Microsoft Power BI vs. SAP Analytics Cloud

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
SAP Analytics Cloud
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
The SAP Analytics Cloud solution brings together analytics and planning with integration to SAP applications and access to heterogenous data sources. As the analytics and planning solution within SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP Analytics Cloud supports trusted insights and integrated planning processes enterprise-wide to help make decisions without doubt.
$36
per month per user
Pricing
Microsoft Power BISAP Analytics Cloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
SAP Analytics Cloud for Business Intelligence
$36.00
per month per user
SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning
Price upon request
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Power BISAP Analytics Cloud
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA 30-day trial with SAP Analytics Cloud is available, supporting analytics enterprise-wide. A trial can be extended up to 90 days on request.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Power BISAP Analytics Cloud
TrustRadius Insights
Microsoft Power BISAP Analytics Cloud
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Microsoft Power BI and SAP Analytics Cloud are business intelligence and analytics platforms that allow users to query and visualize data. This analysis helps provide businesses with insights to improve their decision-making capabilities. 

Microsoft Power BI is more focused on ad-hoc querying of datasets with powerful data slicing and dicing tools. On the other hand, SAP Analytics Cloud is targeted at businesses that already use SAP database and data warehouse platforms and want to use their data to build dashboards and reporting structures. On TrustRadius, Microsoft Power BI is popular among midsize businesses and enterprises while SAP Analytics Cloud is preferred by enterprise organizations. 

Features

Since Power BI is part of the Microsoft ecosystem of products and services, users who are comfortable with other Microsoft products will likely have little trouble adjusting to Power BI. Another major plus of Power BI is that it is available for free for individual users. This allows users without business accounts to learn and practice with the software on their own time with their own projects. Another feature offered by Microsoft Power BI is the ability to use custom data visualizations downloaded from Microsoft Marketplace, further expanding the capabilities of the tool. 

SAP Analytics Cloud’s standout features are its excellent dashboard and data visualization capabilities. TrustRadius users report that the product’s graphics are high quality and that dashboards are easy to build. SAP also pushes frequent updates to the program on a bi-weekly or quarterly basis (depending on contract details) and is actively adding new features to the software regularly. Analytics Cloud also offers natural language processing to make finding results easier through the search function. Lastly, An embedded version is offered at no extra cost so that users can build charts and dashboards into other SAP applications and have changes in data reflected in real-time.    

Limitations

According to end-users, Microsoft Power BI has a few downsides. Businesses that want complete control of their data will have to upgrade to the premium version of the software to be able to keep their data in-house and off of Microsoft’s servers. Power BI also has rigid rules in place for handling table joins within a database. This can lead to problems for users who need multiple joins from a single table. TrustRadius reviewers also report some issues with performance when trying to manipulate extremely large datasets.  

SAP Analytics Cloud has a few limitations as well. Since it is so heavily embedded within the SAP environment, there are fewer third-party integrations available. Integration with other software systems may be more difficult to achieve because of this. Some TrustRadius reviewers comment that SAP Analytics Cloud’s data analysis capabilities are not as robust as some of their competitors’ data analytics features. Other users have experienced issues with having to split up queries because of line limits and other data limitations.  

Pricing

Microsoft Power BI offers paid plans for business users and a free version for individual users. While the free version allows individuals to practice using the software and become familiar with its functionality, it has a more limited feature set than the paid business plans. 

Pricing for its Power BI Pro plan starts at $9.95 per user per month. For businesses that need advanced functionality, the Power BI Premium plan is available starting at $4,995 per year. Enterprise organizations will need to request a consultation for full pricing options. 

SAP Analytics Cloud offers a 90-day free trial which includes access to SAP Analytics Cloud for Business Intelligence and SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning, with limitations on their capabilities. They also offer a Business Intelligence package for $22 per user per month, which includes full access to those modules with Cloud for Planning being view-only. SAP also offers two higher-priced tiers, with pricing available by request from the vendor.  

Features
Microsoft Power BISAP Analytics Cloud
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
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.0
Ratings
2% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.50 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards10.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.00 Ratings7.90 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
SAP Analytics Cloud
7.9
Ratings
2% below category average
Drill-down analysis7.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Formatting capabilities9.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.00 Ratings7.80 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
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.0
Ratings
4% below category average
Publish to Web8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Report Versioning9.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers9.00 Ratings00 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
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.0
Ratings
0% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Predictive Analytics9.00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining9.00 Ratings8.20 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
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.1
Ratings
5% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)9.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model9.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)10.00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control7.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.30 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
SAP Analytics Cloud
7.9
Ratings
0% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access8.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Mobile Application7.70 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.70 Ratings8.00 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
SAP Analytics Cloud
-
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 BISAP Analytics Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
5.6
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
2.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Power BISAP Analytics Cloud
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.
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SAP Ecosystem Integration:For businesses already using other SAP solutions such as SAP BW or SAP HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud is a natural fit. It integrates well with the broader SAP ecosystem, providing a cohesive analytics experience for users familiar with SAP technologies.Predictive Analytics Use Cases:Companies seeking to incorporate predictive analytics into their decision-making processes can leverage SAP Analytics Cloud. Its built-in predictive features enable users to create models and gain insights into future trends based on historical data.
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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.
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  • It makes it easier yo analyse order and related records easily.
  • We can easily maintain and track the performance of employees in organisation.
  • Can easily track various aspects for the growth of an organisation thus allowing real time analysis and tracking of organisation's growth and performance.
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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.
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  • Possibility of more advanced scripting for data transformation without analytics designer
  • Provision to consider rate types from TCURR in SAC and should be able to write FX conversion logic considering rate types
  • Read data directly from BW by reading aDSOs backend tables
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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.
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There’s no doubt I will renew SAP Analytics Cloud. It is the most vital tool in our organization that makes it seamless to make rapid business decisions by collecting, modeling and visualizing data in real-time.
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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.
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On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate 8 SAP Analytics Cloud's overall usability as a 7. SAC has a clean, modern user interface with drag-and-drop features. It is an integrated platform that combines reporting, planning, and predictive analytics in one tool. It has Real-time connectivity with SAP data sources like S/4HANA.


Self-service analytics capabilities allow non-technical users to build simple dashboards.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud an 8 out of 10 for scalability. It offers a flexible, cloud-based architecture that supports expansion across departments and geographies. The platform adapts well to growing data volumes and user needs, making it a strong choice for organizations looking to scale analytics capabilities efficiently.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud’s performance an 8 out of 10. Pages generally load quickly, and reports run within a reasonable time frame, even with complex datasets. Integration with other systems is smooth and doesn’t noticeably affect performance. Overall, it’s a responsive and efficient tool for business analytics. But
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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.
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Since the implementation stage, the support team has been very helpful and assisting. Even in the later stages, the tech team had quite a rapid response. In general, SAP has provided us with great customer support, let it be for a specific product of SAP or for integration of different modules.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
Good videos and reference material available in SAP Portal.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
it's ok
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Implementation Rating
It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
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SAC is a simple solution ad it works fine when connecting it to other SAP tools. On the other hand, connecting it to third party solutions brings difficulties when there's no previous design and the objetives are not clear. It is really important to integrate Business users from the start to provide with valuable business insights
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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
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SAP Analytics Cloud and Power BI are both tools that help businesses understand their data, but they have some differences. SAC, made by SAP, works well if your company already uses other SAP products. It's in the cloud, easy to use, and has features for analyzing data, getting insights, and planning for the future. Power BI, made by Microsoft, can be used in the cloud or on your own computers. It fits well with Microsoft tools, is easy to use, and can do advanced data analysis. SAC has built-in planning tools, while Power BI needs extra tools for detailed planning
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud an 8 out of 10 for scalability. It offers a flexible, cloud-based architecture that supports expansion across departments and geographies. The platform adapts well to growing data volumes and user needs, making it a strong choice for organizations looking to scale analytics capabilities efficiently.
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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.
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  • Optimized our budgeting and forecasting processes. The platform facilitates real-time collaboration among our teams, allowing for more accurate and agile financial planning. This has led to improved precision in budget allocation, ensuring that resources are strategically deployed to support the most promising startups within our portfolio.
  • SAC's intuitive dashboards and visualizations provide a consolidated view of key performance indicators, startup health metrics, and portfolio analytics. This heightened data visibility enables our teams to make informed decisions promptly, identify emerging trends, and proactively address challenges.
  • Routine tasks, such as performance tracking and reporting, are automated, allowing our teams to focus on more strategic initiatives. This has resulted in time savings and increased productivity across various operational processes.
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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