We performed a comparison between Microsoft Power BI and SAP Crystal Reports based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Reporting solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Power BI is a complete ecosystem. It has an integrated ETL tool and good connectivity with applications such as Office 365 and SQL. There are also solutions for RPA, such as Microsoft Power Automate and Microsoft Power Apps. Power BI now has integration with Power Query, which has an AI feature for text analytics. Text analytics is a very good feature. This feature is also there in Tableau, but I like it in Power BI because you can write something like, "What is the total sale in the Eastern region?", and it will give you the answer. For example, when you have different types of user opinions, you just run one algorithm and you will have the output that provides the number of positive and negative responses. You can even have a dashboard with positive remarks. This feature has been introduced recently. Power BI supports the DAX and Power Query M languages. These languages are making Power BI very strong in data analytics, and you can do many types of analysis."
"The product can go easily go and extract data and it can put it into any format."
"The dashboards of Microsoft BI are easy to use."
"The solution's initial setup isn't too complicated."
"Data integration enabled my organization to easily pool data from our varied system into one data warehouse."
"The visualization and reporting are the most valuable features of this solution."
"Being able to transfer data with the Power Query feature is great for teaching with about one to two hundred rows of data. I am also able to see the relationship between multiple tables and create various sheets and dashboards."
"The product is easy to use and simple to navigate."
"The most valuable feature is that from a user's point of view, it is easy to use and requires just a simple click to generate a report."
"The initial setup of the solution is pretty easy."
"It is an user-friendly solution."
"We use SAP Crystal Reports for operational reporting."
"I find Crystal Reports very easy to use, even for a non-technical person."
"SAP Crystal Reports offers a plethora of features, many of which were available much earlier than in the Crystal Reports we previously used. We extensively use its capabilities for generating general reports, working with Kaspersky data, and even incorporating images into our reports. The range of functions available in SAP Crystal Reports is diverse, and we leverage them across various systems for our needs."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a fantastic way of generating reports."
"The way you navigate the product, compared to other products in this industry, that could be improved a bit."
"The formatting template could be improved."
"Areas of Power BI that could be improved are the learning curve for developers who come from non-technical backgrounds."
"I believe the price should be degressive, and we should have a lower, or better unit price if we have more users."
"Microsoft BI typically connects to a database, often SQL Server, but it's also capable of connecting to multiple databases, pulling data from them, and allowing for data consolidation. You can then aggregate and generate dashboards and reports from this combined data. Personally, I wouldn't claim to have the expertise to suggest significant changes or additional features, as it functions quite well as is."
"The visual outlet or the visualization aspect can be improved because the settings piece is quite problematic. It requires a lot of time to set the visuals and check. It is quite fiddly to change all the settings and font sizes. It just needs better ability in terms of using templates or visualization templates to get the vision. Our users always benchmark based on the product, and they don't appreciate everything under the bonnet. The only rating is based on the actual reports in the settings for the dashboard. They should make it look a bit funky and a bit more aesthetically pleasing on the eye. It is quite a fiddly tool, but other than that, it is pretty slick. Because it is community-driven, the marketplace tends to be changing forever. You get the standard visualizations, and you've also got all other marketplace visualizations that require you to spend a bit more money and purchase things in the marketplace. With certain visualizations, there is no longevity. I had used certain visualizations, but they discontinued them, and I had to rebuild my reports, which is obviously very frustrating. There should be some sort of stabilization around how the marketplace visuals impact the users when they expire."
"From any improvement perspective, I want the product to be made available to users free of cost...The stability and scalability of the product can be better."
"If you need data in real-time, it's not an ideal solution."
"It has significantly enhanced security features, especially when compared to the standard security features of the earlier PeerSpot version I purchased. I've observed improvements in security, and overall, it's quite commendable. Regarding potential enhancements for the next release of this solution, I haven't closely examined SAP Crystal Reports 53. I've only encountered it briefly, perhaps once or twice. However, I anticipate that it likely offers advanced features distinct from its predecessor. I believe there may be notable improvements and additions in the latest version, and I look forward to exploring them further."
"There could be improvements made to the analytics capabilities."
"A real improvement would be a simpler system that allows users to play with the visualization without needing specialized skills and code."
"SAP Crystal Reports should provide better support for dynamic connectors."
"SAP Crystal Reports has some compatibility issues with third-party products."
"If at all possible, a little bit of improvement on the analytical side is needed."
"The financing part needs improvement."
Microsoft Power BI is ranked 1st in Reporting with 297 reviews while SAP Crystal Reports is ranked 9th in Reporting with 48 reviews. Microsoft Power BI is rated 8.0, while SAP Crystal Reports is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Microsoft Power BI writes "A complete ecosystem with an builtin ETL tool, good integrations with python and R, and support of DAX and Power Query (M languages)". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SAP Crystal Reports writes "Helps analyze your data by creating richly formatted, pixel-perfect, and multiple reports from virtually any data source, delivered in over a dozen formats". Microsoft Power BI is most compared with Tableau, Amazon QuickSight, KNIME, Domo and Oracle OBIEE, whereas SAP Crystal Reports is most compared with TIBCO Jaspersoft, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, IBM Cognos, Tableau and Oracle OBIEE. See our Microsoft Power BI vs. SAP Crystal Reports report.
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