How Many Power BI Connectors Are There?

Curious about how many data connectors Power BI actually has? The short answer is hundreds, and the list is constantly growing. But the real story isn't about one specific number - it's about the vast range of data you can easily pull into your dashboards. This article will break down the different categories of Power BI connectors, show you where to find them, and explain what your options are when a direct connector isn't available.

The Real Answer: It’s Not About the Number, It’s About the Categories

Instead of focusing on a precise count that will be outdated by next month, it's more useful to understand the types of connectors available. Microsoft continuously adds new native connectors and updates existing ones with every Power BI Desktop release. Plus, the ecosystem of third-party and custom connectors means the possibilities are nearly endless.

Think of the connectors in these main groups:

• Files: The basics, like Excel workbooks, CSVs, and PDFs.
• Databases: Industrial-strength sources like SQL Server, a core part of the Microsoft ecosystem.
• SaaS Platforms: Online services you use every day, such as Google Analytics and Salesforce.
• Azure: Microsoft's own cloud platform, with deep and extensive integration.
• Other: A catch-all for web sources, scripts, and custom connection options.

Understanding these categories helps you quickly determine if Power BI can connect to your data and how you should approach it.

Breaking Down the Key Power BI Connector Types

Let's walk through the most common and important connector categories you'll encounter. Each one solves a different data connection problem.

1. Files and Folders

This is the starting point for most users and the backbone of ad-hoc analysis. If you can save it as a file, chances are Power BI can read it. It’s perfect for one-off analyses or when you’re combining manually exported data.

• Excel Workbooks (.xlsx, .xlsm): The most popular data source for Power BI beginners. You can pull data from specific tables, named ranges, or entire sheets.
• Text/CSV (.csv, .txt): The universal standard for raw data exports. Power BI's Power Query Editor excels at parsing and cleaning this data.
• JSON (.json): A common format for web-based data and APIs.
• PDF (.pdf): Surprisingly powerful. Power BI can often identify and extract tables directly from PDF documents, which is a lifesaver for static reports.
• SharePoint Folder: This allows you to connect to an entire folder of files (like a collection of monthly sales reports in Excel). Power BI can combine these files into a single, comprehensive dataset.

2. Databases

For more established businesses with structured data, direct database connections are essential for creating automated, real-time reports. Power BI can connect to a huge variety of both cloud-based and on-premise databases.

Microsoft SQL Family:

• SQL Server: The most common database connector. The integration is seamless and highly optimized.
• Azure SQL Database: Microsoft's managed cloud version of SQL Server.
• Azure Synapse Analytics: For enterprise-level data warehousing and big data analytics.

Other Popular Databases:

• Oracle Database: A widely used enterprise database system.
• MySQL & PostgreSQL: Two of the most popular open-source databases in the world.
• Snowflake: A leading cloud data platform known for its performance and scalability.
• Amazon Redshift: A popular data warehouse solution from Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• Google BigQuery: Google’s powerful, serverless data warehouse.

When connecting to databases, you often have a choice between Import or DirectQuery modes. Import loads a copy of the data into Power BI for the best performance. DirectQuery leaves the data in the source database and live-queries it, which is ideal for massive datasets or when you need up-to-the-second data freshness.

3. SaaS Platforms & Online Services

Modern marketing, sales, and operations teams live in SaaS applications. Power BI provides native connectors that make it easy to pull data directly from these platforms and consolidate your reporting in one place.

Marketing:

• Google Analytics: Analyze website traffic, user behavior, and conversion metrics.
• Adobe Analytics: Another popular web analytics platform.
• Marketo: Track your marketing automation efforts and lead generation.

Sales & CRM:

• Salesforce: Connect to Salesforce Objects and build comprehensive sales performance dashboards.
• Dynamics 365: Deep, native integration with Microsoft's own suite of business apps.
• HubSpot: (Available via third-party connectors or by using the web API) Track marketing, sales, and service hub performance.

Finance & Operations:

• QuickBooks Online: Pull financial data to build custom cash flow reports, P&Ls, and more.
• Zendesk: Analyze your customer support ticket data, response times, and agent performance.

4. Custom Connectors (Power Query SDK)

What if you use a proprietary internal tool or a niche SaaS application that doesn't have a native connector? For technically savvy users, Power BI offers the Power Query SDK (Software Development Kit).

This allows developers to write their own custom connectors using the M programming language. While this requires a high level of technical skill, it provides a path to integrate virtually any data source that has an accessible API. Creating a custom connector allows non-technical users in your organization to access that data just by entering their credentials, standardizing and simplifying the data connection process.

How to Access Connectors in Power BI

Finding and using these connectors is straightforward. The entire library is built into Power BI Desktop in a feature called the data connector gallery.

1. Open Power BI Desktop.
2. In the Home tab of the ribbon, click on Get data. A short list of the most common data sources will appear.
3. If you don’t see your source, click More… at the bottom of the list. This opens the full data connector gallery.
4. Here, you can browse through the categories on the left pane or use the search bar at the top to find a specific connector.
5. Once you select your connector and click Connect, Power BI will prompt you for any necessary information, such as server name, login credentials, or an API key. Once authenticated, you can start building your report.

What to Do When a Power BI Connector Doesn't Exist

Even with hundreds of options, you may find that your specific application doesn’t have a pre-built connector. Don’t worry, you still have several excellent workarounds.

1. Use a Common File Format (CSV/Excel)

The simplest method is the good old manual export. Almost every SaaS platform allows you to export your data as a CSV or Excel file. From there, you can easily load it into Power BI. While this is not automated, it’s a quick and reliable way to get data for one-time reports or proof-of-concept dashboards.

2. Connect via Web API (OData or Blank Web Connector)

If your application has a documented REST API, you can often pull data using Power BI's generic Web connector. This requires some understanding of how APIs work - you may need to get an API key and learn the correct URL structure for fetching data. It involves more setup but can be automated within Power BI once configured.

3. Leverage Middleware or ETL tools

Services like Zapier, Make.com, or dedicated ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tools can act as a bridge. You can set up an automation to pull data from an unsupported application and push it into a data source Power BI can connect to, like a Google Sheet, Azure SQL database, or even just an Excel file in a SharePoint folder.

4. Build a Custom Connector

As mentioned earlier, if connecting to the data source is a recurring, mission-critical need for your organization, investing resources into building a custom connector using the Power Query SDK might be the most robust long-term solution.

Final Thoughts

Power BI offers an impressive library of hundreds of data connectors that empower users to centralize their reporting. Whether you're connecting to a basic Excel file, a complex cloud data warehouse, or dozens of disparate marketing or sales apps, Power BI has developed a robust set of tools to pull, transform, and visualize that information.

Mastering all these connectors can feel like a full-time job in itself, thanks to steep learning curves and complex setup processes needed just to get data from one place to another. Here at Graphed, we believe you shouldn't have to be a data analyst to analyze your own data. We streamline the data connection experience, offer a way to get your data in one system so you don't have to log in repeatedly between tools, and then provide a way you can build dashboards and reports by simply having a conversation with our data analyst by typing words instead of code. This way, you can connect to tools like Salesforce and HubSpot within seconds, so you get to keep all that time for when you need it while also getting up-to-the-second reliable information.