Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Microsoft Power BI vs Oracle HFM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Power BI
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
321
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (1st), Reporting (1st)
Oracle HFM
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft Power BI is designed for BI (Business Intelligence) Tools and holds a mindshare of 21.1%, down 22.0% compared to last year.
Oracle HFM, on the other hand, focuses on Business Performance Management, holds 8.2% mindshare, down 9.2% since last year.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
Business Performance Management
 

Featured Reviews

Shoury Priyanshu - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates seamless data aggregation with some outdated visual elements hindering user appeal
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 Visualization could be improved as it appears outdated.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.
AhmedHaridy - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers flexibility and ease of configuration
The initial setup of Oracle HFM is generally straightforward and not overly complex. The deployment time for Oracle HFM varies with the resources, but it usually takes around three to eight months, with an average of three to four months. The deployment process for Oracle HFM involves several key steps. It begins with the installation of Oracle software, followed by gathering requirements and relevant documents. These documents help define the report formats and service needs. Next, the team configures the system, starting with the enterprise structure, which needs to align with the ERP system. Data loading and configuration follow, with Oracle HFM typically requiring more resources compared to other systems like SuccessFactors.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best feature for me is Power Query. I know that probably sounds strange, but you can't do too much with visuals and reports if the backend stuff is horribly dirty and just bad. But for me, that is absolutely fantastic. I can load the data and do the transformation and be able to load it in a useful way. There are tons of connections, which is absolutely fantastic as well. It's been fairly easy, and it's intuitive."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"My understanding is that the initial setup is pretty easy."
"I like all the tools in Microsoft BI because they all have different purposes. There are a lot of people using Microsoft BI, and everybody is using it. The users have adapted well to the technology."
"We have found the product to be scalable."
"I like that I can use Power BI to upload data. That is very important for me. The visualization is also convenient and easy to use."
"Easy to use and the visualization is valuable."
"In a world surrounded by data, tools that allow navigation of large data volumes ensure decisions are data-driven."
"It is an expensive product but delivers what it promises, ensuring regulatory compliance, reducing risks associated with spreadsheets, and providing a better return on investment based on usage."
"The tool is stable."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Financial consolidation and reporting tool with good built-in features such as currency exchange and elimination."
"It is a very user-friendly software."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility and ease of configuration in terms of testing and formula creation."
"You can bring in data from any source and from multiple sources, and you can consolidate that data in HFM."
"The most valuable features are around consolidations, eliminations, conversions."
 

Cons

"I have been doing trial and error to figuring out how to do the data analyzing and modeling. There could be some improvement to simplify it."
"here are some limitations with the data models needed to build the report."
"It should have more report outputs. They should expand the report outputs. Its documentation should also be better."
"One of the more difficult things to do is to export some of the data from Power BI to Excel."
"We did have some issues building the Microsoft blog."
"Integrating it with the physics build model or the engineering model should be included."
"The cost of the solution can get high."
"We would like improvements made to the paginated reports so that it produces quality similarly to SSRS."
"Integration is an area where it lacks and can be improved."
"The solution has integration challenges. We need a simple tool that is fool-proof for the data that is submitted not only for consolidation purposes but also for performance management and reporting purposes."
"In terms of improvement, one challenge with Oracle HFM is the need for technical knowledge in writing SQL syntax for custom extensions."
"Improvements can be made by possibly different interfaces to modernize it, more automation in scripting, and better integration with third-party solutions and reporting capabilities."
"The complexity is okay. I don't see it as super complex. The solution could have more functionality to make it a little bit more flexible."
"If there could be data integration between HFM and the accounting software that would be ideal."
"The intercompany reporting function in this tool needs improvement, particularly being able to run reports in batches, rather than one at a time."
"It's a difficult process to try to edit, configure, or change the business rules that exist and work within HFM."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution came free, it was offered by Microsoft with our E3 license."
"Licensing is on a monthly basis, but I am not sure."
"For my primary use case, i.e. teaching students, the free version of Power BI is adequate."
"I used a two months free trial to see if it had what I needed."
"The price of Microsoft BI is reasonable. Other solutions such as SAP Cloud are more expensive."
"I believe that the price is reasonable, at least for an enterprise solution."
"Its cost seems to be unreasonable if you have many users, but for a lesser number of users, it is reasonable. It is $10 per month. Clients easily accept this option, so they must think it is reasonable. It is quite cheap as compared to other tools, such as Tableau. One of the best things about this solution is that it has a trial version."
"The cost of this product is very low, at approximately $8 or $9 per month for a developer."
"Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) uses the named user licensing model. There's different pricing depending on HFM and Essbase planning."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which BI (Business Intelligence) Tools solutions are best for your needs.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
30%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 do you like most about Oracle HFM?
The most valuable feature is the flexibility and ease of configuration in terms of testing and formula creation.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle HFM?
It depends on the discount offered by Oracle. It is an expensive product but delivers what it promises, ensuring regulatory compliance, reducing risks associated with spreadsheets, and providing a ...
What needs improvement with Oracle HFM?
Improvements can be made by possibly different interfaces to modernize it, more automation in scripting, and better integration with third-party solutions and reporting capabilities.
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

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
B&B Hotels, Goldwind, Drake & Scull
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.