Power BI vs AIP quick comparison chart
Let's get into the details behind each business intelligence platform in more detail, including the pros and cons of each.
Power BI
Microsoft's Power BI is a business intelligence tool for companies that use the Microsoft ecosystem, such as SQL Server, Teams, Sharepoint, Power Query, Excel, and the Windows operating system.
Perfect For
Power BI is mainly for technical users and is incredibly popular among IT professionals due to the tight integration with SQL Server, the low price, and because it can be easily installed on most Dell laptops. Power BI is popular among Finance teams because it is often included with their Microsoft suite of applications, and connects quickly to Excel. Finance often uses a Windows operating system so it's easy to get started, but advanced analysis is typically handed off to IT teams due to the need to learn SQL, M, and DAX to go beyond the basics.
Key Power BI Features
- Price is very low
- DAX coding language
- Integration with Windows ecosystem
- Wide range of features and customizations
Pros of Power BI
- Custom coding language is very powerful
- Tight integration Sharepoint, Power Query
- Price is very affordable and often included
- Easy to connect to an Excel file
- Easily approved by most IT organizations
- Lots of 3rd party videos and consultants
Cons of Power BI
- Multiple coding languages required
- Doesn't work with a Mac
- Built for technical IT teams
- Very steep learning curve
- Limited data sizes
- Potentially complex pricing
- Not a true dashboard
- Relies on Microsoft ecosystem (Sharepoint, Teams, etc.)
- 3rd party provider support
Pricing
The Power BI service offers both free and paid license options. Paid options include Power BI Pro, Power BI Premium, and Power BI Premium Per Capacity.
Power BI Pro: $9.99 Per user/month
- 1GB model size & 8/day refresh rate
- 10GB maximum storage
Power BI Premium: $20 Per user/month
- 100GB model size & 48/day refresh rate
Power BI Premium: $4,995 Per capacity/month
- 400GB model size & 48/day refresh rate
Analyst Intelligence Platform
AIP's BI is designed specifically for Finance users to instantly deploy advanced Business Intelligence for both personal ad hoc analysis and shared leadership insight. There is no coding required, and users can upload spreadsheets and deploy immediately.
Perfect For
AIP focuses on finance users instead of IT teams, and hosts a suite of finance-specific apps for forecasting, modeling, analysis, and data transformation. AIP buys the best technology, and reconfigures it for "Decision Scientists" - which they define as users who perform analysis and advise decision makers, but are not in IT and may not come from a computer science background. The BI app is used by 48,000 companies.
Key AIP BI Features
- Integrated directly with financial data and scenarios
- Easy to use dashboards with no-coding required
- True dashboard canvas with embedded chart tiles
- Deploys instantly
Pros of AIP BI
- No-code shareable dashboard canvas
- Beautiful charts out of the box
- Takes a few minutes to learn
- No IT support required
- Integrated directly with finance data
- Completely finance owned ecosystem
- Simple pricing
- Free to try
- Live support from finance experts
Cons of AIP BI
- Not built for IT to own and control
- Less formatting capabilities
- Less known
- More expensive
Pricing
- Free to pilot
- $99/mo, cancelable any time
