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Microsoft Power BI vs Pentaho Business Analytics comparison

Microsoft and Hitachi Vantara are both solutions in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.8, while Hitachi Vantara is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.5. Microsoft holds a 20.4% mindshare in BIT, compared to Hitachi Vantara’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Hitachi Vantara users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Power BI
Read 326 Microsoft Power BI reviews
  • 24,290 Views
  • 14,817 Comparison Views
93% willing to recommend
Pentaho Business Analytics
Read 45 Pentaho Business Analytics reviews
  • 1,443 Views
  • 534 Comparison Views
87% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Pentaho Business Analytics and Microsoft Power BI are two major players in the business analytics solutions category, specializing in data integration, reporting, and visualization. Microsoft Power BI seems to have the upper hand in environments heavily reliant on Microsoft software due to its seamless integration with other Microsoft products and robust support offerings.

Features: Pentaho boasts strong data integration capabilities with Pentaho Data Integration, supporting multiple tools such as JasperReport, BIRT, and Saiku for extensive reporting options. It provides flexibility in dashboard capabilities. Microsoft Power BI offers user-friendly dashboard tools, real-time data access, diverse visualization capabilities, and excels at integrating Microsoft services for enhanced analytics within Microsoft-rich environments.

Room for Improvement: Pentaho needs to improve its user interfaces, as well as add flexibility in reporting and advanced visualizations. The Community Edition limits functionality and scalability compared to the Enterprise Edition. Microsoft Power BI could better support diverse data sources, enhance mobile optimization, improve visualization customization, and simplify its complex licensing structure. Handling large data and delivering better error messages are areas it can work on.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Pentaho is easy to deploy on-premises but often relies on community support, particularly for non-enterprise users, necessitating technical expertise. Microsoft Power BI offers more flexible deployment across cloud environments with better-structured technical support, which users find advantageous for troubleshooting compared to Pentaho.

Pricing and ROI: Pentaho's Community Edition is cost-effective, though its Enterprise Edition, while more expensive, offers comprehensive features. Power BI provides competitive pricing, especially with its subscription model, with the Pro version available for a monthly fee, offering solid ROI through seamless integration and enhanced analytics capabilities.

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To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Power BI vs. Pentaho Business Analytics Report (Updated: August 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI vs. Pentaho Business Analytics
August 2025
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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
7.0
Microsoft Power BI offers high ROI due to cost-effectiveness, ease of use, improved analytics, and rapid cost recovery.
Sentiment score
5.4
Pentaho Business Analytics mixed ROI perceptions highlight efficiency gains but unclear returns compared to competitors like QlikView and Tableau.
In a world surrounded by data, tools that allow navigation of large data volumes ensure decisions are data-driven.
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
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Power BI's support receives mixed reviews; users often rely on community resources for quicker, more effective solutions.
Sentiment score
6.5
Pentaho Business Analytics receives mixed reviews for customer support, with users relying heavily on forums and community 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.
We have a partnership with Microsoft, involving multiple weekly calls with dedicated personnel to ensure our satisfaction.
The support is good because there is also a community available.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report
MO
James Balbach - PeerSpot reviewer
MH
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Microsoft Power BI offers scalability and integration, though optimizing large deployments may require expertise, especially with complex or large data.
Sentiment score
7.0
Pentaho Business Analytics is scalable with good performance but occasionally needs professional help for complex data handling.
You expect only a small percentage of users concurrently, but beyond a thousand concurrent users, it becomes difficult to manage.
With increasing AI capabilities, architectural developments within Microsoft, and tools like Fabric, I expect Power BI to scale accordingly.
As more data is processed, performance issues may arise.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report
Shoury Priyanshu - PeerSpot reviewerJames Balbach - PeerSpot reviewerRaymond De Rooij - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Power BI is stable and reliable, though large datasets may impact performance; frequent updates enhance its reputation.
Sentiment score
6.5
Pentaho Business Analytics is stable but may face Java caching issues, impacting performance and requiring careful cache management.
In terms of stability, there's no data loss or leakage, and precautions are well-managed by Microsoft.
We typically do not have problems with end-user tools like Excel and Power BI.
It is very stable for small data, but with big data, there are performance challenges.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report
It can handle large datasets.
For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report
Shoury Priyanshu - PeerSpot reviewerJames Balbach - PeerSpot reviewer
MH
AR
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Power BI is criticized for high costs, complexity, handling large data, and lacking intuitive interfaces and AI integration.
Pentaho Business Analytics lacks an intuitive interface, robust integration, self-service features, and requires technical expertise, limiting usability.
This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today.
Access was more logical in how it distinguished between data and its formatting.
Microsoft updates Power BI monthly based on user community feedback.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report
Pentaho Business Analytics is hard to learn and not suited for initial users as it requires knowledge of operating systems, Java, and other technical skills.
For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report
Shoury Priyanshu - PeerSpot reviewer
MO
James Balbach - PeerSpot reviewer
AR
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Power BI offers flexible pricing, from free to premium, making it a cost-effective business intelligence tool for enterprises.
Enterprise buyers find the free Pentaho Community Edition cost-effective, while the Enterprise Edition offers value with support and features.
I found the setup cost to be expensive
Power BI isn't very cheap, however, it is economical compared to other solutions available.
The pricing for Microsoft Power BI is low, which is a good selling point.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report
Pentaho Business Analytics is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView and Tableau.
For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report
ST
Shoury Priyanshu - PeerSpot reviewer
MH
AR
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Power BI excels with seamless data integration, customizable dashboards, and user-friendly features, empowering self-service insights across industries.
Pentaho Business Analytics provides easy data integration, customizable dashboards, extensive connectivity, and supports efficient data transformation and delivery.
In today's data-driven environment, these tools are of substantial value, particularly for large enterprises with numerous processes that require extensive data analysis.
Within the organization, Microsoft Power BI is used to create dashboards and gain insights into data, enhancing data-driven decision-making.
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.
For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Power BI report
It is a stable product, and it can handle large datasets.
For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report
MO
Raymond De Rooij - PeerSpot reviewerShrikrishna Kashid - PeerSpot reviewer
AR
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Power BI
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
1st
Ranking in Reporting
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
326
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Pentaho Business Analytics
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
19th
Ranking in Reporting
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Operations Analytics (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 20.4%, down from 21.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pentaho Business Analytics is 0.5%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

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.
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Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Excels in handling unstructured data, helping organizations navigate through different storage systems
Pentaho can help organizations by providing them an insight of their unstructured data using one platform(Pentaho Business Analytics). The features are almost identical to other BIS platforms but to me, customers can benefit as it has a community version with most of its Enterprise features. It also has a free limited-period trial version. The other feature that I would like to share here is, that users have access to a complete spectrum of data from different sources with the system’s adaptive big data layer, which takes the source of the data into account. The software is built on an open architecture and can be integrated with multiple systems. However, Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics has been acquired by HDS which offers an Enterprise edition for organizations that also need to meet product compliance.
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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…
Read full review
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

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...
See all answers
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...
See all answers
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 ...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pentaho Business Analytics?
Pentaho Business Analytics offers the best value for money. While improvements can be made in some areas, particularly with more cloud-based solutions, it is not in their domain because they do not...
See all answers
What needs improvement with Pentaho Business Analytics?
From an integration perspective, Pentaho Business Analytics is not the best tool on the market. There are things done by Apache that are better, though I am not the one implementing them, so this i...
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Pentaho Business Analytics?
We use Pentaho Business Analytics primarily as an ETL process to extract data, transform them, and load them into our warehouse where we store data. I have Pentaho Business Analytics deployed local...
See all answers
 

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Compared 7% of the time
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Compared 7% of the time
KNIME Business Hub vs Microsoft Power BI Logo
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Compared 5% of the time
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Compared 40% of the time
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Compared 15% of the time
Tableau Enterprise vs Pentaho Business Analytics Logo
Tableau Enterprise vs Pentaho Business Analytics
Compared 12% of the time
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Apache Spark vs Pentaho Business Analytics
Compared 8% of the time
Knowage vs Pentaho Business Analytics Logo
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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI
August 2025
Microsoft Power BI reportDownload Microsoft Power BI product report
Buyer's Guide
Pentaho Business Analytics
August 2025
Pentaho Business Analytics reportDownload Pentaho Business Analytics product report
 

Also Known As

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI
Pentaho, Kettle, Hitachi Pentaho Business Analytics
 

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

Pentaho is an open source business intelligence company that provides a wide range of tools to help their customers better manage their businesses. These tools include data integration software, mining tools, dashboard applications, online analytical processing options, and more.

Pentaho has two product categories: There is the standard enterprise version. This is the product that comes directly from Pentaho itself with all of the benefits, features, and programs that come along with a paid application such us analysis services, dashboard design, and interactive reporting.

The alternative is an open source version, which the public is permitted to add to and tweak the product. This solution has its advantages, aside from the fact that it is free, in that there are many more people working on the project to improve its quality and breadth of functionality.

Hitachi Vantara
 

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
Cargo 2000 Lufthansa, Marketo, ModCloth, Cardiac Science, Telefonica, ExactTarget, Active Broadband Networks, and Brussels Airport.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI vs. Pentaho Business Analytics
August 2025
Free Report: Microsoft Power BI vs. Pentaho Business Analytics
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Power BI vs. Pentaho Business Analytics and other solutions. Updated: August 2025.
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