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Microsoft Power BI vs Oracle BI Comparison 2021

by Arthur Zuckerman

Data has always been a huge driving factor for growth among businesses. And ever since information technology started to play a role in business, it has become easier to collect, manage, and leverage data. The question now is, how do you best do it?

One of the ways business intelligence software benefits businesses is the way they enhance data categorization and analysis. They help businesses make the most of the data and information that they have. Now, if you really want to take full advantage of these online tools, you have to choose one that perfectly suits your data processing requirements.

When looking for business software to invest in, it always helps to compare options. Two of today’s biggest competitors in the business intelligence software arena are Microsoft Power BI and Oracle BI. Both solutions offer robust benefits and advantages to medium and large businesses. To help you choose between the two, here’s our Microsoft Power BI vs Oracle BI comparison.

Overview of Microsoft Power BI and Oracle BI

For a more effective Microsoft Power BI vs Oracle BI comparison, let us first take a look at what these two programs do in general.

Microsoft Power BI is a suite of powerful business analytic tools designed to turn data into easy-to-understand visuals. It automatically identifies data trends and helps you track business movement and development. The platform features comprehensive dashboards that can be accessed on different devices. 

As a Microsoft product, it integrates with other products in the MS ecosystem, as well as other business systems. Microsoft Power BI is a self-service BI tool that boasts a user-friendly and intuitive interface.

Oracle BI, on the other hand, is another business suite that consists of premium tools developed to facilitate efficient data reporting, analytics, integration, and management. As a BI solution, it also supports data warehousing and processing. 

By providing robust visual data analytics, Oracle BI allows you to develop data-driven decisions and processes. Its sophisticated features ensure that you will have everything you need to enhance your business data utilization.

microsoft power bi

Microsoft Power BI dashboard.

Microsoft Power BI vs Oracle BI: Comparison of Features, Benefits, and Other Factors

When you look at individual product reviews for Microsoft Power Bi and Oracle BI, you’ll find it easy to deduce that they can both help improve your business. But to help you determine which of these data analysis software is better for you, let’s compare the two based on these important factors.

Cost

One of the best things about Microsoft Power BI is that it’s a freemium solution. Even as a free service, MS Power BI offers a host of highly functional and efficient features that are fully capable of supporting your business. The solution provides you with 1 GB of data storage capacity. It also allows you to create, view, and share reports and personal dashboards with your team. Power BI also supports content authoring and data exploration. 

Microsoft Power BI also lets you scale up with its Pro version. At just $9.99 per user per month, you get all the features from Power BI and additional tools and functionalities, such as the creation and publication of organizational content packs. Microsoft Power BI Pro also lets you manage data access control.

Meanwhile, Oracle BI is a paid service through and through, albeit with a free trial. Its Business Intelligence Cloud Service module is priced at $150 per month per user. The Oracle Database Schema Service, on the other hand, costs $1,000/month. The other module, Oracle Database Cloud Service, is a by-quote service.

Oracle BI Cloud Service offers a hefty set of features, including interactive reporting and dynamic dashboards. Its robust analysis and on-premises data models are highly reliable and functional. You can leverage Oracle BI’s features further with the enhanced Oracle Database Schema Service, which provides 300 GB of data transfer limit per month and 50 GB of storage per instance.

As it is, the free Microsoft Power BI is an obviously cost-efficient solution. But even the paid Microsoft Power BI Pro is also competitively priced, especially considering the additional capabilities it comes with. Oracle’s BI Cloud Service, on the other hand, can be pretty steep. You should note that to utilize Oracle’s BI Cloud Service, you need to register at least 10 users. So, for this alone, you will have to invest $1,500/month.

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Oracle BI dashboard.

Overall Environment and Features

As a Microsoft product, Microsoft Power BI’s development environment is based on Excel. As a result, it doesn’t require an extensive learning curve. With this, your developers can easily start coding. You can also take advantage of its wide array of data sources.

However, although coding in Microsoft Power BI is pretty straightforward, the platform’s development tools may come off as underdeveloped. For one, it doesn’t allow you to create a composite key. The system is also susceptible to occasional slow-downs and freezing. 

Meanwhile, Oracle BI offers adequate opportunities for customization, thanks to unique design parameters and hierarchies. Oracle BI also supports team collaboration.

You’ll have to note, however, that Oracle BI toolsets are not localized. Oracle BI development also requires more extensive coding and data science skills. 

Interactivity

When it comes to interactivity, Oracle BI proves to be more capable. It provides real-time data visualization, which comes with additional server configurations. An average user can easily create and save data-powered reports using any web browser, even without the involvement of a skilled web developer.

On the other hand, Microsoft Power BI doesn’t offer automated and real-time data visualization. It only allows users to schedule visualizations and manually make changes.

Employee Skills and Training Required

As mentioned above, Microsoft Power BI’s development platform is based around Excel. So, users need to have sufficient Excel knowledge to fully maximize it.

Meanwhile, those who have remote or on-job data visualization and analytics skills can use Oracle BI without complications.

Publishing

When you utilize Microsoft Power BI, you can publish your reports on shared SharePoint portals. On the other hand, Oracle BI makes reports available online as they are published through its BI services.

Accessibility

Microsoft Power BI is distributed as Excel files. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide access to BI reports. In Oracle BI, reports can be accessed using any web browser. It also comes with a straightforward API-based integration function, which you can use with any existing infrastructure.

Microsoft Power BI vs Oracle BI: Which Is Better?

When it comes to business intelligence, you may notice that Microsoft Power BI and Oracle BI have very few similarities. Ultimately, you will find that one is more beneficial for you than the other. The decision will eventually depend on how either of them complements the business tools that you’re already using. If you’re working on a limited budget, you will also have to check which of them suits your resources.

Oracle BI Is Best for Companies Already Using Oracle Systems

Users who are already familiar with Oracle may naturally find Oracle BI an interesting and viable solution. Oracle BI will sit well with Oracle’s business management software. Oracle customers will also appreciate the bespoke solutions that it provides. It is, after all, an Oracle program. So, you can expect no less in terms of performance and reliability.

Being an Oracle solution, Oracle BI comes with a downside: it is expensive. This is also one of the reasons why those who are already using Oracle are more likely to choose it since they can apparently afford an Oracle product.

Microsoft Power BI Is Ideal for Businesses With Simpler Data Management Needs

On the one hand, there is no denying that Microsoft Power BI is the less expensive option. However, it is also less extensive when it comes to business intelligence features, at least when compared to Oracle BI. In this regard, Microsoft Power BI proves better suited to medium businesses (and even smaller ones) that process smaller data and have simpler analytics requirements.

However, this is not to say that bigger companies cannot utilize Microsoft Power BI. The program can also be recommended to large companies, particularly those who are just starting to explore business intelligence tools and would like to get started rather quickly.

Microsoft is also taking data analytics seriously, which is best demonstrated through the Power BI Designer. This feature takes Power BI from the restrictive Excel-based environment. Furthermore, the program has been moving into predictive analysis and machine learning. It shouldn’t come as a surprise if we’ll soon see a Microsoft Power BI with enhanced analytics capabilities.

The Bottom Line

So, who wins this Microsoft Power BI vs Oracle BI comparison? In all, if you are an existing Oracle user and cost is not an issue, then Oracle BI may just be right up your alley. Otherwise, you should not dismiss the benefits that Microsoft Power BI can offer now and in the future.

Still having a hard time deciding? Don’t rush. It will be best to read up on your options further. You can continue your hunt by checking out our Microsoft Power BI vs IBM Cognos comparison.

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