Microsoft Power BI vs MATLAB

Tableau

Looker

Autodesk Fusion

Qlik Sense

Wolfram Mathematica

Scilab

Compare Microsoft Power BI and MATLAB based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

Qlik Sense is a business intelligence (BI) and visual analytics platform that supports a range of analytic use cases. It supports a full range of users and use-cases across the life-cycle from data to insight.

Tableau is the world’s leading AI-powered analytics and business intelligence platform. Learn More! 

Looker, now part of Google Cloud, is a data platform that makes it simple for anyone to find, navigate and understand their data. Looker platform has an analytics interface for exploring data, a reusable development paradigm for curating data experiences, and an extensible API set so the data can exist in other systems. Looker enables anyone to search and explore data, build dashboards and reports, and share everything easily and quickly.

Microsoft Power BI converts data into rich interactive visualizations, utilizing business analytics tools to share dashboard-based insights across all devices

Activity Dashboard

Ad hoc Analysis

Ad hoc Query

Ad hoc Reporting

AI/Machine Learning

Collaboration Tools

Customizable Dashboard

Customizable Reports

Dashboard

Dashboard Creation

Data Blending

Data Cleansing

Data Connectors

Data Discovery

Data Import/Export

Data Management

Data Synchronization

Data Transformation

Data Visualization

Geographic Maps

High Volume Processing

Integration into Third Party Applications

Interactive Reports

KPI Monitoring

Mobile Access

Natural Language Search

Real-Time Analytics

Real-Time Reporting

Real-Time Updates

Reporting & Statistics

Reporting/Analytics

Self Service Data Preparation

Self-service Analytics

Single Page View

Visual Analytics

Microsoft Power BI

Android

Web-based

Windows

Project Manager

It's an incredible programming for examination. I love the perception highlights since it transform drilling information into fun outlines or diagrams.

Charity Njogu

The ability to filter to the specific metric we are interested in is an amazing feature.

It is a good data analytics and visualization software and its ability to import data from multiples sources is a great feature.

Project Associate

Could be frustrating to use when first starting as it would give you an error message but provide no specifics on what is wrong or directions to fix it.

IT Administrator

A great reporting tool with great visuals and user friendly graphical user interface.A wonderful application for running day to day activities.

ServiceDesk Jr

I find the PowerBi amazing to have an easy to navigate and attractive interface, simple to create a new panel, easy to learn, not to mention the integrations he already has.

Financial Analyst

The data visuals are great and convienent rather than spending hours creating it yourself. It is also great compared to the other similar softwares because of how simple it is to use.

IoT CAB Manager

Amazing software with incredible analytics resources. It is great for dashboards.

Junior Programmer Analyst

It helps me to improve the way we manage the Data in the organization. Also,  I got experience and I got in love in Data Analysis.

It is a good analytical tool which simplifies complexities in producing articulate reports and good especially when it being used by people without much programming knowledge.

Operations Manager

It provides great visibility on data, it is easy to download and it connects with different CRMs in order to use it as a database for performance.

Programmer

The possibility of using a free version and the price of the PRO version, which is more affordable than the competitors.

Director, Accountability & Transparency

I find it a bit frustrating when presented with a visualisation that doesn't represent the particular angle on the data I am looking for.

Assistant controller 

Had to take some training courses and even at that it was still confusing.

PowerBI, is very powerful and has a big community who's will help you if you have a question or a problem. Also, the learning curve is not steep.

The only problem, I've found was that you can only program 8 updates a day to the data model.

Data Scientist

This is usually very informative especially to the senior management when creating dashboard and data summaries. For example, Its specifically important in monitoring budget and expenditure data.

Consultant

It can integrate with Excel which means one can work on raw data parallelly with the BI visualizations. Power BI has a very interactive community and that takes care of the support issue.

Microsoft Power BI screenshot: Overview

Microsoft Power BI screenshot: Power BI desktop

Microsoft Power BI screenshot: Data Hub

Microsoft Power BI screenshot: Protect your data

Microsoft Power BI screenshot: Sharpen your skills

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Non Profit

Public Administrations

Small Business

Scilab is an open-source numerical computation software that helps businesses in aerospace, automotive, energy, metallurgy, pharmaceutical, and research sectors perform algorithm testing or numerical computation across engineering and scientific applications. Key features include numerical analysis, data visualization, debugging, and application development.

Wolfram Mathematica is a simulation solution that offers a variety of functions including natural language input, real-world data capabilities, high-powered computation, and more. The platform provides various features such as machine learning, data science, and visualization. Its intuitive interface, predictive suggestions, and rich document organization make it incredibly user-friendly.

Autodesk Fusion is a 3D CAD, CAM, and CAE tool that combines industrial and mechanical design, simulation, collaboration, and machining to connect the entire product development process in an integrated, concept-to-production toolset

MATLAB is a programming and numeric computing platform, which enables businesses and educational institutions to create models, develop algorithms, analyze data sets and more. Professionals can use the live editor to create scripts and enhance code with hyperlinks, images, and headings.


2D Drawing

3D Imaging

Civil

Customization

Data Mining

Design Analysis

Design Management

Document Management

Electrical

File Storage

Forecasting

Graphical Data Presentation

Mathematical Modeling

Mechanical

Mechatronics

Modeling & Simulation

Monte Carlo Simulation

Presentation Tools

Regression Analysis

Search/Filter

Statistical Analysis

Statistical Process Control

Statistical Simulation

Survival Analysis

Time Series Analysis

MATLAB

Research Assistant

It has a huge built-in library for functions and tools, so it is simple to utilize Matlab when used properly. More importantly, it has a great GUI tool that can make great applications with ease.

Self-Employed

MATLAB is super great as it is so intuitive to use. Literally used it in so many of my courses like Orbital Mechanics and Compressible flow.

Sales/IT Associate

MATLAB is great for quick prototyping and data analysis. It is easy to learn and has great online support and help documentation.

IT junior

I like everything about it. I am an expert on it and I brought it to our department, it is super good to quick data analysis.

Team Lead

It's a super powerful platform that is very customizable and flexible. You can create some very impressive things with it.

Department Fellow

But, MATLAB is best for creating bulk images at a superb quality. You can create figures in almost all formats as you can imagine.

Freelancer

MATLAB  is one of the great feature which is helps in documentations. I really like it because It is very easy to learn.

The main thing I love about MATLAB is the help documentation. You can literally search for anything you want to do and its there.

Software Engineer

Simulink allows for flowchart based programming which works great with the MATLAB ecosystem. For mathematical modeling and visualizing, MATLAB is an excellent rapid prototyping solution.

Student

This is the best app for mathematical works like Matrix calculations, interfacing programs. It is really easy to use, easy to understand.

The main downside is that MATLAB needs to make their GUI more minimalist, it's 2020 already. The other thing that I miss is an option to add semicolon automatically after every line.

Scientist

I in the past I have developed all my Scientific code in Matlab. It has a very good IDE, good programing language concepts, and could be integrated with many hardware devices.

Matlab is not easily translatable to learning other languages, and it is often the poorer choice when compared to other languages if matrix manipulation is not the goal.

Teaching Assistant

The cost for access to an entire school is $500. Its a great value for your money and there are many online resources to help students understand the code.

Entertainment Account Executive

Good computation with large datasets, one of the more used programs so you have access to lots of community help and videos to learn from.

Neuroscience Graduate Student

Sometimes new versions of MATLAB will cause previous code to no longer work, which can be very frustrating.

It's hard to fix error sometimes when the code is too long.

Data analyst

It also allows you to produce the most optimal and well-designed graphs that few other statistical software can do. On the other hand, it has a better quality-price ratio.

Microsoft Power BI vs MATLAB Comparison (2026)

Microsoft Power BI

MATLAB

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives