Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
reviewer1571778 - PeerSpot reviewer
Responsable Industrie 4.0 at a engineering company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Easy to use for a non-IT person and good for data modeling and working with a large amount of data
Pros and Cons
  • "I like data modeling. You can connect with your database, which is quite useful for me. It is a good tool if you have a large amount of data and you want to gather different data and interconnect it. The Power Query functionality is quite an interesting feature. If you have a query in Excel, you can also copy your query and run it in Power BI. Its dashboard is also very nice and not complicated. You don't need to be a developer to be able to use it. I am not an IT guy, and it is quite easy to use for somebody who is not an IT person."
  • "It is not the right tool to do deeper analysis or predictions. When you have some data and you want to do some deep analysis, there is no feature to help you with this."

What is most valuable?

I like data modeling. You can connect with your database, which is quite useful for me. It is a good tool if you have a large amount of data and you want to gather different data and interconnect it.

The Power Query functionality is quite an interesting feature. If you have a query in Excel, you can also copy your query and run it in Power BI. 

Its dashboard is also very nice and not complicated. You don't need to be a developer to be able to use it. I am not an IT guy, and it is quite easy to use for somebody who is not an IT person.

What needs improvement?

It is not the right tool to do deeper analysis or predictions. When you have some data and you want to do some deep analysis, there is no feature to help you with this. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for one year.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1569021 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President & Head at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Good support, seamless integration with Microsoft solutions, and perfect for Microsoft infrastructure
Pros and Cons
  • "It gives you an edge if you are on the Microsoft platform. If you have been using Microsoft products for a long time or if you have the Microsoft infrastructure, this is the right tool for you. It has seamless integration with Microsoft SQL Server and other sources, and you get the best of the three things (SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS) in one suite."
  • "It should be more user-friendly and simple."

What is our primary use case?

My team uses it. They majorly used to work on SSRS and SSIS.

What is most valuable?

It gives you an edge if you are on the Microsoft platform. If you have been using Microsoft products for a long time or if you have the Microsoft infrastructure, this is the right tool for you. It has seamless integration with Microsoft SQL Server and other sources, and you get the best of the three things (SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS) in one suite.

What needs improvement?

It should be more user-friendly and simple.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for almost five years.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support is good.

What other advice do I have?

Companies that are Microsoft shop do prefer using this solution, but non-Microsoft companies or customers generally go for solutions such as Tableau and Domo. Companies that want to go really cheap without any tool costs generally go for an open-source solution. In terms of reporting, data visualization tools such as Tableau and Domo are its competitors. 

The pricing of all these tools will vary depending upon the licenses that you are using and the contract that you have, but from the ease-of-use perspective, Tableau is very easy to work with. A lot of work is being done on Tableau.

I would rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Power BI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Head of Offshore Operations & Solutions at Techcarrot
Real User
Quick reporting, high data conductivity, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "I have found the quick reporting and the conductivity with all the data sources valuable."
  • "I would like to see some AI incorporated into this solution in the future."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for revenue forecasting and other predictive analytic reports based on specific requirements.

What is most valuable?

I have found the quick reporting and the conductivity with all the data sources valuable.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see some AI incorporated into this solution in the future.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of this solution is great.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability at first was not the greatest but it has turned out it can be very good.

How are customer service and technical support?

The support has been good.

How was the initial setup?

I have found the installation straightforward compared to other competitors.

What about the implementation team?

Having this solution on the could cloud allows for quick deployment. We could deliver the solution within four to eight weeks depending on the complexity.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a license for this solution and we purchase them annually.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
reviewer1564200 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Science Leader at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Can be used to plan, communicate, and visualize knowledge extracted from data
Pros and Cons
  • "The best feature of this solution is the way you can plan, communicate, and visualize all the knowledge you extract from the data for the customers. I like the way you can show or visualize the information a client needs to answer a business question."
  • "I think that the solution is harder to use for people who are not experts in data."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for BI analytics. I am a data scientist, so I model data and show the data through dashboards using this tool.

What is most valuable?

I think that the best feature of this solution is the way you can plan, communicate, and visualize all the knowledge you extract from the data for the customers. I like the way you can show or visualize the information a client needs to answer a business question.

What needs improvement?

I think that they can make the solution easy to use for people who are not experts in data because many clients try to use it, but they need to be prepared before using it.

Also, now we have another solution on the market that is more easy to use for those who are not trained in these kinds of tools.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft BI for more than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I think the stability is good. I haven't had any problems yet with Power BI.

How are customer service and technical support?

My experience with technical support has been good.

How was the initial setup?

For me, the initial setup was easy, but I have been working for more than 20 years in data analytics. However, sometimes for end-users it's not as easy as another tool on the market.

A dashboard can be made in 30 minutes or two days, depending on the client, the information, and the quality of the data. I am also a teacher, so for my classes I can create a low plan dashboard in 30 minutes.

What other advice do I have?

I used to recommend Microsoft BI, but the only issue is that you would need to know data analytics before using it. So it is not easy to use if you're not an expert. However, it is a good tool, and I think it's a good solution for many business problems.

Also, I would rate Microsoft BI at eight on a scale from one to ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1556970 - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO Gerente General at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
MSP
Stable, efficient and has a straightforward setup
Pros and Cons
  • "We found the initial setup to be straightforward."
  • "The solution could use a faster speed on certain interactions and a refresh of the dashboards."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution across many company verticals and within every area of the company - including finance, accounting, operations, logistics, HR, et cetera.

How has it helped my organization?

In general, it's helping companies be more efficient, more productive.

What is most valuable?

There's not one specific feature we prefer. I would say it depends on the customer and the processes. What is important to one user may not be as important to another. There's no one feature that excels over another so that we don't see it like second place.

The product offers very good efficiency.

The solution is very stable.

The solution can scale well.

The documentation on offer is good.

We found the initial setup to be straightforward.

What needs improvement?

In Power BI, it would be ideal if we had the capability to import data with forms or similar methods.

It would be nice to have the ability to have a service price to offer customers of Power BI, without having the customer be part of Power BI, I would say. Maybe that could help us consult the suppliers.

The solution could use a faster speed on certain interactions and a refresh of the dashboards. It can sometimes get a bit slow.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been dealing with the solution for about five years or so. It's been a while.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is extremely stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable in terms of performance, but it is slow sometimes.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is easily scaled.

Most of our clients are quite large companies. The companies we deal with have thousands of users, however, only a few really use Power BI. Typically only the supervisors and managers use it, not everyone.

How are customer service and technical support?

We've never used customer support. We haven't needed to reach out to them.

The documentation on offer is okay. It can help you troubleshoot or learn about the product.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We also work with Tableau and and QlikView alongside Microsoft. We do use some others, however, to a much lesser extent.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment takes a good two days to finalize.

In terms of maintenance, we have a support team that covers all of our customers. There isn't really that much that needs to be done. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There are less expensive options on offer.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Tableau is always one of the solutions we would like to evaluate further, and ClickView is another one.

It is my understanding that ClickView is less expensive, whereas Tableau is more expensive. Really, the reason why most companies go through Microsoft is if they have a Microsoft Business Suite or Office and it's all tied in the same ecosystem. That's perhaps the biggest benefit. It's all within the same ecosystem.

What other advice do I have?

We are consultants and implementers so we usually resell software. We do the end-to-end automation for customers as well. In the case of Microsoft BI, our clients are the ones that buy the license and use it. We don't necessarily use it directly.

We're always working off the latest version, as the solution is constantly updated online. 

I would recommend the solution to other companies and users. 

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1551786 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Consultant at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
A stable solution with a great dashboard
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft BI is very easy to set up and use."
  • "Integration with products that are not Microsoft could be more improved."

What is our primary use case?

Around 50% of our customers use this solution. We plan to extend our usage of this solution.

What is most valuable?

Our customers really like the dashboard. They can click on whatever they want for an in-depth view. Microsoft BI is very easy to set up and use. 

What needs improvement?

In general, all the Microsoft programs are integrated quite well, but it could be improved. Also, integration with products that are not Microsoft could be more improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft BI on and off for the past two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

If implemented correctly, Microsoft BI is quite stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's quite scalable. 

How are customer service and technical support?

I have never contacted customer support. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't know much about the licensing because our customers pay for it. 

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give Microsoft BI a rating of nine. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1535370 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Multiple datasets synchronization, visual customization, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "The capability to add custom visuals and create Power BI apps. You can package datasets, synchronization details, and dashboards into a single app."
  • "They asked you to pay if you want to synchronize more than eight times, you would have to go to a Power BI enterprise license, which is much more costly."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is a dashboard. We have the on-premises data gateway, which allows us from the Azure Cloud to get into Power BI. The dataset content comes from the on-premise data warehouses.

We have produced historical analytics and KPIs from ServiceNow for Incident management, performance, SLA coverage, trends, and identifying anomalies. Anomalies are, for example, if a ticket is reopened, that means it was closed incorrectly or the solution was not correct. If a ticket has been an incident or a request has been routed more than two times, that means somewhere in the processes it was not clear and the ticket is going in circles out to the anomalies data.

A lot of analytics based on ServiceNow and Gyra as ITSMs systems. There is also combined analytics between Salesforce and for example, Web analytics, Google Analytics, and so on. Allowing us to see how visits to the website translate into lead opportunities. This is done by combining the two, extracting them and combining the two sources of data, such as Google Analytics and Salesforce.

What is most valuable?

Some of the most valuable features of this solution are the ability to take your data and have the possibility to combine them into datasets and have synchronization. 

You are able to synchronize the data without additional cost eight times a day and you can set when you want to synchronize it. For example, during business hours, we synchronize the data once an hour and during the night I do not synchronize it at all. 

The capability to add custom visuals and create Power BI apps. You can package datasets, synchronization details, and dashboards into a single app.

Microsoft is open to suggestions for improvements in future releases. We requested to allow Python Notebooks to be displayed as visuals on top of the datasets, which now available and was not five versions ago.

What needs improvement?

The possibility to synchronize more often without having to pay more would be great. They asked you to pay if you want to synchronize more than eight times, you would have to go to a Power BI enterprise license, which is much more costly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found the solution to have high performance and to be reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is highly scalable. We have approximately 100 people using the solution in my organization.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is a service, which does not require a traditional installation. However, there is a large configuration portion. It can be very simple to configure minor operations but can become complex if you connect via Power BI, a lot of sources.  For example, from on-premise and from multiple clouds. It allows you to go from very simple, to very complex. It is up to your solution design in the end. 

You can create your first dataset in a matter of hours. This once again is dependent on your configuration.

The solution requires maintenance but not to the Power BI itself. The configuration is deployed on top of Power BI, you can set automatic alerts if, for example, the data is not synchronized or It not available.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of the solution can be expensive if you want to synchronize your data more.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Microsoft BI an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Founder/CEO at Data.tac Nigeria Limited
Real User
Allows us to compile and transform data into visual representations
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft BI allows us to connect to any database or any dataset."
  • "Compared to other applications, like Tableau, Microsoft BI doesn't have as many functions that allow you to do more in-depth analysis and represent the findings."

What is our primary use case?

We get a lot of chunks of data, especially production data and data based on education — performance-related data. We use BI to analyze the data so we can give feedback to our clients. If they're experiencing problems, we help them find trends, etc.

Within our organization, there are roughly six or seven people using this solution.

What is most valuable?

Microsoft BI allows us to connect to any database or any dataset. It automatically renders some of the information which makes things a lot easier for us.

What needs improvement?

Compared to other applications, like Tableau, Microsoft BI doesn't have as many functions that allow you to do a more in-depth analysis and represent the findings. I think they have a standard that they keep to.

As the UI experience is always changing, the interface and security can always be improved. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for roughly four years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is quite good. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We haven't had to expand because usually we just wait for the data. However, we do have plans to expand.

How are customer service and technical support?

On a scale from one to five, I would give their technical support a rating of four. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I believe we pay on a monthly basis. Compared to what's available on the market, I think we pay a fair price.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Microsoft BI to others. On a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of seven.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Power BI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Power BI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.