Overview
This lecture compares Power BI and Excel for building dashboards, outlining their features, strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions for choosing the most suitable tool.
Learning Curve & Skills Needed
- Power BI has a steep learning curve, requiring knowledge of Power Query, Power Pivot, DAX, new charts, sharing, and data refresh.
- Excel is easier if you know formulas, pivot tables, and charts, but power users can use Power Query and Power Pivot within Excel too.
Charting & Visualization
- Power BI offers many chart types (visuals), built-in mapping visuals, and supports custom visuals.
- Excel has a wide range of standard charts but limited mapping visuals and no custom chart creation, though workarounds exist.
Interactivity & Customization
- Power BI provides advanced slicer formatting, drill-down, cross-filtering, and drill-through features for interactive dashboards.
- Excel's slicers are less flexible; interactivity and drill features are limited compared to Power BI.
Analytics & Data Analysis
- Power BI includes specialized visuals: matrix tables, decomposition tree, insights, and key influencers.
- Excel offers more advanced pivot tables, custom DAX measures, flexible formulas, and is better for complex modeling and ad hoc analysis.
- Both tools now feature AI-powered analysis and natural language querying.
Sharing, Security & Collaboration
- Power BI allows secure sharing, role-based access control, device access, and data-based user filtering.
- Excel sharing is mostly through files or web embedding, with weaker data security and less control over access.
Data Handling & Refresh
- Both tools use Power Query for data transformation and can manage millions of rows with Power Pivot.
- Power BI supports real-time data, direct queries (no import), and scheduled refreshes.
- Excel has limited refresh automation unless using VBA or Power Pivot-based tables.
Installation, Access & Cost
- Power BI requires a work email for account creation, IT setup, and has a subscription cost ($10/user/month).
- Excel is widely available, needs no extra installs, and typically has no additional costs.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Power Query — tool for automating data cleaning and transformation.
- Power Pivot — data modeling tool for handling large datasets and writing advanced measures.
- DAX — formula language used in both Power BI and Excel Power Pivot for calculations.
- Visuals — chart types in Power BI.
- Slicer — interactive filter elements in dashboards for segmenting data.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review your dashboard needs and choose Excel or Power BI based on interactivity, sharing, and data security requirements.
- Practice using Power Query and Power Pivot in both tools for advanced dashboard capabilities.
- Explore the analytics features discussed to determine which tool best fits your analysis style.