Microsoft Power BI vs Domo
Power BI is a reporting layer priced per user, listed at $14 a month for Pro, that assumes a Microsoft environment. Domo sells the whole stack in one contract, connectors to dashboards, with unlimited users and a bill driven by credits. Microsoft shops with Excel analysts pick Power BI; companies with no warehouse that want one vendor pick Domo.
Hannah ReiterSenior Analyst, Business Applications
Tomasz Wierzbicki
Elena MarchettiVendors can pay for visibility on this site; it never changes what we say about a product. How that works.
Choose Microsoft Power BI ifyou already work in Microsoft 365 and Excel, want a published per-user price you can calculate, and do not need the vendor to supply pipelines and storage.
Choose Domo ifyou have no data warehouse, want connectors, pipelines and dashboards from a single vendor, and prefer unlimited viewers even though credit consumption is hard to forecast.
Microsoft Power BI and Domo side by side
| Microsoft Power BI | Domo | |
|---|---|---|
| Our business intelligence rank | #6 of 13 | #12 of 13 |
| Established in | United States | United States |
| Pricing | Per user per month, published; Fabric capacity billed separately by usage | Credit-based consumption with unlimited users, quoted |
| List price, 30 September 2026 | $14.00 per user per month, paid yearly (Power BI Pro) | Quote only |
| Free tier | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | A Microsoft-standardised company with Excel-shaped analysts | Companies without a data warehouse that want connectors and dashboards in one contract |
| Not for | A team on Google or AWS with no Microsoft estate | Buyers who need a published price they can calculate before talking to sales |
Both are reviewed in full in our business intelligence ranking: Microsoft Power BI and Domo.
Where they differ
Microsoft Power BI 1 · Domo 2 · open 2- 01
What the bill is measured in
Power BI Pro is listed at $14 per user per month and Premium Per User at $24, both paid yearly. Domo does not charge for users or dashboards; its contract holds credits, spent for example at one credit per table created or refreshed on ingestion and one to three per dataflow output table. Domo is kinder to a large readership, Power BI to a small team with heavy data activity.
Depends on the buyer
- 02
Forecasting the cost
A Power BI budget follows from a seat count and a published price, until a Fabric capacity enters, which Microsoft lists only as variable. Domo publishes how credits are consumed but not what a credit costs; the rate falls with larger or longer commitments and is set in the contract. Domo does include a credit utilisation view for tracking spend. Power BI is the more predictable commitment at the start.
Edge: Microsoft Power BI
- 03
How much of the data stack is included
Domo's single contract covers connectors, drag-and-drop ETL, storage, dashboards, workflows and an app builder, with all features available from day one. Power BI offers dataflows for reusable transformation logic, but Microsoft's wider data engineering and OneLake storage belong to Fabric, bought as a separate capacity on which publishing still needs Pro licences. For a company without a warehouse, Domo covers more ground in one purchase.
Edge: Domo
- 04
Opening reports to everyone
In Power BI, sharing requires a paid licence for the people involved unless the content sits on a Fabric capacity of F64 or above, or Premium P1 or above, where readers need no paid per-user licence. Domo states that user seats are unlimited and free at every contract size. For a company-wide readership Domo has the simpler rule, and Power BI reaches the same result only at the capacity tier.
Edge: Domo
- 05
Cost of leaving later
Pipelines built inside Domo have to be rebuilt elsewhere, although Domo can also work on a cloud warehouse you already run, such as Snowflake, BigQuery or Databricks, without a charge for that data. Power BI's measures are written in DAX, a formula language used only in Microsoft's Analysis Services, Power BI and Power Pivot, so they are rewritten on exit. Both tie you in, at different layers.
Depends on the buyer
When neither fits
A company with no warehouse and no Microsoft estate that also wants a published price is served by neither. Zoho Analytics offers low-cost plans with ready-made connectors to business apps, and Metabase gives self-service querying without a data team.
Microsoft Power BI or Domo: questions
4 answersIs Domo more expensive than Power BI?
There is no list price to set against Power BI's. Power BI Pro is listed at $14 per user per month, paid yearly.
Domo publishes no price: each contract comes with a pool of credits, and the cost per credit falls with volume and term. The answer depends on data activity against headcount.
Does Domo charge per viewer like Power BI does?
No. Domo allows unlimited users at no licence fee and meters credits instead, consumed when tables are ingested, transformed or stored.
Power BI is priced per user per month; readers only go without a paid licence when content runs on Fabric F64 or Premium P1 capacity and above.
Which is better without a data warehouse, Power BI or Domo?
Domo is the one built for that case: connectors, ETL, storage and dashboards come in a single contract, with Domo-managed storage billed at one credit per million materialised rows per month.
Power BI is best suited to a Microsoft-standardised company with Excel analysts. Weigh Domo's convenience against the pipeline rebuild an exit would require.
Can I try Power BI or Domo for free?
Yes, both. Microsoft offers a free Power BI account and a free download of Power BI Desktop for authoring; sharing reports requires Pro or Premium.
Domo offers a 30-day trial of the full platform with unlimited users and no credit card, after which pricing is custom.
Sources
Checked 30 September 2026- Microsoft Power BI pricing page: Power BI Pro and Premium Per User prices, free account, and licence-free viewing from F64 or P1 capacity.
- Microsoft Learn: Power BI dataflows: dataflows providing reusable transformation logic in Power BI.
- Microsoft Learn: DAX overview: DAX being used in Analysis Services, Power BI and Power Pivot in Excel.
- Domo pricing page: unlimited users, credit-based custom pricing, 30-day trial and the bundled feature list.
- Domo pricing model page: credit rates for ingestion and storage, and no data charge on a customer-run cloud warehouse.
- Domo pricing guide: dataflow credit rates and cost per credit falling with larger commitments.
- Domo pricing factors page: credits refreshing each billing cycle and the credit utilisation view.