# Microsoft Power BI

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Microsoft Power BI and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Microsoft's dashboard tool, which people say is free and does much more than rivals like Tableau. Critics often call it slow and bloated.

## What people warn about

- Often called terrible or a joke (4 comments): "The Low Carbon Contracts Company has a terrible Power BI which attempts to turn this data into charts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50086641)) "I'm sometimes impressed by the novel ways it finds to suck" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48611789)) "Azure? Teams? PowerBI? It's a total joke" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46490732))
- Heavy low-code tooling (2 comments): "I think this is something PowerBI can do. But that feels like a heavier layer of tooling." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46659725)) "I don't personally like using low code solutions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49809815))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Metabase](https://hackerapproved.com/p/metabase.md): 16 recommend
- [Tableau](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tableau.md): 7 recommend
- [BitBoard](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitboard.md): 7 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-bi)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Microsoft Power BI", https://hackerapproved.com/p/power-bi/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).