My company uses Microsoft BI's dashboards. We build them for the business and the operations team. We have four to five customers using this solution.
Manager- Projects at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Dashboards are easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "The dashboards of Microsoft BI are easy to use."
- "Microsoft BI has its own challenges in terms of user interface and how quickly somebody can learn how to use it."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The dashboards of Microsoft BI are easy to use.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see the usability improved with Microsoft BI. Microsoft BI has its own challenges in terms of user interface and how quickly somebody can learn how to use it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft BI for four years.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Power BI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Power BI is stable compared to any other business subjects or any other tools.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Any Microsoft project is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has been good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used QlikView. Microsoft BI's dashboards are easier to use and not as complex.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Microsoft BI is straightforward and easy to install. We install ourselves.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Microsoft BI. The dashboards are not that complex and are easy to use.
I would rate this solution an 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner

Assistant General Manager at ELEVATE Solutions Limited
Easy to manage and simple to set up with good customization potential
Pros and Cons
- "We have found that the reporting and publishing are great."
- "You need to purchase upgraded support separately."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the product for some data tasks such as data binding and reporting. That's it.
What is most valuable?
The customization and management are very easy.
We have found that the reporting and publishing are great. Sometimes people like to use the report for their teams.
The initial setup is quick and easy.
The solution is scalable.
It's reliable and the performance has been good.
The cost of the product is not too high.
What needs improvement?
You need to purchase upgraded support separately.
The marketing will need to increase more now. Power BI is a good product, however, from Microsoft, and I'm not getting too much marketing information about new features or anything like that. People don't know the capabilities and they really should.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We find the solution to be stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. it's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product can scale. It's not an issue.
How are customer service and support?
You do need to purchases specific support in order to get a good amount of attention. If you are a company that needs 24/7 support, you need to pay for it.
The basic support is good, although it is a little slow.
The Microsoft support model has it set up so that a first call will only get a user to their ambassador. Okay. Their ambassador will not have too much knowledge. They just identify what is the issue then they escalate to their team. Microsoft support could improve their services to attempt to have a first call resolution. Right now, in most cases, the first call resolution is not possible.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use a different solution previously.
How was the initial setup?
Power BI is a fast application. Therefore, the setup is very, very easy. You just license it, sign up, and you can use it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is reasonable. It's not overly expensive, although you will need to pay for extra support if you think you will need assistance regularly.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We only looked at Microsoft. We did not consider other options.
What other advice do I have?
We are Microsoft partners.
I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Power BI
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Power BI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Cloud business Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Easily customizable, good reporting, and offers self-serve analytics
Pros and Cons
- "The amount of customization that you can do is good, and it's relatively straightforward to do."
- "The look and feel should be updated in terms of the types of dashboards and graphs that you can produce. They aren't as visual as some of its competitors."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and Microsoft BI is one of the products that we implement for our customers. It is used for customized dashboarding, reporting, and self-serve analytics, on a broad scale in enterprise.
What is most valuable?
The amount of customization that you can do is good, and it's relatively straightforward to do. People with limited experience in terms of coding can implement this themselves. If an organization doesn't have a high amount of skill, internally, then it's something that they can still spin up themselves, relatively well.
What needs improvement?
It could be changed to the point where it's more suited for self-serve analytics.
The look and feel should be updated in terms of the types of dashboards and graphs that you can produce. They aren't as visual as some of its competitors.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been selling and using Microsoft BI for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft BI is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product is scalable.
We have dozens of customers that use it.
How are customer service and support?
The Microsoft technical support is not great. You need to have a partner in place that's able to handle these services for you. Customers aren't going to get answers quick enough if they're going directly to the vendor.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with a couple of other similar products but I'd only downloaded the free versions of these tools to play around with. One of these is Tableau.
Tableau is a solution that would be used more at the enterprise scale. It may be more suitable for analytics.
These days, from a visual perspective in terms of analytics, dashboards, and customized dashboards, I tend to use Google products.
How was the initial setup?
The complexity of the installation depends on what you're using it for. If you're doing anything relatively complex, such as working with AI or machine learning, then you would probably want to have a specialist service provider do it for you.
We've seen that people are tending to use solutions that compete with it, just because they are easier to automate. From a large-scale point of view, the installation could be simpler.
That said, in its simplest form, it can be used for self-serve analytics.
What about the implementation team?
A company can handle the deployment and maintenance in-house on its own. Or, if they're doing a large-scale project, they might be in need of two engineers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My customers pay a yearly licensing fee.
From a cost point of view, it's competitive in the enterprise space, although it's not as competitive when you add up all of the additional costs. Things like integrations cost extra and it's probably where Microsoft makes more of the money.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
User-friendly, feature-rich, and easy to implement but there is no column-level security
Pros and Cons
- "This product has a lot of features and most of them are user-friendly."
- "There is no column-level security in Microsoft BI, and this is a feature that most of our customers are looking for. That is something that should be implemented."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and Microsoft BI is one of the products that we implement for our customers.
What is most valuable?
Microsoft BI is easy to implement, as it is a web-based product that doesn't need to be installed.
This product has a lot of features and most of them are user-friendly.
The visualizations are pretty easy to create. In fact, if you want to create anything new, it is pretty easy to do.
The reporting capability is good.
What needs improvement?
There is no column-level security in Microsoft BI, and this is a feature that most of our customers are looking for. That is something that should be implemented.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Microsoft BI for between six and seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft BI is scalable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also use Oracle BI.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation process is pretty easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Both cost-wise and implementation-wise, this product is a good choice.
What other advice do I have?
This product is good in terms of cost, it is pretty easy to implement, and I can recommend it for those features and the reporting.
Overall, the product is good but there are a few limitations.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. implementer
BI Analyst at Infosys Technology
Has valuable reporting and printing features
Pros and Cons
- "I find Power BI's reporting feature the most valuable. The solution has improved a lot. There are new features getting added day by day. In the past, they didn't even have the printing feature, but now they have it."
- "If you look at the new tool, even though they promised that you could do data modeling, that you could do everything from the Power BI side, if your data is really large in volume, sometimes it doesn't work on the Power BI. More feature testing from their side would certainly help users."
What is our primary use case?
I use this for its analysis service.
What is most valuable?
I find Power BI's reporting feature the most valuable. The solution has improved a lot. There are new features getting added day by day. In the past, they didn't even have the printing feature, but now they have it.
What needs improvement?
Every tool has room for improvement. Microsoft also has a lot of room for improvement. If you look at the new tool, even though they promised that you could do data modeling, that you could do everything from the Power BI side, if your data is really large in volume, sometimes it doesn't work on the Power BI. More feature testing from their side would certainly help users.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used this for eight years. I've used this solution within the last 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable. It's a nice solution to have.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is very much scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good. It's not really very helpful sometimes, but it is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used a different solution for a different location, a different customer. If a customer decides to go for one vendor, they stick to that vendor, so changing a vendor is not an option most of the time.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup is straightforward, but it depends on the business case. It's straightforward, but sometimes it is complex, but compared to any other tool, the setup for this solution is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
My experience with them is okay.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I wasn't able to evaluate other options before choosing because it was already chosen by the customer.
What other advice do I have?
Deployment for this solution in our organization is mixed: on-premise and through Microsoft cloud.
If you have a source on the Microsoft side then it's always easier to use one vendor for end-to-end solution. Even if there are some other sources, Microsoft has a big and varied area. Take the reporting ETL analysis as an example, everything's built as part Microsoft. It's always good to have one vendor than multiple vendors.
How long deployment of this solution takes all depends on how much data you have. Sometimes it takes a long time if you have a billion rows of data e.g. it could take hours. It also depends on the architecture. It depends on so many things.
There are a hundred users of this solution in our organization. The real users are customers who require reporting to make business decisions. Mostly the users are business analysts.
This solution is pretty much automated, so no maintenance. For AD, some are there as a team, so they help.
No plans of increasing usage of this solution. Maybe in the future, but not right now.
My advice to other people looking into implementing Power BI is to go for it. It's one tool that has everything, and they should always try to evaluate Microsoft compared to open source. Like in open source, you'll always have a lot of libraries, a lot of different tools that you would be using. It's great to try Microsoft Suite because at the end, you'll only have to deal with one vendor so maintenance will be less.
The lesson that I have learned from using Power BI is to try it out. Don't just rely on the features and promises about the solution. You first try it out, then share your experiences with the customer.
My rating for this solution would be seven or eight out of ten because it has everything in it and I don't see anything missing in it. It is efficient for our needs.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Chief Technical Officer at Value Partners
Offers simple licensing, good pricing, and an easy setup
Pros and Cons
- "We find the solution offers good stability."
- "Microsoft Power BI was born native on the cloud, however, it's quite difficult when it has to connect to on-premise data sources."
What is our primary use case?
We are a consultant company so we use the many tools, just for our customers. However, we have professional services on, for example, Microsoft Power BI.
What is most valuable?
The initial setup is easy.
The solution is cloud-native.
It works well with Microsoft products.
The licensing is very simple.
We find the solution offers good stability.
You can scale the solution if you need to.
Technical support has always been helpful and responsive.
Pricing is quite reasonable.
What needs improvement?
They should improve the connector to on-premises data. Microsoft Power BI was born native on the cloud, however, it's quite difficult when it has to connect to on-premise data sources. You have a gateway. It's not very easy.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution offers good stability. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product scales well. If a company needs to expand it, it's not a problem.
How are customer service and support?
We use a couple of professionals from Microsoft directly for our clients, and we are really satisfied with them.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use SAS BI and Microsoft BI. I prefer Microsoft BI as, from a licensing point of view, it's easier as it's a per-user licensing. If Power BI is the right tool for companies, it's a shorter time-to-market approach to business intelligence.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward. It's not overly complex or difficult. A company should have no issue with the process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We find the licensing to be very straightforward. It's easier to understand than other options on the market.
The pricing is fairly inexpensive. It's not a costly solution.
What other advice do I have?
We have a business relationship with Microsoft. We are a Microsoft Gold Partner for cloud products. In the past, we've used a lot of Microsoft products and also some of our clients have used them directly.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.
I'd advise that new users should take care of the technical architecture in order to connect in the right way to the data sources to extract data.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Lead Business Analyst at a media company with 501-1,000 employees
Data visualization tool which has an extensive number of features including offering user defined charts
Pros and Cons
- "Power BI allows you to create user defined charts which is really useful."
- "The UI is the main improvement that could be made. Specifically, there is something called DAX, in Power BI, which is complicated compared to calculated fields used in Tableau."
What is our primary use case?
We use this data visualization tool for the business to understand data in a graphical manner. It is similar to Tableau, a tool also used for data visualization. A tool like this is used mostly by the leadership team to make decisions.
What is most valuable?
Power BI allows you to create user-defined charts which is really useful.
The Power Query button in the power tabs is a unique selling point and is very useful.
What needs improvement?
The UI is the main improvement that could be made. Specifically, there is something called DAX, in Power BI, which is complicated compared to calculated fields used in Tableau.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution. We have 500 users.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy.
What other advice do I have?
The main difference between Power BI and Tableau is the cost. Power BI is much cheaper. Tableau is the best BI tool that I've worked on and is easier for developers to work with. However, there are many things that can be done in Power BI which can't be done in Tableau.
If you're starting working with Power BI, then I would suggest first getting experience with the free version of Tableau to understand and learn about data visualization. From there, moving to Power BI will be much easier as the tools are so similar.
I would rate it a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
MBA, MS Business Analytics at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Good visualization, simple to use, and easy to install
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Microsoft BI is its visualization and its ease of use."
- "I would like to see more visualization options."
What is our primary use case?
In general Microsoft, BI is used to build dashboards, and the analyzing of data as well as some econometrics.
How has it helped my organization?
Primarily, it's all about visualization and dashboards. My organization is large, and I don't believe Power BI as a tool has changed or revamped the entire organization; rather, it assists us in creating dashboards. It made things easier.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Microsoft BI is its visualization and its ease of use.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more visualization options. I have noticed that it's more driven by corporate data when you look at it. Because I work for the IMF, my data is slightly different, and the corporate solution does not always work.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Microsoft BI for one year.
We are using the most recent version.
It can be deployed both on-premises and on the cloud.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft BI has been good. I don't believe I have any issues with the stability aspect of it yet.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is good; for the time being, it serves the purpose of what we are trying to achieve. However, we haven't attempted to scale it very much.
There should be more than a hundred users in our organization. I'm only referring to the people who develop and implement changes, whereas people who use the dashboards and view them on the entire URL on that page represent the entire organization. There are about 100 or 200 people who actually work and develop things.
For the time being, we are only using it for dashboards because we have other tools for analytics and other things.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We work in such a way that we can use any tool and accomplish whatever we want. That's the way it works. I wouldn't be able to say that every team uses Power BI for the same purpose, but we have Power BI available to us and can use it however we see fit. I know that it is primarily used for dashboards at this point.
How was the initial setup?
I installed my own personal version of it, and it appeared to be pretty straightforward.
We have a large IT team to update and maintain this solution.
What about the implementation team?
In most cases, the setups are completed by our vendors. We only receive the finished product.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft BI a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Power BI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Popular Comparisons
Teradata
IBM Cognos
Amazon QuickSight
SAP Analytics Cloud
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform
Oracle OBIEE
MicroStrategy
Oracle Analytics Cloud
QlikView
Looker Studio
TIBCO Spotfire
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
Salesforce Einstein Analytics
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Power BI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- BI Reports for business users - which BI solutions should we choose?
- Business users moving from Tableau to MS Report builder
- Is Power BI a complete platform or only a visualization tool?
- What are the key advantages of OBIEE compared to Microsoft BI?
- What Is The Biggest Difference Between Microsoft BI and Oracle OBIEE?
- Is Microsoft Power BI good for an ETL process?
- How would you decide between Microsoft Power BI and TIBCO Spotfire?
- Is it easy to extract data from Oracle Fusion into Power BI?
- PowerBI or SyncFusion - which is better?
- What challenges to expect when migrating multiple dashboards from TIBCO Spotfire to Microsoft Power BI?