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Best Courses Guides

8 Best Microsoft Power BI Courses for 2024: Make Better Business Decisions

From visualizing data to actionable insights, master Power BI with the best online courses.

Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence product suite developed by Microsoft. Power BI is used to visualize data, connect to diverse data sources, and craft rich, interactive business reports. By discovering the potential within your data, Power BI allows you to make informed business decisions.

In this Best Courses Guide (BCG), we’ve selected the best Microsoft Power BI courses from over 300 Microsoft Power BI courses in our catalog, including offerings from popular course providers like Microsoft Learn, LinkedIn Learning, Pluralsight, and Udemy. We’ll discuss the different features and benefits of each course, so you can choose the one that’s right for you.

For those interested in learning other Microsoft software, refer to our BCGs for Excel, Word, Power Point, and Access.

Click on the shortcuts for more details:

Top Picks

Course Workload
Best Overall: Microsoft Learn Resources (Microsoft) 12-16 hours
Best Interactive Power BI Course for Beginners (DataCamp) 3 hours
Best Project-based Power BI Course (Udemy) 11 hours
Best Power Query Course (LinkedIn Learning) 3-4 hours
Best Concise Course to Power BI Reports (Pluralsight) 1-2 hours
Also Great: Crash Course to Power BI Essentials (Pluralsight) 1 hour
Best Power BI YouTube Tutorials (Chandoo) 12 hours
Also Great Power BI YouTube Tutorials (Learnit Training) 15 hours

Why learning Power BI matters

Microsoft has been distinguished as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Analytics and BI Platforms. Additionally, The Forrester Wave™: Augmented BI Platforms, Q2 2023 acknowledges Microsoft’s prominent position in the industry. According to Forrester, in 2020, 49% of data and analytics decision-makers at firms with an advanced level of insights-driven business maturity expect their organization to use augmented BI platforms, compared with only 31% at firms with a beginner level of maturity.

Also noted in the Forrester’s report, “… it’s close to impossible to poke holes in Microsoft’s overall BI strategy, which includes vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, adoption, and pricing flexibility and transparency. It isn’t that Microsoft is bringing wildly differentiated capabilities to market; it’s that it has the vision and deep pockets to invest in all capabilities and to do them all quite well.

In 2020, two-thirds of data and analytics decision-makers reported that their organization was recruiting more talent with advanced data and analytics skills. Moreover, data and analytics decision-makers said their organization allocated as much as 45% for combined investments in reporting, dashboards, performance management, data exploration, and OLAP.

Course Ranking Statistics

Here are some statistics regarding this course ranking:

  • Combined, these courses have accrued over 476K enrollments and 340K YouTube views.
  • 4 courses are free and 3 courses are paid.
  • The most-represented provider is PluralSight, with 2 courses.
  • The Microsoft Power BI subject has been bookmarked over 7.4K times on Class Central.

Best Overall: Microsoft Learn Resources (Microsoft)

This collection of free courses offered by Microsoft on Microsoft Learn will help you be prepared to use Power BI from the consumer perspective to more advanced data analytical functions and data models.

Consume data with Power BI

Explore what Power BI can do for you, analyze data for reports and dashboards, and work effectively with Power BI mobile apps.

Design effective reports in Power BI

You’ll learn how to gather appropriate inputs to scope your report design requirements, structure and apply principles to improve your report designs, select the most appropriate visual type for your design, configure report filters, and use visuals and built-in assistance to enhance the user interface design.

Data analysis in Power BI

Perform data analytical functions, work with advanced analytic features of Power BI, learn the AI capabilities of Power BI, and much more.

Model data in Power BI

In this course, you’ll progress to creating complicated data models in Power BI, use the programming language Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), to solve a number of calculations and data analysis problems, and optimize your models for more efficient performance.

These courses do not offer certificates. However, Data analysis in Power BI and Model data in Power BI can help you prepare for Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate certification and Exam PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst.

Institution Microsoft Learn
Provider Microsoft
Level Beginner to Intermediate
Workload 12-16 hours
Certificate None

Best Interactive Power BI Course for Beginners (DataCamp)

If you are a business analyst, data analyst, or anyone eager to master Power BI for data analysis and reporting, the interactive course Introduction to Power BI on DataCamp is for you. This beginner-friendly course offers an understanding of Power BI to help you level-up your business intelligence skills. Experience hands-on learning in a virtual lab directly through your browser. Plus, the first two chapters of this course are freely available.

In this course, you will learn:

  • Data Loading and Transformation:
    • Load and transform data using Power Query.
    • Understand the importance of data models for effective analysis.
  • Navigating Power BI:
    • Explore Data, Model, and Report views effortlessly.
    • Build data models to unravel relationships between tables.
  • Visualization Mastery:
    • Create your first bar graph and interactive map visualization.
    • Shape and transform data using Power Query Editor for analysis preparation.
  • Data Refinement and Formatting:
    • Change and format various visualizations for maximum impact.
    • Sort data and create hierarchies to drill deep into your reports.
  • Interactive Reporting:
    • Filter information in reports by location.
    • Control how filters interact with visuals, adding a dynamic touch to your insights.
Provider DataCamp
Instructors Sara Billen and Lis Sulmont
Level Beginner
Workload 3 hours
Enrollments 295K
Rating 4.7/5.0 (240)
Certificate Paid

Best Project-based Power BI Course (Udemy)

Chris Dutton, course instructor.

Microsoft Power BI Desktop for Business Intelligence (2023) is a comprehensive, hands-on guide to learning Microsoft Power BI Desktop.

Taught by Chris Dutton, an edtech entrepreneur and best-selling analytics instructor, this project-based course will guide you through each step in creating a professional-quality report with detailed explanations and pro tips.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Use Power BI to connect to and model data from a variety of sources.
  • Create interactive reports and dashboards to visualize and analyze data.
  • Use Power BI to track KPIs, compare regional performance, analyze product-level trends, and identify high-value customers.
  • Design and deliver end-to-end business intelligence solutions using Power BI.

Experience with Excel Power Query, Power Pivot and DAX will be helpful, but that’s optional.

Provider Udemy
Instructors Chris Dutton and Aaron Parry
Level Beginner
Workload 15 hours
Enrollments 394K
Rating 4.7/5.0 (102K)
Certificate Paid

Best Power Query Course (LinkedIn Learning)

Helen Wall, course instructor.

Power BI Data Methods is an intermediate-level course on LinkedIn Learning by Helen Wall that teaches students how to use Power Query, the data preparation and transformation component of Power BI, to automate the data querying process and restructure data sets.

Learn how to:

  • Extract data from a variety of sources, including files, databases, and the web.
  • Configure OData feeds, install Python, and run Python scripts.
  • Transform data by cleaning, integrating, and enriching it.
  • Leverage M language logic and syntax to create custom functions and queries.
  • Load data into Power BI and configure loading options.

The course is designed for students with some prior experience with Power BI or Excel.

Provider LinkedIn Learning
Instructor Helen Wall
Level Intermediate
Workload 3-4 hours
Enrollments 82K
Rating 4.5 (922)
Certificate Paid

Best Concise Course to Power BI Reports (Pluralsight)

Stacia Misner Varga, course instructor.

Building Your First Power BI Report is a free-to-audit, beginner-level course on Pluralsight by Stacia Misner Varga. By the end of this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge to create simple business reports in Microsoft Power BI.

Learn how to:

  • Prepare data by importing and transforming data, creating data models, and defining table relationships.
  • Add calculations and visualizations to reports.
  • Customize reports and publish them to the Power BI service in the cloud.
Provider Pluralsight
Instructor Stacia Misner Varga
Level Beginner
Workload 1-2 hours
Rating 4.8 (546)
Certificate Available, paid

Also Great: Crash Course to Power BI Essentials (Pluralsight)

Mihaela Danci, course instructor.

Data Literacy: Essentials of Power BI is the shortest course on this guide. In less than an hour, you’ll learn the key concepts of Power BI and apply them to perform basic tasks in the software.

In this course, you will:

  • Learn what Power BI is and how to use it for business intelligence and reporting.
  • Create interactive and paginated reports to visualize and analyze data.
  • Get, clean, model, and share data using Power BI.
  • Get demos on importing data, cleaning data, modeling data, creating content, and sharing a report.
Provider Pluralsight
Instructor Mihaela Danci
Level Beginner
Workload Less than 1 hour
Rating 4.6 (50)
Certificate Paid

Best Power BI YouTube Tutorials (Chandoo)

Power BI Examples, Demos & Tutorials is a comprehensive collection of Power BI tutorials, covering everything from the basics to advanced techniques. The course is taught by Chandoo, a popular Power BI instructor, and includes downloadable example files.

You will learn how to:

  • Load and clean data.
  • Build a data model.
  • Use DAX and Power Pivot.
  • Create and change visuals.
  • Understand trends and create forecasts.
  • Customize visuals.
  • Create dashboards.
  • And more.

You can access all downloadable files directly from the description of each video.

Channel Chandoo
Provider YouTube
Instructor Chandoo
Level Beginner
Workload 12 hours
Views 172K
Certificate Not available

Also Great Power BI YouTube Tutorials (Learnit Training)

Adding visuals in Power BI.

This Power BI training course by Learnit Training is a comprehensive and detailed course that covers everything from the basics to advanced techniques.

The course has two sections:

  • Part 1: Covers the basics of Power BI, including getting data, working with tables, and designing data models.
  • Part 2: Goes into more detail and covers more advanced topics, such as creating measures, working with different visuals, and building dashboards.

The course also includes downloadable exercise files. You can access all files directly from the description of each video.

Channel Learnit Training
Provider YouTube
Level Mixed
Workload 15 hours
Views 168K
Certificate Not available

Why You Should Trust Us

Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 60 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of over 150,000 online courses and 200,000 reviews written by our users. And we’re online learners ourselves: combined, the Class Central team has completed over 400 online courses, including online degrees.

Archisha is a Guided Project Instructor and Beta Tester at Coursera, having tested many courses before they’re officially launched. She has taken over 50 online courses in various subjects. Archisha’s experience as an online learner and teacher has given her some perspective on what to look for in an online course, using her experience to evaluate each course in this list.
Fabio also has experience as an online learner and as a tutor who revised the research and the latest version of this article.

How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Trying to find “the best” can be daunting, even for those of us who live and breathe online courses. Here’s how we approached this task.

First, we combed through Class Central’s Catalog and the internet to find a variety of free and paid open courses, some with certificates.

We extracted information from course syllabi and reviews, and compiled their ratings, leveraging the Class Central database with over 300 Microsoft Power BI courses and its thousands of course ratings and reviews written by our users as well as available course provider ratings. We watched some course videos to sample courses we hadn’t already taken.

Then, we defined the scope for these recommendations. A Power BI course can cover various topics, so we chose top courses from a range of sub-fields.

Ultimately, we used a combination of data and our own judgment to make these picks. We’re confident these recommendations will be a reliable way to learn Power BI’s main features.

Archisha Bhar Profile Image

Archisha Bhar

I am a Civil Engineer from India. Other than engineering, I take interest in art, music, computer, psychology and creative writing.
Fabio Dantas Profile Image

Fabio Dantas

Content writer with a degree in chemical engineering. I'm passionate about creative writing, process improvement, productivity, and mindfulness. I aim to empower learners through my articles by providing practical tips, inspiration, and a deeper understanding of learning.

Comments 3

  1. Umesh

    Thanks for sharing valuable information ☺️

    Reply
  2. Shylo

    I would give 1st Rank to Leila Gharani’s (XelPlus) Fast Track to Power BI.

    Reply

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