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Microsoft Power BI vs ThoughtSpot vs Zoho Analytics 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:
 

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
6.6
Users find ThoughtSpot beneficial for efficiency and decision-making despite challenges in financial tracking and initial investment costs.
Sentiment score
5.1
Zoho Analytics saves time and costs by streamlining data analysis, enhancing decision-making, and eliminating database management needs for $50/month.
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.
Using ThoughtSpot has resulted in significant time savings and improved business sales by allowing us to identify sellers and buyers across regions, facilitating targeted marketing.
Based on our implementation in one project, we are trying to raise more funding to expand its use.
ThoughtSpot saves a significant amount of time compared to other tools and is very user-friendly.
After incorporating Zoho Analytics, now all our decisions come from its reviews.
 

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
6.1
ThoughtSpot support is responsive with mixed feedback; praised for quick responses but criticized for insufficient resources and lengthy processes.
Sentiment score
5.7
Zoho Analytics' customer service is responsive and helpful, though some users face delays and issues with specialized support.
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.
I stopped opening tickets due to insufficient and untimely responses.
ThoughtSpot provides a dedicated customer success person and the ability to submit tickets online, with a response time of no more than a day.
The knowledge base for ThoughtSpot is less robust compared to others.
The support team doesn't have full awareness of the system capabilities.
Zoho support provides assistance through live chat to guide us.
If you need help with any issue you face, you can directly call them.
 

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
6.0
ThoughtSpot excels in scalability for large datasets, despite user management challenges, with strong Snowflake integration enhancing automatic scaling.
Sentiment score
6.1
Zoho Analytics efficiently manages large data volumes, serving diverse users and organizations, though license upgrades may be necessary.
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.
Tableau, Power BI, or Looker have separate tools for preparation, customization, and storytelling.
The platform does not have technical problems with scaling data or connections.
As our data has grown, I have validated huge datasets and complex models without significant issues.
Zoho Analytics can easily adapt to our needs when they grow, and you don't need much knowledge to adapt it; even basic Excel knowledge is sufficient.
You can utilize URL features to redirect users to their records in Zoho CRM or Zoho Desk with just a click.
 

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
6.0
ThoughtSpot is reliable with high stability, though some users report performance challenges and increased costs from integration limitations.
Sentiment score
7.2
Zoho Analytics is praised for stability, quick bug fixes, and excellent performance, with minimal downtime and few crashes.
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.
I use it primarily for large datasets, and it performs faster than regular data visualization tools such as Power BI, which has limits on dataset size.
The upgrades are smooth with no downtime, which is super important.
The responsiveness of accessing live data is exceptional and faster than most other BI tools.
The stability and reliability of Zoho Analytics have been good over time.
Zoho Analytics is very stable.
Regarding stability, it's actually working correctly.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Power BI is criticized for high costs, complexity, handling large data, and lacking intuitive interfaces and AI integration.
ThoughtSpot needs better visualization, dashboard customization, data integration, and performance features to compete effectively with Power BI.
Zoho Analytics faces challenges with interface, limited tools, support, performance, pricing, and lacks advanced graphics and intuitive navigation.
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.
Currently, it is not as customizable as the options available on Power BI or Tableau.
Handling governance when there are many models and dashboards is complex.
Enhancing integration capabilities with other tools like DBT would also be beneficial as it would make our lives easier.
The collaborative features of Zoho Analytics have faced one issue: they have tried to reduce the sync time with most Zoho applications, but even with CRM, the sync still takes one hour.
Having to pay for 25 users when only 11 are needed creates an issue with the pricing structure.
In my opinion, the API feature from Zoho Analytics needs significant improvement, as it's quite hard to connect with Google Sheets or other websites.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Power BI offers flexible pricing, from free to premium, making it a cost-effective business intelligence tool for enterprises.
ThoughtSpot offers competitive pricing, often cheaper than Tableau and more than Power BI, with flexible, negotiable billing options.
Zoho Analytics offers flexible, competitive pricing with monthly fees, appreciated for cost-effectiveness, especially with Zoho One multiple tool use.
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.
HubSpot is expensive.
ThoughtSpot's pricing is reasonable and in line with other BI tools.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Power BI excels with seamless data integration, customizable dashboards, and user-friendly features, empowering self-service insights across industries.
ThoughtSpot offers intuitive search, fast analytics, AI insights, and user-friendly interfaces for efficient, self-service data exploration.
Zoho Analytics provides robust features like intuitive reports, AI insights, and seamless integration for efficient data visualization and analysis.
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.
Its compatibility with most databases, including the latest from FlexMovely and Redshift, allows users to create joins and worksheets easily.
This alerting feature is very beneficial for our company at the moment, and we use it extensively.
When I upload a data dump, AI analytics suggest possible data visualizations and insights, which I can pin to dashboards or live boards for modification.
These multiple dashboards are available to view in a single place, which is very beneficial.
In the pivot table and scheduler table, if we want data in one report, we can use an SQL query and get data from different modules.
The benefits I've seen from using Zoho Analytics include saving time; this is the most important benefit for me.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 14.5%, down from 21.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ThoughtSpot is 1.5%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho Analytics is 0.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Power BI14.5%
ThoughtSpot1.5%
Zoho Analytics0.8%
Other83.2%
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.
Sushma Polavarapu - PeerSpot reviewer
Creates user-friendly analysis environments for large datasets
The tool is user-friendly for the end users. It is primarily a search-based tool. Users do not need a technical background to work directly on the dataset. Its compatibility with most databases, including the latest from FlexMovely and Redshift, allows users to create joins and worksheets easily. ThoughtSpot is fast, even with one to ten terabytes of data.
Nadeem Asghar - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience with advanced analytics and visualization features boosts decision making
I think the team would know how to predict what needs to be improved. Every business has its own predictions, so providing specific fields based on which to calculate predictions would be helpful. The analytics plans are very complex because they depend on the users, while other Zoho plans operate on a per-user basis. The analytics plan has different features for one user, 10 users, and 25 users. Having to pay for 25 users when only 11 are needed creates an issue with the pricing structure.
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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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
11%
Insurance Company
9%
Non Profit
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business134
Midsize Enterprise57
Large Enterprise165
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
 

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 wou...
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 info...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ThoughtSpot?
The pricing is on the higher end but reasonable for what ThoughtSpot offers.
What needs improvement with ThoughtSpot?
I do not think there is anything that needs improvement at the moment. It is being improved continuously. They are co...
What is your primary use case for ThoughtSpot?
Clients use ThoughtSpot because of its search facility. It is easy for searching and does not require analysts to pro...
What do you like most about Zoho Analytics?
Zoho Analytics's most valuable feature is the ability to provide excellent analytics through a single platform.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoho Analytics?
I rate the tool's pricing seven out of ten. The licensing costs are yearly.
What needs improvement with Zoho Analytics?
I think the team would know how to predict what needs to be improved. Every business has its own predictions, so prov...
 

Also Known As

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI
No data available
Zoho Reports
 

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
Primary Capital Mortgage, Sterling Backcheck, RichRelevance, Rambus, Batteries Plus Bulbs
Suzuki, American Pacific Mortgage, KPMG, Air Canada, University of Michigan, BricozOr, WorldWide Express, The University of Melbourne, Novartis, SAIC
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and others in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools. Updated: August 2025.
867,497 professionals have used our research since 2012.