Why you should use the Azure maps for your maps

This page has 0 threads | Add post

Blogs

Finding our blogs useful? Please consider helping us to share more!

A deep-dive into creating and using Azure Map visuals in Power BI Part one of a four-part series of blogs
The Azure map visual has been an official part of Power BI now for nearly a year, and the initial teething problems have now been ironed out. This blog shows how to use the Azure maps visual, and explains why you don't now need to use any of the other map visuals in Power BI. Why you should use the Azure maps for your maps - and how to do so (this blog) Creating Azure Maps in Power BI Working with and formatting Azure maps Creating heat, clusters 3D column, traffic and reference layers

A deep-dive into creating and using Azure Map visuals in Power BI

Part one of a four-part series of blogs

The Azure map visual has been an official part of Power BI now for nearly a year, and the initial teething problems have now been ironed out. This blog shows how to use the Azure maps visual, and explains why you don't now need to use any of the other map visuals in Power BI.

Why you should use the Azure maps for your maps - and how to do so (this blog)
Creating Azure Maps in Power BI
Working with and formatting Azure maps
Creating heat, clusters 3D column, traffic and reference layers

Posted by Andy Brown on 04 March 2024

There are a fair few maps that you can choose to use in Power BI Desktop:

The main map visuals that you can use.

Here's an explanation of what each map visual does, and why you should or shouldn't use it:

Visual	Status	Pros/cons
Basic map	Built-in	One of the two original map visuals for Power BI.
Filled map	Builti-in	The other original map visual. Both are being deprecated.
Shape map	In preview	This has been lingering in preview for at least 5 years, and it seems likely that it will never see the light of day.
Azure map	Built-in	Now the default mapping tool for Power BI, into which Microsoft are putting all their development effort.
ArcGIS map	Built-in	This historically has been THE mapping tool, but it suffers from a number of problems. A revamp has made it harder to use, many people will worry about sending data for mapping to a third party for processing and some services require payment.
MapBox	Custom visual	This does essentially the same thing as Azure maps, but it seems cleaner and easier to use and would make a good alternative tool for those who want one.

Our advice would be to learn Azure maps exclusively. These let you create bubble, heat, cluster and filled maps all in a single all-purpose visual, and Azure maps also support layers. We will only teach Azure maps on our courses from 1st March 2024.

Parts of this blog
Why you should use the Azure maps for your maps - and how to do so (this blog) Creating Azure Maps in Power BI Working with and formatting Azure maps Creating heat, clusters 3D column, traffic and reference layers