Microsoft Power BI Reviews

I primarily use Power BI for data visualization. I build dashboards on Power BI, which are then distributed to a larger audience for day-to-day operations, like data management and similar tasks. 

In some cases, I have used Power BI to manage very large data sets, which isn't possible with Excel, Access, or other tools. I created custom solutions on Power BI that allow users to cut and slice through the data we have. These are the two main use cases I've observed so far.

One of the key factors why I use Power BI is because it's very flexible with other Microsoft tools. The entire ETL process is easy and supports many databases, allowing data pipelines from multiple sources to be gathered in one place for visualization. This is the key aspect I like about it.

Real-time data integration is an area for improvement. Although I've worked on several solutions involving real-time integration, it's not very user-friendly and often lags, especially with over a million data rows. This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today. 

There are challenges with scalability, requiring multiple pages in dashboards to manage these issues. Visualization could be improved as it appears outdated. Users, especially newcomers, find it unappealing and not user-friendly.

I have used it for almost five to six years.

It's stable, with no significant issues. In terms of stability, there's no data loss or leakage, and precautions are well-managed by Microsoft. If data is stored in Power BI, it's secure from corruption. However, while loading data, I've seen it crash multiple times requiring restarts. Such issues surface occasionally.

It's not great in terms of scalability. There are better scalable products available. I've worked in two segments: one with a company with 200 employees where dashboards were internal, and another in a consulting firm with larger-scale templates for up to 4,000 users. You expect only a small percentage of users concurrently, but beyond a thousand concurrent users, it becomes difficult to manage.

Customer service is good, and I'd rate it above eight, specifically eight point five out of ten.

It depends on the person regarding the learning curve. The UI presents challenges, requiring one or two sessions to guide users through functionalities. There is a learning curve. For developers, Power BI is easier due to available user features in Microsoft suite, but end users find it challenging.

The ROI is high for small teams or basic use cases with limited datasets. Power BI is easy to deploy within an hour, providing robust security against data leaks. However, as data complexity and user capacity increase, moving to other solutions may be beneficial. For small use cases, Power BI offers significant ROI.

We bought it as a package deal with other Microsoft suite features and deployed it on Azure. Power BI isn't very cheap, however, it is economical compared to other solutions available.

I have not seen Power BI associated with machine learning or data science. It is a clear-cut data visualization tool without overlaps in AI. 

The overall product rating is six out of ten.

On-premises

Power BI is our development visualization system for general analytics and data reporting. I position it on top of our data warehouse, SharePoint data, Excel data, or any available data. It is used for internal purposes, allowing network-wide access from physicians to nurses to operational leaders. We have upwards of 16,000 users.

Power BI is a general-use visualization system. I can express the performance of our network through high-level key performance indicators. It allows me to show detailed improvements in quality and safety and patient experience. I create improvement dashboards for task forces and work teams. I have built analytic dashboards that guide analytics, enabling research and dataset manipulation.

Microsoft updates Power BI monthly based on user community feedback, investing significantly in research and development. They are integrating it into their workspace with Microsoft Fabric and other tools to ensure seamless integration with Excel and their suite of tools.

I have been using it for about eight years here.

Since it is Microsoft, we have a team acting as our gatekeeper for all support services. We typically do not have problems with end-user tools like Excel and Power BI. These tools tend to work smoothly, so there is little need to engage customer service.

Visualization systems are still relatively young. With increasing AI capabilities, architectural developments within Microsoft, and tools like Fabric, I expect Power BI to scale accordingly. Although it is new, it performs well, and it is doing a good job. It is not leading the charge on scalability, but it meets expectations.

For those, I would give them a nine. We have a partnership with Microsoft, involving multiple weekly calls with dedicated personnel to ensure our satisfaction.

Positive

We used QlikView before switching to Microsoft. We believed this change would yield a more scalable and integrated solution. We consolidated our tools, converted everything to the new system, and cancelled our agreement with QlikView.

The initial setup is very straightforward. It does not take long to deploy.

Anyone can download it from the Internet and start using a shareware version, building on datasets independently. We have pro licenses for some developers who perform analytics, BI engineering, and development tasks.

QlikView is a niche system that fulfills its purpose but lacks Microsoft's resources in research and development. It was not a bad system, however, Microsoft's solution was perceived to be more advantageous and suitable for our long-term goals.

The system can be used by individual users and scales for small to large companies. I would give it a nine out of ten. 

Microsoft offers a generative AI solution called Copilot. They are integrating it, although it is still developing. OpenAI is also integrated, but its capabilities are still emerging.

My use case is not extensive because I am using a module of Eightfold. As a financial controller, I am not directly involved in recruitment myself. I have only seen it on someone else's screen, so I am not a good judge of the solution.

The main feature I find valuable is the possibility to work with an extensive amount of data. While you can achieve some of this with Excel, it takes much longer to perform calculations. 

Power BI processes data differently, efficiently utilizing memory for detailed-level processing. The visual capabilities are another significant advantage over Excel, though Excel continues to improve. Access, however, does not compare in terms of graphical evolutions like those in Qlik. 

Furthermore, the potential to use custom add-ons in Power BI is restricted if you do not use native Microsoft products, which is understandable for quality control. Ultimately, the ability to handle large volumes of data and provide dynamic selections is a considerable benefit. In today's data-driven environment, these tools are of substantial value, particularly for large enterprises with numerous processes that require extensive data analysis.

Sometimes in Power BI, the logic can be challenging to follow. For example, Access worked well by differentiating between the data and the processes applied to the data, which were clearly separate stages. In many applications, including Excel, you finalize the layout with ease. 

With Qlik, though, you are often required to first manipulate data tables before assessing how they look in the report, which might feel counterintuitive to someone accustomed to Access's approach. Access was more logical in how it distinguished between data and its formatting. 

Despite this dual-check process feeling odd, once familiar with it, you adapt. I believe maintaining a clearer distinction, like Access, between data handling and formatting would benefit those new to Power BI.

I have been using the solution for about one year, however, not on a daily basis. I started working with a few layouts last year and recently have worked on another layout. I would consider myself a beginner.

I would rate the stability as a seven out of ten. It's not a bad grade, as I know of better products in this field. However, if starting from nothing, I believe most people would rate it higher.

The significant drawback I notice is that Microsoft's size makes it hard to get specific change requests addressed unless they involve a bug. With smaller suppliers, it's easier to request changes. 

Unfortunately, with Microsoft, you must accept the product as it is. I presume there exists a structured first line of support, but I have not used it, so I cannot comment further.

Neutral

The initial setup is not very easy. Understanding the logic of how to work with that solution takes some time. Unlike Excel, which immediately provides results for input formulas, Power BI requires using DAX code for simple operations, which can be restrictive. 

Certain basic tasks, like bolding a column in the middle of a table, are not possible. While it has many impressive capabilities, Excel feels more open and flexible. Excel seldom leaves you with the sense that a function cannot be done. Power BI, however, can feel more limited in that regard.

There is a substantial benefit to using Power BI. In a world surrounded by data, tools that allow navigation of large data volumes ensure decisions are data-driven. Investing in such tools has a high value, especially for large companies with numerous processes and data demands. Power BI is strategically essential for analyzing large data sets.

I must note that Power BI is not as powerful as Qlik, which is a comparable solution offering superior dynamic data selection. Qlik’s filters are more efficient, especially if detailed data filtering is crucial. 

Power BI's filters are basic in comparison, and the advanced filters can feel awkward. Therefore, if extensive filtering is needed, I believe Qlik is a better choice.

Overall, I would rate the solution as an eight out of ten. 

While Excel has become increasingly capable, making significant improvements, Power BI offers advantages for certain users. Medium-sized companies might find Excel sufficient and of good value. Excel’s evolution with functions like XLOOKUP over VLOOKUP offers ease of use. 

Additionally, tools like Copilot bring another dimension of capabilities. Although Excel is not free, it remains a versatile tool. Some achieve excellent dashboard results with it, comparable to Power BI.

Public Cloud

I use Microsoft Power BI as a customer and within the organization to create dashboards and insights into data. I also build dashboards and use Microsoft Power BI to analyze data.

One of the most valuable features of Microsoft Power BI is its easy way of sharing data within the organization or outside. Users can publish dashboards easily. Additionally, within the organization, Microsoft Power BI is used to create dashboards and gain insights into data, enhancing data-driven decision-making.

One area where Microsoft Power BI could improve is the handling of date calculations. It takes effort to organize dates in graphs in the correct order, often requiring programming conversions or manipulations. Performance can be an issue when there's too much data, and getting data into Microsoft Power BI via APIs can be slow. This may be due to the technology used to import the data. Enhancing performance and data uploading, especially with APIs, would be beneficial.

I have been working with Microsoft Power BI for four or five years.

I'm not sure about the technical setup time as another department handled it. However, the rollout took a couple of months, and it took close to a year to make the functionality fully available to everyone.

On average, Microsoft Power BI is quite stable, though there are occasional hiccups related to performance or issues which might be due to other factors like network or user errors.

Microsoft Power BI scores around six out of ten for scalability. As more data is processed, performance issues may arise.

I haven't interacted much with technical support, but it seems okay, around a six or seven. There's a lot of available knowledge and training on Microsoft Power BI.

Neutral

Before Microsoft Power BI, we used Splunk to create similar dashboards. Many switched to Microsoft Power BI as it was easier to learn and publish. Splunk is more log-based, whereas Microsoft Power BI is more generic. We also used Excel previously.

The initial setup was not complicated for me. However, the dual nature of the desktop and online versions can be confusing, leading to uncertainty about where certain tasks should be performed.

I recommend Microsoft Power BI to others. I rate the solution overall around a seven as it accomplishes its tasks most of the time. However, performance issues or lack of certain features can arise in certain cases. I would rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.

Public Cloud

Other

Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence tool, and we take the data which was preprocessed, refined, cleaned, transformed, and loaded so that it can be used by Microsoft Power BI to get insights from it.

We represent the data using various visualizations such as bar charts and diagrams. By utilizing these functionalities, we gain better insights about the data. It also provides connectivity through various data sources such as SSIS, SSAS, Azure SQL, Synapse Analytics, and Data Lake, allowing Microsoft Power BI to be used efficiently. Additionally, it plays a major role in ETL tasks as well.

The interactive elements in Microsoft Power BI enable us to perform drill-up, drill-down operations, and drill-throughs, and the various types of visualizations, including charts, graphs, maps, matrices, tables, and slices, make it highly adaptable for different case scenarios. The measures help us carry out aggregations and calculations to provide the necessary business insights, such as representing total sales or tracking growth year by year.

For business use cases, real-time data from Microsoft Power BI could be very impactful. With AI in Microsoft Power BI, when we ingest the data and use the GenAI tools at our disposal, AI helps automate the process and represent the visualizations to our customers and clients. For instance, if we want to analyze the growth pattern in the last quarter, the tools can assess the visualization presented and provide us with specific responses.

The interactive elements in Microsoft Power BI enable us to perform drill-up, drill-down operations, and drill-throughs, and the various types of visualizations, including charts, graphs, maps, matrices, tables, and slices, make it highly adaptable for different case scenarios.

The measures help us carry out aggregations and calculations to provide the necessary business insights, such as representing total sales or tracking growth year by year.

With AI in Microsoft Power BI, when we ingest the data and use the GenAI tools at our disposal, AI helps automate the process and represent the visualizations to our customers and clients. For instance, if we want to analyze the growth pattern in the last quarter, the tools can assess the visualization presented and provide us with specific responses.

The low-code, no-code feature in Microsoft Power BI is quite beneficial for business analysts and related associates to work better with it and create meaningful and valuable insights.

The low-code, no-code feature in Microsoft Power BI could be enhanced for business analysts and related associates to work better with it and create meaningful and valuable insights.

If changes are made in the data lake or Synapse and analytics, a useful feature would be for Microsoft Power BI to sense these updates and apply them automatically.

I have been working with Microsoft Power BI for around one year.

I haven't faced any issues while working with Microsoft Power BI. Every time I log into Microsoft Power BI, it works seamlessly without crashes or performance issues, providing a good overall experience.

I haven't faced any issues while working with Microsoft Power BI. Every time I log into Microsoft Power BI, it works seamlessly without crashes or performance issues, providing a good overall experience.

Reaching out to technical support regarding Microsoft Power BI is very rare; mostly, our work can be carried out efficiently without needing assistance. I would rate Microsoft technical support an eight on a scale of one to ten.

Positive

The initial setup of Microsoft Power BI was managed by another team that set up the VDI, so I didn't encounter challenges during its introduction.

The initial setup of Microsoft Power BI was managed by another team that set up the VDI, so I didn't encounter challenges during its introduction.

The pricing of Microsoft Power BI is affordable compared to Tableau, making it accessible, especially with a wide Microsoft community and strong enterprise support.

I have an understanding of Tableau in addition to Microsoft Power BI. Some UI features highlight the differences between Microsoft Power BI and Tableau. The pricing of Microsoft Power BI is affordable compared to Tableau, making it accessible, especially with a wide Microsoft community and strong enterprise support.

I am currently working in the field of data engineering, utilizing tools such as PySpark, PySpark SQL, Python, integration services through SQL Server, and analytical services.

Since the work has been done on migration, I also possess knowledge about AWS and Azure.

I work with Python and have experience with both PyCharm and Visual Studio IDEs.

Reaching out to technical support regarding Microsoft Power BI is very rare as most of our work can be carried out efficiently without needing assistance.

Based on my experience, I would rate Microsoft Power BI a 9 out of 10.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

We use it specifically for pure data analysis. 

I like the speed of building a visual and the transformation feature where you can make changes to the data, and then revert back very fast. These features, where you make transformations and then delete that step when you don't need them, are some of the best.

Power BI's integration with other tools is very good. With Power BI, if there are other systems on the network, you can easily connect to anything like SQL Server, Oracle, Amazon, Salesforce, SAP...anything you can easily connect. I have not faced difficulties with that.

The real-time data refresh capabilities is one of the things I had issues with. The refresh sometimes doesn't really work very well because there are two ways of connecting: direct and import. 

When it's direct, it's refreshed, but then you have limitations. But when you import the data, I feel there is always a limitation in the refresh. It is kind of like a room for improvement for Microsoft Power BI to work more on these real-time data refresh capabilities.

Microsoft Power BI changes almost every month; make changes regularly. I sometimes even see features that disappear, change, and update. So, I'm not keeping up. They are already doing a lot of changes. They keep updating regularly.

I have been using it for six to seven years. 

It's quite stable. Power BI is very stable.

It is very scalable. Almost everyone in our company uses it. 

I personally use it daily. 

I don't usually deal with customer service and support. It's our technical team that deals with them, but I don't see them complaining.

I used Excel. Power BI can crunch the data faster, and you can build a dashboard nicer and faster. Building a visual in Power BI is always easier, quicker, and simpler than Excel. It's Excel on steroids. 

I used to use Excel pivot tables a lot, but with Power BI, it's faster. It's easier to play with the data. If I want to make a list or put some formulas and stuff, Excel is good. But if I want to visualize the data, crunch it properly, and build measures quickly, Power BI is better.

I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, with ten being easy and one being very difficult. 

It is deployed both on-premises and the cloud. 

The deployment time varies and depends on the company. Every company is different. Here, internally, we have Microsoft Power BI Cloud, so it's easy. 

But in the previous company, we did not have Microsoft Cloud. So, to install, we had to install Microsoft Reporting Server and then Power BI internally. That took quite a while. 

But if you have Microsoft Cloud in your company, that's easy. And it's quicker on the cloud than on-premises.

Maybe a third party helped with the deployment. 

Downloading Power BI Desktop is free. But when you want to use the cloud, this is where I think it's per user payment. I'm not really very familiar with the licensing because I think they have more than one level. 

But to use Power BI internally for yourself, it's free. You download it. It's a free application.

I would recommend Power BI to other people. Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

In my company, we use Microsoft Power BI only for monitoring because now it is the only software you can use to connect to Azure DevOps. We use the tool to monitor our environment, activities, and KPIs and evaluate bug rates and future values. In our company, we use agile scrum methodology, and for every activity that we create in our backlog, we monitor the life of the activity in our backlog. When we deliver the above-mentioned features, we use the Microsoft Power BI to monitor and create KPIs.

The dashboard is very nice and it is very simple to understand every single component. You would use a new task manager to monitor goals to manage your team, but I don't like that and would prefer to work with and learn a new tool that does monitoring. Sometimes, we use Azure to measure every dashboard and to monitor the activity in the scrum, but only under the dashboard. For example, more or less the two or three KPIs can be monitored using your monitoring tool.

In our company, we don't have any big problems with the tool because I have only one member from the main team who works on Microsoft Power BI to create, or sometimes, when we push the request to bring a new dashboard in the tool. I currently have two members working on the same dashboard, but only one member can work on the dashboard at a time. Whenever you work on the same dashboard or on the same code, Microsoft Power BI doesn't have a good architecture that allows multiple people to work on the same project.

I have been using Microsoft Power BI for a year.

It is a stable solution. The tool is static after you create the language and put it inside the dashboard. You can schedule the report at a particular time in the day, making it a very simple tool with a scheduler to run your reports. I think it is a stable tool, but we don't stress a lot on our infrastructure with Microsoft Power BI. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

For me, scalability is hard to learn. I don't think it is a good tool for which the scalability part should be evaluated.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a five out of ten.

The technical support for the solution is very fast, but finding the right technical person is not easy. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

The problem with Microsoft Power BI is that we can use any language or developer language. Now, we have a small problem when different members of my team work on the same project on the same dashboard. We now connect Microsoft Power BI to Git, and we deliver it, but, of course, the tool is not engineered to function in such a manner. We face issues when lots of members work together.

The solution is deployed on a private cloud model, but I don't know what infrastructure is needed to use it. Five months ago, my company switched from the tool's on-premises version to the cloud one.

I find Microsoft Power BI to be the most effective for data integration.

Microsoft Power BI actually dramatically improved our company's data visualization, and if we are lucky, then we have the features inside of the tool itself, which we can develop, and it is a very fast process. When you need a new feature or a new dashboard, and when we don't have any good news on the internet from Microsoft, we need to develop such features from scratch, for which we spend a lot of time creating a new dashboard for monitoring purposes.

Microsoft Power BI impacted our operational costs, and the benefits are nice because you can monitor everything. The advantage that we have in Microsoft Power BI is something we need to learn, especially the new language and new tool, but it is not our focus because I am the leader of the software engineering team. Microsoft Power BI Power is a tool to support my team, and my first activity involved managing tasks.

Microsoft Power BI has handled scalability as our company's data analytics needs have grown because you can use the tool's scalability feature on the cloud. If I need to add a new member to work on Microsoft Power BI, I don't think it is good because every single person can work on a single dashboard offered by the tool, but if you would scale up, then you won't be able to work using one dashboard.

Though I have no idea how the maintenance is done, I know that it is a process carried out by our company's team members.

I rate the tool a five out of ten.

Private Cloud

I use Microsoft Power BI for data visualization and IT studies. It is used primarily in my academic studies and courses, particularly in my visualization course, which is part of a master's program for individuals currently working in the industry. Students also use similar programs like Excel to monitor various issues.

Using Microsoft Power BI has significantly helped in analyzing large datasets. The solution allows for visualizing and connecting different Microsoft applications, which is beneficial for academic purposes.

The best features of Microsoft Power BI include its integration with other Microsoft products and its ability to connect applications within the Microsoft ecosystem. The product's overall integration within Microsoft's ecosystem is one of its strong points.

There are a few areas where Microsoft Power BI could be improved. For instance, spatial data support should be enhanced. Currently, it supports only topoJSON format for spatial files; other formats such as shapefiles or KML should also be supported to broaden the library.

I have been using Microsoft Power BI for at least five years.

The stability of Microsoft Power BI is quite good. I would rate it a nine out of ten. However, there can be some difficulty in handling very large datasets, but overall, the stability is strong.

Dealing with very large datasets can be a bit difficult, which impacts the scalability to some extent.

I would rate Microsoft's customer support a seven out of ten. This rating may be influenced by my location in Turkey, making access to support somewhat challenging.

Neutral

I have used several other solutions, including Tableau and Looker. Each has its advantages, but generally, I prefer Microsoft Power BI first, followed by Qlik, and then Tableau.

The initial setup of Microsoft Power BI is straightforward and can be managed without significant issues. Using it for academic purposes, we mainly use the desktop version.

For companies, the program is cost-efficient. Academically, we use Microsoft Power BI for free through the licenses provided.

I evaluated Tableau, Looker, and Qlik before deciding on Microsoft Power BI. Each of these solutions has its own unique advantages.

Given the increasing need to analyze large datasets, I would definitely recommend Microsoft Power BI. It is a valuable tool for both academic and practical applications, particularly for those involved in data analysis and IT studies.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

On-premises