Microsoft Power BI Reviews

“highly customizable visuals”

Pros

This software is impressive. It lets you manipulate data in just about any way you can think of, giving users plenty of freedom to transform information and present it through a wide range of visualizations. On top of that the large number of external integrations, custom visuals and the strong community make it even more valuable.

Cons

To be honest, getting the most out of it is very difficult. For someone new even after the initial setup, it doesn't feel accessible at all and that learning curve can be tough. Even users coming from Tableau or similar tools may still find it challenging although that complexity really comes from how much functionality the platform provides.

“interactive dashboards that shine”

Pros

Coming from Excel, this feels like a very different tool and the features are not always simple to grasp right away. Once you start building charts and shaping the data behind them though, it becomes highly interactive. The drag and drop setup and filter options make it easy to present data exactly the way you want. The visuals also feel modern and really stand out in presentations. I would absolutely recommend this software especially for anyone working as a data analyst.

Cons

At the start, it is not the most user friendly platform but that mostly comes from how many features it offers. As you use it more, it gradually becomes easier to navigate day by day. There are also plenty of tutorial videos available from Microsoft and from other users which helps a lot while learning.

“quick reporting without coding”

Pros

Building complex reports with this platform feels very easy. It has made the whole reporting process much simpler for me and I no longer have to rely on my analytics team to write complicated queries just to create a report.

Cons

The fixed size canvas is really frustrating when putting together dashboards. I can't fit all the charts and graphs I need onto a single canvas.

“interactive dashboards with strong analytics”

Pros

Presents data in a clear, digestible way that makes it much easier to understand. The charts feel very user friendly and being able to drill down into the analytics behind each one gives far more depth than something like a chart in Excel.

Cons

Getting it up and running does take a fair amount of involvement from the IT team and that has caused delays with installation.

“Wide range of features”

Pros

Even from just using the free trial, it's clear this is a very powerful tool that can help any organization get a much better understanding of its data. It offers a wide range of features especially for high level reporting.

Cons

Learning curve is definitely a challenge. If you're coming from more traditional analytics tools, it may take a while to fully understand how to use this product.

“stunning reporting templates”

Pros

It has been really useful for creating reports to manage our weekly service requests. We work with a very large service request database and it handles pulling in that high volume of data well. On top of that we're able to generate reports using customized templates we already built within the tool which helps keep our reporting process consistent and efficient.

Cons

The software is quite heavy and uses a lot of storage and memory. Because of that, it can slow down at times which gets frustrating.

“Reliable data analysis tool”

Pros

We work with data in ways we simply couldn't before. It's a reliable solid platform for handling and analyzing data.

Cons

Getting the software fully set up and configured the way you need can take some time. That said, once the setup is finished and users are properly trained, it performs very well.

“accurate and live insights”

Pros

It does a really nice job of giving end users a simple interface. It's quick to build reports, pull real time analytics and set up custom dashboards so people can view information in whatever way works best for them.

Cons

On the downside, the formulas feel pretty rigid which can make the backend more complicated than it should be. The dashboards are useful but they can also end up feeling overcrowded. It handles a fair amount of data for us though I'm still unsure how well it performs with very large data volumes.

“engaging visuals at a steal”

Pros

Power BI feels like an absolute powerhouse to use. The biggest highlight for me is the huge variety of visualizations it offers, both the built in ones and the extra options you can download from the marketplace. It also lets you work with Python and R libraries like pandas and matplotlib which adds a lot of flexibility. Out of the box, it supports more than 30 data sources for importing which is really impressive. On top of that you get two programming languages, DAX and M, to work with. That makes it possible to build your own measures using solid, well documented formulas and get exactly the results you need. And the pricing is incredibly good too. At $10 per user, it honestly feels like a bargain.

Cons

Editing imported data can either become very complicated, like when you have to build a custom dictionary list and join it with the right cardinality or it can be completely impossible if the data doesn't include a unique identifier. Another annoyance comes up when adjusting interactions between visuals and slicers. If the tiles are packed too closely together, the buttons for choosing those interactions can end up hidden behind other visuals which makes the process awkward.

“interactive reports that save time”

Pros

Compared with Excel, this feels like a much better option. You still need to import files from Excel but once they're in, the process becomes much simpler. The formulas almost seem to generate themselves which saves a lot of time when putting reports together. The interface is user friendly, looks more interactive and the charts are excellent. Building reports is really simple and I genuinely enjoyed using it.

Cons

One downside is that it takes longer to launch than Excel. I'm also not sure whether it's just on my end but I run into issues when I try to select the option to view recovered files.

“Amazing dashboards for every team”

Pros

Dashboard creation is excellent. You connect a data source, choose how you want the information presented and it brings the data to life. I really enjoy building dashboards for our different departments. Once our staff compares these reports and dashboards to the old Excel spreadsheets or Access reports they used before, they're immediately sold on it.

Cons

The back end can feel overwhelming. At times, it's hard to get the data to appear exactly the way you need. There are just so many options, features and ways to do things that it can become a lot to manage. My biggest complaint is that the back end is not as user friendly as some other tools. And when I compare it to something one of my users could put together in Excel, it can be difficult to reproduce the exact reporting they want. I have to spend time figuring out how to present it which can feel a bit overwhelming.

“clear visuals”

Pros

Does a really good job of presenting data in a way that's easy for a non-technical audience to understand.

Cons

When it comes to very specific statistical analysis though, the software feels a bit limited.

“Excel based dashboards for teams”

Pros

Works really well for pulling data from Excel and turning it into dashboards that can be shared with a wide audience.

Cons

Getting everything set up in the beginning can be challenging and it takes a while to understand the different features. The sharing options are also not very easy to use so making reports easily accessible to other users can be difficult.

“limited features”

Pros

Its a smart data visualization tool that makes it simple to spot trends and support better business performance. Setting up custom reports was simple and the platform was user friendly overall.

Cons

Even though it's a solid product, it does feel a bit restricted in terms of features when compared with some competing tools.

“Impressive dashboards”

Pros

Coming from the broader Microsoft Office ecosystem, this felt like the obvious choice when I needed to build a live, constantly updated dashboard. It's very straightforward to use, almost plug and play and a lot of the functionality feels familiar if you've already spent time working with other Microsoft tools. When the company already runs on Microsoft Office, access is rarely a problem which makes rolling out the dashboard and getting people to use it regularly much simpler.

Cons

Dashboard design could be better especially when compared with some other BI platforms. The available templates are decent but the selection still feels limited when I need to build a more specific or customized type of dashboard.

“dynamic insights for our team”

Pros

Pulls from a wide range of data sources and turns that information into interactive, dynamic visuals that help my team uncover useful insights. When something stands out in the data, we can drill down further and keep exploring to better understand the story behind the numbers.

Cons

Power BI does have a learning curve so updating or changing our dashboards usually takes a solid understanding of the data and often requires time from the development team.

“high value tool”

Pros

When this tool is configured correctly and managed by the right person, it delivers a lot of value. It's our primary reporting platform for tracking metrics and because our company relies heavily on data, it helps us make better-informed decisions.

Cons

I work with it regularly but since I wasn't involved in the initial setup, I can't really comment on any downsides. From where I stand, it's been a very useful tool.

“versatile reporting and visuals”

Pros

You can turn data into any kind of report you want, whether that's graphs, tables or charts. It's one of the best tools for presenting information in a clear and flexible way.

Cons

At times, live reporting through SQL Server can be a bit challenging to work with.

“quick reporting”

Pros

Compared with Cognos and even Tableau, Power BI feels much more flexible and simpler to work with though Tableau has been catching up thanks to the Prep tool.

Cons

The downside is that it can become extremely slow unless you keep a close eye on performance and continually fine-tune it and Microsoft also tends to take a long time rolling out upgrades.

“Endless flexibility with data presentation”

Pros

Even with very little experience, the visualizations you can build are pretty amazing. Like a lot of Microsoft tools, it offers a huge amount of capability so you can accomplish quite a bit without any formal training. And once you spend time learning it more deeply, there's almost no limit to what you can do from a visualization standpoint. We're also able to connect it to our on-prem SQL database without any trouble.

Cons

Getting started doesn't take much but becoming truly proficient with the program takes time, patience and plenty of trial and error. It can definitely be frustrating when you're trying to make it behave exactly the way you want.