MicroStrategy vs Oracle Essbase comparison

The compared MicroStrategy and Oracle solutions aren't in the same category. MicroStrategy is ranked #7 in BIT , with an average rating of 7.4, and holds a 2.8% mindshare in the category. Oracle is ranked #11 in DDM , with an average rating of 8.6, and holds a 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of MicroStrategy users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

MicroStrategy

Read 161 MicroStrategy reviews

3,456 Views
2,195 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Oracle Essbase

Read 14 Oracle Essbase reviews

136 Views
91 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

MicroStrategy

Oracle Essbase

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between MicroStrategy and Oracle Essbase based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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June 2025

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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

MicroStrategy

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

161

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (7th), Embedded BI (2nd)

Oracle Essbase

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database Development and Management (11th)

Mindshare comparison

MicroStrategy and Oracle Essbase aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. MicroStrategy is designed for BI (Business Intelligence) Tools and holds a mindshare of 2.8%, down 3.7% compared to last year.
Oracle Essbase, on the other hand, focuses on Database Development and Management, holds 0.9% mindshare, down 1.0% since last year.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Database Development and Management

Featured Reviews

AJIN S L

Technical Analyst at Allianz

Experience has shown effective features for analysis, but needs interface improvements

The most effective features of MicroStrategy for data analysis are those that cater to user needs. However, I find Power BI to be more useful when comparing some features, but my company does not choose Power BI due to certain code restrictions. The MicroStrategy interface is not as good as Power BI, especially concerning the user-friendly aspects.

Read full review

Pratik Phapale

Oracle Hyperion Essbase Developer at HCL Technologies

Multidimensional cube structure enables complex data storage and Oracle consistently upgrades Essbase

It's definitely growing and has many great features, especially in the cloud. I haven't used the on-premises server as much. Multidimensional data processing: Essbase is a kind of backbone, or back end, for systems like Hyperion Planning and Hyperion Financial Management. It's a multidimensional cube where we can store and process details, generate reports, and do multiple data processing, which isn't possible in Oracle or other alternatives. So, I'm grateful for this experience. Continuous improvement: Recently, I faced a version upgrade from 11.1.2 to 11.4. Now I'm on 11.2.10. Essbase is continuously upgrading its features in different areas, like configuration, properties, and the cloud platform. It's great to have experience with this, as well as working with the fundamental parts of the VM sets.

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

"I have shown our users how to stop using Excel. They would create these vast Excel files, and I showed them how to do the same thing with MicroStrategy, which saves a significant amount of time for them everyday."

"Workstation and Desktop on the client side will speed up some development activities."

"I think we have a huge enterprise-wide push to Visual Insight. Our environment has transformed over the last year. We were a strong "grid to PDF," "document to PDF," that's all we did. And then they came in with these Visual Insights and everyone was like, "Wow, that's kind of cool." We created a static reporting portal behind it and now, it's just taken our reports to another level. The level of insight that you get in a 30-second glimpse, it just revolutionized it for us. It gives the user a larger subset of the data so that they can actually maneuver around, rather than being specifically pointed at whatever your document is designed for."

"It is a reliable solution for our needs."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to build reports, then customize for different groups instead of having to build multiple reports. Therefore, the ability to build customization in the reports for different groups."

"Now we can collaborate, in real time. In the past we had to wait for our business partners say if a visualization looked good or sufficed for their requirements. There was no real-time decision making. Now, with Dossier, it will accelerate the velocity of decision making."

"It plays a vital role in establishing a connection with predictive continuous improvement."

"The scalability is great. It was one of the selling points for us on MicroStrategy."

More MicroStrategy pros

"It is very fast compared to other normal databases, like SQL and MySQL."

"Unlike relational, where you're linking together multiple tables, with Essbase, you basically define what the dimensions are beforehand, and you define the hierarchy, and then load the data. This allows you to do a pretty sophisticated analysis so that you can drill into it and slice and dice the data."

"Essbase is extremely stable and low-maintenance."

"It is highly efficient and easily scalable, particularly for handling large databases."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"I have found the most valuable aspect is the user-friendly environment and current features."

"The solution can handle a large volume of data."

"Essbase is a kind of backbone, or back end, for systems like Hyperion Planning."

More Oracle Essbase pros

Cons

"It needs row-level security, column-level security, on attributes. I want to be able to handle full-scale security model from the semantic layer, flat out."

"Native VI on mobile apps and better android support are lacking."

"Lacks a thriving community"

"We did have issues with stability, and that was because we were co-located with another business unit, and we outgrew them on the unit. So we had to get to a separate physical instance."

"I would like to see more Writeback capabilities that would allow our IT department not to be worried about the wild, Wild West of Writeback."

"I would like to see the enterprise version available in a demo or as a trial version."

"Currently, the client view looks completely different depending on what you are building."

"I think they're still lacking on customer service. I think historically, MicroStrategy's customer service was a lot better than it is today."

More MicroStrategy cons

"The ability to drive external reporting out for development could be improved."

"The consolidation engine, which is HFM or FCCS, needs some room for improvement."

"The reporting tool of Essbase needs improvement."

"The solution could enhance business analytics. I delved into the data using Oracle Essbase to create a new support tool."

"Essbase has a programming language, and it has a couple of functions to do forecasting, however, their feature set for that is not that good."

"They should improve the solution's performance."

"The initial setup is pretty complex."

"The main concern is that Oracle is ending on-premises server support, so it would be better if there was a cloud platform available for Oracle Essbase."

More Oracle Essbase cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing, in general, is high. With Power BI, you get mobile with the license, whereas with MicroStrategy, you have to purchase mobile for extra."

"The solution is scalable. A little expensive perhaps, but it is scalable."

"I am unsure what the licensing costs are for this solution however, development costs are around $100,000 per year."

"We have one of the best pricing available, but we can't disclose that information."

"They need to work on their license structure. They are not competitive against somebody like SAP BusinessObjects. We had a quote that was almost a third the price, coming from SAP BusinessObjects, and it's not a better platform. It's not cheaper. They do concurrent user licensing, while MicroStrategy does named user licensing, and that was literally the only difference. But it made a $500,000 difference. They've got to do something to make themselves more competitive. Maybe it's assessing your business users and what you really expect them to use, and maybe giving a reduced price on that. But they are already giving us a 60% discount and they were still a million or so above, over a three-year time period. That doesn't account for synergies as we get from on-site resources that are already available, but I thought that that was a big, big deficit for them."

"The licensing is a bit high per user."

"The pricing list itself is not publicly accessible, so it's a bit opaque."

"There is no subscription, I am using the free version."

More MicroStrategy pricing and cost advice

"I believe the licensing is on a monthly base."

"The solution is expensive."

"Essbase is competitively priced."

"It is a costly solution."

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Comparison Review

it_user6330

Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

May 2, 2013

MicroStrategy vs. Tableau

After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

10%

Retailer

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

10%

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about MicroStrategy?

The stability of the product is good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MicroStrategy?

For larger businesses, I think the pricing is logical, but for smaller companies, it can be a bit costly.

See all answers

What needs improvement with MicroStrategy?

Areas of MicroStrategy that have room for improvement include pricing because it is costly. Organizations that are well-established and have more money can afford MicroStrategy, but startups and mi...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Essbase?

It's not that expensive, but also not cheap. I'm not sure because it's a private license.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Oracle Essbase?

If I got the opportunity to work with Hyperion, which is the best product, I would definitely go with that. The main concern is that Oracle is ending on-premises server support, so it would be bett...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Oracle Essbase?

We provide complete ownership of this application to Walmart projects. In the UK system, we support and develop for the Asda account, known as Eltham. We provide installation and support to over 50...

See all answers

Comparisons

Tableau vs MicroStrategy

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs MicroStrategy

Compared 16% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs MicroStrategy

Compared 9% of the time

Databricks vs MicroStrategy

Compared 8% of the time

More MicroStrategy Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Oracle Essbase

Compared 24% of the time

SAP Analytics Cloud vs Oracle Essbase

Compared 12% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs Oracle Essbase

Compared 11% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Oracle Essbase

Compared 7% of the time

Workday Prism Analytics vs Oracle Essbase

Compared 4% of the time

More Oracle Essbase Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

MicroStrategy

June 2025

Download MicroStrategy product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Essbase

June 2025

Download Oracle Essbase product report

Also Known As

No data available

Essbase

Overview

Company: Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is a leading worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms. With direct operations in 26 countries worldwide and approximately 2,000 employees, our mission is to provide enterprise analytics, mobility, and security platforms that are flexible, powerful, scalable and user-friendly. To learn more, visit MicroStrategy online, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Product portfoilio:

MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise™ empowers leading organizations to analyze vast amounts of data and distribute actionable business insight throughout an enterprise through two distinct offerings: MicroStrategy Analytics™ and MicroStrategy Desktop™. MicroStrategy Analytics delivers reports and dashboards, and enables users to conduct ad hoc analysis and share insights anywhere, anytime, via mobile devices or the Web. It also combines the agility and productivity of self-service visual data discovery with the security, scalability, and governance features of enterprise-grade business intelligence. MicroStrategy Desktop is a standalone, on-premise visual data discovery tool designed to enable business users to analyze and understand their data. MicroStrategy Mobile™ enables organizations to rapidly build custom business applications that deliver analytics combined with transactions, multimedia, and custom workflows to mobile devices. MicroStrategy Secure Cloud™ combines all of the enterprise analytics, mobile, and security features in MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise with powerful and scalable data integration, validation, and warehousing services — all delivered in an environment where organizations can deploy transformational analytics applications in minutes.

Usher, MicroStrategy’s breakthrough security solution, is a powerful mobile security platform designed to dematerialize traditional forms of identity verification (such as passwords, tokens, and physical badges) and replace them with a single mobile identity badge that is cryptographically linked to its owner’s smartphone and dynamically linked to an enterprise’s existing identity repositories. Usher works on standard Android and iOS smartphones, and also boasts an Apple Watch™ integration.

MicroStrategy

Oracle Essbase is an OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) Server that provides an environment for deploying pre-packaged applications or developing custom analytic and enterprise performance management applications.

Oracle

Sample Customers

Allstate Insurance, Barneys New York, Boston Children's Hospital, Buenos Aires Department of the Treasury, Campbell Soup Company, DHL, eBay, eHarmony, Facebook, Four Seasons Hotels Inc., Godiva, Hard Rock International, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pfizer, SECO (Swiss Government Unemployment Agency), Starbucks, Texas A&M University, Thomson Reuters Markets, US House of Representatives, and the US Postal Service.

CHU de Rennes, Bellco Credit Union, Akindo Sushiro Co. Ltd, Deutsche Telekom AG, Samarco MineraÊo S.A., PCCW Ltd., QDQ media S.A.U., Boiron Italia, Specialized Bicycle Components Inc., Akindo Sushiro Co. Ltd., Air Canada, Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd.

Buyer's Guide

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June 2025

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