless" batch executions
    • Activity dashboard
    • Reporting & statistics
    • Third-party integrations
    • Workflow management
    • Local automation
    • Metanode linking
    • Tool blending
    • Big Data extensions

    KNIME Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing KNIME. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Integrated Deployment: KNIME’s integrated deployment moves both the selected model, and the entire data model preparation process into production simply and automatically, allowing for continuous optimization in production and also saving time because it eliminates error.
    • Elastic and Hybrid Execution: KNIME’s elastic and hybrid executions helps you reduce costs while covering periods of high demand, dynamically.
    • Metadata Mapping: KNIME enables complete metadata mapping of all aspects of your workflow. In addition, KNIME offers blueprint workflows for documenting the nodes, data sources, and libraries used, as well as runtime information.
    • Guided Analytics: KNIME’s guided analytics applications can be customized based on reusable components.
    • Powerful analytics, local automation, and workflow difference: KNIME uses advanced predictive and machine learning algorithms to provide you with the analytics you need. In combination with powerful analytics, KNIME’s automation capabilities and workflow difference prepare your organization with the tools you need to make better business decisions.
    • Supports enterprise-wide data science practices: The deployment and management functionalities of KNIME make it easy to productionize data science applications and services, and deliver usable, reliable, and reproducible insights for the business.
    • Helps you leverage insights gained from your data: Using KNIME ensures the data science process immediately reflects changing requirements or new insights.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the KNIME solution.

    An Emeritus Professor at a university says, “It can read many different file formats. It can very easily tidy up your data, deleting blank rows, and deleting rows where certain columns are missing. It allows you to make lots of changes internally, which you do using JavaScript to put in the conditional. It also has very good fundamental machine learning. It has decision trees, linear regression, and neural nets. It has a lot of text mining facilities as well. It's fairly fully-featured.”

    Benedikt S., CEO at SMH - Schwaiger Management Holding GmbH, explains, “All of the features related to the ETL are fantastic. That includes the connectors to other programs, databases, and the meta node function. Technical support has been extremely responsive so far. The solution has a very strong and supportive community that shares information and helps each other troubleshoot. The solution is very stable. The initial setup is pretty simple and straightforward.”

    Piotr Ś., Test Engineer at ProData Consult, says, “What I like the most is that it works almost out of the box with Random Forest and other Forest nodes.”

    Microsoft BI is a business intelligence solution that connects to all your data sources and turns your data into insightful and useful business information that is relevant to all levels of the business, ensuring data accuracy, consistency, and security.

    Microsoft BI combines familiar Microsoft tools - Office, SharePoint, and SQL server - with extra features for end-users, such as Power View and Power Pivot. This powerful product gives businesses a competitive advantage by allowing end users to better analyze their data, collaborate, and better present their data.

    The BI platform empowers members of your organization to make data-driven decisions that drive strategic actions quickly by allowing them to work together easily on the same data, share insights, and collaborate on reports using other Microsoft Office applications.

    Microsoft BI Benefits

    Some of the benefits of using Microsoft BI include: 

    • Scalability: Easily scale the Microsoft BI platform to help reduce costs and minimize the security risks and complexities that arise as a result of maintaining multiple systems.
    • Secure analytics: Protect your data with sophisticated data security features, including sensitivity labeling, end-to-end encryption, and real-time access monitoring. View and share meaningful AI-based insights enriched by data visualizations.
    • Regular user-driven innovative updates: Get weekly and monthly updates that improve the capabilities of Power BI based on thousands of ideas submitted each year from a community of over 500,000 members worldwide.
    • Seamless integration with Microsoft products: Microsoft BI connects with Microsoft 365, allowing you to create Excel queries, data models, and reports for the Power BI dashboards. These integrations make it easy to collect, analyze, publish, and share Excel business data.
    • Access Microsoft BI from any location: BI can be accessed at any time from anywhere using its mobile app, allowing ease of access to distributed teams or businesses across many locations. The business intelligence platform also enables teams to work on any file at the same time.
    • User-friendly dashboard: View and manage your data in a user-friendly and intuitive customized dashboard. The Microsoft BI platform enables teams to work independently while exchanging analytics between different departments and users. With Microsoft BI, you can easily create personalized dashboards that combine on-premises and cloud data into a single view, allowing you to monitor enterprise data from multiple business applications.
    • Easy installation: Install the platform in minutes just by creating an API key and inputting it into the software.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Microsoft BI stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its integration options and its data analytics capabilities.

    Tariq R., an operations & BI analyst at American Hospital Dubai, writes, “Power BI is a complete ecosystem. It has an integrated ETL tool and good connectivity with applications such as Office 365 and SQL. Power BI supports the DAX and Power Query M languages. These languages are making Power BI very strong in data analytics, and you can do many types of analysis. ”

    Offer
    Learn more about KNIME
    Learn more about Microsoft BI
    Sample Customers
    Infocom Corporation, Dymatrix Consulting Group, Soluzione Informatiche, MMI Agency, Estanislao Training and Solutions, Vialis AG
    Konica Minolta, Klout, Mahindra Satyam, The Weather Channel, Argus, Credit Suisse, NCR, and Sysmex.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    University26%
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Retailer16%
    Government10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Educational Organization9%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Energy/Utilities Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization34%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Government5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise46%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise68%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business39%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise41%
    Large Enterprise46%
    Buyer's Guide
    Data Mining
    November 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Knime, Weka, IBM and others in Data Mining. Updated: November 2023.
    745,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    KNIME is ranked 1st in Data Mining with 21 reviews while Microsoft BI is ranked 1st in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 83 reviews. KNIME is rated 8.0, while Microsoft BI is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of KNIME writes "Allows you to easily tidy up your data, make lots of changes internally, and has good machine learning". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft BI writes "User friendly, easy to set up and great for analyzing data". KNIME is most compared with RapidMiner, Alteryx, Weka, Dataiku Data Science Studio and Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio, whereas Microsoft BI is most compared with Amazon QuickSight, Tableau, Domo, Oracle OBIEE and MicroStrategy.

    We monitor all Data Mining reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.