Quick Access:

• For beginners: DataCamp, Udemy, Pluralsight
• Live Sessions: Noble Desktop
• Microsoft free resources: Consume data, Design reports, Data analysis, Model data
• Power Query: Power BI Data Methods
• YouTube tutorials: Chandoo, Learnit Training

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.

Click on the shortcuts for more details:

• Top Picks
• What is Power BI?
• Why You Should Trust Us
• Courses Overview
• How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Here are our top picks

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What is Power BI?

Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader in the 2024 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, a growing number of data and analytics decision-makers at firms with an advanced level of insights-driven business maturity expect their organizations to use augmented BI platforms, compared with firms at 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 recent years, a significant proportion of data and analytics decision-makers reported that their organizations are recruiting more talent with advanced data and analytics skills. Moreover, these decision-makers indicated that their organizations allocated a substantial portion of their budgets for investments in reporting, dashboards, performance management, data exploration, and OLAP.

Why You Should Trust Us

Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 80 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of 250,000 online courses and 250,000 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.

Courses Overview

• Combined, these courses have accrued over 985K enrollments and 452K YouTube views
• 4 courses are free and 4 courses are paid
• The most-represented provider is YouTube, with 2 courses
• The Microsoft Power BI subject has been bookmarked over 9.8K 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.

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.

Best Power BI Bootcamp with Live Sessions (Noble Desktop)

If you prefer instructor-led learning, Noble Desktop’s Power BI Bootcamp offers real-time feedback and accountability that pre-recorded courses can’t match.

What I find interesting is that this program runs both in-person (NYC campus) and online (Zoom). Even if you’re attending online, you’ll have individual attention and can see other students in the classroom. You’ll be able to interact with instructors, receive feedback, and ask questions during sessions. Plus, you’ll get access to class recordings and workbooks – pretty helpful for catching up if you miss a class or reviewing what you learned.

Additional note: Can be upgraded to the Power BI Certification Program, which includes extra mentoring and enrollment in the Power BI Data Analyst Associate exam.

Key Benefits

• Small class sizes (8-15 students)
• Free retake within one year
• Certificate of completion to showcase achievements
• Detailed class files with real-world projects

Noble Desktop knows what they’re doing – they’ve been around for over three decades providing instruction with industry experts. So you can rest assured your mentorship will not be with someone who just finished the course. Don’t take my word for it – student reviews on Yelp and Google praise their practical approach and instructor quality.

What You’ll Learn

• Import data from multiple sources, including Excel, Text/CSV files, and SQL, using Power Query for structured analysis
• Clean data using advanced Power BI tools like splitting columns and merging queries
• Create visualizations such as charts, maps, and slicers to explore insights
• Build relationships between datasets and use relational models to organize information
• Write calculations using DAX to perform analytics and define custom metrics
• Develop reports and dashboards to tell a story with your data
• Publish reports using Power BI Service to enable real-time updates
• Use time intelligence features like year-over-year comparisons and YTD calculations

Flexible Schedule Options

2 days full-time (weekdays)

“I was a little worried about taking the class online, but the couple of times I needed help, it was easy to get the instructor’s attention. The instructor was able to understand my mistake and move forward. I feel I have a grasp of Power BI and can use it at work now!” – Rochelle Howe

Best Project-based Power BI Course (Udemy)

Microsoft Power BI Desktop for Business Intelligence 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.

Best Power Query Course (LinkedIn Learning)

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.

Best Concise Course to Power BI Reports (Pluralsight)

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.

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.

Also Great Power BI YouTube Tutorials (Learnit Training)

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.

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.