Compare Microsoft Power BI and johngalt on pricing, features, platforms, and ratings — both Business Intelligence tools, Subscription vs Monthly subscription:…
At a Glance
Microsoft Power BI
johngalt
Primary category
Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Subscription
Monthly subscription: ForecastX Lite $59/mo, ForecastX Standard $99/mo.
Starting price
Free (Power BI Desktop); $14/user/month for Pro
Not documented
Free plan
Yes
Not documented
Free trial
Not documented
Not documented
Platforms
Web, Windows
Desktop App
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Yes
Not documented
Public API
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Microsoft Power BI
Power BI Desktop — Free N/A
Power BI Pro — $14/user/month Annual
Power BI Premium Per User — $24/user/month Annual
johngalt
No individual plan breakdown documented yet.
Pros & Cons
Microsoft Power BI
Pros
Power BI Desktop is free for individual report building
Tight integration with Excel and the broader Microsoft 365/Azure ecosystem
Used by over 350,000 organizations, indicating a mature ecosystem and community
Scales from a single Pro seat to enterprise-wide capacity or Fabric licensing
Frequent feature updates, with over 1,500 shipped since its 2015 launch
Cons
Pro and Premium Per User prices increased significantly in April 2025 ($10 to $14 and $20 to $24)
Sharing and collaborating on reports requires a paid Pro or Premium license even for viewers in some configurations
Capacity-based Premium licensing is being phased toward Fabric, adding complexity for long-term planning
DAX and data modeling have a real learning curve for non-technical users
Runs directly inside Microsoft Excel, so planners can generate forecasts without leaving their existing spreadsheets.
The ProCast engine automatically tests 25+ statistical methods and selects the best-fit model, reducing manual trial-and-error.
Two-tier pricing ($59 and $99/month) is transparent and accessible to smaller teams, not just large enterprises.
Backed by John Galt Solutions, a supply chain planning vendor founded in 1996 and named a Leader in a 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant.
Cons
Several higher-value capabilities — hierarchy management, ABC/Pareto analysis, and consensus planning — are gated behind the pricier Standard tier, not included in the entry-level Lite plan.
The product page does not publish security/compliance certifications or a dedicated FAQ section.
As an Excel add-in, its scope is narrower than a full end-to-end planning suite; John Galt Solutions sells a separate broader platform (Atlas) for wider supply chain orchestration.
Use Cases
Microsoft Power BI
Business reporting and dashboards — Analysts build interactive dashboards that let stakeholders explore sales, marketing, or operations data without needing a dedicated analyst for every question.
Enterprise data governance and self-service BI — IT and data platform teams create governed datasets that business users can safely build their own reports on top of.
Excel-integrated financial and operational analysis — Finance and operations teams already working in Excel extend their analysis into interactive Power BI reports using the same underlying data.