This blog compares two popular business intelligence tools, Power BI and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). It discusses their key features, strengths, and limitations to help readers understand their differences and choose the right one for their reporting and data visualization needs.
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What is Power BI?
Power BI is a Microsoft product developed for reporting and data analysis. It is a Business Intelligence (BI) tool consisting of a bunch of user-friendly and smart features. It also offers a range of other services including data preparation, data connectivity, data modeling, data transformation, etc.
What is SSRS?
SSRS or SQL Server Reporting Service is mainly a server-based platform used to generate reports. Although very similar to Power BI, SSRS is conventional in terms of its use. Generally, it is used in organizations for data visualization, as well as to generate, view, and share reports. Besides, SSRS comprises a programming interface, along with various processing components integrated into a set.
Unlike Power BI, SSRS requires more manual effort as it consists of fewer graphical drag-and-drop features. Also, it demands more reporting tools that are programming-based. SSRS is also a Microsoft product that is closely associated with SQL formatting tools and Visual Studio.
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Types of Reports SSRS Generates
- Cached reports
- Linked reports
- Drill-through reports
- Drill-down reports
- Parameterized reports
- Subreports
- Ad-hoc reports
- Snapshot reports
- Click-through reports
Now that we have got an idea of Power BI and SSRS, let us read about the difference between SSRS and Power BI.
Basic Difference Between Power BI and SSRS
In this section, we are going to check out the key differences between these two BI tools. Here, we will also learn about Power BI Report Server (PBIRS) and will further come across Power BI Reporting Server vs SSRS.
- Unlike SSRS, Power BI is free. In SSRS, we need to purchase the SQL Server license. However, to use PBIRS, we need to buy the premium license of Power BI.
- Power BI is comparatively more graphical and modern, whereas SSRS requires more time and manual effort to analyze data and generate reports.
- PBIRS can be referred to as the successor of SSRS with more features.
- Power BI is integrated with Cortana for AI-based experience, but this feature is not included in SSRS
Since we have read about SSRS vs Power BI Report Server, now, it will be easy for us to get an in-depth understanding of Power BI vs SSRS.
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Power BI vs SSRS
After getting an insight into the general comparison between Power BI and SSRS, we will now learn about their differences based on various factors and parameters. Below is a table consisting of the comparisons between these tools.
| Parameters | Power BI | SSRS |
| Technology | It is a BI tool that allows us to deal with data analysis and report creation | It is a server-based, conventional software used to analyze data and generate reports |
| History | Compared to SSRS, Power BI is newer and technologically more advanced as it was launched in 2017 | This SQL software was launched in 2004 |
| Benefits | Power BI is an easy-to-use and user-friendly tool used to build, publish and share reports with its rich graphical capabilities | SSRS does not offer much in the graphics field. However, it does provide a good drill-down feature |
| Implementation and Compatibility | It can generate, publish, and also share dashboards and reports for both server-based and cloud-based platforms | It only possesses the ability to generate and share server-based reports |
| Accessibility | We can easily access this tool as a mobile or desktop application or on web browsers | SSRS can only be accessed on desktops and web |
| Licensing | We can use the basic versions of Power BI and its reporting server for free. To access premium features such as collaboration, security, gateway, etc., we need to buy a license | If we want to use SSRS, we most definitely have to purchase the SQL Server license |
| Components | It is an HTML5-enabled open-source platform and cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) used in the data analysis domain | It is a server-based visualization and report generation tool used in organizations |
| Usage | Due to its drag-and-drop features and rich GUI, it is comparatively more user-friendly | SSRS focuses more on the programming and coding interface, making it less user-friendly |
| Data Dependency and Sources | It can easily work on structured and unstructured data | SSRS can only be used for structured and semi-structured data |
| Acceptance | Power BI can dominate the BI market single-handedly. It is preferred over SSRS as a reporting server in many organizations | Although it uses old and primitive technology, it is more in use as compared to Power BI |
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3 Reasons Why Power BI Is Better Than SSRS
Although SSRS is more frequently and commonly used, Power BI is generally more preferred. This is mainly because Power BI is technologically more advanced and has more features than SSRS. However, here are the three main reasons why Power BI is preferred over SSRS.
Learning Curve
Organizations are more inclined toward responsive and easily adaptive tools for data visualization. SSRS is an extremely static software that adds up as a burden to the learning curve. Power BI, on the other hand, provides easy-to-use drag-and-drop features to build reports instantly. Unlike SSRS, we do not need to use a specific tool in the case of mobile reports as well.
Innate User Experience
Power BI offers a richer graphical experience than SSRS, which provides more efficient data visualization and data analytics. Rather, SSRS needs more human effort for report generation and data analysis. The SSRS interface is outdated, and we do not have enough control over the appearance of the parameters in reports. Besides, we cannot use SSRS to generate fancy and impressive graphs and charts, but with Power BI, we can achieve these results.
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No More Printed Reports
Since the rate of use of SSRS in companies has decreased over the years, it has resulted in the continuous degradation of printed reports, and they are currently low in demand. Most Data Analysts and Researchers prefer using mobile BI, dynamic charts, and many such features rather than the old printed reports.
In this blog, we got an overview of Power BI and SSRS. We also came across the differences between these Business Intelligence tools in terms of features, accessibility, and other parameters. Further, we learned about some of the reasons why organizations choose Power BI over SSRS as a reporting server in their companies.
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