17 years helping New Zealand businesses
choose better software

Microsoft Power BI Reviews

4.6 (1,721) 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
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 1,721 user reviews on Capterra.

Have you used Microsoft Power BI before?

Share your experiences with other software buyers.

Filter reviews (1,721)

Michael
Michael
Solutions Architect in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Tobacco, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Ugly numbers to pretty pictures

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: Management loves it, I love developing with it but getting certain others to adopt it can be a bit of a challenge.

Pros:

As the title says, it turns ugly numbers into pretty pictures. It is easy enough for a non-developer to use and turn a mess of data into an intelligent and understandable story.

Cons:

It literally changes every three months. You just get used to it and with the next update a lot has changed. I don't really see this as a con though because this is more like a Christmas present waiting to see what they will have made better this go around.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Microsoft Power BI: Your Data's Storyteller

5.0 3 months ago

Comments: I have been using Bower BI with more than four years now and It is one of the best data visualisation tool that I have came across. You can do all kind of data analysis in Power BI like Like data presentation, analysis, forecast etc. I find it easy to learn and very interactive for a user.

Pros:

1. User-friendly interface: Its intuitive design makes it accessible to users with varying technical expertise. 2. Interactive visualizations: Creates engaging and interactive dashboards and reports. 3. Customizable reports: Enables users to tailor reports to their specific needs.

Cons:

Dependency on Microsoft ecosystem: Relies heavily on Microsoft products and services.

Imi
Imi
CIO in Grenada
Verified LinkedIn User
Government Administration, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Excellent tool for small offices and datasets but can lead to frustration overtime

3.0 4 years ago

Comments: I am generally satisficed with the product, price and ease of learning with lots of YouTube video and the Power BI community, there is always something new to learn and implemented to improve or help meet your reporting requirements.

Pros:

Easy to get started with Power BI if you are on the Microsoft 365 platform. Power Bi provides an easy to connect and interactive method for pulling data in real time from data collection system such as the SharePoint online, MS Excel and others. The ease of connecting with SharePoint is the strong point for my review. Having the Power Bi connected to the SharePoint system provides the opportunity to have real time dashboards and dynamic reports for any small organization that is wishing to provide real or near to real-time reporting without the heavy upfront implementation cost for software, training and human resource. Microsoft has indeed liberated the Dynamic Reporting with Power BI, and has also allowed for some very elegant web reporting to be created by non technical users. My simple work flow , SharePoint for data collection, PowerBi for reporting.

Cons:

The main issues are around the changes that are made by Microsoft, this will always be a learning curve for the users. The lack of consistency on certain actions will be the biggest issue.

Kelly
Account Director in US
Information Technology & Services, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

User of Power BI

4.0 2 months ago

Comments: Overall it has been positive and have seen small changes that make it more user friendly

Pros:

Integrates with Microsoft products very well

Cons:

Little challenging to find certain data when it's covered under other data (lots of clicking)

Fran
Technologies Administrator in UK
Retail, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Data visualisation with strong Microsoft office integration

4.0 2 months ago New

Pros:

A good way to present data in a visual form with lots of customization and integration with SQL and other Microsoft products

Cons:

The suite can struggle with large data sets leading to long loading times.

Bryan
Mgr in US
Hospital & Health Care, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Power BI - Reporting

5.0 last month New

Pros:

It is a great tool to use for reporting across multiple locations

Cons:

Performance Power BI can be slow when processing large datasets, and it may crash while doing so.

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 4 weeks ago New

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.

Prasanna
Sr. Auditor in US
Construction, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Great Tool for Reporting

5.0 2 weeks ago New

Pros:

The ease and flexibility in creating various dashboards. The multifunctional on creating the impact or show the numbers in the world map for a global company is absolutely great.

Cons:

I think there can be some more in-built analytical tools that would use the uploaded table to run some analytics for us. Although I have heard co-pilot is a new tool. I have not had a chance to use it yet.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Automotive, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Powerful and flexible

4.0 3 weeks ago New

Comments: Overall, it’s a powerful and flexible tool for data visualization and analysis, particularly favored for its integration with other Microsoft products.

Pros:

Power BI has a user-friendly interface and a wide range of data connectivity options, making it easy to create insightful visualizations.

Cons:

It has a steep learning curve for advanced features and can experience performance issues with larger datasets.

Analia
Ssr. QA Tester in Argentina
Insurance, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Good tool to create reports and dashboards

5.0 3 weeks ago New

Comments: Good paid tool to create reports and dashboards

Pros:

It provides great capabilities to build reports and dashboards, also allowing to integrate and incorporate own developed visuals

Cons:

Users need to have paid version to be able to see your dashboards / graphs

Jerry
IT System Specialist in US
Nonprofit Organisation Management, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Very robust, though a little overwhelming

4.0 5 years ago

Comments: We're moving from having staff creating Excel reports or Access database reports to having Power BI do it all for us. We spend some time cleaning up the user's data, streamlining how they enter it (and where - we still use Access, some SQL, some Sharepoint), and Power BI does the rest after that. Our staff loves that they no longer have to manually create reports, and they love the way Power BI looks for them. We are enjoying it overall.

Pros:

The dashboard creation is amazing. Give it a data source, design how you want to see your data, and it shows it to you. I enjoy creating dashboards for our different departments. And once our staff sees the reports and dashboards they get from this, vs how they used to get it in an Excel spreadsheet or an Access Report, they are hooked.

Cons:

Overwhelming in the back end. Sometimes you just cannot get the data to display the way you want. There are so many options, features, methods. It gets overwhelming. My biggest gripe is that the back end is not as user friendly as other programs. And, comparing it to something that one of my users would create in Excel, it's difficult for me to get the exact data reported that they want. I have to figure out how to display it, and because the Power Bi is just so robust, it's a little overwhelming in that respect.

Virgil
Research and Evaluation Manager and Advisor in Hong Kong
Nonprofit Organisation Management, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Moderate cost for a moderate experience for medium sized enterprises

4.0 4 years ago

Comments: So so. The dashboards and reports are limited in visual design, so they all look the same and quite ugly. Because of the difficulty sharing reports/dashboards to external individuals and the lack of a Google sheets connector I couldn't use PowerBI for most of the solutions we need, but will use it for some since it integrates well with the rest of the MS office ecosystem.

Pros:

The thing that most sets PowerBI apart from comparable business intelligence solutions is the lower cost of multi-user deployment within an organization. PowerBI is part of a Microsoft Office 365 subscription package for businesses and you only need to pay an additional 15USD/month for each additional admin/analyst account you add. This is a stark contrast to similar solutions like Tableau, which charge a monthly fee for each user and has a minimum user count that equates to roughly a 15,000USD/year license cost as minimum. If your organisation is already invested in the Microsoft Office ecosystem this could be the ideal solution for you if you need to keep costs down.

Cons:

It can't connect to google sheets and every other business intelligence platform can. This can be really limiting if your business uses a variety of SaaS solutions since many offer the simplest data integration options via Google sheets. PowerBI also has real issues with external sharing of dashboards/reports. You only have the option of publishing internally (visible to your organization's users) or publishing publically (indexed in search engines). There is no option of sharing dashboards and reports to individuals outside your organization via a login, like what is done with Google Data Studio. PowerBI also has a steep learning curve and uses 3 coding languages (DAX, M, and SQL). It's more complicated than it needs to be but it's relational database modeling has proven a good one and competitors have copied PowerBI's approach in recent years (Tableau).

Nikhil
Business Analyst in US
Education Management, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Power BI - A platform above the rest

4.0 2 years ago

Pros:

Power BI is a valuable tool for data modeling in addition to being a visualization tool. Here, two or more tables must be joined while taking into account their cardinality. Power Bi gives us the ability to link a variety of sources, including live data warehouses and massive data lakes, to import our data. It also provides us with the option to export the dashboards through PowerPoint. Ad hoc reporting within the user hierarchy is essential to a business analyst's role in order to deliver findings to C-suite executives and decision-makers. The platform speeds up execution compared to other visualization tools because of how simple it is to use. The way everything is set out in Power BI makes it easy for the users to understand which data type fits which visualization and how it will affect the way it is perceived. The formatting available is also simple to understand and locate. KPI monitoring is extremely important and directly proportional to the setup in Power BI. Compared to Tableau I feel Power BI has a big edge.

Cons:

I have switched to this product from another one and prefer this. I believe this is the best visualization tool in the market right now.

Md. Tanvir Bin
IT officer in US
Education Management, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: Free Trial
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Powerful analytics with an intuitive user interface (UI) and outstanding data visualization features

5.0 12 months ago

Comments: In one convenient spot, Power BI gives me excellent access to all the data sources and data sets I generate when creating the reports. I have various devices at my disposal to access the data at any time, anyplace. By using easy clicks, users may highlight features, apply filters, and interact with the dashboards.

Pros:

Power BI enables users to work together and share dashboards and data with other people. Reports and dashboards can be shared by email, social media, and web publishing, among other methods available to users. To ensure that sensitive data is protected, Power BI contains robust security features. In addition to controlling access to data, reports, and dashboards, users can create rules for preventing data loss.

Cons:

Data that Power BI can ingest is limited in size. The free version must be extended to the paid version if I want to import data bigger than 2GB. It can also crash while processing huge datasets with complicated measurements, which makes using Power BI stressful at times.

Joe
IT Manager in Canada
Warehousing, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Get Awesome Looking Dashboards and reports.

5.0 11 months ago

Comments: Overall its a great tool to use in your arsenal if you great at analytics and want to impress with dashboards and visuals. Takes some time to getting used to, but there's tons of community support online.

Pros:

After using many other reporting tools, Power BI stands because it does a fantastic job of having powerful analytics from multiple data sources displayed using beautiful data visualization components.

Cons:

Great for more simple reports and data visualization but not designed for heavy data processing (dependent on data source). Also huge learning curve to make things look the way you want them to look.

MUHAMMAD
Database Administrator/ Data Analysit in Pakistan
Automotive, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Best Business Intelligence Tool Ever!

5.0 5 years ago

Comments: Great experience and great tool to experience has a very easy interface and can make dashboards easily.

Pros:

Microsoft PowerBI is the most easy tool to use, an non IT personnel and not a well trained personnel can easily use this tool. This tool has an interactive Graphical user interface and if you have any problem you can just google it.

Cons:

The frequent update sometimes will be much tricky to handle as if you have the newest version of the desktop and the old version of desktop so it may be tricky and the file may not upload to the server.

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

Alternatives Considered:

Best Self Service BI Solution to start with

4.0 3 years ago

Comments: Dashboard, Reports, Data extraction/Transformations from websites, PDF's and other sources, transformations and also as an alternative to vba)

Pros:

Capability to Extract, Transform data at the desktop level in a single package. (Others solutions like have Data transformation feature inbuilt)

Cons:

On publishing your report online, it gets slightly cumbersome to configure through (like configuring gateways for auto-refresh)

Merve
Business analyst in Türkiye
Education Management, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Enhancing University IT Systems with Microsoft Power BI

5.0 last year

Comments: Microsoft Power BI is widely regarded as a powerful and versatile tool for data visualization and business intelligence. Its capabilities in transforming complex datasets into interactive visualizations and reports are highly appreciated by professionals across various industries.

Pros:

Power BI allows for easy sharing of reports and dashboards with colleagues and stakeholders. This promotes collaboration, as everyone can access and interact with the same data. The interactive features of Power BI dashboards enable users to drill down into data, apply filters, and explore different aspects of the dataset. This interactivity enhances data exploration and analysis.

Cons:

Data Refresh Limitations, Limited Offline Access, Advanced Analytics Requires Expertise. Power BI heavily relies on online connectivity for data retrieval and sharing. Offline access to reports and dashboards is somewhat limited, which can be a concern in certain scenarios.

rajiv
Senior Manager Finance
Public Relations & Communications, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Power BI is one of the most user friendly BI software for adding visual representation and analytics to your existing reports

5.0 7 years ago

Comments: Overall good software for beginners and can be explored to get the best efficiency from the software

Pros:

below are a few pros • Sharing dashboard in a group a. Sharing can be done once you have the Pro version of Power BI. Dashboard can be shared with the respective department members or your own team members. b. Since you have prepared the dashboard you will be the owner and you can decide whether you want to give the other members only viewing rights or editing rights as well. c. With this feature reports will always be on the cloud server and can be viewed as and when required d. Reports can be downloaded as and when required. • Viewing dashboard in Mobile/ tab and preparing phone layout a. Once a dashboard has been prepared and saved, the same can be accessed on Power BI App with the same login. b. Since the screen is small compared to laptop, all the dashboard elements can be redesigned to suit the phone screen. c. The other features remain the same and the dashboard is interactive on the phone as well however it cannot be edited on phone. • Export dashboard to PowerPoint, PDF a. This is one of the most important features of Power BI. Reports or dashboards prepared can be exported on PowerPoint or PDF with a click of a button. b. Hence Management reports and department reports can be automated on Power BI and once you refresh the data, the report will be ready to share. c. One problem is that few images which are not compatible with PowerPoint don’t show post downloading. • Narratives for dashboard a. This is one of the recent features offered by Power BI. With the help of narratives you can get the insight of the dashboard in a story form. b. Narrative uses its intelligence to study the data and give output in pointers, paragraphs etc which can be customised. • Importing visuals to suit your need a. Apart from the general visualizations available in Power BI, there are additional visualizations released by Power BI from time to time. These visualizations enhance the visual appearance as well as the adds to further analytics in different ways. b. Visualizations which have downloaded and used in the dashboard are Infographic designer, Narratives for Business Intelligence, KPI Column chart, and Timeline. • Edit interactions in dashboard a. It is important to understand the interactions and groupings in power BI since with the help of these you can control which graphs you want to automatically change by clicking on the other. b. With the help of grouping you can define groups and sub group which can be viewed together as a group if required. • KPI Column Chart a. This is a recent custom visual developed by Power BI. With the help of this visual you can put the KPI target against the actual on a monthly basis. b. Forecasted revenue/ cost can also be put in this visual which will be shown in different colour. c. Individual monthly targets can also be put which can be interchanged by putting variance. d. Data can also been viewed in a table form along with graphical.

Cons:

• One of the important features of exporting report in PowerPoint does not allow custom visual to be exported. Hence if there are custom visuals in your report then the same will show error once exported. • Arranging dashboard is a bit tedious and takes a lot of time • To share reports, we need to publish to MS Cloud. We cannot share report from Power BI Desktop • For sharing a report even members to who report needs to be shared have to get Power BI Pro. Since the department to whom report is shared is just to view giving them a Pro license might not be useful.

Viveka
Associate in India
Information Technology & Services, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Microsoft Power BI

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Overall, Power BI is an excellent tool for data analysis and visualization, and its ease of use and integration with other tools makes more meaningful insights and informed decisions.

Pros:

Microsoft Power BI is a powerful cloud-based business intelligence tool that helps us to visualize data from multiple sources. And it is a user-friendly tool that offers drag-and-drop features and self-service capabilities. The most appealing aspect is it provides a wide range of visualizations, including charts, graphs, and maps that helps the users to understand and explore the data easily. In addition, we can also use DAX and Power Query in Power BI to perform complex calculations and analysis of the data to create insightful reports. Along with that integration is fantastic in Power BI with Microsoft products including Excel, Sharepoint, and Teams, as well as other third-party applications. And the best part is it allows users to share the created reports and dashboards with others, either within an organization or with external stakeholders. The most useful feature of Power BI is we can deploy it on both on-cloud and on-premise platforms.

Cons:

Power Bi has a limit of importing data at a time which is approximately 2 GB of data. To import greater volumes of data we need to extend our free version to a paid version of Power BI. This might be a limitation for users who can't afford to invest in a paid subscription.

Mohammed
Tech. Manager and Software Arch in Jordan
Information Technology & Services, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

A really useful tool for us in our quest for the best analysis to find the best solutions.

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: When you use Microsoft Power BI, you can automate most periodic reports and reduce the amount of time it takes to prepare those reports. As a result, we have been able to rely on it at all times and use it for a variety of different analysis procedures and duties. It's a great aid in our search for the most accurate solutions.

Pros:

Because of its multiple options and tools for analyzing and organizing data, Microsoft Power BI is software that empowers businesses. Business teams may use it to produce all aspects of business intelligence projects, from the initial concept to the final representation. The platform is user-friendly and can import and export data from a wide range of other apps, making it ideal for people of all skill levels. Data exploration, discovery, and visualization are made easier for non-technical managers with Microsoft Power BI, which allows them to access reports and dashboards without any training. To acquire the best outcomes, everyone involved can work together more closely because the data is saved on the cloud. All Microsoft Office programs, including Excel, can be used to build an interactive data dashboard. Microsoft Power BI may be used to turn an Excel spreadsheet into a database, and PowerPoint can be used to display, store, and share the data.

Cons:

Power BI requires extensive training for all members of the team, but if you have the appropriate skills, it is a superb tool for extracting the most accurate data.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Management Consulting, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

One of the best BI softwares out there

5.0 5 years ago

Comments: I have created dashboards on project progress, business cases and at times, a personal dashboard of my own assets and savings just to keep track of certain things. I love that PowerBI is easy to use, and has been designed with the end user in mind. However, I would like to have a wider variety of templates to choose from, especially if I am a beginner to the whole business intelligence idea.

Pros:

Having been a user of the full range of Microsoft Office, it was only natural that PowerBI comes to mind when trying to create a live update dashboard. It is extremely easy to use - a plug and play approach comes to mind - and if you had worked with Microsoft Office before, some of the features are very intuitive to use. If the organisation that you are working with uses Microsoft Office, access issues are sorted and it becomes incredibly easy to drive adoption of this dashboard on a day to day basis

Cons:

The design of the dashboard created with PowerBI can be found to be lacking at points, compared to some of the other BI softwares. The templates available seem great, but there aren't as many options as I would like when I am creating a specific type of dashboard.

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.

Thomas
NetDevOps Enigineer in US
Computer Networking, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Great, Simple Vizualization Tool!

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: Overall I have had an excellent experience with power bi as someone coming from a Network engineering role into data science and visualization. Power bi does a great job with ease of learning the product.

Pros:

Free desktop tool for modeling is great to try out for anyone. Excellent customer support. Using the power bi web dashboard is a great way to gain the visibility that you need to make this Business intelligence valuable. Being able to send reports on a schedule makes it a great tool for displaying and sharing data. The level of features and third party visualization also makes this a versatility tool that any data driven groups could benefit from. Publishing from the desktop to the web version is extremely simple.

Cons:

When creating measures and columns there can be some slowness or odd reactions while using the measures/columns as filters. Not able to choose a theme for the background colors.

Beth W
Beth W
Digital Creator in Kenya
Verified LinkedIn User
Entertainment, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

The ultimate best tool for accurate business analytics.

5.0 last year

Comments: Microsoft Power BI helps us to run our business efficiently by giving us insights which allows us to understand which areas that are performing well as well as areas which need much of our attention. Moreso, it helps us understand our performance in the market and thereby develop strategies to help us remain competitive in the gaming market.

Pros:

With Microsoft Power BI, we are able to run full analysis on our entire business and this keeps us on the light about how every part and department of the company is performing. The reports we get are easy to read and understand and with the visualization options available like graphs, we get to capture insights easily from them. It has well defined and dynamic security functions which guarantee the security of all our business data by making sure thag we are the only ones with the access to these confidential information.

Cons:

Am yet to experience the downside of Microsoft Power BI and there has been nothing that has ever gone wrong with it.