Microsoft Power BI

Transform data into interactive visualizations for informed business decisions.

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  • Overview
  • Features
  • Pricing
  • Pros
  • Cons
  • Reviews

Microsoft Power BI Overview

  • Updated September 6, 2025

Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence platform that transforms data into interactive visualizations and reports. It connects to diverse data sources, offers AI-driven insights, and supports real-time analytics.

With a user-friendly interface, it enables non-technical users to create dashboards, while integration with Microsoft tools like Excel and Azure enhances workflows. Power BI provides robust security, scalability, and mobile access, and its pricing starts at $14/user/month, which suits businesses of all sizes.

Key Features

  • Data Connectivity: The platform connects to Excel, SQL, Azure, Google Analytics, and Salesforce. Cloud and on-premise data come together in one place.

  • Interactive Reports and Dashboards: Users build charts, maps, and graphs with drill-through, slicers, and filters for deeper insights.

  • Power Query: A tool that cleans, shapes, and combines data from multiple sources without the need for coding.

  • Data Modeling with DAX: Users create measures, columns, and relationships for advanced analysis.

  • AI-Powered Insights: Natural language Q&A, Key Influencers, and anomaly detection reveal important trends.

  • Real-Time Analytics: Live dashboards and streaming data support instant monitoring.

  • Custom Visualizations: Built-in visuals are available, along with custom ones through R and Python.

  • Mobile Access: iOS and Android apps provide interactive reports and push alerts.

  • Report Sharing and Collaboration: Reports can be published securely and integrated with Teams and SharePoint for collaboration.

  • Data Security and Governance: Row-level security, audit logs, and compliance with GDPR and ISO protect sensitive data.

  • Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem: Seamless compatibility with Excel, Azure Synapse, and Power Automate enables smoother workflows.

  • Automatic Data Refreshes: Scheduled refreshes keep dashboards up to date.

  • Scalability for Large Datasets: The system handles over 100M rows with in-memory storage and DirectQuery. Premium adds enterprise-level performance.

  • Copilot Integration: An AI assistant builds reports and insights through natural language queries.

Price

Plan Name Price (USD/user/month, billed annually) Key Features
Free Account Free
  • Power BI Desktop for personal use
  • Create and view reports locally
  • Can explore data and build visuals—but cannot publish or share content on the cloud unless using a Premium-capacity workspace
Power BI Pro $14.00 – Publish and share reports in the Power BI service- Collaborate with other Pro users- Included with Microsoft 365 E5 and Office 365 E5 plans
Power BI Premium Per User (PPU) $24.00 – Includes all Pro features, plus: • Larger model sizes (up to 100 GB) • More frequent dataset refreshes (up to 48/day) • Advanced AI, Dataflows, Datamarts, XMLA read/write connectivity • Only PPU users can publish to PPU workspaces
Power BI Embedded Variable – Contact Sales – Enables embedding Power BI reports into apps- White-labeled analytics workflows for developers- Usage-based (e.g., Azure capacity SKUs)

Check pricing details: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-bi/pricing

Pros

Competitor Pros of Power BI
Tableau Power BI costs less than Tableau and offers a free desktop version that suits beginners and budget-conscious users. It fits naturally into Microsoft environments and connects quickly with Excel, Azure, and SharePoint.
Qlik Sense Power BI gives easy-to-use, drag-and-drop dashboards. It balances strong Microsoft integration and affordability while supporting analytics with DAX, Python, and R.
Looker Power BI works smoothly within the Microsoft ecosystem and provides easy pricing, unlike Looker which favors enterprise setups and high budgets.
ThoughtSpot Power BI delivers clear price tiers and a free option, while ThoughtSpot typically targets larger firms with quote-based, often higher pricing. Power BI brings instant value, and ThoughtSpot leans toward enterprise scale.

Cons

Competitor Cons of Power BI
Tableau Tableau delivers richer, highly customizable visuals and excels at storytelling with data. It handles large datasets faster and lets users create more intricate visual layouts.
Qlik Sense Qlik Sense offers stronger exploratory tools and flexible deployment. Its associative engine lets users explore data more freely and handle large datasets better than Power BI, which depends heavily on Microsoft cloud.
Looker Looker builds data governance at its core, powered by LookML for centralized models. Power BI’s governance is solid, but it lacks the built-in modeling centrality and cloud-native structure that Looker has.
ThoughtSpot ThoughtSpot provides AI-driven search analytics and quick insights with zero-coding. Power BI is user-friendly, but it doesn’t offer that Google-like search interface and generative AI experience.

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