So, you are considering PowerBI.
You’ll be wondering if it's a good choice for you, if its feature set compares well to other options on the market, and if it is priced affordably enough for what you get.
This article will break all that down for you and more.
Plus, at the end of the article you’ll find links to alternatives to PowerBI as well as our top picks for the options in this category.
Or, just go straight to Our top picks for Best analytics tools
Without further ado, let’s get started.
PowerBI Features
With PowerBI, you can quickly connect to data and prepare, remodel or visualize it. PowerBI mainly works on business intelligence and helps you create amazing data experiences. You can get the most out of your big data investments by connecting your data sources and sharing insights across the organization.
Here are some exclusive features of PowerBI:
Unify Self-service and Enterprise analytics: PowerBI meets both self-service and enterprise data analytics requirements. You can access powerful semantic models, an application lifecycle management toolkit, open connectivity framework and pixel-perfect paginated reports. PowerBI is a flexible platform that serves all business industries.
Industry-leading AI: With PowerBI, you can take advantage of the latest advances in Microsoft AI to build machine learning models. It helps you swiftly find insights from structured or unstructured data. PowerBI has the best-in-market AI capabilities and amplifies your business decisions through quality data insights.
Improved Publishing Efficiency: PowerBI allows you to quickly identify differences and move content from development and testing to production with confidence. Additionally, it ensures your datasets are ready for analysis by preparing them beforehand. PowerBI provides unrivalled publishing efficiency.
Discover: Regardless of statistical background, PowerBI empowers all parts of an organization to predict better outcomes, design better products and improve processes to generate higher revenues and reduce costs. Only PowerBI offers a unique, integrated approach by providing software and services that drive business excellence.
Predict: With PowerBI, you can access modern data analysis and explore your data further using advanced analytics. It enables you to skillfully predict, compare alternatives, and forecast your business with ease using PowerBI's revolutionary predictive analytics techniques.
Classical Methods: PowerBI allows you to use classical methods in its statistical software. You can integrate with open-source languages R or Python and boost your capabilities further with machine learning algorithms like CART TreeNet and Random Forests, now available in PowerBI's module.
Analytics Streaming: PowerBI provides you access to real-time analytics from factory sensors or social media sources. It helps you anticipate negative sentiments around your business or uncover hidden trends so you can make timely business decisions to improve your brand image.
Actionable Insights: PowerBI connects with the Microsoft business ecosystem to help you turn your data into a competitive edge. With PowerBI, you can connect, combine and analyze your entire data estate. Additionally, PowerBI offers unparalleled Excel interoperation by connecting excel data models and reports to its dashboard.
PowerBI Pricing
PowerBI offers 2 Pricing options for its business intelligence and analytics platform.
The "Pro" plan is priced at $9.99/user/month and offers live dashboards, self-service analytics and insight sharing.
The "Premium" plan is priced at $20 /user/month and offers all available features of PowerBI.
PowerBI Discounts and Coupons
PowerBI currently does not offer any discounts or coupons for its business intelligence and analytics platform.
PowerBI Free Trial
PowerBI does not offer a free trial for its pricing options. However, you download the PowerBI desktop for free and create interactive reports.
PowerBI, A short how-to guide
This guide is designed to give you an overview of how PowerBI works and how to use it effectively. After completing this guide, you will be able to:
• Download and install PowerBI
• Launch PowerBI and open a workflow
• Configure nodes in a workflow
• Execute a workflow
• Export and share a workflow
Installing PowerBI
Before you can use PowerBI, you need to download and install it on your computer. PowerBI is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
To download PowerBI, go to the PowerBI website and click the Download button.
On the next page, select the edition of PowerBI that you want to install. For this tutorial, we will be using the Community Edition.
Click the Download button and select the installer for your operating system. Once the download is complete, launch the installer and follow the prompts to install PowerBI.
Once you have PowerBI installed, launch the application and you should see the "Welcome to PowerBI" dialog.
From the "Welcome to PowerBI" dialog, you can either choose to open an existing workflow or create a new workflow. For this tutorial, we will be creating a new workflow.
Once you login to your PowerBI account, you'll be redirected to the dashboard section. Here, you'll see the insights from your connected sources. You can import new data sets by clicking on the "Import" tab.
Creating and exporting a new workflow
To create a new workflow, click on the "Create new workflow" button.
This will take you to the workflow editor, which is where you will be spending most of your time in PowerBI. The workflow editor is where you will be adding nodes and connecting them together to create your data analysis workflow.
Click on a data set to start analyzing it. You can right-click on a set and select combine to superimpose it with another relevant data set. You can save intermediate results by simply exporting the report while analyzing.
Click on "Workflows" to create automation workflows. Here, you can model the data analysis process for a set and put it on autopilot.
Click on a data set to input the workflow instructions during analysis. You can create several triggers by combining multiple data sets to gain quality hidden insights.
