Microsoft Power BI vs. Rational BI

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Power BI
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Power BI is a visualization and data discovery tool from Microsoft. It allows users to convert data into visuals and graphics, visually explore and analyze data, collaborate on interactive dashboards and reports, and scale across their organization with built-in governance and security.N/A
Rational BI
Score 7.7 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Rational BI provides analytics, data science and business intelligence in an analytical platform that connects to databases, data files and cloud drives including AWS and Azure data sources, enabling users to explore and visualize data. Users can build real-time notebook-style reports directly in a web browser with JavaScript and SQL with direct and live connections to data. Filter and query data with an SQL database embedded in the client, without network…
$0
single user
Pricing
Microsoft Power BIRational BI
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
single user
Professional
$129
single user
Enterprise
Varies
single user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Power BIRational BI
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsAdditional cost per extra user (varies by edition)
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Power BIRational BI
Features
Microsoft Power BIRational BI
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.8
Ratings
8% above category average
Rational BI
8.3
Ratings
1% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.50 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Customizable dashboards10.00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.2
Ratings
2% above category average
Rational BI
8.3
Ratings
4% above category average
Drill-down analysis7.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Formatting capabilities9.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.6
Ratings
4% above category average
Rational BI
9.0
Ratings
6% above category average
Publish to Web8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Versioning9.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers9.00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.7
Ratings
9% above category average
Rational BI
8.2
Ratings
1% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Predictive Analytics9.00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.6
Ratings
1% above category average
Rational BI
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
Rational BI
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.4
Ratings
7% above category average
Rational BI
-
Ratings
REST API8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
User Ratings
Microsoft Power BIRational BI
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Power BIRational BI
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft Power BI is great for sales tracking, financial reporting, and real-time operations monitoring. It integrates data from multiple sources, creating interactive dashboards for better decision-making. However, it's less ideal for real-time big data processing, offline access, or when deep customization is needed. It works best for structured reporting but struggles with highly complex data models.
Read full review
Rational BI allows managing data analysis coming from different projects in order to create useful reports and dashboards. I usually set up automatically scheduled reports. All the stakeholders can easily share a rational view with the possibility to filter between the interesting arguments. Sometimes different user profiles could be needed, optimize the view.
Read full review
Pros
  • It is great at taking in large amounts of data and housing it all.
  • Microsoft Power BI is so user friendly and it's dashboards are very easy on the eye.
  • The ease of sharing dashboards makes it great for use across a large company.
Read full review
  • Provides high performance embedded analytics
  • Seamless integration to import and export data
  • Rich features for data visualization
Read full review
Cons
  • It would be easier for users could Microsoft Power BI and Excel used the same programming languages.
  • Would like to see the online version of Microsoft Power BI be as powerful as the desktop version.
  • Publishing a Microsoft Power BI file online and then having to save the file is somewhat redundant.
  • Would like to export each page or chart as an image.
Read full review
  • Documentation for new users could be better. Sometimes it's hard for my users that are not that skilled in IS/IT to set up data connectors are understand the dynamics of data sources.
  • I have used several other BI solutions as well, and their GUI is okay, but surely there is also room for improvement here. Not all things are made entirely logically.
  • Understanding their price structure. Generally, their website looks nice, but it's not very informative when it comes to pricing, and support options. I really miss some kind of transparency and overview.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft Power BI is an excellent and scalable tool. It has a learning curve, but once you get past that, the sky is the limit and you can build from the most simple to the most complex dashboards. I have built everything from simple reports with only a few data points to complex reports with many pages and advanced filtering.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Usability
Takes a little bit to get used to it. Not natively intuitive but fairly straight forward to pick up. Also docking it a few points because you can create a really clean, simple UI in Claude very quickly that's faster than building all of this yourself in Microsoft Power BI.
Read full review
Rational BI allows managing data analysis coming from different projects. The outputs are one or more reports, that can be delivered automatically to the stakeholders or other communication media inside the organization. Nice dashboards help to describe and analyze data. Sometimes different user profiles could be needed, optimize the view.
Read full review
Support Rating
It is a fantastic tool, you can do almost everything related with data and reports, it is a perfect substitutive of Power Point and Excel with a high evolution and flexibility, and also it is very friendly and easy to share. I think all companies should have Power BI (or other BI tool) in their software package and if they are in the MS Suite, for sure Power BI should be the one due to all the benefits of the MS ecosystem.
Read full review
I haven't had to use support to date for this product.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
All others apps are enablers and Microsoft Power BI is the visual that end user sees which often adds more value to the end user to make strategic decisions from this. All are equally great but Microsoft Power BI is the end result
Read full review
Today there are many companies providing BI solutions, and generally, I think Microsoft Power BI is the easiest go-to solution as it is part of the Office365 software. However all software solutions have their limitations, advantages, and disadvantages, but sometimes you don't need the perfect solution. You just need a solution that delivers 80-90 percent of the full potential to reach your goal and in this scope, we were really happy with Rational BI.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • We're still early in the adoption process at this company, but we've illustrated how bad data keeps us from being more productive. ~25% of a team's work week was dedicated to effectively cleaning up entries, but it was always seen as a normal to them.
Read full review
  • Allows folks to work on other items as reporting is done in the background.
  • Scheduling and delivery of reports with one click.
  • Single pane of management.
  • Ease of use.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Microsoft Power BI Screenshots

Screenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Turns insights into impact for business usersScreenshot of Power BI integrates easily with Microsoft 365Screenshot of Microsoft Power BI - AI-Powered CapabilitiesScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Copilot can be used to create reportsScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Data HubScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Scales as organizational needs grow

Rational BI Screenshots

Screenshot of Modern Business IntelligenceScreenshot of Drag-and-drop InsightsScreenshot of Accessible for everyone, power when you need itScreenshot of Beautiful analytics on every screen and deviceScreenshot of Scheduled reporting: Broadcast your findings to everyoneScreenshot of Connect all your data no matter where it lives