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MicroStrategy vs Power BI Embedded 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

MicroStrategy
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
163
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (4th)
Power BI Embedded Analytics
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
28th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
3.8
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (19th)
 

Featured Reviews

Harjinder-Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Engineer at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Reporting on insurance finances has become robust and supports detailed geo-spatial analysis
I am quite satisfied with the reporting part of the product. However, compared to other tools, the modeling part is not as strong. Data modeling is not as easy on MicroStrategy as it is on other platforms. I have worked with the administration tool and the Architect tool for MicroStrategy, but creating a star schema is not as easy compared to other tools. Creating hierarchies and the modeling part is challenging because data modeling is one of the most important aspects of any BI project. If you can create a star schema or Snowflake schema easily, then report building becomes straightforward. Additionally, MicroStrategy's Workstation tool compared to Developer still lacks some functionality that can be done more easily on the Developer side. Workstation is a great tool, but they have not given it full functionality.
VishnuReddy2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consulting Enterprise Architect at R2V2.ai
Embedded analytics has unified diverse data sources and supports real-time operational decisions
I find Power BI Embedded Analytics to be a fairly good reporting tool and dashboarding tool. The color palette and everything about it is good. It would be beneficial to have reporting on top of a data warehouse, a lake house, or directly on an Excel-based solution. If Power BI can come as a full stack similar to SAP Analytics Cloud, it can embed with Azure very quickly. However, the full suite provided by SAP, starting from ERP through reporting, is somewhat loosely coupled, which can be helpful for some clients. Overall, Power BI is a very good tool for reporting. Embedded analytics may lack some features from the modeling perspective, such as dimension modeling, and there are multiple factors that lead us to prefer analytics on top of the warehouse rather than going for embedded analytics.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"For our high volume (both data and users), MicroStrategy continues to be the backbone of these SaaS solutions."
"We've tried other solutions and we're sticking to MicroStrategy."
"Their reports are excellent and thorough."
"If you have data, it is not that complex. It's manageable even for end users."
"I have never had any problems with the stability."
"It is scalable and integration-friendly."
"Semi-automatic support of implementing date dimensions, including delta to prior year implementation."
"The feature I found most valuable is the drop and drag functionality available."
"What I appreciate most about Power BI Embedded Analytics is that it is tightly integrated with Microsoft, which is a strong feature."
 

Cons

"The analytic speed would probably be what I would look for in terms of improvement because we have super huge data, and if I do not build views on top of data, then reports render really slowly."
"Support: The support line used to be top notch, but now it seems as though the people manning that line are not very knowledgeable and can very rarely actually answer the question or solve the problem."
"From a stability standpoint, from MicroStrategy, I would say it's fairly consistent. I would give it a "B" because there are times where we have issues that are just inexplicable; they go away and then we have no resolution, and there are times where our users can't access things and we're not sure why, and that's a problem to me."
"The UI seems klutzy with its manual entry."
"Every software with a flawed design has issues. MicroStrategy is not an exception."
"Scalability issues have been the most significant which we have faced."
"We had some problems with customer service and support."
"But beyond that, with MicroStrategy you're still limited to a single server, and to really crunch through a lot of data you need to parallel, across servers."
"Embedded analytics may lack some features from the modeling perspective, such as dimension modeling, and there are multiple factors that lead us to prefer analytics on top of the warehouse rather than going for embedded analytics."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"All BI software vendors' list prices are high. It's about a price that fits the customer's needs. And I think MicroStrategy has some flexibility in its pricing model where we can easily demonstrate a total cost of ownership comparison against any of the other players."
"For larger businesses, the pricing is logical."
"We have a license with packages, and there are additional costs for extra components."
"We actually researched some of the other solutions. For options, price, and customer acceptance, this product has worked well for us.​"
"The solution’s licensing cost is expensive."
"It would be nice if there was a sticker price that says, "This software costs this amount of money." But I think that's just indicative of all software vendors. A lot of people are in it to make money, commissions, so it's just the nature of the business. But I would like to see more transparency, more equality, on pricing. Some people get better deals than others, I think."
"The pricing list itself is not publicly accessible, so it's a bit opaque."
"MicroStrategy's licensing cost is higher than that of other tools in the market. My company uses the enterprise edition of the product."
Information not available
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Comparison Review

it_user6330 - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
May 2, 2013
MicroStrategy vs. Tableau
After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Retailer
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise101
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MicroStrategy?
My company has many licenses for MicroStrategy because we can build reports in this tool. I don't know what the cost is for these licenses.
What needs improvement with MicroStrategy?
I don't have any issues with MicroStrategy and would not suggest how it can be improved. I would not change anything because it's a great tool to build reports. I would appreciate improvements in M...
What is your primary use case for MicroStrategy?
I use MicroStrategy to build reports for my client, and in IQVIA, we work with pharmaceutical data and I build some reports in MicroStrategy. I built some cards for my client using MicroStrategy. T...
What needs improvement with Power BI Embedded Analytics?
I find Power BI Embedded Analytics to be a fairly good reporting tool and dashboarding tool. The color palette and everything about it is good. It would be beneficial to have reporting on top of a ...
What is your primary use case for Power BI Embedded Analytics?
I use Power BI Embedded Analytics for various purposes including reporting, dashboarding, supply chain management, daily management dashboards, and profitability analytics dashboards for finance. I...
What advice do you have for others considering Power BI Embedded Analytics?
I do use Power BI Embedded Analytics's custom visualization. Power BI Embedded Analytics helps consolidate data from multiple sources in my environment as we generally work with heterogeneous syste...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Allstate Insurance, Barneys New York, Boston Children's Hospital, Buenos Aires Department of the Treasury, Campbell Soup Company, DHL, eBay, eHarmony, Facebook, Four Seasons Hotels Inc., Godiva, Hard Rock International, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pfizer, SECO (Swiss Government Unemployment Agency), Starbucks, Texas A&M University, Thomson Reuters Markets, US House of Representatives, and the US Postal Service.
Information Not Available
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