10 Best Business Intelligence Certifications

BI analysts help businesses understand their data and turn it into actionable strategies—improving customer satisfaction, boosting sales, or cutting costs.

Being a BI analyst is a great career choice because it combines technical skills with strategic thinking, making it both challenging and rewarding. The demand for BI professionals is high, as companies rely more than ever on data to stay competitive. Plus, it offers excellent growth opportunities, competitive salaries, and the chance to impact business direction at a high level, making it a valuable and versatile role in almost any industry.

In this post, you'll find 10 recognized Business Intelligence certificates worth pursuing from reputable organizations, including Google, Meta, IBM, and Microsoft.

1. Google Business Intelligence Professional Certification

• Vendor: Google
• Cost: Free for 7 days, then $49 per month
• Duration: 2 months
• Course Review

The Google Business Intelligence Professional certification provides students with in-demand skills they can use to accelerate their careers.

Learners gain access to professional-level training from Google and an employer-recognized certification.

Additionally, Google’s course provides valuable resources such as a free resume review, interview preparation support, and career guidance.

You’ll even be able to join the Google Employer Consortium as a graduate and apply for BI-related jobs from top employers.

What You’ll Learn?

This Google career certificate is designed for people with prior knowledge of analytical principles. With this in mind, you may consider brushing up on some basic skills before applying.

Students learn to extract, transform, and analyze data to meet organizational goals, create dashboards for communicating with stakeholders, and design data visualization graphs and charts.

The certificate includes 3 courses:

• Foundations: Students will use BI technology to gather insights into common careers and industries, investigate the impact of data on decision-making, and develop a BI project plan based on their knowledge.
• Data models and pipelines: In this course, students learn how to build data models to answer business questions and apply the ETL process to scenarios. You’ll explore ETL tools and construct pipelines for delivering data.
• Dashboards and reports: Students will learn to design BI visualizations, practice BI reporting and dashboard tool creation, and create presentations. You’ll also develop materials to help with your job search.

If you don't have prior knowledge, the Google Data Analytics Certificate is recommended as an entry-level course before taking this certification.

2. IBM Data Science Professional Certificate

• Vendor: IBM
• Cost: Free for 7 days, then $49 per month
• Duration: 6 months
• Course Review

One of the most popular data analytics programs available today, the IBM Data Science certification helps students build machine learning and data science skills through 12 online courses.

The program is suitable for people with no prior experience with data or BI analytics and requires around six months of study to complete.

The course also has ACE accreditation and is eligible for degree credits at participating colleges and universities if you expand your education.

What You’ll Learn?

The professional IBM certificate program consists of a 12-course series covering all of the essential insights students need to know to master data science, understand the roles of data scientists, and use data analysis tools.

You’ll learn to work with SQL datasets and visualization tools, use Python for data analysis, and leverage machine learning capabilities.

The certificate starts with an introduction to methodologies and tools used for data science. As you progress through each stage, you’ll learn how to:

• Use tools like Libraries, packages, machine learning models, and data sets
• Utilize languages like Python, R, and SQL
• Implement methodologies like the CRISP-DM method for analysis
• Use Python programming for data science, AI, and development
• Build relational databases in the cloud
• Develop Python code and clean code for analysis
• Introduce machine learning methods to data science processes

At the end of the ten courses, there’s also a capstone project, where you’ll demonstrate your proficiency in the techniques you’ve learned and prepare a report for stakeholders.

3. Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate

• Vendor: Google
• Cost: Free for 7 days, then $49 per month
• Duration: 6 months
• Other Similar Options: Best Data Analytics Certifications
• Course Review

Created for beginners without prior knowledge, the Google Data Analytics professional certificate consists of eight courses covering all the key skills experts need.

Plus, graduates can apply for roles posted in the Google Employer Consortium community from leading organizations like Adobe and Salesforce.

This entry-level course also comes with 12 college credits recognized by ACE, preparing you for a beginner role with an average salary of around $67,900 annually.

What You’ll Learn?

The Google Data Analytics professional certificate takes approximately 6 months to complete.

The first course covers data analytics foundations, providing insight into the evolving data ecosystem. Next, you’ll learn how to utilize data in the decision-making process and demonstrate how spreadsheets and other tools can be used to analyze insights.

As students progress through each stage of the certification, they’ll learn how to:

• Prepare data for exploration and describe databases
• Use techniques to clean data and improve data integrity with SQL
• Analyze data to answer questions and apply functions and syntax
• Share data with stakeholders through visualization
• Conduct comprehensive data analysis with R programming

The courses include behind-the-scenes insights into valuable data analysis tools such as Tableau and SQL. At the end of the series, students can showcase their skills with a capstone project based on a case study.

4. Meta Marketing Analytics Professional Certificate

• Vendor: Meta
• Cost: Free for 7 days, then $49 per month
• Duration: 7 months
• Course Review

Produced by one of the world’s leading technology companies, the Meta Marketing Analytics professional certificate acts as a guide to social media data analytics.

The course, prepared by Meta in collaboration with Aptly, was designed for beginners with no prior knowledge of analytics or business intelligence.

The lessons cover everything students need to know about using data to make crucial campaign decisions.

It comes with industry-recognized certification, resume review, interview prep, and career support services. Successful graduates can join the Meta Career Programs job board to access over 200 hiring partners.

What You’ll Learn?

While the Meta Marketing Analytics certificate provides plenty of guidance on Meta products like Facebook and Instagram, it also teaches broad, transferrable skills.

You’ll learn basic Python, Tableau, SQL, and Google analytics techniques you can use anywhere.

The certificate is split into six courses designed to give you everything you need to start your career as a marketing analyst.

You’ll begin with an introduction to how data is used and measured in the marketing world, followed by an insight into the basics of data analytics.

The course also covers how to:

• Use data analysis processes like OSEMN
• Leverage spreadsheets, Python, SQL, and Tableau for visualization
• Understand crucial descriptive and inferential statistics
• Plan marketing strategies across different channels
• Use attribution and marketing mix modeling to optimize your efforts
• Evaluate and optimize your sales funnel

At the end of the course, students will complete the Meta Marketing Science certification exam to gain accreditation.

5. Udacity Business Intelligence Analytics Nanodegree

• Vendor: Udacity
• Cost: $498
• Duration: 2 months

The Udacity Business Intelligence Analytics Nanodegree is a fast-paced training program designed to give students the confidence and skills to leverage data across all industries.

Over two months, students will learn how to establish frameworks for data analytics, prepare data and model campaigns, and even use predictive analytical strategies.

Though the course is designed for beginners, you should have some knowledge of Excel and basic data skills before diving in.

Course applicants will also gain access to real-world case studies, real-time support from educational experts, career services, and a wide student community.

What You’ll Learn?

During the first stage of the course, you’ll learn about data integrity, the four types of data analytics, and what kinds of statistical analysis options are available.

You’ll gain a basic overview of Power BI and prepare for the next stage in the course, which covers data preparation and modeling. Students will learn how to:

• Load, clean, and organize data in Power Query
• Create relational tables in Power Query and Power BI
• Use the Power BI Desktop for predictive analytics
• Leverage strategies like classification, regression, and forecasting
• Use data to understand future enterprise risks and opportunities

The course includes various hands-on tasks to use your data analysis knowledge in real-world case studies.

6. Google Advanced Data Analytics Certification

• Vendor: Google
• Cost: Free for 7 days, then $49 per month
• Duration: 6 months
• Other Similar Options: Best Google Career Certificates
• Course Review

The Google Advanced Data Analytics certification is the more advanced version of Google's Professional Data Analytics certification. Like many Google Certification programs, this course includes interview prep, resume review, and career support services.

What You’ll Learn?

Google’s Advanced Data Analytics professional certificate consists of 7 courses intended to prepare students for a role in data analytics, with an average salary of around $118,000 per year.

The courses start with an introduction to the foundations of data science and the career opportunities available to professionals.

Next, students will learn about Python building blocks, strategies, and data structures before discovering how to translate data into insights with the exploratory data analysis (EDA) process.

As you progress through each course, you’ll also learn how to:

• Explore and summarize data sheets and model data
• Investigate relationships in data sets
• Perform logistic and linear regression with Python
• Access machine learning and prepare data for ML models
• Build and evaluate supervised ML models with Python

The final course includes a capstone where students will learn to examine data to identify patterns and trends, build models with machine learning techniques, and create visualizations.

7. Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Associate

• Vendor: Microsoft
• Cost: $165 (exam cost)
• Duration: Varies per provider

The Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Associate certification is a comprehensive program created for budding business intelligence professionals. Candidates need some prior experience in data analysis.

You should be proficient at using Power Query and be able to write expressions using Data Analysis Expressions (DAX). Microsoft recommends checking out the Microsoft Learn training options for beginners.

Successful graduates will receive an industry-recognized accreditation and can choose between a self-paced or instructor-led program.

What You’ll Learn?

The Microsoft Power BI certification gives students two ways to prepare for their exams. The first option is to take an instructor-led course, which involves support and guidance from Microsoft experts.

Alternatively, you can choose the self-paced strategy, which provides full access to various educational resources split into modules.

The first section of the learning path includes two modules covering the basics of Microsoft data analytics and the Power BI environment. After that, students will learn how to:

• Prepare, clean, and organize data for analysis
• Model data in Power BI using Microsoft technologies
• Visualize data with graphs and charts in Power BI
• Conduct in-depth data analysis in Power BI
• Work with data sets in Power BI

Students can take the PL-300 exam and become Microsoft BI Certified Experts upon completing all the courses.

8. Udemy The Business Intelligence Analyst Course

• Vendor: Udemy
• Cost: $99
• Duration: 22 hours

The Business Intelligence Analyst Course by Udemy aims to transform beginner-level students into statistics, SQL, Tableau, and data-driven problem-solving experts.

The course includes 21.5 hours of on-demand video, 177 articles, 248 downloadable resources, and a certificate of completion.

Students gain step-by-step guidance on presenting information in metrics, KPIs, dashboards, and reports to extract data from a database.

The course does require students to download and install Anaconda, MySQL, and Tableau Public, though you’ll be guided on how to do this.

What You’ll Learn?

This comprehensive course includes 52 sections, starting with an introduction to the resources and topics and an overview of data science, the career options available, and the purpose of data science techniques.

During the initial sections, you’ll learn about common data science tools, career paths, and misconceptions. As students progress through the course segments, they’ll learn how to:

• Use inferential and descriptive statistics with practical examples
• Create and test hypotheses
• Manage relational databases with SQL
• Use Tableau functionalities in correlation with SQL
• Experiment with Python functionalities and fundamentals
• Integrate Python and SQL

9. CFI Certified Business Intelligence & Data Analyst

• Vendor: Corporate Finance Institute
• Cost: $29 per month
• Duration: 3 months

The CFI Business Intelligence and Data Analyst training program teaches students the most important skills they need to either advance or begin their BI careers.

You’ll learn to master data science by using the most popular business intelligence tools and programming languages, developing skills in all areas of data analysis.

The program has over 60 interactive exercises, 32 courses, and expert instruction.

Graduates also earn a blockchain certificate to verify their skills and can access consistent course updates.

What You’ll Learn?

The CFI Business Intelligence & Data Analyst course has five core steps. Students can start with optional “prep courses,” which cover business intelligence basics, data science and machine learning, statistics, and analytical tools.

In step 2, students gain access to 14 core courses, which build a strong foundation for data analysis and business intelligence.

The modules cover Power Query, Power BI, Power Pivot, SQL, Tableau, and visualization fundamentals.

Students will also learn about Python, regression analytics, risk modeling, machine learning, and professional ethics.

After this, students can choose 3 elective courses from various options to advance their skills before taking a final exam.

10. IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate

• Vendor: IBM
• Cost: Free for 7 days, then $49 per month
• Duration: 4 months

The IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate is a beginner-level course designed to help professionals unlock their potential in data analytics.

Taking approximately 4 months to complete, this flexible certificate comes with access to ACE-approved college credit.

This course covers everything from data visualization to spreadsheet management and Python.

What You’ll Learn?

IBM's eleven-course series starts with an introduction to data analytics, covering the differences between different data analysis jobs, data structures, and analytical processes.

In the next stage of the course, students gain insight into Excel and spreadsheet evaluation for data analysis.

As you progress through the courses, you’ll learn how to visualize data using Excel spreadsheets, explain the role charts play in telling stories, and build interactive dashboards using Excel and Cognos Analytics.

Other topics include:

• Using Python for data science, AI, and development
• Creating a Python project for data science insights
• Databases and SQL for data science with Python
• Leveraging data analysis with Python
• Visualizing data with Python

The program ends with a capstone project, where you’ll apply different techniques to collect and manage data and showcase your data analysis and visualization skills.

Are Business Intelligence Certifications Worth It?

Getting a Business Intelligence certificate is a good way to increase your earning potential and stand out to potential employers. You will learn practical skills you can use in various roles, from marketing analyst to business analyst or data engineer.

The demand for data BI experts is increasing as companies continue to invest in new ways of using data to drive business goals. The job market for BI analysts is expected to grow by 23% in the next 10 years.

The average salary for a Business Intelligence analyst in the US is around $81,731 per year, although earnings can vary depending on experience and location.

Compare Business Intelligence Certificates

The table below compares the cost and duration of popular BI certificates.

Certificate	Duration	Cost
Google Business Intelligence Professional Certification	2 months	$98
IBM Data Science Professional Certificate	6 months	$294
Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate	6 months	$294
Meta Marketing Analytics Professional Certificate	7 months	$196
Udacity Business Intelligence Analytics Nanodegree	2 months	$498
Google Advanced Data Analytics Certification	6 months	$294
Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Associate	Varies	$165
Udemy The Business Intelligence Analyst Course	22 hours	$99
CFI Certified Business Intelligence & Data Analyst	3 months	$87
IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate	4 months	$196

Our Course Review Process

We’ve reviewed many courses from known online academies, universities, and tech companies to find the most valuable Business Intelligence Certifications.

The training programs included in our list have three major characteristics. The first is that top institutions deliver them, the second is that they are recognized worldwide, and the third is that they can help you build job-ready skills.

After completing any of the above programs, you can apply for entry-level jobs and start a career in Business Intelligence.