Reporting & Dashboards
Free dashboards with the sharing model of a Google Doc
Power BI
Serious business intelligence at an SME-affordable per-seat price
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Best for: SMEs that have outgrown spreadsheet reporting and want real data modelling — especially businesses already on Microsoft 365, Business Central or the wider Dynamics stack.
Power BI is the tool we mean when an SME says it wants 'proper BI' — a real semantic model, DAX measures, row-level security and enterprise-grade refresh — at a price that does not require an enterprise: Pro is $14 per user per month (verified Aug 2026, after the April 2025 rise from $10). Desktop, the full authoring environment, is free; the licence money buys publishing and sharing, and that is the number-one licensing surprise: sharing anything with anyone requires Pro on both sides.
For this site's audience its strongest argument is the Microsoft cluster. Power BI is the natural reporting layer over Business Central and the wider Dynamics stack, connects natively to Excel, SQL Server, Dataverse and the Power Platform, and benefits from a massive skills market — finding someone who knows Power BI is easier and cheaper than for any competing BI tool. Our ERP guide's advice that 'a reporting layer is cheaper than an ERP project' usually lands here in practice.
The honest complications are licensing and platform. Above Pro sits Premium Per User at $24, and above that Microsoft Fabric capacities (F-SKUs from roughly $263 to over $5,000 per month) — the Pro/PPU/Fabric ladder genuinely confuses buyers, and the best Copilot features are Fabric-gated. Authoring remains Windows-centric (Desktop has no Mac version), and the learning curve to competent data modelling — star schemas, DAX — is real: budget training or a few days of consulting, not just licences.
This profile reflects documented capabilities and our experience building management reporting on Pro-licensed workspaces; hands-on evaluation of Copilot in Fabric-capacity workspaces is pending.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Power BI Desktop | Free | Full authoring environment, free — but publishing and sharing require a paid licence |
| Pro | $14 per user/month | Publish and share reports; needed by viewers too ($14 — rose from $10 in April 2025; verified Aug 2026) |
| Premium Per User | $24 per user/month | Larger models, more frequent refresh, paginated reports (verified Aug 2026) |
| Microsoft Fabric capacity | Custom | F-SKU capacities from ~$263 to $5,257/mo — unlocks free-viewer distribution at larger SKUs and the full Copilot experience (verified Aug 2026) |
Key features
- Semantic data modelling — Relationships, DAX measures, row-level security
- Power Query ETL — Repeatable data cleaning and shaping on import
- Business Central & Dynamics connectors — The natural reporting layer over the Microsoft ERP stack
- Scheduled refresh & alerts — Data-driven alerts and refresh up to plan limits
- Copilot & Q&A — Natural-language querying; report drafting on Fabric capacity
- Excel interoperability — Analyze in Excel, live-connected pivot tables
Pros and cons
What we like
- Serious BI capability at $14/user — unmatched value in the category
- Natural fit with Microsoft 365, Business Central and Dynamics
- Huge skills market keeps implementation and hiring costs down
- Free Desktop makes learning and prototyping costless
What could be better
- Licensing ladder (Pro / PPU / Fabric) genuinely confuses buyers
- Sharing requires Pro licences on both sides
- Authoring is Windows-only
- Best Copilot features sit behind Fabric capacity pricing