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TextQL vs. Power BI

TextQL vs. Power BI

Break free from Microsoft lock-in with AI analytics that works across all your tools and data sources.

Request Demo

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TextQL

TextQL

vs
Power BI

Power BI

[ Feature Comparison ]

[ Feature Comparison ]

Compare TextQL vs. Power BI

Compare TextQL vs. Power BI

FeatureTextQLPower BI
Per-seat pricing (2026)
40% increase from 2025
$0/user$14-24/user/month
Natural language queries
Built-in vs. requires DAX or Copilot add-on
Platform independence
Any source vs. Microsoft ecosystem optimized
Learning curve
No DAX, context management, or modeling
InstantSteep
Deployment time
vs. training, modeling, DAX development
MinutesWeeks/months
Annual cost (100 users)
After April 2026 price increase
$0 in seat fees$16,800-28,800/year
Vendor lock-in risk
Any stack vs. Microsoft Fabric/Azure/M365
Technical barrier
Democratized vs. requires DAX developers
Query language required
English vs. Data Analysis Expressions
Natural languageDAX
Non-technical user access
Immediate vs. weeks of training
Free BI dashboard generation
Metabase, Streamlit, Power BI
[ Why TextQL ]

[ Why TextQL ]

Top 3 reasons leaders pick TextQL over Power BI

Top 3 reasons leaders pick TextQL over Power BI

Beyond the Microsoft Ecosystem

Power BI’s deepening integration with Microsoft Fabric, Azure, and M365 creates switching costs by design. Starting January 2026, Microsoft removed standalone Premium licenses, forcing organizations into broader Fabric ecosystem. TextQL works with your existing stack—PostgreSQL, MySQL, Snowflake, any data source—without rebuilding infrastructure around a single vendor.

Key benefit

Deploy in minutes on existing infrastructure vs. months of Microsoft ecosystem integration.

Natural Language, Not DAX Code

The Power BI community admits DAX creates "the pit of DAX"—a steep learning curve of context management, filter logic, and functional programming preventing true democratization. TextQL eliminates the technical priesthood: your team asks questions in English and gets answers instantly.

Key benefit

Zero training required vs. weeks of DAX courses and ongoing dependency on specialized developers.

No Per-Seat Pricing (Save $16K-$28K/year)

April 2026 brought 40% price shock: Power BI Pro jumped from $10 to $14/user/month, Premium Per User to $24/month. For 100 people, that’s $16,800-28,800 annually just for seat licenses. TextQL charges $0 per seat, eliminating the SaaS penalty for growing data-informed culture.

Key benefit

For 100 users: $0/year in seat licenses vs. $16,800-28,800/year (and climbing).

[ The Bottom Line ]

[ The Bottom Line ]

Here’s the psychological trick Microsoft has mastered: Power BI Desktop is “free,” creating an availability heuristic—the price you see first anchors your perception. Only later do organizations discover true cost structure: $14-24/user/month (after April 2026 sticker shock), mandatory Azure dependencies, weeks of DAX training, and gradual realization that “free” meant “free to get locked in.” TextQL takes the opposite approach: no artificial scarcity in pricing (zero per-seat fees), no proprietary query language, no ecosystem lock-in. Sometimes the most rational choice is the one that doesn’t require learning a functional programming language just to ask your database a question.

Ready to see TextQL in action? Start with a personalized demo.

Ready to see TextQL in action? Start with a personalized demo.