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Microsoft Power BI vs SAS Visual Analytics vs Targit Decision Suite comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Power BI9.3%
Tableau Enterprise6.7%
Amazon QuickSight3.7%
Other80.3%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
Data Visualization Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAS Visual Analytics1.8%
Tableau Enterprise11.0%
Domo5.7%
Other81.5%
Data Visualization
Reporting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Targit Decision Suite0.8%
Microsoft Power BI17.4%
Tableau Enterprise16.5%
Other65.3%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Antonio Flor - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Anaplanner at Chaucer Group
Data integration has improved reserving and expense control while collaboration drives fast dashboards
Regarding drawbacks or weak points in Microsoft Power BI, it may not be directly related to the tool itself, but with our architecture, as we couldn't get a service account, which is an email address that has no relationship with the employees, just to establish the connection with Anaplan. We couldn't get it to work on SSO, so we use an employee account which could be a point of weakness, meaning if the person leaves, that connection will break. If the person goes on holiday and we need to refresh, we have to change the connection as well, but we have to live with that since we're not using SSO on the service account. Regarding the natural language processing feature, we're trying to avoid using it too much because it can slow down the connection, so as much as possible, we try to build the logic and any transformation in Anaplan, and then deliver an end product to Microsoft Power BI.
AN
Senior Manager: ICT Compliance at DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
Enables effective data management and reporting with a straightforward setup
SAS Visual Analytics is helpful as it allows us to perform any queries we need. The ability to query information from our Excel data into SAS to view specific data is invaluable. In terms of reporting, it is easy to extract quick reports and provides graphical representations of the data, which is a great feature.
it_user289458 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Science Intern at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
I can now create more meaningful charts--radar, donut, pareto, scatter, range, point, boxplot, etc., but it doesn't support Linux or commodity hardware.
* The tool is very easy to use, we got on-premise training from Panorama, within days we were proficient enough to play with the tool. * The customer service is very responsive, they answered our queries. * I saw lot of people complaining about the lack of community forum, but they do have a forum which is quite active. * The tool is extremely easy to use, with a click you can import data and create the visualizations. * The things I like most is it supports variety of charts, I was quite bored with my previous BI tool which mostly supported bar, line and pie charts. I can now create more meaningful charts radar, donut, pareto, scatter, range, point, boxplot, etc.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If someone wants an embedded solution then Microsoft BI is very good because it works on many types of data, such as JSON."
"The most valuable features in Microsoft BI are the analysis using the feature drag and drop function. It's very easy to load and use different data sources."
"It is quite easy to use and it helps me to achieve the projects that I've been assigned."
"One of the most valuable features of Power BI is the ease of use. It is comfortable and there is not a steep learning curve for this solution. If you have some idea of the data and basic visualization ideas, you can use this solution comfortably."
"The stability of the product is good; it doesn't crash or freeze, there are no bugs or glitches, and it's reliable."
"Microsoft BI was very helpful for me because I had a huge variety of connections."
"We've seen a good ROI; it's a reporting tool that we can use on different platforms like mobile, we can integrate the report with the website, it provides good accessibility, you can access it from anywhere, anytime, and it's scalable."
"My primary use case is for the performance, compared to MS Dynamics NAV, and flexibility in data and dashboard building."
"I would rate the overall solution a ten out of ten."
"Quick deployment to dashboards and analytics features (using SAS Visual Statistics and Enterprise Guide)."
"I recommend it."
"The flexibility of the configuration is valuable to me."
"The correlation gives us a better understanding of new data."
"Data handling is one of the best features of SAS Visual Analytics."
"R, however, has very potent display capabilities and numerous packages with advanced functionality."
"It's a stable, reliable product."
"The tool is extremely easy to use, with a click you can import data and create the visualizations."
 

Cons

"Microsoft BI lacks some of the scheme features. It would be beneficial if there were a way to show how we move values in a different way."
"Microsoft BI's visualization could be better. Though Power BI's visualization has steadily improved over the years, it's not on the level tools like Tableau and SAS or some of the more expensive products on the market."
"The solution could be quicker at rendering data."
"Well definitely the connectors, which is always a huge space for improvement in configurations, especially the amount of connectors etc."
"I would like to see better, undisturbed stability without any interruptions."
"Integration with artificial intelligence would help. Humans take time to review the data and eliminate errors. Artificial intelligence based on machine learning and understanding can bring the same functionality."
"Sometimes in Power BI, the logic can be challenging to follow."
"The challenge of this product is in truncating the table data."
"I don't think the return on investment is high when I factor in the cost of additional components like text mining and machine learning."
"The visualization should be better in SAS Visual Analytics. It is easy to use but when compared to other solutions it is lacking and the support is not very good."
"SAS Visual Analytics could be more user-friendly."
"The deployment isn't smooth. Deploying Visual Analytics on the cloud takes a lot of work, or you can use some providers that give you SAS as a service. For example, there is a provider called SaasNow. They host SAS Visual Analytics and the license. You can buy the license and deploy it there without the hassle of installation because deploying the software isn't easy."
"The reason we haven't rolled it out across the board is due to the fact that the licensing is so expensive."
"There is no business intelligence application that is predefined, which is something some customers or prospects would love to have."
"The visualization should be better in SAS Visual Analytics. It is easy to use but when compared to other solutions it is lacking and the support is not very good."
"There are a few little things that are predefined and can be done out of the box immediately. There is no business intelligence application that is predefined, which is something some customers or prospects would love to have. Small and mid-sized companies would struggle with it because they prefer something standard that has been predefined by somebody else."
"No support for Linux or commodity hardware. Limited support for big data analytics."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft BI is not expensive. Compared to the price of other BI products, the price is very fair."
"Microsoft BI is free for the personal edition, but there is also a paid-for professional version."
"I used the tool's free version."
"Microsoft BI is considered to be competitively priced when compared to other similar solutions in the market."
"The solution is priced well for what they offer. However, the premium version is very expensive."
"The solution is less expensive than other PowerBI tools, which is why most people go with it, although it does cost more than MSBI tools."
"The only other cost, besides the licensing fee, would be to cover support."
"This product offers good value for the money."
"It's approximately $114,000 US dollars per year."
"It was licensed for corporate use, and its licensing was on a yearly basis."
"I work with the tool's free version...The tool's corporate version is very expensive and requires a monthly hire."
"$10,000 per annum for an enterprise license."
"The product is expensive."
"The cost of the solution can be expensive. There is an additional cost for users."
"Licensing is simple."
"Visual Analytics is expensive for a small company like mine. You also need to deploy it on a server or cloud, so you pay for the license as well as the cost of the cloud or the server that you will deploy on."
Information not available
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
10%
Construction Company
8%
University
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business135
Midsize Enterprise58
Large Enterprise167
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise19
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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 wou...
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 info...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Visual Analytics?
It's about an average of five. It's easy to scale, but it comes with cost.
What needs improvement with SAS Visual Analytics?
In terms of configuration, I would like to see AI capabilities since many applications are now integrating AI. It may...
What is your primary use case for SAS Visual Analytics?
I started to work with SAS Visual Analytics ( /products/sas-visual-analytics-reviews ) in 2015. We use it for analysi...
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Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Staples, Ausgrid, Scotiabank, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Xcel Energy, and Triad Analytics Solutions.
Platon, bubobubo, JetReports, Radley
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools. Updated: March 2026.
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