• Power BI offers a lower minimum price point than Obviously AI, but advanced analytics features will make Power BI a much more expensive software.
• Obviously AI is built for non-technical people who want predictive analytics in clicks, while Power BI is better suited to a more technical audience that has experience in Business Intelligence.

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It seems like there’s a new Business Intelligence or analytics tool coming out every day. There are BI offerings from Amazon (QuickSight), Microsoft (Power BI), Google (Looker), SalesForce (Tableau), and more.

To get the best bang for your buck, and equip your organization with the analytics tools it needs to succeed, it’s important to get the right tool for you specifically. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” solution, which is why many teams find themselves comparing Microsoft’s Power BI and Obviously AI when looking for the right predictive analytics tool.

Overview

Power BI has the benefit of being in Microsoft’s suite of products, enabling it to use Microsoft software like SQL and Excel to make data visualizations at a low cost. The basic plan is therefore just $10/month, but keep in mind that this doesn’t come with advanced analytics functionality. If you’re a small startup without a budget for predictive analytics, and enjoy using Microsoft products, then Power BI may well be a good option.

Obviously AI specializes in no-code predictive analytics, or making machine learning effortless. It’s closer to an “AI tool” than strictly a “Business Intelligence tool,” making it a logical solution for those looking for AI functionality, whether it’s predicting client churn, employee attrition, sales closing rates, or any other organizational KPI.

The more you pay for Obviously AI, the more features you have access to, such as REST API access, On-Premise Setup, and access to a data scientist.

Price

Overall, if you don’t need predictive analytics functionality, Power BI sits at a lower price than Obviously AI at just $10/month. However, if you’re in need of advanced analytics, then Obviously AI is a cheaper option at $145/month for the Pro plan, in contrast to PowerBI at $4,995/month.

Obviously AI does go as low as $75/month for the Basic plan, but that doesn’t include Pro features like importing from databases and apps, REST API access, manual model selection, and automatic updates.

Setup

Power BI comes with a number of setup options, depending on your organizational needs, including desktop, mobile, and an on-premise option. There’s a free trial for the $10 option, which means you can try out the basic features right away. However, there’s no free trial for the advanced analytics, which means you’d need to request a consultation before paying the monthly fee of $4,995 with an annual subscription.

Obviously AI also comes with a web-based and an on-premise solution, but no mobile offering. Obviously AI lets you set up your first analyses and models through a 14-day free trial, which gives you full access to the tool. You can immediately connect data, build an AI model, and deploy it in clicks. After the 14-day trial, you can keep using it by paying for the Basic plan, the Pro plan, or a custom Pro Plus plan.

Integrations

Power BI has REST API access to integrate with a variety of tools. After completing a short authorization process, a REST API can be used by any technical professional to integrate Power BI in an application that accepts API connections. However, Power BI doesn’t seem to have more integrations beyond the REST API, which means that it’ll be difficult for non-technical folk to integrate Power BI into a workflow outside of Microsoft tools.

Obviously AI invested heavily in integrations and connections to widely-used tools and services. The most feature-rich integration is naturally the REST API, since APIs are designed to be used across the web. However, the API integration is also the most complex, and if you’re less technical, you may want to use the Zapier integration. This is just scratching the surface, and Obviously AI offers many more integrations, including (some are in development) with Airtable, Amazon RedShift, Box, Chartio, Dropbox, Google Analytics, Google BigQuery, HubSpot, Kaggle, Mode, Shopify, Snowflake, Tableau, Typeform, and others.

Dashboards

If your key goal is creating Business Intelligence dashboards, then Power BI is the way to go. Power BI is a tried-and-true solution for dashboarding, and given that this basic functionality is just $10 a month, it’s a no-brainer.

Power BI has useful drag-and-drop features to make visualizations quickly, and while advanced analytics aren’t available on the low-cost plan, if you don’t need AI, then this simple dashboarding functionality will suffice.

Obviously AI’s version of a dashboard relates more to Artificial Intelligence models, and less to the traditional Business Intelligence visualizations.

If you need both advanced BI visualizations and AI models, then you have two options:

• Power BI basic and Obviously AI (together $85-155/month)
• Power BI Premium ($4,995/month)

Extras

Both Power BI and Obviously AI offer a shareable reports feature. As Power BI writes:

“With sharing, whether you share content inside or outside your organization, you need a Power BI Pro license. Your recipients also need Power BI Pro licenses, unless the content is in a Premium capacity.”

In other words, anyone you want to share your insights with needs a paid Power BI account. With Obviously AI, a shareable report is accessible to anyone, anywhere, even without an Obviously AI account.

Another important feature of Obviously AI’s Pro plan is access to a dedicated data scientist, which you don’t get even from Power BI’s $4,995/month plan.

Conclusion

When comparing PowerBI and Obviously AI, there’s no clear winner, per se. If you need data visualization and BI functionality, and are more technically inclined, then Power BI’s basic plan is likely the way to go.

If you’re looking for advanced analytics and AI functionality, but aren’t willing or able to shell out almost $5,000/month, then Obviously AI is likely the way to go.

Of course, a third option is to get Power BI’s basic plan and Obviously AI, giving you the best of both worlds at a low cost: BI and AI.

Power BI vs. Obviously AI aren’t your only options for BI and AI tools. We’ll also explore other tools like Alteryx and Einstein in future articles, so stay tuned.