Power BIvs
Metabase
Metabase: Open-source business intelligence tool offering self-hosted dashboards and interactive analytics without requiring Microsoft licenses.
Power BI
Business analytics by Microsoft
As of 30 August 2026, Power BI has a free plan and paid plans start at $14/user/month. Microsoft Power BI is a unified, scalable platform for self-service and enterprise business intelligence. Softwr lists it under Business Intelligence. Power BI is made by Microsoft, launched in 1975, available on Web, Windows, macOS, iOS.
Overview
What Power BI does
Microsoft Power BI is a unified, scalable platform for self-service and enterprise business intelligence. It connects to hundreds of data sources, simplifies data prep, and drives ad hoc analysis with beautiful reports and dashboards.
What people use it for
- Self-service analytics
- Data exploration
- Ad-hoc reporting
- Collaborative analysis
- Embedded analytics
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Power BI.
- Free tier cannot publish or share reports; Pro tier required for collaboration
- Free tier cannot schedule automatic data refreshes
- Offline capabilities limited to local Power BI Desktop; cloud service always requires internet
- Data refresh capped at 8 times per day on Pro tier without Premium Per User
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Power BI
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- Power BIvsQlik Sense
Qlik Sense: Enterprise BI platform with visual analytics and associative engine for data exploration, similar market positioning to Power BI.
- Power BIvsAmazon QuickSight
Amazon QuickSight: AWS-native BI service with similar cloud-based architecture and pay-as-you-go pricing model.
Pricing
What Power BI costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- Local report creation in Power BI Desktop
- Cannot publish or share
- No scheduled refreshes
Power BI Pro
$14 /user/month
- Publish and share reports
- Up to 8 scheduled refreshes/day
- Collaborate with other Pro users
Premium Per User
$24 /user/month
- All Pro features
- Up to 48 scheduled refreshes/day
- Copilot integration
- Larger model sizes
Capabilities
Features
AI-powered Insights
Natural Language Queries
Real-time Dashboards
Paginated Reports
Mobile Apps
Excel
Integration with Excel
Azure
Integration with Azure
Dynamics 365
Integration with Dynamics 365
SQL Server
Integration with SQL Server
Salesforce
Integration with Salesforce
Google Analytics
Integration with Google Analytics
Web support
Available on web
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Can I use Power BI Desktop offline?
Power BI Desktop runs locally and can edit reports offline, but publishing to the service and refreshing cloud data sources requires internet connection. Offline reports show cached data from the last refresh.
SourceWhat are the data refresh limits for each tier?
Power BI Premium Per User allows up to 48 scheduled refreshes per day, while Pro tier is limited to 8 scheduled refreshes per day. Free tier cannot schedule automatic refreshes.
SourceCan I use Power BI Free with shared data sources?
Free tier users can create local reports in Power BI Desktop but cannot publish to the Power BI Service for collaboration. Publishing requires Power BI Pro ($14/user/month).
SourceIs SSO available and on which plan?
SSO is available on Power BI Premium Per User ($24/user/month) and Fabric capacity plans through Azure AD integration.
SourceWhat does Copilot require in Power BI?
Copilot for natural language queries and automatic report generation requires Power BI Premium Per User or Fabric capacity pricing, not available on Pro or Free tiers.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Power BI
- Company
- Microsoft
- Based in
- Redmond, Washington
Keep looking
Where to go from Power BI
- Power BI alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Power BI pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Power BI badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Business Intelligence softwareThe full category
- Best Business Intelligence softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Business Intelligence software for
Compare Power BI with
- Domo
- Amazon QuickSight
- Qlik Sense
- Oracle Analytics Cloud
- Zoho Analytics
- Holistics
- Preset
- Chartio
- Zebra BI
- MicroStrategy
- Databox
- IBM Cognos Analytics
- Cube
- Pigment
- Deepnote
- Evidence
- Google Data Studio
- Lightdash
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Power BI, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Power BI
Power BI alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Power BI pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Power BI
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Power BI badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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