Analysis and reporting with Microsoft business intelligence (BI) tools
Choosing the right business intelligence tool can be overwhelming. Learn about the different Microsoft offerings and find the one that best fits your needs.
The following table maps workloads for data analysis and reporting to the Microsoft BI tools that are best suited for those workloads. For more information about a product, select the product link in the table.
If you're looking for a brief overview of these tools to help you decide which tools are right for you, see Introducing Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) Tools.
Note
Reporting Services integration with SharePoint is no longer available after SQL Server 2016. Power View support is no longer available after SQL Server 2017.
| Workloads | User | Excel-based BI tool | SharePoint-based BI tool | SharePoint Online-based BI tool | Power BI-based BI tool | SQL Server-based BI tool |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-Service BI | Analyst/End User | |||||
| Easily discover, and access public and corporate data | Excel 2016 | Azure Data Catalog | ||||
| Create powerful data models | Power Pivot | Power BI Desktop | ||||
| Perform self-service predictive analytics | Data Mining Add-ins for Excel | |||||
| Visualize and explore data | 3D Maps | Power BI Desktop | ||||
| Ask questions using natural language query | Q & A | |||||
| Access reports using mobile devices | HTML 5 (supports viewing <10-MB files) |
HTML 5 (supports viewing <250 MB) Power BI mobile app on iOS devices Power BI mobile app on Android devices Power BI mobile app for Windows |
||||
| Collaborate and share | SharePoint Sites | SharePoint Team Sites | Power BI Sites | |||
| Corporate BI | IT Pro | |||||
| Create multi-dimensional/tabular corporate models | Analysis Services | |||||
| Create ad hoc data visualizations | Power View for SharePoint | |||||
| Create dashboards | SharePoint Dashboards PerformancePoint Services |
Dashboards in Power BI | ||||
| Create operational reports | *Reporting Services | |||||
| Create custom and embedded reports | Power BI Embedded | |||||
| Advanced Analytics | Data Scientist | |||||
| Perform self-service predictive analytics | Data Mining Add-ins for Excel | |||||
| Use data mining algorithms | Data Mining in Analysis Services SQL Server R Services |
|||||
Feedback
Coming soon: Throughout 2024 we will be phasing out GitHub Issues as the feedback mechanism for content and replacing it with a new feedback system. For more information see: https://aka.ms/ContentUserFeedback.
Submit and view feedback for