Microsoft Power BI vs. SAS Visual Analytics

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
SAS Visual Analytics
Score 7.6 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
SAS Visual Analytics provides a complete platform for analytics visualization, enabling users to identify patterns and relationships in data that weren't initially evident. Interactive, self-service BI and reporting capabilities are combined with out-of-the-box advanced analytics so everyone can discover insights from any size and type of data, including text.N/A
Pricing
Microsoft Power BISAS Visual Analytics
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
SAS Visual Analytics for SAS Cloud
$0
Annual By Users: 5, 10, 20
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Power BISAS Visual Analytics
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsSAS Visual Statistics and SAS Office Analytics are also available as add-ons.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Power BISAS Visual Analytics
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Power BI
Chose Microsoft Power BI
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
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI vs. Tableau Power BI cheaper and works well with Microsoft tools. Tableau has better visuals but is costly. Microsoft Power BII vs. Looker Looker is good for big data, but Microsoft Power BI is easier to use. Microsoft Power BI vs. Qlik Qlik is fast for big …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI provide a user friendly in many ways to analyse the data and visualization of the data .Stacking makes the works easier easily attach the table ,chart row and column through the various available tool ..it also reduces the work part and manpower mechanically …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is more flexible and it requires less effort in order to create a working environment. The results have an attractive and customizable display. The model is a star schema therefore it do not require specific database adaptation. Excel and csv files could be …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is free. If I didn't want to create a custom platform (i.e. my organization insisted on an existing platform that I *had* to use), I'd use Microsoft Power BI. For any start-up or SMB, I'd just use Claude & Grok to build it quickly, also for free. Would …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Same need to be large scale.
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is easier to learn, a lot of examples on YouTube, internet documentation books helps to the implementation and personalization of the dashboards easier to use than other platforms.
Chose Microsoft Power BI
While excel can be useful for a very quick data dump, Microsoft Power BI is able to bring that data to life, and show trends and the actual story of what is happening. Microsoft Power BI is the ultimate display tool, and allows us to share information quickly to the CORRECT …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Compared to this tool, Microsoft Power BI doesn't involve heavy coding and provides user friendly interface to visualize data. Microsoft Power BI reports can be shared and published without exposing your source code. Also, the reports are interactive providing drill down …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Power BI is much simple to use, and more modern than BusinessObjects, which has now been discontinued. It costs much less to license than Tableau which is perhaps more niche and designed better. It is also much more powerful for data analysis than excel, smartsheet, airtable, …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Some of the strengths are 1. User-Friendliness 2. Self-Service BI (Caters to all levels of the employees 3. Cost-effective. 4. Easy integration with Microsoft Suits. 5. DAX Calculations 6. Familiar Interface like traditional Excel. 7. Easier Self-Service platform for …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
It's got a larger user base and seems better supported. Personally it feels like alot more work getting comparable results from Tableau. Microsoft Power BI will be WAY easier to work with all your various data sources, if you are working in an environment with M365 already. …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
After several years using Google Looker Studio and BigQuery, Microsoft Power BI is a step-up in terms of visualizations. It is also much more powerful, leading to less errors and has a more intuitive interface. Looker studio has a focus on google analytics whereas Microsoft …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
NA - did not use any other software, yet. Happy with the services and features provided by Microsoft Power BI which helps us navigate through the client requests on a daily basis while also providing actionable insights / solutions with maximum efficiency and that too in a …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
It's the most widely used tool in most organizations
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Each has a different function. I think Microsoft Power BI is easier to use than Tableau and cheaper but SQL and databricks have so much more versatility
Chose Microsoft Power BI
We use Microsoft Power BI in addition to other software.
Chose Microsoft Power BI
I prefer Power BI because of its affordability and fewer complicated tools than Tableau. It's easy to use and compatible with other Microsoft products, which are mostly used in the IT industry. It's not limited to only one platform like Looker Studio, which is mostly used in …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is more flexible and can also handle more complex reporting scenarios. While Microsoft Excel is a great tool for analyzing data building visuals is not what it is made for. It is complicated to create Excel reports that will be interactive as a use wants to …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Qlik also builds dashboards upon your data. It's more expensive as Microsoft Power BI and needs as much training as Microsoft Power BI
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Being Microsoft environment it is extremely easy to interconnect the application with other Microsoft tools, such as power point or excel. On top of that, also communication through Microsoft teams is enabled which can result in very good collaboration and exchange of feedback …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
We actually chose both Power BI and Quantum Metric. We use them for different things, but they are very similar tools. Quantum does a good job of integrating with our website and app traffic, whereas we use Power BI for data analysis and importing data sets for further review. …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
We have used Microsoft Power BI for almost seven years. When looking for a reporting platform, remember that you are about to make a long-term choice. Moving reports to another system isn't easy. If you have, for example, more than 100 reports, the move to a different platform …
SAS Visual Analytics
Chose SAS Visual Analytics
I have chosen SAS Visual Analytics because one of my colleagues suggests using the software for the same for our work. As earlier, we use to take a lot of time in analyzing the data but after using the SAS Visual Analytics software our work has improved and time has decreased. …
Chose SAS Visual Analytics
I have used Crystal Reports, Jaspersoft and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). I would recommended Business Intelligence over SSRS and Crystal Reports. SSRS is very SQL-centric and Crystal Reports is more of an end-user tool. I would recommend Jaspersoft over Business …
Chose SAS Visual Analytics
We already have lot of SAS products in our organisation like Base SAS, SAS Grid, SAS EG, SAS Studio and Office Add-in. SAS VA works best for our situation.
Chose SAS Visual Analytics
I have used SAP Lumira as well. The reason for me to use both software is to see the user experience. With Lumira, it was easy for me to visualize data and data storytelling and with SAS it was easy for me to create an algorithm as I wanted them to be. SAS software allows me to …
Chose SAS Visual Analytics
Price and features we looked at seemed consistent. We chose this product because our staff already knew the product, plus users at the state had recommended it as it is what they use.
Chose SAS Visual Analytics
I have used Tableau desktop for which free access is provided for a limited time with limited features. Tableau is visually more appealing than SAS VA but SAS VA can handle data better. My use of Tableau with limited features may have effected my viewpoint.
Chose SAS Visual Analytics
SAS visual analytics has high sped LASR servers mounted on Hadoop filesystems which makes it more powrful for analytics.
Chose SAS Visual Analytics
We use both. But SAS is always the starting point to all analytics projects. It is a wider array of products and features. Gives robust results and reporting is easier. There is always this one or two things for which you turn to some other products to fill the holes.
Chose SAS Visual Analytics
There is no contest. SAS is easier maintain and has much more in the way of analytics than MicroStrategy has. It can pull from more than one data source and when the underlying architecture changes, it is much easier to maintain. More savvy analysts can perform more with SAS …
TrustRadius Insights
Microsoft Power BISAS Visual Analytics
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Microsoft Power BI and SAS Visual Analytics are both data visualization and business intelligence (BI) tools aimed at helping businesses gain insights from business data. Microsoft Power BI has a strong community presence, with an open-source repository of user-created visualizations. SAS Visual Analytics, as part of the SAS suite of products, is an industry standard with strong predictive analytics and data preparation features. 

SAS Visual Analytics is most popular by far with enterprise-level companies, who likely get more value out of the overall SAS suite of business intelligence tools than smaller businesses would. Microsoft Power BI, on the other hand, is almost equally popular with mid-size businesses as well as enterprise-level corporations, likely due to its cheaper per-user licensing and integration with the Microsoft Office 365 suite.

Features

Although both SAS Visual Analytics and Microsoft Power BI offer self-service data visualization and individualized dashboards, they each stand out in their own ways.

Microsoft Power BI offers an extensive degree of variety and customization for their visualizations through their open-source repository. The charts offered are professional and granular, making it easy to drill down on specific data points or categories. The software is designed with sharing in mind, making it easy to share visualizations with other users. 

SAS Visual Analytics is commonly praised for its solid performance, especially at scale. It can effectively support many simultaneous users without slowing down. Its data preparation capabilities help users ensure that the data they’re visualizing is meaningful and properly formatted.

Limitations

Microsoft Power BI and SAS Visual Analytics are each powerful tools in their own right, but they also have key limitations that you should consider before choosing one or the other.

SAS Visual Analytics has a more limited set of visualizations than Microsoft Power BI, since there’s no open-source database to pull from or contribute to. Some users may find its visual customization options too limiting.Others found that its tools for generating PDF reports left much to be desired. SAS Visual Analytics also has a much higher price point than Microsoft Power BI, which can be exclusionary for smaller businesses.

Microsoft Power BI’s open-source visualization repository can also be a drawback. Tracking down documentation for visualizations can be difficult, if the documentation exists at all. Beginner users often report that they have a hard time getting started with the software, and there’s a steep learning curve before they’re able to use its more advanced features. It can also take a lot of computer resources, and might run slowly for some users.

Pricing

Microsoft Power BI offers two options for pricing. The Power BI Pro tier is $9.99 monthly per user and includes all of its self-service visualization and BI features on the cloud, with 10 GB of storage per user and a limitation of 1 GB for each individual dataset. The Power BI Premium tier is $4,995 monthly with no additional per-user fee and adds features aimed at enterprise-level BI, including big data analytics and on-premises deployment. It also expands the storage to 100 TB total, with a 10 GB maximum size per dataset.

Pricing for SAS Visual Analytics is available via quote from the vendor.

Features
Microsoft Power BISAS Visual Analytics
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
SAS Visual Analytics
8.3
Ratings
2% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.50 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards10.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.00 Ratings9.00 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
SAS Visual Analytics
8.8
Ratings
9% above category average
Drill-down analysis7.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities9.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.6
Ratings
3% above category average
SAS Visual Analytics
9.2
Ratings
10% above category average
Publish to Web8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Versioning9.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers9.00 Ratings9.00 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
SAS Visual Analytics
9.7
Ratings
20% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics9.00 Ratings9.00 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
SAS Visual Analytics
8.3
Ratings
2% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)9.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model9.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)10.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.30 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
SAS Visual Analytics
8.7
Ratings
11% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile Application7.70 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.70 Ratings9.00 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
SAS Visual Analytics
9.2
Ratings
17% above category average
REST API8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Javascript API9.90 Ratings9.00 Ratings
iFrames8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Java API8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.40 Ratings9.00 Ratings
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Medium-sized Companies
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User Ratings
Microsoft Power BISAS Visual Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.9
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Power BISAS Visual Analytics
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
SAS Business Intelligence is more suited to organizations which are already using SAS as the primary software for their analytics needs. Learning curve is relatively shorter for teams already skilled in BASE SAS. For organizations already working with open source software like Julia and Python, it doesn't make much sense to use SAS BI.
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
  • SAS BI makes it very easy to create interactive dashboards even for someone who is not from an IT background. For some specific requirements, basic knowledge of SQL is good enough.
  • A lot of functions have been predefined which makes it very convenient to create dashboards and reports. One doesn't need to be from an IT or a programming background to understand and create dashboards.
  • It supports other programming languages like R and also has a seamless API integration with various data management platforms.
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
  • Business Objects should provide a more consistent mobile/desktop interface so operation between the two is seamless
  • Business Objects needs to make it easier to query across disparate data sets such as Oracle to SQL to Mongo DB
  • Our installation of Business Objects does not natively allow the export of XLSX documents, only XLS
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
There is no other product that can match SAS. There are some products that can compare to ETL but lack the analytics that SAS has. Others can perform a limited set of analytical procedures but lack the data processing that comes with SAS. Using thin client allows users to access data whenever they have an internet connection.
Read full review
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
SAS BI is good for creating reports and dashboards and then sharing it with the users. It also has ability to manage access to the reports and dashboards but somehow with most of the world moving to open source languages R, Python and Julia, SAS BI feels to be archaic in terms of feature set and integrations it allow[s]. Also, comparing it with other Business Intelligence tools like Tableau and Microsoft BI, the functionality of SAS BI is very limited and doesn't justify the pricing.
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
When you call tech support, you are immediately routed to a person who can answer your question. Often they can answer on the spot. However, if they cannot, you are given a track number and then followed up with. There have been times when I have had multiple track numbers open and they will actually TRACK YOU DOWN to ensure that your problem has been resolved. Issues do not fall into black holes with SAS. They are also willing to do a WebEx with you to diagnose the problem by seeing your environment, which is always helpful.
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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
I have chosen SAS Visual Analytics because one of my colleagues suggests using the software for the same for our work. As earlier, we use to take a lot of time in analyzing the data but after using the SAS Visual Analytics software our work has improved and time has decreased. It's very helpful for us.
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
  • SAS Visual Analytics licensing cost should be reduced to enable users to use it in mass scale.
  • More statistical and mathematical equations and theories should be converted into SAS functions for reusing.
  • Because of enriched ETL and reporting capabilities SAS Visual Analytics is most preferred by business users.
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

SAS Visual Analytics Screenshots

Screenshot of Explore your data using analytics and interactive data visualizations.