KNIME vs Microsoft Power BI comparison

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3,134 views|2,162 comparisons
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35,424 views|29,814 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: March 2024).
765,234 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
"We are able to automate several functions which were done manually. I can integrate several data sets quickly and easily, to support analytics.""The ETL which helps me to collect, reformat, and load the data from multiple sources into one destination, a storage database.""The solution is good for teaching, since there is no need to code.""The solution allows for sharing model designs and model operations with other data analysts.""It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution.""This solution is easy to use and especially good at data preparation and wrapping.""It has allowed us to easily implement advanced analytics into various processes.""Since KNIME is a no-code platform, it is easy to work with."

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"It is stable enough. It has a lot of powerful functions. It can also be customized with the DAX language. It is also intuitive enough and incremental. You can start with something simple, and then step-by-step, you can increase the reports and dashboards according to your needs.""Microsoft B's beneficial features are that it is a Microsoft product and it is well known by the staff here in the company. It suited the available skills.""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.""We are able to collaborate on things and get insightful data visualizations.""The most valuable feature is definitely the visual aspect and the DAX capabilities to virtually do anything.""The solution overall is very useful. The reports that are generated and the reporting functionality management are beneficial.""Being able to transfer data with the Power Query feature is great for teaching with about one to two hundred rows of data. I am also able to see the relationship between multiple tables and create various sheets and dashboards.""There is also a chart store where we can download charts, which is extremely useful."

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Cons
"The visualization functionalities are not good (cannot be compared to, for instance, the possibilities in R).""I've had some problems integrating KNIME with other solutions.""KNIME is not good at visualization.""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.""I would like to see better web scraping because every time I tried, it was not up to par, although you can use Python script.""The program is not fit for handling very large files or databases (greater than 1GB); it gets too slow and has a tendency to crash easily.""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.""It could be easier to use."

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"The data source definition is all over the place.""There's always room for improvement for Microsoft Power BI, especially for the UX and the menus to make it more accessible to business users.""In the future, Microsoft BI can be better by increasing user-friendliness""Power BI could be improved by implementing more options for data integration. Nowadays, the cloud takes care of scalability and security. As we all know, data sources are increasing, so we get data from a variety of streams. But if we could get the downstream data into the database and update the reports more easily, Power BI would be better.""I would like Microsoft to include some inbuilt machine learning so that it becomes point-and-click, rather than us developing models out of API and BI connecting to that and getting the results. That process gets in the way of continuity.""Real-time updating needs improvement.""You need to purchase upgraded support separately.""Microsoft Power BI was born native on the cloud, however, it's quite difficult when it has to connect to on-premise data sources."

More Microsoft Power BI Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is free of cost. It is GNU licensed."
  • "KNIME desktop is free, which is great for analytics teams. Server is well priced, depending on how much support is required."
  • "KNIME is free as a stand-alone desktop-based platform but if you want to get a KNIME server then you can find the cost on their website."
  • "The price of KNIME is quite reasonable and the designer tool can be used free of charge."
  • "It's an open-source solution."
  • "The price for Knime is okay."
  • "At this time, I am using the free version of Knime."
  • "This is an open-source solution that is free to use."
  • More KNIME Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "There is room for at least 45% discount as compared to the initial price."
  • "MS BI comes with all the tools and it is, to the best of my knowledge, the most affordable solution."
  • "All in all, for the price, this is an excellent tool for helping your organization turn mounds of data into useful insights."
  • "I would advise that Microsoft BI products are rightly priced and the licensing is easy to follow and to fulfill."
  • "Remove the cost of a licence to show a dashboard within SharePoint. Why should readers of a dashboard have to pay to view? ​"
  • "Make it low in cost. It is a no-brainer!"
  • "Globally, we evaluated a number of products, including Salesforce's product, Microsoft won on the ground of simple functionally and cost."
  • "Paid for itself in the first month."
  • More Microsoft Power BI Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: I've never had any problems with stability.
    Top Answer:We're using the free academic license just locally. I went for KNIME because they have a free academic license. And to be honest, I never bothered to check the prices.
    Top Answer:In the last update, KNIME started hiding a lot of the nodes. It doesn't mean hiding, but you need to know what you're looking for. Before that, you had just a tree that you could click, and you could… more »
    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
    3,134
    Comparisons
    2,162
    Reviews
    22
    Average Words per Review
    475
    Rating
    7.9
    Views
    35,424
    Comparisons
    29,814
    Reviews
    19
    Average Words per Review
    555
    Rating
    8.1
    Comparisons
    RapidMiner logo
    Compared 24% of the time.
    Alteryx logo
    Compared 14% of the time.
    Weka logo
    Compared 8% of the time.
    IBM SPSS Modeler logo
    Compared 5% of the time.
    Also Known As
    KNIME Analytics Platform
    SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, 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 Power BI is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization. This tool stands out for its ability to merge and analyze data from various sources. Widely adopted across different industries and departments, Power BI is instrumental in creating visually appealing dashboards and generating insightful business intelligence reports. Its intuitive interface, robust visualization capabilities, and seamless integration with other Microsoft applications empower users to easily create interactive reports and gain valuable insights.

    Sample Customers
    Infocom Corporation, Dymatrix Consulting Group, Soluzione Informatiche, MMI Agency, Estanislao Training and Solutions, Vialis AG
    Accenture Adidas Aetna AIG Airbus Alibaba Allstate Amazon American Express Aon AT&T Audi Bank of America BASF Bayer Berkshire Hathaway Boeing Coca-Cola Comcast Cisco Coca-Cola Dell Disney Emirates Equinix FedEx Ford GE Google H&M Home Depot Honda IBM Intel JPMorgan Chase Kellogg's Kroger L'Oréal McDonald's Merck MetLife Microsoft Nike Oracle P&G PepsiCo Procter & Gamble Prudential Financial SAP Siemens Snapchat Spotify Starbucks Target Toyota T-Mobile Unilever Visa Walmart WeWork World Bank Xerox
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    University23%
    Comms Service Provider17%
    Retailer14%
    Government9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Educational Organization8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Energy/Utilities Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization35%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Government5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise27%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise67%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business39%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise41%
    Large Enterprise45%
    Buyer's Guide
    Data Mining
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Knime, Weka, IBM and others in Data Mining. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    KNIME is ranked 1st in Data Mining with 50 reviews while Microsoft Power BI is ranked 1st in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 293 reviews. KNIME is rated 8.2, while Microsoft Power BI is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of KNIME writes "A low-code platform that reduces data mining time by linking script". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Power BI writes "A complete ecosystem with an builtin ETL tool, good integrations with python and R, and support of DAX and Power Query (M languages)". KNIME is most compared with RapidMiner, Alteryx, Weka, Dataiku Data Science Studio and IBM SPSS Modeler, whereas Microsoft Power BI is most compared with Tableau, Amazon QuickSight, 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.