---
description: Compare Microsoft Power BI vs Microsoft SQL Server for South African businesses. GetApp provides a side-by-side comparison with details on software price, features and reviews.
image: https://gdm-localsites-assets-gfprod.imgix.net/images/getapp/og_logo-94fd2a03a6c7a0e54fc0c9e21a1c0ce9.png
title: Compare Microsoft Power BI vs Microsoft SQL Server | GetApp South Africa 2026
---

Breadcrumb: [Home](/) > [Business Intelligence Tools](/directory/318/business-intelligence/software) > [Microsoft Power BI \<span\>vs\</span\> Microsoft SQL Server](https://www.getapp.za.com/compare/102847/125135/power-bi/vs/sql-server)

# Compare Microsoft Power BI vs Microsoft SQL Server

Canonical: https://www.getapp.za.com/compare/102847/125135/power-bi/vs/sql-server

> Detailed comparison between Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft SQL Server. Check ratings, reviews, pricing, and features to make the best decision for your business.

-----

## At a Glance

| Metric | Microsoft Power BI | Microsoft SQL Server |
| **Overall rating** | 4.6/5 | 4.6/5 |
| **Total Reviews** | 1893 | 1982 |
| **Starting Price** | US$10,00 | US$13 748,00 |
| **Free Trial** | No | Yes |
| **Free Version** | Yes | Yes |
| **Deployment** | Cloud, SaaS, Web-based, Windows (Desktop), Android (Mobile) | Cloud, SaaS, Web-based, Windows (Desktop), Linux (Desktop), Windows (On-Premise), Linux (On-Premise) |
| **Support** | Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, 24/7 (Live rep), Chat | Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, 24/7 (Live rep), Chat |
| **Training** | In Person, Live Online, Webinars, Documentation, Videos | In Person, Webinars, Documentation, Videos |

## Key features

### Microsoft Power BI

- API
- Ad hoc Query
- Ad hoc Reporting
- Collaboration Tools
- Customizable Reports
- Dashboard
- Data Connectors
- Data Import/Export
- Data Synchronization
- Data Transformation
- Data Visualization
- Integration into Third Party Applications
- Monitoring
- Multiple Data Sources
- Reporting & Statistics
- Reporting/Analytics
- Self Service Data Preparation
- Visual Analytics

### Microsoft SQL Server

- API
- Ad hoc Query
- Ad hoc Reporting
- Collaboration Tools
- Dashboard
- Data Connectors
- Data Dictionary Management
- Data Import/Export
- Data Synchronization
- Data Transformation
- Data Visualization
- Encryption
- Multiple Data Sources
- Reporting & Statistics
- Reporting/Analytics
- Self Service Data Preparation
- Visual Analytics

## Links

- [View Microsoft Power BI Profile](https://www.getapp.za.com/software/102847/power-bi)
- [View Microsoft SQL Server Profile](https://www.getapp.za.com/software/125135/sql-server)
- [View Original Comparison](https://www.getapp.za.com/compare/102847/125135/power-bi/vs/sql-server)

-----

## Structured Data

<script type="application/ld+json">
  {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"name":"Compare Microsoft Power BI vs Microsoft SQL Server | GetApp South Africa 2026","description":"Compare Microsoft Power BI vs Microsoft SQL Server for South African businesses. GetApp provides a side-by-side comparison with details on software price, features and reviews.","url":"https://www.getapp.za.com/compare/102847/125135/power-bi/vs/sql-server","about":[{"@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/software/102847/power-bi#software"},{"@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/software/125135/sql-server#software"}],"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/compare/102847/125135/power-bi/vs/sql-server#breadcrumblist"},"@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/compare/102847/125135/power-bi/vs/sql-server#webpage","@type":["WebPage","CollectionPage"],"publisher":{"@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-ZA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/#website"}},{"name":"Microsoft Power BI","description":"Microsoft Power BI is a suite of analytics tools for analyzing business data and sharing insights via rich visualizations. Customizable and pre-built dashboards unify important metrics into single views, showing real time updates to every device. The centralized, web-based Power BI service interfaces Power BI gateways to connect to and unify organizational data while Power BI Desktop for Windows provides local data mashup and report authoring features. Live dashboards offer an instant 360-view on business health, leveraging 59 out-of-the-box connections for apps or services such as Salesforce, Google Analytics, Azure, Facebook, Github, QuickBooks Online, Twilio and Zendesk. Power BI brings all that data, wherever it resides, together to form a complete picture of key metrics that can then be queried using natural language.\n\nWith Power BI Desktop, users can author reports using intuitive drag-and-drop tools and share amongst colleagues through the online Power BI Service. Integrating with Microsoft’s established Query engine, data modeling and visualization technologies, Power BI Desktop connects, shapes and reports to centralize a typically disjointed process of reporting. Outputting to .pbix format, these report files can then be manually shared like any other or uploaded to the shared service. In addition, this ability to keep all users on the same page at all times extends to a suite of optimized mobile support. Power BI Mobile keeps remote connectivity consistent across native apps for Windows Mobile, iOS and Android devices, adding intuitive gesture-based operation. Live dashboards can be viewed on the fly, alongside full report sharing capabilities and data-driven alerts.","image":"https://gdm-catalog-fmapi-prod.imgix.net/ProductScreenshot/57457b99-5e8d-4fd7-8bc8-ae717836a1de.png","url":"https://www.getapp.za.com/software/102847/power-bi","@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/software/102847/power-bi#software","@type":"SoftwareApplication","applicationCategory":"BusinessApplication","publisher":{"@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/#organization"},"aggregateRating":{"@type":"AggregateRating","bestRating":5,"ratingCount":1893,"ratingValue":4.6},"offers":{"price":"10","@type":"Offer","priceCurrency":"USD"},"operatingSystem":"Cloud, Windows, Android"},{"name":"Microsoft SQL Server","description":"SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDMS) designed to help businesses of all sizes analyze structured or unstructured data across various data environments including Azure SQL Database, Azure Cosmos DB, MySQL, and more. It enables administrators to track the performance of databases, monitor data lakes, and handle data warehousing operations on a unified platform.\n\nFeatures of SQL Server include multi-language support, compliance management, data classification, automated alerts, full-text search, and more. It allows software developers to manage big data environments and deploy data clusters of containerized instances of Apache Spark and Hadoop Data File System (HDFS). DevOps teams can also utilize in-memory database capabilities to track the performance of business workloads.\n\nSQL Server provides extract, transform, and load (ETL) capabilities, which enable users to extract business data from various sources, create custom workflows, execute aggregation, deduplication, or merging of data, and export the transformed data into destination databases or files. It allows employees to store digital objects including dynamic management views (DMVs), procedures, indexes, constraints, and transaction logs in a centralized repository.","image":"https://gdm-catalog-fmapi-prod.imgix.net/ProductScreenshot/a6186034-dd75-4e9a-b62a-a3ce1724fbcb.png","url":"https://www.getapp.za.com/software/125135/sql-server","@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/software/125135/sql-server#software","@type":"SoftwareApplication","applicationCategory":"BusinessApplication","publisher":{"@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/#organization"},"aggregateRating":{"@type":"AggregateRating","bestRating":5,"ratingCount":1982,"ratingValue":4.6},"offers":{"price":"13748","@type":"Offer","priceCurrency":"USD"},"operatingSystem":"Cloud, Windows, Linux, Windows on premise, Linux on premise"},{"@id":"https://www.getapp.za.com/compare/102847/125135/power-bi/vs/sql-server#breadcrumblist","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"name":"Home","position":1,"item":"/","@type":"ListItem"},{"name":"Business Intelligence Tools","position":2,"item":"/directory/318/business-intelligence/software","@type":"ListItem"},{"name":"Microsoft Power BI vs Microsoft SQL Server","position":3,"item":"https://www.getapp.za.com/compare/102847/125135/power-bi/vs/sql-server","@type":"ListItem"}]}]}
</script>