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."I've seen no issues with BI's stability."
"It is a pretty straightforward and flexible solution for data integration and modeling. It is a low-code solution. When you are doing data integration, you can use the GUI, which is very simple and straightforward. You can also do very intricate custom queries and model it at different levels. It is very easy to use and scalable."
"The product is stable."
"Power BI is more powerful than other tools because it is new for us. Each new version has more capabilities, and we're expecting AI and ML features in the next version."
"The one feature most of our customers like is data visualization. When we were doing BI directly from SQL, most users found it challenging to create their own reports. Power BI has self-serve analytics that the end-users can do themselves. On most projects, people are primarily using data visualization and self-serve analytics."
"The solution is very easy to use."
"We like the drag and drop interactability visualization. We really like that. It's user-friendly."
"I have found the best features to be the dashboard creation, graphs, charts, and presentation bar graphs."
"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."
"It is an user-friendly solution."
"I find Crystal Reports very easy to use, even for a non-technical person."
"The initial setup of the solution is pretty easy."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a fantastic way of generating reports."
"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."
"We use SAP Crystal Reports for operational reporting."
"I think that they can add more types of charts because the selection on the desktop version is limited."
"It needs a wizard that covers all its options."
"There are some limitations in Power BI; you have to work in the Power BI base. However, if you want something not out-of-the-box and you want something custom, you have to do a lot of work."
"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."
"It should have more report outputs. They should expand the report outputs. Its documentation should also be better."
"It has limited performance capabilities in terms of connecting to large transactional databases, but it is fine for simple and quick queries from Excel spreadsheets or one table. The premium level is going to be more applicable for the higher transaction-level databases."
"The data source definition is all over the place."
"The solution could improve the mobile application design. It is difficult to use compared to the desktop version."
"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."
"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."
"SAP Crystal Reports has some compatibility issues with third-party products."
"SAP Crystal Reports should provide better support for dynamic connectors."
"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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We monitor all Reporting reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
