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Microsoft Power BI Reviews

4.6 (1,738) Write a Review!

About Microsoft Power BI

Power BI is a unified, scalable platform for self-service and enterprise business intelligence (BI).

Learn more about Microsoft Power BI

Pros:

The biggest positive that Power BI has going for it is that it was included as part of my organization's O365 subscription.

Cons:

The UI is clunky, the data model is not very intuitive to set up, performance is slow, especially compared to other tools. No build in box and whisker plots was a huge downside too.

Microsoft Power BI ratings

Average score

Ease of Use
4.1
Customer Service Software
4.1
Features
4.5
Value for Money
4.4

Likelihood to recommend

8.6/10

Microsoft Power BI has an overall rating of 4.6 out 5 stars based on 1,738 user reviews on Capterra.

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Filter reviews (1,738)

Максим
Максим
Analyst in Norway
Verified LinkedIn User
Utilities, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Good and improving

4.0 6 months ago

Comments: As an analyst, I appreciate the versatility of Power BI, but feel that more improvement for use cases needed

Pros:

It is a combination of all you need: visuals, analysis, data cleansing in one place, which has lots of native connectors.

Cons:

Power BI is not the most efficient tool in terms of operatinal memory, and it lacks some features which you would expect it to have.

Robert
Reporting Specialist in US
Mental Health Care, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Microsoft Power BI is a powerful BI tool

5.0 last month New

Comments: Overall, my company really loves the reports I've been able to generate for them. I've really enjoyed learning and expanding my capabilities. It is complex enough to keep me learning for years.

Pros:

Power BI Desktop is free to start with, so you can build reports right away. You can pull data from a nearly unlimited list of sources including straight off of websites. The tool has a lot of power, which can be a pro or a con. Tool development is ongoing.

Cons:

The tool is complex. The different functionality at the different Pro and Premier levels can be tricky as well as using the On Premises Gateway.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Creating and Using PowerBI Reports Daily

3.0 5 months ago

Pros:

It is easy to link with existing datasets in the Microsoft ecosystem and external databases such as SQL servers. Reports can be customized to display information however you want to.

Cons:

it can be very confusing and difficult to have everything displayed correctly. there are bugs that can cause the dataset tables to not show information accurately

Cody
VP Product and Technology in US
Real Estate, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Robust tool, with a steep learning curve

4.0 4 months ago

Comments: There is a pretty steep learning curve to set up a robust dashboard, but if you stick with it the insights can be very helpful. For the price, it has been worth the effort and our team gets regular use and value from the many dashboard pages we have in place.

Pros:

With the right data backing it, the dashboards can be adjusted and augmented quickly, sometimes right in the browser, to glean new insights.

Cons:

When manipulating data, the language and structures needed are clunky and proprietary. For example, to display a date in a new format conditionally, a new measure needs to be built, written with functions and syntax specific to Power Bi.

Mariia
Software Engineer in Canada
Computer Software, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Best data analytics and visualization platform

5.0 last month New

Pros:

Data processing speed and rich functionality covering any possible reporting request. Desktop version is free.

Cons:

Since Power BI is a part of Microsoft suite it might be a bit hard to integrate Power BI with different platform.

Issac
Senior Engineer in India
Automotive, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

A professional business intelligence tool

4.0 last month New

Comments: I use it primarily for developing dasboards and the whole experience is great from creating the dashboard to publishing it in workspaces everything is seamless

Pros:

Very easy to connect to a wide variety of datasources such as sharepoint List,SQL Databses and excel files . The data transform option supports a wide variety of data manipulation and data cleaning options which makes data modelling very easy It supports a lot of inbuilt visualization graphs and figures with an easy drag and drop functionality.

Cons:

Only the data loading while working on large datasets takes a lot of time if that can be improved a really great tool

Warren
CFO in Canada
Apparel & Fashion, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Benefits of Microsoft Power BI

5.0 last month New

Comments: Overall very pleased with this product. It allows us to customize our own reports and dashboards without the need for costly ERP consultants.

Pros:

The ability to create impressive looking dashboards and reports on our own.

Cons:

Somewhat complicated to attach it to a database.

Sarin
Information Service in India
Information Services, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

MS Power BI streamlined my data analysis!

5.0 2 months ago

Comments: Easily connecting data sources is great, and recent improvements have improved visualization
choices.

Pros:

I've used various data tools, but Power BI is easier.

Cons:

The program might be slow when handling large datasets, which is aggravating.

Tanner
Integrity Engineer in US
Oil & Energy, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Power BI is Great

5.0 2 months ago

Comments: I use this product daily to get information for my work and it is a lifesaver.

Pros:

I typically only use it for information purposes, but the amount of information stored within this product is amazing.

Cons:

Sometimes it won't load data correctly if you have it open for a long period of time and you have to refresh your screen.

Wasif
Training Analyst in US
Medical Devices, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Best for organizations that don't mind spending on pro license

5.0 last month New

Pros:

Very advanced features. Does everything Tableau does and more.

Cons:

DAX. Did not need a custom language just for PBI.

Galaad
Supply Chain Analyst in France
Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Ease of use and great on-boarding experience

5.0 11 months ago

Comments: I am a supply chain analyst. I use the product daily for reporting and ad-hoc analysis. I often confronted to massive data base and multiple data source. PBI empowers me to build complex data model and produce sharps dashboard for others user in my organisation.

Pros:

I really like the profusion of learning media for PBI (webinar, forum, microsoft learning experience and LinkedIn Learning). You can learn at your pace. Quickstarting is easy. Becoming proficient require a bit more patience but is relatively easy for people using other microsoft tools (Excel). I like that the product is deployed in many company. The competencies are transferable. I like the well defined working environnement (Query -> BI -> Viz) and the provided editor that are really enabling for people like me that are not developper by trade. Automation of import, analysis and viz is also a real game changer for people that were dependant on Excel before.

Cons:

I dislike the lack of userfriendly info for more complex developpement. I feel not guided enough regarding more technical information regarding the product.

Manmadharaj
Assistant Manager in India
Pharmaceuticals, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

MSBI is master of businiess intelligence

5.0 7 months ago

Comments: There is plenty of documentation available online from creating visuals to advance functions using measures and It is easy enough for a non-developer to use and turn a mess of data into an intelligent and understandable story.

Pros:

Microsoft Power BI is a wonderful cloud-based business intelligence tool that helps us to visualize data from multiple sources. As per my view, it turns ugly numbers into amazing reports and visualizations and it doesn't require any prior high programming or technical knowledge.

Cons:

We may experience some performance degrade when we work are working with big dataset. No. of data refresh is limited per day!

Tair
Associate Director in Australia
Accounting Software, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Power BI usage report

5.0 6 months ago

Comments: Absolutely loved it and continue to use in the future.

Pros:

Microsoft Power BI became the leader of data visualisation and exploration with wide range of functionality

Cons:

Some "simple" functionality is not yet implemented in Power BI comparing to other tools (e.g. sorting by specific measures)

Nida
Senior Data Engineer in India
Verified LinkedIn User
Oil & Energy, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Transforming unprocessed data into insightful visuals using power BI

5.0 last year

Comments: It has been a very smooth transition from old reporting solutions which were limited to tabular representation to Power BI with it's wide range of visuals which can be transformed and adapted as per the end user need

Pros:

Easy learning curve, user friendly interface, cross platform integration and compatibility, ability to setup custom logics.

Cons:

DAX has a steep learning curve and power can be optimised to handle large volumes of data .

Xiang
Director in US
Computer Software, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Microsoft Power BI provides the interactive visualizations and reports which helps the administration to make a better decision.

5.0 11 months ago

Comments: We use Power BI as an excellent tool to analyze the data and create visualization/reports. It helps the business decisions.

Pros:

Ease to creating visualizations; excellent integration with other Microsoft applications and Google sheets. Support document is effective and easy to get.

Cons:

The use of AI in the visualizations and reports need to be improved.

Rhea
Internal Sales Executive in UK
Utilities, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Microsoft Power BI is an impactful product for analyzing business performance.

5.0 4 months ago

Comments: Our over experience with Microsoft Power BI has been so efficient. We have experienced Microsoft Power BI transform our business by giving us access to the most critical insights we need when making decisions.

Pros:

Microsoft Power BI has top-notch tools for analyzing business data which help gain deep insights about our business performance. It has simple visualization boards making it easy to visualize insights in a more easier to understand way. Microsoft Power BI allows customization which allows us to use it to analyze different types of data.

Cons:

Nothing has ever gone wrong with Microsoft Power BI so no cons to comment on.

Victor
Pharmacy Manager in US
Pharmaceuticals, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Power BI used at a pharmacy

4.0 6 months ago

Comments: It is simple to use at the pharmacy and gives us a clear picture of how the store is doing. Since we are only looking at data, it is very practical.

Pros:

The ease of use allows for daily access of the stores information. It give us the opportunity to compare numbers to the previous year and see any trends

Cons:

The charts created can be easier to read. The x and y axis aren’t usually labeled so if we are looking at the chart without knowing what info it is charting it can be confusing

Bodamer
Foreign Language and Localization Administrator in Germany
Translation & Localization, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Microsoft Power BI is a reliable source of truth. It provides very accurate insights about our business.

5.0 5 months ago

Comments: It has been a very solid working experience with Microsoft Power BI. It has proved to us time abd again to be a very reliable source of truth by providing us with accurate insights that help us understand our business performance. It also guide us to take actions to optimize our business operations.

Pros:

Microsoft Power BI has very powerful data analysis tools which allows us to get very accurate and in-detail insights about our business performance. The reporting tool works so excellently and is very easy to use. It provides all our data and information with optimum security which helps us avoid loosing sensitive information.

Cons:

No dislikes about Microsoft Power BI. There is nothing challenging about it to comment about.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Banking, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

My Review of Microsoft Power BI

5.0 8 months ago

Pros:

I like the fact that it gives me more features to be more creative in my reports and data analysis compared to other software.

Cons:

I do not dislike anything about this software

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Efficient but difficult to set-up

4.0 8 months ago

Comments: Overall, this tool is really great. It is super effective if it is used and set-up properly. If the right people operate the dashboards and pull the data in, it can be used very well and safe a project a lot of time for reporting and communication internally.

Pros:

I like the ability to pull data from multiple sources.

Cons:

It is truly difficult to set it up. It is not intuitive.

Refaei
it manager in Saudi Arabia
E-Learning, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Power BI boasts an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise.

5.0 11 months ago

Pros:

User-Friendly Interface , Data Import and Integration

Cons:

Power BI excels in Key Performance Indicator (KPI) monitoring

Graeme
Head of Operations in UK
Marketing & Advertising, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Use Power BI to transform your complex data into a clear dashboard

4.0 5 months ago

Comments: My overall experience with Power BI is very positive. Before I used it it was extremely hard to see that data I needed in such a clear way. It's generally very easy to use.

Pros:

It is a clear way of visualizing complicated and complex data.

Cons:

It can be a little clunky at times when loading the data into the system.

Eric
Eric
Data Analyst in Kenya
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Microsoft powerbi review

5.0 last year

Comments: I love using Powerbi in my day-to-day analysis, I find it easy to use and would highly recommend it to other users.

Pros:

PowerBI integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products which are widely used such as Microsoft Excel and also is very user-friendly which is a huge plus.

Cons:

Powerbi is great but I think the visuals could look a little better.

Joshua
Senior SAP Business One Consultant in Kenya
Computer Software, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Microsoft Power B1 is a Useful Tool in this data driven Digital World of Today

5.0 last year

Comments: Overall, this is a great product for data visualization.

Pros:

- Power B1 allows you to pull data from a variety of sources for your analysis. Examples of this sources are Microsoft SQL, Excel, Oracle Database, HANA database, MYSQL database, etc - In my career as a SAP Consultant, Power B1 comes in very handy especially for clients we implement SAP Business one with the SQL Database option. Power B1 helps the decision makers of a company to view their data in easy data visualization objects like KPI's and Dashboards.- The application has a general user friendly interface and many users can easily interact with it.- The fact that it easily integrates with other Microsoft Products like Azure and QL server is a huge plus. - It also offers data cleaning functionalities, helping you to to work with cleaner data for more accurate insights.- You can use Power B1 both on cloud and on premise as per your preference.

Cons:

- There is a little bit of a learning curve involved if you want to get comfortable in deploying more complex features of Power B1 and making maximum use of it.- The license cost of Power B1 may not be viable to everyone who might want to use it.- When dealing with very huge data sets, Power B1 may not be the best option. You might need other more powerful data visualization tools like HANA database.

Kyle
IT Director in US
Warehousing, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Say Bye to spreadsheets say hello to Power BI

5.0 4 months ago

Comments: Awesome for compiling data in one place and filtering it out according to your needs.

Pros:

You can combine data from different data sources, and create beautiful visual charts of all the data, and it's interactive for the end user to click and narrow down which data type they're specifically looking for.

Cons:

There's a pretty big learning curve, but once you get the basics down, the rest will start to make sense.