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MicroStrategy vs Sigma comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

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
7.7
MicroStrategy enhances reporting and visualization, boosts efficiency, reduces costs, yet quantifying ROI remains challenging for some users.
Sentiment score
7.1
Sigma reduces manual spreadsheet maintenance, offers instant insights, and boosts efficiency, justifying higher costs over Tableau for users.
It's essential for everything data-related within our company.
CEO at PeerSpot
I have definitely seen a return on investment through time saving because once the dashboards are built, they are built.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
I have seen a return on investment with Sigma; we already said that it saves about a quarter, it gets me to answers about 25% faster.
Customer Success Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.2
MicroStrategy offers generally responsive customer service, though pricing, technical support expertise, and response times, especially after hours, need improvement.
Sentiment score
6.8
Sigma's support is efficient and reliable, offering quick assistance, but improvements in visualization and data modeling are needed.
I would rate the technical support from MicroStrategy as nine out of 10.
Lead Software Engineer at Momentus
As Sigma is a cloud platform, you do not need to do all that maintenance work.
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
MicroStrategy offers effective scalability, though challenges with large data volumes or architecture can require robust infrastructure and support.
Sentiment score
5.2
Sigma's scalability and free unlimited viewer access enhance data sharing, while easy permissions and live data access set it apart.
MicroStrategy's scalability is good, as it has the possibility to read a lot of data and works fine with all the information that we have.
Analyst - IM at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Permissions are easily set, so you only get to see what you need to see and you can share what needs to be shared.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
MicroStrategy is stable and reliable, with most issues resolved through updates or proper setup, garnering positive feedback.
Sentiment score
8.3
Sigma is consistently reliable with stable performance, no reported issues, or disruptions, ensuring error-free projects across teams.
I would rate the stability of MicroStrategy as nine out of 10.
Lead Software Engineer at Momentus
We did not face typical errors during our project with Sigma.
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

MicroStrategy needs enhancements in usability, integration, and support, while addressing costly licensing and slow feature releases.
Sigma's limited visuals, complex workflows, and steep learning curve hinder usability compared to competitors like Power BI.
Organizations that are well-established and have more money can afford MicroStrategy, but startups and mid-level organizations who do not have this much budget have to opt for other cheaper tools.
Lead Software Engineer at Momentus
I would appreciate improvements in MicroStrategy related to integration or sharing features with Power BI.
Analyst - IM at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
MicroStrategy could learn from Power BI's user-friendly interface.
Technical Analyst at Allianz
The main improvement needed is in data modeling capabilities.
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
It is not as intuitive as I was hoping, so once you figure it out and get going, it is easy to use, but I would say at the very beginning, the learning experience is kind of hard.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Sigma lacks a versioning feature to track changes.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

MicroStrategy offers powerful features for large enterprises but is costly, with flexible licensing and competitive long-term ownership costs.
Enterprise buyers find Sigma licensing costly, with high platform and creator fees, leading to a preference for view-only licenses.
The pricing of Sigma is a concern, as it restricts our ability to provide more users with report-creating capabilities due to the high cost of admin or report creator licenses.
CEO at PeerSpot
 

Valuable Features

MicroStrategy provides scalable BI solutions with advanced visualization, mobile integration, robust security, and extensive SDK/API for customization.
Sigma excels with pivot tables, data integration, collaboration, and visual appeal, enhancing teamwork and decision-making efficiency.
It's important because with MicroStrategy we can manage all our cubes and show data to our clients.
Analyst - IM at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
The MicroStrategy interface is not as good as Power BI, especially concerning the user-friendly aspects.
Technical Analyst at Allianz
The most effective features of MicroStrategy for data analysis in my experience are the security, the metadata management, and the administration, along with the options of different workarounds available to accommodate different types of requirements.
Lead Software Engineer at Momentus
Sigma has positively impacted my organization because I think it has been a huge impact, and we use it for all our reporting and our dashboards for tracking.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
The use of Sigma in decision-making, presentations to customers, and reporting to investors showcases its value in handling data-related tasks.
CEO at PeerSpot
Sigma has positively affected my organization by saving us time in accessing information, which ultimately gets us to complete projects faster.
Customer Success Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

MicroStrategy
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
162
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (3rd)
Sigma
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
15th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of MicroStrategy is 1.3%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sigma is 1.6%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
MicroStrategy1.3%
Sigma1.6%
Other97.1%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Lead Software Engineer at Momentus
Provides strong data visualization and security while easing deployment across multiple sectors
The most effective features of MicroStrategy for data analysis in my experience are the security, the metadata management, and the administration, along with the options of different workarounds available to accommodate different types of requirements. MicroStrategy's data visualization capabilities are great, and I would rate them nine out of 10.
reviewer2729628 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Great collaboration with intuitive interface and dynamic visualization capabilities
As we are exploring multiple features in Sigma, I think Sigma can add more functionality. As Power BI gives multiple modeling options in its interface with the query editor, those features can be added in Sigma for intuitiveness or for making the data very clean. From the dashboarding perspective, it performs well. However, from the modeling perspective, it requires more capabilities that can be added in Sigma. The main improvement needed is in data modeling capabilities. If they add those features in the near future, it would be very helpful for us to implement the same or do the data cleansing part in the Sigma tool itself.
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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
13%
Retailer
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise100
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about MicroStrategy?
The stability of the product is good.
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 experience regarding pricing and costs for Sigma?
I do not know much about my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing because I am not heavily involved in that.
What needs improvement with Sigma?
I think Sigma can be improved because, for the last ten months since I first started here, this is my first time ever using it, and I think there is a steep learning curve. It is not as intuitive a...
What is your primary use case for Sigma?
My main use case for Sigma is that there are a bunch of reports, and many of our main reports are built on Sigma. I use it as a dashboard, review the reports, filter through there, and use it to he...
 

Comparisons

 

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.
Snowflake, Fivetran ,Autodesk, Flowspace, Super League Gaming, Zumper, Clover, Volta, Olivela
Find out what your peers are saying about MicroStrategy vs. Sigma and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,954 professionals have used our research since 2012.