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Microsoft Power BI Reviews

4.6 (1,768) Write a Review!

About Microsoft Power BI

Power BI is a unified, scalable platform for self-service and enterprise business intelligence (BI).

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Pros:

The biggest positive that Power BI has going for it is that it was included as part of my organization's O365 subscription.

Cons:

The UI is clunky, the data model is not very intuitive to set up, performance is slow, especially compared to other tools. No build in box and whisker plots was a huge downside too.

Microsoft Power BI ratings

Average score

Ease of Use
4.1
Customer Service
4.1
Features
4.5
Value for Money
4.4

Likelihood to recommend

8.6/ 10

Microsoft Power BI has an overall rating of 4.6 out 5 stars based on 1,768 user reviews on Capterra.

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Filter reviews (1,768)

Mauro
Mauro
Project manager in Brazil
Verified LinkedIn User
Automotive, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Data from power BI

5.0 2 months ago New

Comments: I use to make charts to understand volumes, timelines and get important data to conduct te manegement of proje

Pros:

The easy way to build visible smart charts, starting from the excel file.

Cons:

The update function with excel files could be easier.

Davide
Sales Manager in US
Chemicals, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

My Experience with Microsoft Power BI

5.0 2 months ago New

Pros:

Its an easy to use tool that allows you to analyze data like a pro. The tool has many features and capability such as statistical analysis, data cleaning, reporting and data visualization. It offers seamless integration with Microsoft ecosystem.

Cons:

There is nothing that was so odd with the tool.

Nicolas
Data manager in France
Government Administration, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Probably the worst dataviz software out there

1.0 11 months ago

Comments: Go Tableau, only one which deserves my attention

Pros:

None, it's really everyday just another bad stuff happening

Cons:

It's slow, buggy, you can't do what you want to do, counter intuitive, no community

Harlan
Data Technician in UK
Marketing & Advertising, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Power Bi is a god send

5.0 3 months ago

Comments: Very positive, we are planning on migrating all of our reports back onto power BI after some issues we have had with the google suite. Learning it was very simple given some basic prior knowledge but more advanced knowledge is required to access the full extent of the application.

Pros:

I love power query and the many options which are available for report customization. I really like how intuitive it all was for me especially merging complex data sets. The DAX code allows complex functions when processing data to divine advanced insights.

Cons:

My least favourite thing about power bi is definitely the formatting options. In terms of making things the same size and auto aligning correctly it can sometimes be quite a hassle.

Harpreet
Continuous improvement specialist in Canada
Automotive, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Data Visualization

5.0 last month New

Comments: I am using BI in my current and last company and it is one of the best tool to manage and share visualization

Pros:

Very best tool for visualization and data management

Cons:

One wrong DAX query can mess all the connected tables

Jace
Sr. Project Manager in US
Computer Software, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

#1 in the industry for a reason

5.0 2 months ago New

Pros:

This is one of the best analytics tools on the market. We can combine multiple data sources into 1 report, create relationships and many other amazing things.

Cons:

The licensing and limited capabilities to share to others. Also, it requires a lot of memory to run on a laptop, I recommend buying some additional RAM

Erika
Data Analyst in Germany
Information Technology & Services, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Microsoft Power BI

5.0 3 weeks ago New

Pros:

It provides robust data visualization tools that make it easier to analyze and present complex information

Cons:

Some customization options may feel limited compared to other BI tools

Sar
Marketing in Australia
Entertainment, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Good visualisation but requires correct set up

5.0 2 months ago New

Comments: Good experience easy to have everything in one place

Pros:

Nice visualisation and easy to filter everything

Cons:

Sometimes the data is wrong but that’s cause of different reasons

Mel Elizabeth
Artist in Canada
Arts & Crafts, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Happy User

5.0 last month New

Comments: Overall, Power BI has made my work much better.

Pros:

There are so many different stats that can be tracked

Cons:

I find some of the reporting a bit confusing at times.

Changli
Planner in Australia
Mining & Metals, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Good Visulization Tool but not so Flexible

4.0 last month New

Comments: It's a powerful tool to analyze and summarize big data. However it's slow when dealing some data sources.

Pros:

Power BI has pretty visuals to visualize data for people to understand. It's powerful in big data processing and providing a summary.

Cons:

The functions are limited by available visuals. It's not so flexible as Excel.

Bernhard
Business Manager - Data and Analytics in Netherlands
Computer Software, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Power BI - Excel on steroids

5.0 6 months ago

Comments: I learnt Power BI capabilities first through Excel Power Pivot and then rolled out Power BI at my company. I liked it so much that I moved to consultancy and now support companies in rolling out Power BI as a career. I only work with Power BI as I genuinely prefer it over other BI tools.

Pros:

Coming from a business background I found Power Bi easy to access, learn and ultimately master. It combines the best of both worlds: easy access and powerful capabilities.

Cons:

There’s a few (isolated) things where competitive solutions may have a better capabilities : maps are one of them.

Galaad
Supply Chain Analyst in France
Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Ease of use and great on-boarding experience

5.0 last year

Comments: I am a supply chain analyst. I use the product daily for reporting and ad-hoc analysis. I often confronted to massive data base and multiple data source. PBI empowers me to build complex data model and produce sharps dashboard for others user in my organisation.

Pros:

I really like the profusion of learning media for PBI (webinar, forum, microsoft learning experience and LinkedIn Learning). You can learn at your pace. Quickstarting is easy. Becoming proficient require a bit more patience but is relatively easy for people using other microsoft tools (Excel). I like that the product is deployed in many company. The competencies are transferable. I like the well defined working environnement (Query -> BI -> Viz) and the provided editor that are really enabling for people like me that are not developper by trade. Automation of import, analysis and viz is also a real game changer for people that were dependant on Excel before.

Cons:

I dislike the lack of userfriendly info for more complex developpement. I feel not guided enough regarding more technical information regarding the product.

Katie
Co-Owner in UK
Retail, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Our trusty BI tool for all-things data

5.0 last year

Comments: I've been a huge fan of Power BI since we switched to it from Excel. We use it to create dashboards, set up automated reports, and anything else that requires reporting. In the years that I've used it, I've very rarely ran into bugs or performance issues. It's relatively easy to set up, has very advanced reporting capabilities, and tons of integrations you can set up pretty easily to pull data from different places. You can't fault it for BI.

Pros:

We used to use Excel but switched over to Power BI for the more advanced features. And they've been very very handy for us. The data cleaning works a lot better, there's tons more cutomization options, and some integrations have been made much easier compared to just Excel.

Cons:

The imterface isn't the best to be honest, especially compared to stuff like Tableu. But gets the job done nonetheless.

Anonymous reviewer
Transportation/Trucking/Railroad, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Microsoft PowerBi review

5.0 4 months ago

Comments: I have created multiple dashboards, and I love it

Pros:

Powerful software, improving all the time.

Cons:

No much to dislike :), this software is excellent

Nicolas
Supervisor in Dominican Republic
Consumer Services, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

One of the best tools available for reporting Live Data

5.0 6 months ago

Pros:

Being able to look at everything I need at a quick glance.

Cons:

The numbers shown are highly sensitive to errors and the raw data must be uploaded carefully to ensure there won't be issues with the reports

Victor
Pharmacy Manager in US
Pharmaceuticals, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Power BI used at a pharmacy

4.0 8 months ago

Comments: It is simple to use at the pharmacy and gives us a clear picture of how the store is doing. Since we are only looking at data, it is very practical.

Pros:

The ease of use allows for daily access of the stores information. It give us the opportunity to compare numbers to the previous year and see any trends

Cons:

The charts created can be easier to read. The x and y axis aren’t usually labeled so if we are looking at the chart without knowing what info it is charting it can be confusing

Vanessa
Vanessa
Operational Finance in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Construction Software, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Share reports interactively

5.0 6 months ago

Comments: As I have used this tool for my work area, it has allowed me to share reports with my team or clients, and it helps my clients understand new projects in an interactive and easy way.

Pros:

Microsoft Power BI has offered me a wide range of visualizations, as it has charts that help present data or information accurately. Additionally, its ease of use has made it easy for me to adopt this tool quickly.

Cons:

I have found the subscription to be a bit expensive; however, it does have a free version, which I find impressive.

Christy
Regional Network Performance Analyst in UK
Information Technology & Services, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Excellent tool

5.0 2 months ago

Comments: Excellent experience with the tool as I use it daily for my performance review.

Pros:

Th ease of use and the various features of the tool.

Cons:

The tool is difficult to navigate for first time users.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Market Research Software, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Power BI- Essential to learn if you want to be a data analytics champ

5.0 last year

Comments: Its a very impressive tool, if anyone wants to play with data or this is the most important tool for data analytics and also it helps business owner too as it helps them to easily see their company performance

Pros:

Ease of use and Data visualization- Power BI lets you turn data into insights with ease. No coding is needed, just drag and drop. Beautiful charts and graphs highlight trends and patterns you wouldn't see in spreadsheets, making data exploration a breeze, even for beginners. Analyze faster, understand deeper, and make informed decisions - all thanks to Power BI's user-friendly magic.

Cons:

Sometimes it is slow and especially when dealing with large datasets or complex queries.

Bodamer
Foreign Language and Localization Administrator in Germany
Translation & Localization, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Microsoft Power BI is a reliable source of truth. It provides very accurate insights about our business.

5.0 8 months ago

Comments: It has been a very solid working experience with Microsoft Power BI. It has proved to us time abd again to be a very reliable source of truth by providing us with accurate insights that help us understand our business performance. It also guide us to take actions to optimize our business operations.

Pros:

Microsoft Power BI has very powerful data analysis tools which allows us to get very accurate and in-detail insights about our business performance. The reporting tool works so excellently and is very easy to use. It provides all our data and information with optimum security which helps us avoid loosing sensitive information.

Cons:

No dislikes about Microsoft Power BI. There is nothing challenging about it to comment about.

Issac
Senior Engineer in India
Automotive, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

A professional business intelligence tool

4.0 3 months ago

Comments: I use it primarily for developing dasboards and the whole experience is great from creating the dashboard to publishing it in workspaces everything is seamless

Pros:

Very easy to connect to a wide variety of datasources such as sharepoint List,SQL Databses and excel files . The data transform option supports a wide variety of data manipulation and data cleaning options which makes data modelling very easy It supports a lot of inbuilt visualization graphs and figures with an easy drag and drop functionality.

Cons:

Only the data loading while working on large datasets takes a lot of time if that can be improved a really great tool

Angela
Angela
SharePoint Developer in South Africa
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Microsoft Power BI from a SharePoint Dev

5.0 last year

Comments: The steepest slope to climb was formula syntax. It was a lot of testing in excel and trying to convert to Power BI. Luckily the forums are helpful, and most formulas are already available to copy and paste from the forums too.

Pros:

I enjoyed the natural availability of Microsoft Power BI within SharePoint lists. It made quick dashboards and quick visuals easy, without having to navigate between different programs, I could just do it all in the same browser window.

Cons:

The licensing and sharing was confusing and frustrating to begin with, but I guess any product has to make money somehow. We can't get everything for free.

olamide
performance analyst in UK
Automotive, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

seamless data sharing

5.0 2 months ago

Comments: Its data visualization and the integration between other Microsoft products make its easy to work

Pros:

I really appreciate the seamless integration between all the tools in power and easy to link to excel and power point.

Cons:

What I like least about Microsoft Power BI is for beginners it could be overwhelming.

Galateya
Executive Administrative Assistant in Bulgaria
Computer & Network Security, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Recommendation for Microsoft Power BI

5.0 4 months ago

Comments: My overall experience with Microsoft Power BI is super positive

Pros:

The most I like about Power BI is the automation and how it made my work life easy when it comes to making reports.

Cons:

There is nothing I like least, in general there are only Pros for Power BI

Sarin
Information Service in India
Information Services, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

MS Power BI streamlined my data analysis!

5.0 4 months ago

Comments: Easily connecting data sources is great, and recent improvements have improved visualization
choices.

Pros:

I've used various data tools, but Power BI is easier.

Cons:

The program might be slow when handling large datasets, which is aggravating.