Power BI Vs SSRS

Power BI has data acquisition and transformation, data modelling and visualisation.  It is html 5, semi open source, app enabled and cloud enabled SaaS

SSRS is an enterprise visualisation tool built on old technology (although being updated). It needs data to be delivered by some other system. 

Read the the gartner Magic quadrant released last week to read about how Gartner is now separating traditional enterprise BI (SSRS included) from self service bi. https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-2XYY9ZR&ct=160204&st=sb

That's my view anyway

On top of what Matt already mentioned, most of the enterprise clients are going towards visualization tools that are more adaptive and responsive. Users want tools that look modern and can crossfilter when you click on charts.

SSRS has none of theose features and is very static. Also, there is a learning curve for developing reports in SSRS while in Power BI, you can make reports just by dragging and dropping. That said, SSRS still has it's space as there are some enterprise level features that are not available in Power BI yet (but I suspect that over time, Power BI is going to get a lot of those features).

Read the post below for the official roadmap for SSRS and PowerMap - https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2015/10/29/microsoft-business-intelligence-our-reporting-roadmap/

I want to throw a couple ideas on here as well. Really SSRS is for your pixel perfect, operational reporting. Power BI is first and foremost an Analysis tool, it allows you to visualize your data in different ways in order to allow deeper understanding of your business.

The two tools really work together with SQL 2016, I encourage everyone to look into the new vision for BI going forward. SSRS reports in Power BI Service, Desktop files as backend for SSRS reports - looks really exciting.

Check out the Roadmap.

Hello RakeshP

SSRS is part of the Microsoft "BI stack" and is part of SQL Server. When you install SQL Server you have the option to include different parts of the BI stack including SSIS, SSAS and SSRS. You can, in part, manage SSRS from SQL Server Management Studio as it's very integrated with SQL Server. SSRS runs as a service on a server you control (either a local physical or virtual server, or in the cloud). SSRS is free when you have a SQL Server license.

Power BI (which I have never used and don't know much about) is cloud based and is part of Microsoft Office 365. It runs in the cloud on hardware that you have less control over.

I have been working with SSRS for years. What makes it great is how it's pretty solid and stable. I can put together and publish a report in minutes and it will work. SSRS hasn't changed very much which means if you know one version you'll be able to manage them all. SSRS, however is old and tired. It's interface is outdated and crusty, you have minimal control over how parameters behave or appear. You can't use SSRS for slick looking charts and graphs, that functionality in SSRS is very week compared to what's available today.

Power BI on the other hand is extremely slick. The stuff I've seen created with Power BI is pretty amazing. It's certainly more modern and current.

On the flip side, for ever Power BI veteran, there's 20 people with many years of SSRS experience. There's more SSRS material. Note, for example, SSC has a Stairway for SSRS but not Power BI.

I hope this will helps you. Thank's for reading.

on top of what both MattAllington and SqlJason said, to give you real world example,

we had requirement for some basic reporting work for one of our clients. they didn't had big IT team and had minimal budget to spend on the work. they had old source system which had firebird database. we had two options to propose them,

a. SSRS - requires them purchasing sql server licenses, define scope for requirements, developer to work on those requirements, consider deployment, schedule refresh of data from firebird using SSIS, static reports with BI developer needed to make changes

b. PowerBI - Free to use, works with unstructured data, user create their own reports by drag and drop of fields, minimal training required, modern rendering

only catch here was that with PowerBI data goes to the cloud while with SSRS it stays on premises but using DirectQuery is workaround.

I would like to ask a question specific to our business as we are not able to make a decision to choose the appropriate Reporting tool for preparing reports for our business.

There is requirement to prepare reports at specific schedules in the year i.e. Month End Reports, Quarterly Reports and Yearly Reports. We have two options (SSRS & Power BI) for preparing the reports, however, we have to choose one.
Can you please give some suggestions for this scenario?

A company that needs to distribute reports and analytics to a medium number of users, with complex business logic and drill down capabilities. Then you should use ...SSRS

A company, an individual, a small group of users who need to compare data from many sources, analyze data, manipulate data, build custom visualizations of data, share them with other user and draw a synthesis from data. Then you should use ...Power BI

SSRS is better on delivering detail/operational schedule report:

1. Email Subscription - In SSRS you can schedule to send the report to any email address instead of just Power BI Pro subscriber. It makes SSRS so much more flexible. 
2. Detailed drilldown - If your customer prefer detail data in the report then SSRS is better. In SSRS, you can do a lot of customization on the report grouping to satisfy customer's need. Something that is not doable with Power BI's matrix.

Also, SSRS use SQL query so you don't have to re-learn DAX :smileytongue: .