Microsoft Power BI vs Sisense

Updated November 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft's business intelligence suite for data modelling, reports and shared dashboards.

Free plan + paid

Visit Microsoft Power BI Microsoft Power BI profile

Sisense

Analytics platform focused on embedding dashboards and AI answers inside other products.

PaidSelf-hostable

Visit Sisense Sisense profile

The short answer

Pick Power BI for internal reports and dashboards in an organisation already on Microsoft 365, with published per-user pricing and a free Windows authoring app. Pick Sisense if you are a software company embedding white-label dashboards and AI answers into your own product for customers. The core difference is audience: Power BI serves your staff, Sisense serves your customers.

Microsoft Power BI or Sisense: our take

Power BI is Microsoft's business intelligence platform. Analysts build reports in Power BI Desktop, a free Windows app with data modelling, the DAX formula language and many visuals, then publish to the Power BI service in the browser, where teams share dashboards, schedule refreshes and view reports on mobile apps. It connects to Excel, SQL databases, cloud services and Microsoft Fabric, and fits closely with Teams. Sisense is aimed mainly at software companies shipping analytics to their own users. It models data with shared metrics and exposes dashboards, natural-language questions and AI-written summaries that can be embedded through an iframe or its Compose SDK for React, Angular and Vue, with a multi-tenant design that keeps each customer's data separate.

Pricing is very different in openness. Power BI publishes per-user prices: Pro starts at $14 per user/month paid yearly and Premium Per User is $24 per user/month paid yearly, with capacity options for large deployments. The free account covers personal use, but sharing needs a paid licence, and Fabric capacity licensing can be hard to follow. Sisense doesn't publish prices; plans are quoted after a demo, with a free trial available.

Deployment also differs. Power BI is a Microsoft cloud service, and serious authoring is Windows-only. Sisense can run as a hosted service, in your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account, or on-premises, which suits regulated industries. Sisense expects a developer-heavy setup, while Power BI lets analysts get going on their own.

For internal BI in a Microsoft shop, Power BI is usually the simpler and cheaper route. For a SaaS product that needs customer-facing, white-label analytics with tenant isolation and code-level control over embedded charts, Sisense is built for that job, though it is overkill for a team that only needs internal dashboards.

Choose Microsoft Power BI if…

Organisations on Microsoft 365 that want affordable, full-featured dashboards and reports
You want a free option (Sisense is paid only)
You need Windows, iOS and Android, which Sisense doesn't list
Free Desktop authoring app with strong data modelling
Lower per-user price than most enterprise BI tools

Choose Sisense if…

SaaS companies embedding white-label dashboards and AI answers for their own customers
You need to host it on your own servers
You need Self-hosted, which Microsoft Power BI doesn't list
Compose SDK gives developers fine control over embedded charts
Multi-tenant design keeps each customer's data isolated

What is Microsoft Power BI?

Power BI is Microsoft's business intelligence platform and the most common choice in organisations already using Microsoft 365. Reports are built in Power BI Desktop, a free Windows app with data modelling, a formula language (DAX) and a wide range of visuals, then published to the Power BI service in the browser, where teams share dashboards, set up refreshes and view reports on mobile apps. It connects to Excel, SQL databases, cloud services and Microsoft Fabric, and recent versions include Copilot features for drafting reports. The free account covers personal use, while sharing reports with colleagues needs a Pro or Premium Per User licence, priced per user per month, with capacity-based options for large deployments. Its main drawbacks are that serious authoring is Windows-only and the licensing structure, especially around Fabric capacity, can be confusing. For teams living in Excel and Teams it is often the cheapest full-featured option.

What is Sisense?

Sisense is a business intelligence platform aimed mainly at software companies that want to ship analytics to their own customers. It connects to warehouses, databases and cloud apps, models the data with shared metrics, and then exposes dashboards, natural-language questions and AI-written summaries that can be embedded through an iframe or its Compose SDK for React, Angular and Vue apps. A multi-tenant architecture keeps each customer's data separate, which matters for SaaS products. It can run as a hosted service, in your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account, or on-premises, which suits regulated industries. Internal BI is possible too, but the product's strength is white-label, customer-facing analytics. Sisense doesn't publish prices; plans are quoted after a demo, and there is a free trial. Expect a developer-heavy setup rather than a quick self-serve start.

Side by side

Attribute	Microsoft Power BI	Sisense
Pricing	Free plan + paid	Paid
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	Yes
Platforms	Web, Windows, iOS, Android	Web, Self-hosted
Best for	Organisations on Microsoft 365 that want affordable, full-featured dashboards and reports	SaaS companies embedding white-label dashboards and AI answers for their own customers
Status	Active	Active