Knowage vs Microsoft Power BI comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Knowage and Microsoft are both solutions in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category. Knowage is ranked #32, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4. Knowage holds a 1.1% mindshare in BIT, compared to Microsoft’s 7.6% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Knowage users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Knowage

Read 18 Knowage reviews

4,165 Views
2,957 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Microsoft Power BI

Read 332 Microsoft Power BI reviews

41,703 Views
27,941 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Knowage

Microsoft Power BI

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Knowage and Microsoft Power BI are competitive offerings in the business intelligence sector, each with distinct advantages. Microsoft Power BI is often favored due to its extensive features and integration capabilities, even if it comes with higher initial costs, compared to Knowage’s pricing flexibility and open-source nature.

Features: Knowage provides robust data integration capabilities, customizability, and support for various data sources. It is an open-source tool, allowing organizations to configure and enhance as needed. Microsoft Power BI excels in offering powerful analytics tools, seamless integration with Microsoft services, and a highly intuitive data visualization experience. Its comprehensive insights and advanced features provide a strong competitive edge.

Room for Improvement: Knowage can improve in terms of user interface design, user documentation, and expanding community support for troubleshooting. Microsoft Power BI may enhance through offering more cost-effective tiers, improving performance on large datasets, and supporting more open-source integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Knowage offers a flexible deployment model compatible with diverse systems and a detailed setup process. Microsoft Power BI, benefiting from Microsoft's extensive support infrastructure, ensures a smooth deployment experience through its cloud-based approach, coupled with a robust customer service framework.

Pricing and ROI: Knowage’s open-source model translates to lower initial costs, making it an attractive option for budget-conscious organizations. In contrast, Microsoft Power BI involves higher upfront costs; however, its extensive features and integration capabilities lead to higher ROI, making it a justified choice for many businesses despite the expense. Power BI's pricing starts at $9.99 per user per month, with more advanced features available at higher price points.

To learn more, read our detailed Knowage vs. Microsoft Power BI Report (Updated: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Knowage vs. Microsoft Power BI

October 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 920,929 peers since 2012

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

Knowage

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

32nd

Ranking in Reporting

22nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Power BI

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

1st

Ranking in Reporting

1st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

332

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Knowage is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 7.6%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Power BI	7.6%
Knowage	1.1%
Other	91.3%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

AbdulshukoorMohammed

General Manager Information Technology & Enterprise Applications Manager at OXFORD HOLDING

Easy to customize, cross-platform capable, and very stable

The only challenge here is that it's a Java-based platform. It requires very high technical skills. When we come to the integration with the single sign-on facilities, that part is very challenging. In Power BI and other tools, it's very easy to integrate with active directory and single sign-on, and identity management is very easy in other business intelligence tools. However, when it comes to Knowage, it's a bit heavy, it's time-consuming sometimes, it's not very fast, and definitely not as fast as other business intelligence tools in terms of getting graphical reports. The solution could be cheaper.

Read full review

Hemanthreddy Vakiti

Data Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Interactive dashboards have transformed restaurant data into faster daily business decisions

Microsoft Power BI has many features and there is not a lot to improve. However, the licensing can be confusing. When deciding between Pro and Premium, I find it difficult to distinguish what features are offered by Pro and what features are offered by Premium, including the particular differences to choose between both licensing models. Additionally, some features such as DAX, which I mentioned previously, involve DAX calculations and complex data modeling, which are somewhat advanced and not easily understandable. Prior knowledge is required or you need to go through the documentation. If the documentation is made comprehensive so that anyone with no knowledge on DAX can easily use it by going through the documentation, it would be really helpful. Additionally, if the integration with non-Microsoft tools is improved and performance is optimized, then Microsoft Power BI can become a top-ranked visualization tool. The user experience with Microsoft Power BI is quite good. The intuitive user interface makes it easy for both technical and non-technical users to create reports. However, only the advanced features are somewhat complex, and if the documentation is improved, it can be easily accessible.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Nice features available in SpagoBI compared with other open-source BI are Auditing, Collaborative BI, Query By Example, and User Profiling."

"Customer Service: Excellent."

"I am satisfied with the product in general given what the company invested in it, which was just our time."

"It's very easy to get the historical reports you need based on the business requirements and this helps our executives for taking decisions."

"SpagoBI makes delivering reports to our clients very easy."

"Being able to schedule necessary jobs needed for production jobs and programming run times"

"In terms of ROI, much better than any other solution when it offer full fledged features in open source, planned to have direct contact with SpagoBI for better support."

"The embedding feature is great."

More Knowage pros

"Power BI, once made available, can connect to various data sources, irrespective of the application, whether it be HR or business applications. The bank has many applications, but all eventually need to generate reports for tracking, distribution, or problem-finding based on analysis. Power BI was made available as part of the productivity suite to all businesses, which can connect to their applications and provide the reports and analysis they require."

"One of the most valuable features of Microsoft Power BI is its easy way of sharing data within the organization or outside."

"The interface is great; the DAX function center and integration with Asia have been great, it's a powerful platform, and the product is robust and stable while being very low-maintenance with helpful technical support."

"I like this product because it's a free software, very intuitive and very easy to use."

"The visualization part and its inclusion in a cloud-based application are valuable features."

"I can now use my time in analyzing the outcome, rather than preparing the figures and cleaning up the data."

"What I like about Power BI compared to Tableau, for example, is that Tableau is mostly a visualization program, but Power BI is a more complete solution, because it has DAX, Power Query, and a presentation and graphic layer."

"We are able to provide the clients with data-driven decisions by the use of the reports that we are creating using Microsoft BI."

More Microsoft Power BI pros

Cons

"It would be better if more resources were available to help us learn how to use it. I wanted to use Knowage for a more extended period, but learning materials around the product were not really available and were not really straightforward. I've also seen inconsistencies between versions. For example, under the tools, especially in the cockpit, the way you create reports is now different. You will also find some configurations within a particular state, like a line chart, which differs from version to version. I think consistency is an essential feature in a product, especially for business intelligence products."

"I encountered a lot of issues when I tried to integrate the map in order to realize Intelligent Location Dashboards."

"Unfortunately, many interesting features do not work when you are using a custom database for storing the metadata."

"Development of SpagoBI has now been moved to Knowage. Users interested in further developments of the platform will have to look there."

"The dashboard components could be better. They could do a lot more."

"The demands of some jobs would slow Spago and lock the site, preventing any other job from processing."

"The only challenge here is that it's a Java-based platform. It requires very high technical skills."

"We had stability issues."

More Knowage cons

"This is frustrating because sometimes the finance manager needs to export the report to a PowerPoint."

"We would like it if they added more Python libraries in the Power BI service. For Power BI service right now, you can use Python, but it is limited to a few libraries or a few packages from Python."

"I would like for there to be some type of user manual that shows steps on how to navigate the solution."

"Lacks the ability to copy data from BI into PowerPoint."

"There are certain features that are only available in the cloud version. It would be beneficial if they could be brought down to the on-premise version without the necessity of using the enterprise SQL database, as that can be very costly. We need more cost-effective features that are available in the cloud to be accessible on-premise."

"SSRS reporting portal cannot run on tablets, iPads and all other mobile devices."

"The user interface could be a bit more intuitive so that it's a bit easier to use."

"Because of performance issues and because we're unable to do all the aggregation, I rate this solution six out of 10."

More Microsoft Power BI cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It allows the implementation of an effective reporting system using internal skills at a limited upfront cost."

"Knowage is open-source, and an enterprise edition is also available."

"Microsoft BI is not very cheap. A premium license costs roughly 5,000 euros a month."

"I would advise that Microsoft BI products are rightly priced and the licensing is easy to follow and to fulfill."

"If it has to be applied on the cloud, then it costs around $10 per month per user. For a pro license and for a premium license it's around $20 per month per user. If it has to be applied on-premises then, depending on the course of your server, you have to buy a software assurance version of the database."

"The solution is affordable."

"Microsoft BI is very cost-effective and this is why we use it."

"Its licensing cost is very high. It is $20 per user, which is very high, but it is a good product, so you pay for it."

"Power BI is cheaper for smaller groups when comparing to competitors. It requires a monthly per-user subscription."

"The licensing can be complicated."

More Microsoft Power BI pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user79932

Senior Manager - BI Head with 5,001-10,000 employees

Feb 4, 2015

Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho

1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

19%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	137
Midsize Enterprise	59
Large Enterprise	171

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows: 1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle - look for SAP...

See all answers

Is Power BI a complete platform or only a visualization tool?

Power BI is an advanced visualization tool oriented to big data with a very complete set of widgets to visualize information, control users accessing information, the configuration of governance po...

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How does Oracle OBIEE compare with Microsoft BI?

Oracle OBIEE is great in allowing design and creativity per the individual needs of the organization. Dashboards are fully customizable and very user-friendly. This solution is very stable. Oracle ...

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Comparisons

Tableau Enterprise vs Knowage

Compared 8% of the time

Pentaho Business Analytics vs Knowage

Compared 7% of the time

Procurify vs Knowage

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs Knowage

Compared 4% of the time

ElegantJ BI vs Knowage

Compared 4% of the time

More Knowage Competitors

Amazon QuickSight vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 14% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 8% of the time

Domo vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 4% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 3% of the time

QlikView vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Power BI Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Knowage

October 2026

Download Knowage product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI

October 2026

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Also Known As

SpagoBI

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI

Overview

Knowage is an open-source business intelligence suite offering features like engine concepts and report customization. It's favored for its integration capabilities and self-service BI functionality, allowing users to leverage cross-platform access and conduct comprehensive data analysis.

Knowage stands out in the BI landscape by providing tools that facilitate autonomous data exploration, with an emphasis on flexibility and extensive integration options. With capabilities for embedding reports and dynamic dashboards, it supports various analysis needs through integration with databases and tools like Jasper and BIRT. Despite its technical complexity and interface limitations, Knowage's features such as GIS integration and big data visualization enhance operational efficiency and profitability analysis.

What are the key features of Knowage?

Powerful engines: Facilitate complex data processing with high efficiency.
Report customization: Tailor reports to meet specific business requirements.
Cross-platform access: Enable data accessibility across different devices.
Open-source: Leverage the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of open-source solutions.
Embedding capabilities: Integrate seamlessly with tools like Jasper for enhanced functionality.
Python support: Use Python for advanced data correlation and analyses.
GIS integration: Incorporate geographical data for enriched insights.

What benefits should you consider in reviews?

Increased efficiency: Streamlined report deployment and big data visualization.
Comprehensive analysis: Tools for evaluating activities and profitability.
Data export options: Support for exporting data in preferred formats simplifies reporting tasks.
Operational cost savings: Eliminates the need for third-party BI solutions.

In the healthcare and financial sectors, Knowage is used for deriving insights from health data warehouses and performing financial analyses. Companies use it to create dashboards and reports from MySQL databases, embedding them for wider distribution, and enabling effective resource evaluation and decision-making.

Knowage

Microsoft Power BI is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization. This tool stands out for its ability to merge and analyze data from various sources. Widely adopted across different industries and departments, Power BI is instrumental in creating visually appealing dashboards and generating insightful business intelligence reports. Its intuitive interface, robust visualization capabilities, and seamless integration with other Microsoft applications empower users to easily create interactive reports and gain valuable insights.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

FIAT Group, Italian air navigation service provider, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Telecom Italia, ASL Genovese, San Giovanni Battista University Hospital

Accenture Adidas Aetna AIG Airbus Alibaba Allstate Amazon American Express Aon AT&T Audi Bank of America BASF Bayer Berkshire Hathaway Boeing Coca-Cola Comcast Cisco Coca-Cola Dell Disney Emirates Equinix FedEx Ford GE Google H&M Home Depot Honda IBM Intel JPMorgan Chase Kellogg's Kroger L'Oréal McDonald's Merck MetLife Microsoft Nike Oracle P&G PepsiCo Procter & Gamble Prudential Financial SAP Siemens Snapchat Spotify Starbucks Target Toyota T-Mobile Unilever Visa Walmart WeWork World Bank Xerox

Buyer's Guide

Knowage vs. Microsoft Power BI

October 2026

Free Report: Knowage vs. Microsoft Power BI

Find out what your peers are saying about Knowage vs. Microsoft Power BI and other solutions. Updated: October 2026.

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