Microsoft Power BI vs Sisense comparison

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Microsoft Power BI

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Microsoft Power BI and Sisense compete in the business analytics sector. Power BI seems to have the upper hand in integration and cost-effectiveness, while Sisense stands out for its data processing capabilities.

Features: Microsoft Power BI offers seamless integration with Microsoft tools, a user-friendly interface, and cost-effectiveness. It supports extensive data source connectivity, enhancing its flexibility. Sisense excels with its data processing capabilities using ElastiCubes, offering customization and handling complex datasets efficiently.

Room for Improvement: Power BI can improve in handling large datasets, real-time analytics performance, and user interface customization. It also needs better integration with non-Microsoft data sources. Sisense could expand data connector options, improve interface flexibility, and address licensing complexity. Both products should focus on scalability improvements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Power BI is easy to deploy within Microsoft ecosystems, offering public, private, and hybrid cloud environments, with strong community support. Sisense provides simplicity and speed in setup, with a focus on public and private cloud environments, and offers high-quality customer service. However, its quick technical support can sometimes be inconsistent.

Pricing and ROI: Power BI is generally more affordable with tiered licensing, providing good ROI for businesses within the Microsoft ecosystem. Sisense, while more expensive, offers competitive pricing for high-end analytics demands, adding value in heavy data processing environments. Additional features can increase overall costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Power BI vs. Sisense Report (Updated: December 2025).

Microsoft Power BI vs. Sisense

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Helped 879,259 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

ROI

Sentiment score

6.8

Microsoft Power BI enhances efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and user satisfaction through scalability, ease of use, and robust security features.

Sentiment score

7.0

Results with Sisense vary; some see immediate benefits, while others struggle to measure improvements or efficiency gains.

In a world surrounded by data, tools that allow navigation of large data volumes ensure decisions are data-driven.

Corporate HR Financial Controller at STMicroelectronics Holding

Power BI is easy to deploy within an hour, providing robust security against data leaks.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

Due to the data presented to stakeholders, they are able to make informed decisions that impact the day-to-day operations of the client, giving them more insights into what's happening within their organization.

System Integration Specialist at a non-profit with self employed

I have seen a return on investment in that we can manage the Sisense environment with a very small number of users.

For more quotes and insights, download the Sisense report

Project Manager at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.6

Microsoft Power BI's support is praised for resources and community but needs improvement in response time for complex queries.

Sentiment score

7.6

Sisense is praised for exceptional, responsive customer service and skilled technical support, focusing on client success and prompt assistance.

The significant drawback I notice is that Microsoft's size makes it hard to get specific change requests addressed unless they involve a bug.

Corporate HR Financial Controller at STMicroelectronics Holding

We have a partnership with Microsoft, involving multiple weekly calls with dedicated personnel to ensure our satisfaction.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Executive Director, Decision Support at Community Health Network

The support is good because there is also a community available.

MohammedHamad

Business Development Director at a tech consulting company with 201-500 employees

The support was very good.

Business Intelligence & Reporting Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

We typically get responses within 24 hours.

For more quotes and insights, download the Sisense report

Project Manager at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.9

Microsoft Power BI offers scalable solutions for various enterprises, excelling in integration yet facing challenges with large data volumes.

Sentiment score

7.4

Sisense scales well for medium to large businesses, handling over 100 million data loads despite increased querying times.

You expect only a small percentage of users concurrently, but beyond a thousand concurrent users, it becomes difficult to manage.

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

With increasing AI capabilities, architectural developments within Microsoft, and tools like Fabric, I expect Power BI to scale accordingly.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Executive Director, Decision Support at Community Health Network

As more data is processed, performance issues may arise.

Raymond De Rooij

Product Owner at ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

It is scalable to a very large extent and we can integrate any third-party tools.

Project Manager at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Sisense works really well for simple to medium use cases and scales well.

For more quotes and insights, download the Sisense report

System Integration Specialist at a non-profit with self employed

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.4

Microsoft Power BI is stable and reliable, but may face slowdowns and issues with large datasets and updates.

Sentiment score

7.8

Sisense is generally stable and reliable, with occasional data import and dashboard load issues mitigated by caching.

In terms of stability, there's no data loss or leakage, and precautions are well-managed by Microsoft.

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

We typically do not have problems with end-user tools like Excel and Power BI.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Executive Director, Decision Support at Community Health Network

It is very stable for small data, but with big data, there are performance challenges.

MohammedHamad

Business Development Director at a tech consulting company with 201-500 employees

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Sisense report

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Power BI needs better integration, flexible pricing, enhanced features, improved data handling, and seamless compatibility with various platforms.

Sisense users face dataset handling issues and seek improvements in speed, interface, integration, customization, and documentation.

This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today.

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

Access was more logical in how it distinguished between data and its formatting.

Corporate HR Financial Controller at STMicroelectronics Holding

Microsoft updates Power BI monthly based on user community feedback.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Executive Director, Decision Support at Community Health Network

I would like to see an improvement in the live data connection, specifically making the process faster.

Business Intelligence & Reporting Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

It could provide more connectors to integrate with emerging different data sources to exponentially increase the amount of data it can handle.

System Integration Specialist at a non-profit with self employed

I give Sisense a nine because the integration with some third-party tools is good.

For more quotes and insights, download the Sisense report

Project Manager at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Setup Cost

Microsoft Power BI is competitively priced, offering flexible licensing with free to premium options, viewed favorably against competitors.

Sisense offers competitive pricing with extensive features, ideal for mid-size and large organizations, but less affordable for smaller businesses.

I found the setup cost to be expensive

Sebastien TOUSSAINT

Responsable du département Projets et Applications at CHD Vendée

Power BI isn't very cheap, however, it is economical compared to other solutions available.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

The pricing for Microsoft Power BI is low, which is a good selling point.

MohammedHamad

Business Development Director at a tech consulting company with 201-500 employees

There was no significant difference in pricing between Sisense and ThoughtSpot.

Business Intelligence & Reporting Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that pricing is a little bit higher when compared to other applications, but that justifies the use case.

For more quotes and insights, download the Sisense report

Project Manager at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Valuable Features

Microsoft Power BI provides seamless integration, intuitive visualizations, and real-time processing, ideal for organizations' efficient data analysis needs.

Sisense excels with multi-source integration, ease of use, fast deployment, data visualization, and robust real-time analytics support.

In today's data-driven environment, these tools are of substantial value, particularly for large enterprises with numerous processes that require extensive data analysis.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report

Corporate HR Financial Controller at STMicroelectronics Holding

Within the organization, Microsoft Power BI is used to create dashboards and gain insights into data, enhancing data-driven decision-making.

Raymond De Rooij

Product Owner at ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

To reduce the need for highly skilled personnel, we can engage someone who is just familiar and has a basic understanding of Microsoft Power BI, while AI can handle the major tasks through either agent AI or requirement analysis.

Shrikrishna Kashid

Senior Technical Service Engineer Expert at Fujitsu

It offers two ways to access data: by cubing the data or hitting it live.

Business Intelligence & Reporting Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

It allows the user to cater to different use cases and is a very fast aggregator across different data sources, giving you the historical context and helping in operationalizing your data.

System Integration Specialist at a non-profit with self employed

Sisense has positively impacted my organization by drastically reducing the time taken to build the data cube, and we can see real-time analytics.

For more quotes and insights, download the Sisense report

Project Manager at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Power BI

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

1st

Ranking in Reporting

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

327

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Sisense

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

17th

Ranking in Reporting

14th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Analytics (5th), Data Visualization (13th), Embedded BI (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 10.8%, down from 22.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sisense is 1.1%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Power BI	10.8%
Sisense	1.1%
Other	88.1%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

Facilitates seamless data aggregation with some outdated visual elements hindering user appeal

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

Real-time data integration is an area for improvement. Although I've worked on several solutions involving real-time integration, it's not very user-friendly and often lags, especially with over a million data rows. This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today. There are challenges with scalability, requiring multiple pages in dashboards to manage these issues. Visualization could be improved as it appears outdated. Users, especially newcomers, find it unappealing and not user-friendly.

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Has improved project turnaround time with customizable dashboards and faster data delivery to stakeholders

System Integration Specialist at a non-profit with self employed

Sisense has some limitations, especially in rendering tables or graphs. For example, if you want to perform custom sorting or searching based on multiple columns, that becomes quite tricky. Providing more control over how the data is sorted or filtered would be quite useful. Additionally, it could provide more connectors to integrate with emerging different data sources to exponentially increase the amount of data it can handle. Sisense should provide more support for CI/CD, as we found the CI/CD approach quite limited, which is something that can be worked on. Some data scientists suggested more features can be offered by providing different models for data analytics. Sisense can improve by adding more features for handling complex schemas and making the pricing straightforward. The dashboarding features are good enough, but additional features could make it even more attractive. Also, CI/CD support or source control support would be really helpful.

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Comparison Review

it_user79932

Senior Manager - BI Head with 5,001-10,000 employees

Feb 4, 2015

Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho

1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	135
Midsize Enterprise	57
Large Enterprise	165

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	28
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

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...

Is Power BI a complete platform or only a visualization tool?

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 po...

How does Oracle OBIEE compare with Microsoft BI?

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 ...

What needs improvement with Sisense?

What is your primary use case for Sisense?

Sisense was used for one of our clients to enable analytics and dashboards for their applications, which were supposed to get the data from different partners for that specific client. Sisense is w...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sisense?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that pricing is a little bit higher when compared to other applications, but that justifies the use case.

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Product Reports

Microsoft Power BI

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Download Sisense product report

Also Known As

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI

No data available

Overview

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.

Microsoft

Sisense is an end-to-end business analytics software that enables users to easily prepare and analyze large, complex datasets. Sisense’s Single-Stack BI software includes data preparation, data management, analysis, visualization and reporting capabilities.

Sample Customers

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

Ebay, WIX, Wave Accounting, ESPN.com, Magellan Luxury Hotel, Paylogic, Sony, Merck, EDA, One Hour Translation, NASA, Plastic Jungle, Philips, Yahoo

Microsoft Power BI vs. Sisense