Which tool should I choose between Google Data Studio and Power BI?
Google Data Studio is a free data visualization tool from Google. It allows users to create dashboards using their data sources. Users can also publish these dashboards to the web or mobile apps.
Power BI is another free data visualization tool from Microsoft. It has similar features to Google Data Studio. The main difference is that Google Data Studio is built on top of Google BigQuery, whereas Power BI uses SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS).
What Is Microsoft Power BI?
Microsoft Power BI is an enterprise data visualization tool for big companies like banks, insurance firms, retailers, manufacturers, healthcare providers, and government agencies. But individuals and small businesses are increasingly embracing Power BI because of its easy-to-use interface.
Power BI allows you to connect to many databases, including SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, MongoDB, Amazon Redshift, Salesforce, SAP HANA, Teradata, and PostgreSQL. And it makes it simple to visualize your data across multiple tabs. This includes charts, graphs, maps, tables, and 3D visualizations.
What Is Google Data Studio?
Google Data Studio allows you to create amazing dashboards with data from multiple sources. It’s easy to use, offers an attractive interface, and it lets you add different kinds of charts to your reports.
You don’t even need coding skills to make great visualizations. With Data Studio, you can easily build interactive dashboards, embed them directly onto your site, and publish them to the web — no code required.
Features Compared
Power BI is Microsoft’s answer to Tableau. It’s designed to help businesses build data visualizations quickly and easily. While it does provide some unique features, it doesn’t come close to offering what Tableau does.
Data Studio is another tool offered by Microsoft that helps you build data visualizations. It’s built around the idea that anyone can produce great-looking charts and graphs. You can use Excel formulas to calculate averages based on a column value if you want something more sophisticated.
Both tools offer similar capabilities for building dashboards. However, Power BI provides a simple way to create interactive reports. Data Studio excels at providing a drag & drop UI for making ad hoc reports.
Sources for Data Input
The most significant difference between these two tools is how they handle inputting data into their respective platforms.
With Power BI, you must manually enter data into each tab to get it into the dashboard. You can import data from CSV files or Excel spreadsheets. But if you want to pull data from other systems, you’ll have to use ODBC connections.
Data Studio has a much easier time pulling data from various sources. For example, you can pull data from SQL Server, MySQL, Amazon Redshift, SAP HANA, and PostgreSQL. The thing you have to worry about is setting up the connection.
Once connected to the database, you can start creating visualizations using any chart or graph. You can use a variety of filters to narrow down your results.
Editing Raw Data and Customizations
Power BI makes it easy to connect data sources and build reports without writing code. However, there are some limitations to how much control you have over the data. For example, you cannot modify raw data by adding columns or changing column names. But you can access the formatting options and visuals within Power BI Desktop. This article will show you how to use those features to customize your report design.
To begin editing your data, open Power BI Desktop. Then select the type of report you want to create. A blank canvas opens up where you can start designing your report.
Sharing Data Visualizations
Sharing data visualizations in PowerBI differs from sharing data sets in the Data Studio. In PowerBI, you can share reports and dashboards with external or internal collaborators. While in Datastudio, you can share datasets with external or internal collaborators using the web interface.
Ease of Use
Power BI is one of the most accessible tools because it does most of the heavy lifting. You don’t need to understand complex code to make data visualizations; you drag and drop. You’ll feel right at home if you’re familiar with Microsoft Office products like Word and Excel.
DataStudio is another excellent option for people who aren’t comfortable writing SQL queries. Instead of learning technical terms, you follow a wizard-like process to build your visualization.
You can even combine these tools into a single workflow to automate tasks. For example, you could start with a simple dashboard in Power BI, add some charts and tables in DataStudio, and then publish the whole thing to the web.
Mobile Compatibility
Both of these tools offer mobile compatibility. This means that you can view your reports on your phone or tablet.
However, Power BI doesn’t support offline viewing. So if you want to work on your report while you’re away from your computer, you’ll need an internet connection.
Data studio offers offline viewing so you can continue working on your report even when you’re not connected to the internet.
Security
Both of these tools provide security measures to protect your data. They encrypt all of your data before sending it to the cloud. And they allow you to restrict access to certain users or groups.
Data Studio allows you to grant permissions to specific users or groups. It’s important to note that you must be logged in as an administrator to change permissions.
Integration
Google Data Studio makes it simple to connect all your data sources to one place. You don’t need to learn SQL queries anymore; drag and drop. Now you can easily combine multiple sources into one report. And there are many different ways to do this, depending on what type of connection you want to make.
Pricing
Power BI is one of those tools that seems like it should cost a lot but isn’t. Microsoft makes it easy to try out the software without committing to anything, and there are many ways you can use it for free. But if you want something more robust, Power BI offers several different subscription options.
The Free Plan
This option allows you to Power BI Desktop, Query Editor, and Power View. You don’t get access to data connectors, dashboards, reports, or apps, but you do get full functionality for editing Excel files. This is great for getting up and running quickly, but if you’re looking for something more powerful, you’ll need to upgrade to another plan.
The Standard Plan
For $10 per month ($100 annually), you get access to everything in the Free Plan plus additional features such as data connectors, dashboards and views, and apps. You can also save queries and visualizations as templates and create custom visuals. If you require more power, you can add premium seats for Power BI Premium for just $1 per seat per month ($10 per year).
The Enterprise Plan
You might qualify for enterprise pricing if you work for a large organization. For example, organizations with 50 or more employees qualify for enterprise pricing, while smaller companies pay $3,500 per seat per year ($3500 per seat per annum). In addition to the standard features, you get access to Power BI Service, which allows you to build and deploy custom applications to mobile devices and web browsers.
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