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Microsoft Power BI VS D3.js

Compare Microsoft Power BI VS D3.js and see what are their differences

Microsoft Power BI logo Microsoft Power BI

BI visualization and reporting for desktop, web or mobile

D3.js logo D3.js

D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS.
  • Microsoft Power BI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-14
  • D3.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-11

D3 allows you to bind arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), and then apply data-driven transformations to the document. For example, you can use D3 to generate an HTML table from an array of numbers. Or, use the same data to create an interactive SVG bar chart with smooth transitions and interaction.

D3 is not a monolithic framework that seeks to provide every conceivable feature. Instead, D3 solves the crux of the problem: efficient manipulation of documents based on data. This avoids proprietary representation and affords extraordinary flexibility, exposing the full capabilities of web standards such as HTML, SVG, and CSS. With minimal overhead, D3 is extremely fast, supporting large datasets and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation. D3’s functional style allows code reuse through a diverse collection of official and community-developed modules.

Microsoft Power BI features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Power BI has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for users to create reports and dashboards without extensive technical knowledge.
  • Integration with Microsoft Products
    Seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft products like Excel, Azure, and Office 365, enhancing productivity and data accessibility.
  • Real-Time Data
    Supports real-time data streaming, which allows users to get up-to-date insights and make informed decisions quickly.
  • Custom Visualizations
    Offers a wide range of built-in visualizations, as well as the ability to create custom visuals, helping users present data in a meaningful way.
  • Robust Security
    Provides strong security features including role-based access, data encryption, and compliance with global regulatory standards.

Possible disadvantages of Microsoft Power BI

  • Complex Licensing
    The licensing model can be confusing and expensive, especially for small businesses or individual users.
  • Performance Issues with Large Data Sets
    Performance can be impacted when handling very large data sets, making it less suitable for extremely data-intensive applications.
  • Limited Customization
    While offering many built-in features, deep customization options may require advanced knowledge of DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) and Power Query.
  • Learning Curve
    Users new to business intelligence tools may find there is a significant learning curve to fully utilize all of Power BI's features.
  • Dependency on Internet Connection
    Many features, especially those involving cloud services, require a stable internet connection, which may be a limitation for some users.

D3.js features and specs

  • Powerful Visualization
    D3.js allows for the creation of highly customized and interactive data visualizations, harnessing the full power of web standards like SVG, Canvas, and HTML.
  • Data Binding
    It offers robust support for data-driven transformations and binding, enabling intuitive connections between data sets and DOM elements.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    A large and active community contributes to tutorials, plugins, and tools, which can significantly simplify the development process.
  • Flexibility
    D3.js is highly flexible, providing low-level manipulation capabilities without being tied to any specific chart types or patterns.
  • Performance
    It is highly optimized for performance, allowing for efficient rendering of complex visualizations even with large data sets.

Possible disadvantages of D3.js

  • Steep Learning Curve
    D3.js has a steep learning curve due to its low-level nature and requires a solid understanding of JavaScript, DOM manipulation, and data concepts.
  • Complexity
    Creating complex visualizations can be time-consuming and require a significant amount of custom code, making it less approachable for quick, simple tasks.
  • Browser Compatibility
    Although widely supported, some D3.js features may have inconsistent behavior across different browsers, requiring additional testing and debugging.
  • Documentation
    While extensive, D3.js documentation can be challenging for beginners to navigate and understand, causing misunderstandings and slower development times.
  • Dependency Management
    The library itself is modular, but managing dependencies and integrating D3.js with other JavaScript frameworks or libraries can sometimes be problematic.

Microsoft Power BI videos

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D3.js videos

Data Visualization with D3.js - Full Tutorial Course

More videos:

  • Review - Let's learn D3.js - D3 for data visualization (full course)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Microsoft Power BI and D3.js)
Data Dashboard
75 75%
25% 25
Charting Libraries
0 0%
100% 100
Data Visualization
70 70%
30% 30
Business Intelligence
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Microsoft Power BI and D3.js

Microsoft Power BI Reviews

Explore 7 Tableau Alternatives for Data Visualization and Analysis
Microsoft Power BI is a robust data visualization and business intelligence tool that enables users to create interactive, real-time dashboards and reports with minimal coding. It supports over 100 data connectors, integrates seamlessly with the Azure SQL Database, and features advanced data modeling with the DAX language. Power BI's intuitive interface, frequent AI-driven...
Source: www.draxlr.com
Explore 6 Metabase Alternatives for Data Visualization and Analysis
It offers multiple pricing options, including a free version for individual users and paid plans like Power BI Pro and Power BI Premium. Pricing is based on user and capacity needs.
Source: www.draxlr.com
5 best Looker alternatives
Power BI: Microsoft Power BI is a legacy BI tool that is known for its seamless integration to Microsoft ecosystem, which is one of its strongest advantages. However, this tight integration can also be a drawback, as it tends to have limited compatibility with other ecosystems and often relies on Microsoft tools for optimal functionality.
Source: www.draxlr.com
10 Best Alternatives to Looker in 2024
Power BI: Microsoft's Power BI stands out for its seamless integration with other Microsoft products, making it a top choice for organizations deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. Its powerful data visualization tools and extensive community support make it a strong contender in the BI landscape.
Top 10 AI Data Analysis Tools in 2024
Microsoft Power BI is a versatile business intelligence platform that enables users to sort through their data and visualize it for actionable insights. One of its key strengths lies in its ability to import data from nearly any source, allowing users to build reports and dashboards effortlessly. Additionally, Power BI empowers users to build machine learning models and...
Source: powerdrill.ai

D3.js Reviews

6 JavaScript Charting Libraries for Powerful Data Visualizations in 2023
Depending on your requirements, the best JavaScript library is D3.js, as it’s by far the most customizable. However, it’s also really complex and difficult to master. Plus, it’s not as compatible with TypeScript as it is with JavaScript, which can be off-putting for some developers. If you’d prefer a less complex library that you can use with TypeScript, ECharts, and...
Source: embeddable.com
15 JavaScript Libraries for Creating Beautiful Charts
When we think of charting today, D3.js is the first name that comes up. Being an open source project, D3.js definitely brings many powerful features that were missing in most of the existing libraries. Features like dynamic properties, Enter and Exit, powerful transitions, and syntax familiarity with jQuery make it one the best JavaScript libraries for charting. Charts in...
Top 20 Javascript Libraries
D3 stands for Data-Driven Documents. With D3, you can apply data-driven transformations to DOM objects. The keyword with D3 is ‘data-driven,’ which means documents are manipulated depending on the data received. Data can be received in any format and bound with DOM objects. D3 is very fast and supports dynamic behavior for animation and interactions. There are plenty of...
Source: hackr.io
20+ JavaScript libraries to draw your own diagrams (2022 edition)
D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Right now, I would say is the most popular library of its kind.
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Another open source tool, D3.js is a JavaScript library for creating custom data visualizations in a web browser. Commonly known as D3, which stands for Data-Driven Documents, it uses web standards, such as HTML, Scalable Vector Graphics and CSS, instead of its own graphical vocabulary. D3's developers describe it as a dynamic and flexible tool that requires a minimum amount...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, D3.js should be more popular than Microsoft Power BI. It has been mentiond 167 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Microsoft Power BI mentions (17)

  • Unified Analytics Platform: Microsoft Fabric
    Microsoft Fabric is currently in preview and provides data integration, engineering, data warehousing, data science, real-time analytics, applied observability, and business intelligence under a single architecture by integrating services such as Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, Data Activator, and Power BI. In addition, it comes with a SaaS, multi-cloud data lake called "OneLake" that is built-in and... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • NSS Data Analytics Program Question
    I'd suggest spending some time learning the material before you invest thousands in tuition only to find that you don't like it or aren't good at it. Download Tableau Public or Power BI and force yourself to use them for a few months. That's how I taught myself R. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Why Is Data Analytics Important?
    Discover why business analytics is crucial for your business and how to utilise data analytics and PowerBI to make informed and data-backed decisions! Source: about 2 years ago
  • Cloud dB reporting tool?
    Power BI is popular... But for table reports with Excel/PDF export you can use Pebble Reports. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Asking for guidance on migrating to a database from Excel
    Yes, MySQL can do the job. You can use Airforms to do data entry. No need to learn MySQL syntax. You will also need a reporting tool, such as Power BI. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

D3.js mentions (167)

  • IO Devices and Latency
    Do you mean something for data visualization, or tricks condensing large data sets with cursors? https://d3js.org/ Best of luck =3. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • 2024 Nuxt3 Annual Ecosystem Summary🚀
    Document address: D3.js Official Document. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    D3.js: One of the most popular JavaScript visualization libraries. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • What are npm Peer Dependencies and how to use them?
    A Dependency is an npm package that our code depends on in order to be able to run. Some popular packages that can be added as dependencies are lodash, D3, and chartjs. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Introducing RacingBars 📊
    RacingBars is an open-source, light-weight (~45kb gzipped), easy-to-use, and feature-rich javascript library for bar chart race, based on D3.js. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Microsoft Power BI and D3.js, you can also consider the following products

Tableau - Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.

Chart.js - Easy, object oriented client side graphs for designers and developers.

Looker - Looker makes it easy for analysts to create and curate custom data experiences—so everyone in the business can explore the data that matters to them, in the context that makes it truly meaningful.

Highcharts - A charting library written in pure JavaScript, offering an easy way of adding interactive charts to your web site or web application

Sisense - The BI & Dashboard Software to handle multiple, large data sets.

Plotly - Low-Code Data Apps