Antvia
vs Microsoft Fabric
Fabric is a strong answer for a committed Microsoft estate. The difficulty is that its pricing has a cliff in it, and mid-market businesses tend to sit right at the edge.
Who arrives here
You are already on Azure, somebody suggested Fabric because it is one vendor and one invoice, and that argument is genuinely good. Then you started counting licences.
The threshold
Below the capacity threshold you buy a Power BI licence per person who reads a report. Above it, viewing is included, but the capacity floor is a much larger fixed number.
A business with thirty report users is comfortable. A business with four hundred is comfortable. A business with a hundred and fifty is in the worst place on that chart: too many people to licence individually, not enough to justify the capacity floor. That is exactly the mid-market.
What each one charges for
| They charge you for | Microsoft Fabric | Antvia | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compute and volume | Charged | Not charged | More data or more refreshes, bigger bill |
| Users | Charged | Not charged | Every extra reader costs money, forever |
| Queries | Not charged | Not charged | Asking more questions costs more |
| Sources | Not charged | Charged | Each maintained connection meters |
| Metrics | Not charged | Charged | Each published definition meters |
The honest split
- No per-seat cost at any size, so there is no threshold to cross
- Open formats without an Azure commitment
- Governance that travels if you ever leave
- The decision loop
- Native Azure and Entra integration, which is worth a great deal in a Microsoft estate
- One vendor, one invoice, one support relationship
- Power BI viewing included once you are above the capacity threshold
- OneLake removes a lot of plumbing if you are all-in on Azure
What one vendor is worth
More than people admit. Entra identity, Azure networking, Purview, Teams delivery and one support relationship remove a genuine amount of friction, and if your organisation is already fully Microsoft then that integration is worth paying for.
The cost is that your data platform is now a function of your Microsoft relationship. That is a strategic position rather than a technical one, and it is a reasonable position to take deliberately. It is less reasonable to arrive at it by accident because Fabric was the default.
When Fabric is the right answer
A committed Microsoft estate, comfortably above the capacity threshold, with the Power BI skills already in the building. In that situation the single-vendor argument wins and we would not try to talk you out of it.
Questions we get asked
Does Antvia run on Azure? Yes, in your own subscription, with your own storage.
Can we keep Power BI on top of Antvia? Yes, though you then keep paying per seat, which is usually the thing people came to solve.