Microsoft has software that aims to bridge the gap between data and decisions with Power BI. The software can create and modify data reports and dashboards. These can then be securely shared across platforms. Power BI also provides users with free online learning tools. In today’s time, however, there will always be competitors to a product or service and after having a look at all of Microsoft Power BI’s competitors, it is clear that Tableau Desktop is the most suitable competitor.

Top 10 Microsoft Power BI Desktop alternatives and competitors

  1. Tableau Desktop – Analyzing data; Most suitable competitor of Microsoft Power BI Desktop
  2. Looker – Modern BI and analytics
  3. Sisense – Infuses intelligence
  4. Domo – Cloud flexibility
  5. Qlik Sense – Charts and graphs
  6. Tableau Server – Data visualization
  7. SAP Analytics Cloud – Synchronize data across your entire infrastructure
  8. Salesforce CRM Analytics – Customer relationship management
  9. TIBCO Spotfire – Using data to predict trends
  10. Oracle Analytics Cloud

1. Tableau Desktop – Analyzing data; Most suitable competitor of Microsoft Power BI Desktop

Pricing:

  • Creator: $70 per user per month; billed annually
  • Explorer: $42 per user per month; billed annually
  • Viewer: $15 per user per month; billed annually

Focusing on business intelligence, Tableau Desktop is an interactive data visualization software company. This software can be used offline, too and can be done in a secure environment. Data can be explored in real-time with Tableau Desktop.

Key features:

  • Tableau Dashboard
  • Collaboration and Sharing
  • Live and In-memory data
  • Data sources
  • Robust security
  • Mobile view

Reasons to buy:

  • Multiple data connectors
  • Report building
  • Data visualization
  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Automatic data refreshing

Reasons to avoid:

  • Downloading large data sets is time-consuming
  • Costly
  • Report refresh rate needs to be improved

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2. Looker – Modern BI and analytics

Pricing:

  • Potential customers need to request a demo before being able to access pricing

With modern BI and analytics, customers can use Looker to analyze their data and drive effective decisions that can make a positive difference to their business. Custom applications can be created that are unique to each business, ensuring that each individual business accesses what they need.

Key features:

  • Database connection
  • Looker blocks
  • API
  • Embedded analytics
  • Data modeling
  • Data actions
  • Reporting features
  • Custom applications

Reasons to Buy:

  • Accurate data
  • Accelerated analytics
  • Data analysts

Reasons to avoid:

  • Can be slow
  • Set-up can be difficult
  • API is difficult to use

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3. Sisense – Infuses intelligence

Pricing:

  • Sisense works with customers to create customizable solutions that fit the budget of each business.

Founded in Tel Aviv, Sisense aims to make data analytics fluent for its customers. Sisense also aims to build custom self-service experiences, bringing AI-driven insights to customers and they are then able to draw large amounts of data from multiple sources at lightning speed.

Key features:

  • Exports data to PDF, Excel, Images, CSV
  • Enables to deliver interactive terabyte-scale analytics
  • Drag-and-drop user interface
  • Data unification
  • Data mash-ups

Reasons to buy:

  • Easy to use
  • Accurate data analysis in real-time
  • Excellent technical support
  • Ability to draw large amounts of data from multiple data sources at high speeds
  • Easily customized for multiple user levels

Reasons to avoid:

  • Could be a simpler way for admins to share dashboards created by multiple users
  • Filtering and navigations on the mobile platform could be improved

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4. Domo – Cloud flexibility

Pricing:

  • Dependent on what is needed from the service.

Domo is a comprehensive platform that gives customers the ability to create data apps on an easy-to-use platform. Dashboards can also be customized for each user without having to use coding. Data is then used to implement strategies and solutions for your business.

Key features:

  • Sub-second queries at scale
  • Over 150 interactive chart types
  • SSO integration
  • Real-time alerts and push notifications
  • Access to hundreds of pre-built business apps
  • Instant collaboration with chat
  • Programmatic management with APIs
  • Native apps for iOS and Android

Reasons to buy:

  • Scale as your organization grows
  • Integrate data from all sources
  • Combine, cleanse, and transform data sources
  • Fast insights with powerful visualizations
  • Collaborate with both internal and external teams
  • Predictive insights and alerts
  • Maintain data integrity and governance
  • Define and manage customized user access
  • Build on our open cloud platform

Reasons to avoid:

  • Difficult to extract data from Domo
  • The UI is not intuitive and simple enough for non-technical users to get used to quickly

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5. Qlik Sense – Charts and graphs

Pricing:

  • Business: $30 per user per month- billed annually
  • Enterprise SaaS: $70 per month- billed annually

Qlik Sense is a data visualization and discovery tool that allows customers to analyze data in a non-complicated way. When using Qlik Sense, customers can use a drag-and-drop feature which speeds up the data analysis process. Once data is analyzed, businesses can make and implement decisions that will support its success.

Key features:

  • Hybrid data delivery
  • Data warehouse automation
  • Data transformation
  • Application automation
  • Augmented analytics
  • Embedded analytics
  • Alerting and action
  • Visualization and dashboards

Reasons to buy:

  • Data integration
  • Charts and graphs
  • Analytics
  • Multi-cloud data – real-time movement at scale
  • Multi-cloud compute – Hybrid cloud analytics
  • Automation- faster response time to changing business requirements
  • Security and privacy
  • Trusted data delivered at scale

Reasons to avoid:

  • Inflexible data extraction capabilities
  • Limited visualization due to lack of basic charts
  • Complicated token pricing model
  • Data solution is normally sluggish when working with large data sets

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6. Tableau Server – Data visualization

Pricing:

  • Viewer: $12 per user per month
  • Explorer: $35 per user per month
  • Creator: $70 per user per month

Tableau Server is an online platform used to host and manage data that is extracted from Tableau. Customers can create and publish reports and share this with others in the company. Customers can create apps and certain visuals to create live dashboards and this can then be accessed through tablets and smartphones.

Key features:

  • Trusted data
  • Data integration
  • Data stories
  • Administration via Web Interface
  • Snapshot of external data
  • In-memory data model
  • MS Excel Workbooks

Reasons to buy:

  • Secure and governed analytics
  • Robust integration
  • Simplicity of scalability

Reasons to avoid:

  • Doesn’t send out PDF versions of the dashboards
  • Not well designed for multi tenant architectures
  • Online documentation
  • Customer service / support

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7. SAP Analytics cloud – Synchronize data across an entire infrastructure

Pricing:

  • $36 per month per user

SAP Analytics cloud enables its customers to analyze data across a large platform using only one system. Customers can then plan and implement change to best support their business. This software empowers customers and allows them to create effective change in an efficient way.

Key features:

  • Self-service data modeling and preparation
  • Data exploration and visualization
  • Augmented analytics
  • Predictive planning
  • Collaboration
  • Business-centric solutions

Reasons to buy:

  • Flexible design
  • Rich functionality
  • Rapid setup and results
  • Analytics catalog

Reasons to avoid:

  • Mobile display
  • Report formatting
  • Column mapping in data modeling

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8. Salesforce CRM Analytics – Customer relationship management

Pricing:

  • Essentials: $25 per user per month, billed annually
  • Professional: $75 per user per month
  • Enterprise: $150 per user per month

Salesforce CRM is a fully cloud-based analytics tool that helps customers grow sales faster. Salesforce gives many different departments within an organization an overview and insight into each customer.

Key features:

  • Customer support across phone, web chat, social media and email
  • Track sales process
  • Organize all customer data
  • Sync with tools you already use, like Dropbox and DocuSign

Reasons to buy:

  • Secure
  • Can be used by any size or type of business
  • Pull data from Amazon and create data sets.

Reasons to avoid:

  • Reporting features can lag
  • Lead and contact objects seem redundant
  • Sync issues with marketing automation

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9. TIBCO Spotfire – Using data to predict trends

Pricing:

  • $0.99 per hour (starting) – TIBCO Spotfire for Amazon Web Services
  • $25 per month, $250 per year – TIBCO Cloud Spotfire-Consumer
  • $65 per month, $650 per year – TIBCO Cloud Spotfire – Business Author

Using advanced analytics, TIBCO Spotfire is used to visualize data through immersive dashboards. TIBCO delivers capabilities at scale which include predictive analytics, geolocation analytics and streaming analytics.

Key features:

  • Administration via MacOS App
  • Live connection to External Data
  • In-memory data model
  • Multi-Data Source Reporting (Blending)
  • ETL Capability
  • Snapshot of External Data
  • Data Warehouse / Dictionary layer

Reasons to buy:

  • Predictive modeling
  • Drill-down analysis
  • Report sharing and collaboration
  • Formatting capabilities
  • Integration with R or other statistical packages

Reasons to avoid:

  • Learning Materials for basic and intermediate level is not free
  • High license cost
  • The data filter could be improved
  • Initial Load time is slow
  • Not enough options for input data sources

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10. Oracle Analytics Cloud – Augmented analytics

Pricing:

  • OAC Standard: $20 per hosted named user per month with 20 users minimum
  • OAC Enterprise: $2000 per OCPU per month

A single platform used to empower business employees to be able to find the answers to any questions about data and enables analytics in the cloud. Oracle Analytics Cloud, does just that and explores and performs collaborative analytics for each business it works with.

Key features:

  • BI Standard Reporting
  • Ad-hoc Reporting
  • Report Output and Scheduling
  • Data Discovery and Visualization
  • Access Control and Security
  • Mobile Capabilities

Reasons to buy:

  • Advanced analytics
  • Data Visualization and reporting
  • Cloud/Desktop/Mobile accessibility
  • User-friendly
  • Robust features

Reasons to avoid:

  • Limited diagrams and graphs
  • Initial settings take some time
  • Servers are busy at times
  • There is no offline access
  • No Mobile/Tablet Compatibility

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References and Links:

  • https://www.linkedin.com
  • https://www.trustradius.com
  • https://www.tibco.com
  • https://www.sap.com
  • https://www.qlik.com
  • https://www.holistics.io
  • https://www.domo.com/
  • https://financesonline.com
  • https://www.looker.com
  • https://cloud.google.com
  • https://www.tableau.com
  • https://www.g2.com