Slicers vs. Slicer Pane vs. Filter Pane! Which is faster?

You have different options in Power BI when it comes to slicers and filters. Just put the slicer on the report, use a slicer panel or have them in the filter pane. But which one is faster??? Patrick explores a few scenarios to think about!
Should you hide the filter pane in Power BI?
greyskullanalytics.com/should...
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[@frikkinnorwegian5227]

Haven’t found a single business user willing to use the filter pane. It’s the single visual feature where we face the most resistance from end users. I actually get requests to remove it whenever it’s just left viewable. They don’t want use it, they don’t want to see it, they don’t want training, and don’t want to spend time dealing with it. Many are worried they’ll mess up, and many just don’t understand how it affects the reports. We got around 1000 users and what they want is “Make it simple” Many business users are actually wanting to move away from Power BI all together due to the lack of development and improvement for the out of the box visuals. I mean, the slicer is a relic at this point! I think the filter pane is a great example of developers making a solution based on their own needs. For the vast majority of business users it is way too complicated. They focus on the canvas and are used to app-like experiences.

[@AJ-alt]

I totally agree. Clients wants pretty rather than fast. 3 sec delay is nothing to them.

[@olemew]

​@@AJ-alt In many reports, difference is more like 30 ms, absolutely irrelevant

[@Henrik.Vestergaard]

Totally disagree. Also have 1000+ users, they ate not tech savy, but they have no issues using the filter pane at all. But we NEED ability to filter the filter pane item by measure, the reaspn, I still use dropdown sæicers.

[@NumiWadi]

The only reason I keep on using slicers on the page is because you can't use measures to filter the filter pane. Ex : filter a dimension by a fact table having rows or not.

[@mcnater]

100% this

[@Henrik.Vestergaard]

Exactly - we NEED this in the filtet pane

[@philipjeske7214]

so true!

[@drtonys.6963]

Good thought, but without testing, I would think you would lose the star rating because when you open the filter pane the calculation would have to render.

[@leegarrett1908]

Great video but indeed need to be able to apply measures to the filtered items for example cascading items you cant so from a user pov when using the filter pane you get more results than expected.

[@elainedunwoody]

Thank you for this detail analysis! This video is purely focusing on performance. As many other comments have mentioned, usability is another consideration. So in real life scenario, we need to balance usability with performance, as well as space on the canvas.

[@Sarien6]

Too bad the filter pane has such limited customization options. There are always things that end up needing a slicer to function or look the way the client wants.

[@ravikumarbva5544]

I agree. We cannot suggest Filter pane to end user because here we have to train the customers to choose it wisely between visual level filter , Page level filters . It could be tough.

[@ravikumarbva5544]

I appreciate your effort. However, We cannot suggest Filter pane to end user because here we have to train the customers to choose it wisely between visual level filter , Page level filters . It could be tough.

[@miguelbenito7992]

Training stakeholders is a pain in the neck. The more visual filters directly applied to visualizations the better. Filter pane takes off the magic of Power BI

[@travisbassett7069]

So true, also I have headache with the counts in the filter pane. I’ve directed users to look at the card visual but some look at the counts on the filter pane. Depending on the design can have a dimension used for slicing that shows different counts to the fact table.

[@tarikguetarni7082]

With filter panel, you loose the ability to edit the interactions with other visuals

[@JonathanCHANAL]

Very good video. Importantly, these different types of filters do not have the same behavior. In particular, you cannot deactivate the interactions between the filters of the filter pane and the visuals of the page (unless you do it in DAX).

[@gkool4655]

This video is Solid Gold. Big Up Patrick ma G 🤜🏾🌟🤛🏾

[@Anthony_Lecoq]

Great analysis Patrick. I am wondering if a day we will see the ”advance filter” built in with the drop down filter (a bit like in an excel table filter pane) it would enrich the end user experience ;)

[@andrewmorozov3455]

The filter card list filter under the hood is using slicer visual. Unfortunately performance analyzer does not capture that. However expanding filter card is same as expanding dropdown slicer in terms of performance.

[@rvweteling]

Amazing video, really an eye opener. Apart from the filter pane performance I do like creating a slicer panels. Do you have a clue how to set the default slicer option to drop-down? I can't seem to make it work using the theme but it would be convenient...

[@abdulrahmanbahareth4657]

Thats Bananas! Thanks Patrick for the experiment!

[@emmamurphy5659]

Fantastic analysis!

[@agalarbeyliatabey]

Thanks for the video. I have one question, interesting to see the comparison as well. How it would be better if we create all visuals in one tab and create buttons with bookmarks to navigate among visuals or create many tabs and use buttons to navigate among them. Is there any difference in performance perspective?

[@emujkic]

Great analysis. It seams understandable. However I still prefer using custom visual slicers and panes because of flexibility. You can visually change them, you can filter them also with measure filters. On top of that I use them to make them part of report, like putting one slicer just above visual to allow just filtering of that element. I also tend to prepare report to be used in full screen. Then you can use the report smoothly. I would use the normal filter pane if you could change its position or move it around. And also for powerpoint live it is better option, since user can use it more interactively. I guess it the same choice if you decide on custom navigation or using in the box navigation

[@justapasserby69420]

I use the filter pane for everything that I can control, e.g., report horizon, filters that report consumers want to see immediately when they see the report. For anything that my report users want to control, I use a dropdown slicer panel. These are usually dimension tables that have a max of 20 selections so that performance won't take that much of a hit

[@rezag.7349]

Can you sync filters in filter pane across pages?

[@waldof86]

I have had some big reports where I tried this and found that they loaded way faster when avoiding slicers on the canvas. What I also have a suspicion of but can't prove is that actually using them also performs better with the panel as opposed to the visuals

[@chukachukwu]

Great analysis, personally it's case of chicken and eggs. I would say it depends on the context of your development, this would work for very large models but for reports where aesthetics is a driver on the page will be a better option.

[@nabilbilo2]

Thanks man you're a legend

[@NickZadykovich]

How about a hidden slicer that's changed selection using a bookmark navigator? We're doing this in my team because we wanted buttons that match our specific corporate branding. Since the slicer is hidden, does it incur dax cost if it's drop down or not?

[@charliemather3368]

Intriguing!!

[@samwhitaker3091]

I continue to switch back and forth and some reports actually have both (not the greatest user experience). The problem I run into most stems back to data modeling. Trying to keep relationships one directional vs. bi directional becomes a problem with dimension tables and using the filters pane. You guys have done great data model videos in the past around not using bi directional and applying a visual level filter to a slicer (also what MSFT recommends). I don't see this possible with the filter pane. So now, I have a dimension that hooks up to several fact tables (say a users table of who logged the records in a CRM). In order to keep record history intact and avoid blanks on visuals, I need an unfiltered table of users coming through. That table might have 10K users on it. I would see all of those just dropping it to the filters pane, when in reality maybe the report loads for the last year of data on startup, and I need to see 30 of them. If I adjust the date range to past 2yrs, maybe it goes to 50, but I don't need to see the list of 10K users. Bi directional is a band aid at best, but really doesn't work either because its hooked to multiple fact tables...so what gives? Would love to run filters pane only after seeing this as we use Direct Query. Good video and analysis on performance, but I think the root issue stems much deeper back to the data model and relationships on why people NEED to use one or the other or perhaps both, not necessarily what they LIKE or PREFER to use.

[@guillermodebiase5803]

I know the Clients wants pretty rather than fast. 3 sec delay is nothing to them. But I started using the Filter pane this year and It was an excelent way to create a seamless experience trow all the company reports. Also when the company has Power BI performance isues any optimization in request / response can be critical

[@veertje135711]

Cool, but Patrick... You talked about how it impacts the performance if you do NOT use it, but what about the performance of those options if they are being used consistently? Do they differ then?

[@datapears]

For me the main reason why I don't use the filter pane is because the UX is not great and customers prefer a 2 sec delay to using it. Most of the times I'm asked to hide it, because it generates confusion with the end users. Now that I'm at it, pretty much anything on the front end side in Power BI desktop needs a revamping, specially the visuals/charts, they look exactly the same since I remember Power BI exists (2015). Adding a few formatting options doesn't cut it anymore, too many workarounds to achieve things that should be easy these days...

[@AjaySingh-me6zd]

Ajay Singh: Which one is faster ( to get unique list of items) 1. Data entered directly in Power BI 2. Imported from Excel using table 3. Generated using Summarize DAX

[@elrevesyelderecho]

Ok. Filter pane is better, but user experience for drop down list and date range is missing. In my experience, it's something that user asking for. Plus, dorp doe list help out visually when you have long dimensions or attributes list to select.

[@NateHerring1]

Filter Pane FTW! I load it up with plenty of filters (36+) . Never seen a performance hit as a result. Search function is perfect for for users to find what they want. Only thing that is confusing is that the search results don't tell you the filter influence scope. Is it Visual, Page, or Whole report? 🤔

[@olemew]

Why do you need 36 filters applied at the same time? Could you describe the dimensions involved?

[@NateHerring1]

@@olemew I don't mean applied at the same time, just available to the users of the report to help analyze the business from different perspectives. Model is an enterprise scale orders to invoice dataset with customer, product, sales org, order attributes, and date dimensions. We have a lot of product and customer fields that different business units analyze by.

[@olemew]

@@NateHerring1 if they don't need to be applied at the same time, could you create more report pages or even independent reports with a common dataset for different types of breakdowns and business questions

[@NateHerring1]

@@olemew yes. This is actually the approach I'm starting to take with the next revision. However, users have become accustomed to the filtering flexibility and the exploratory nature of the report. And really there is no performance penalty for providing them in the filter pane.

[@olemew]

@@NateHerring1 when I'm reviewing other people's reports that's one of the most common themes I find. The tendency to try to do too many things in the same report page. That usually looks like too many small visuals, which can also lead to slow performance, depending on the data size. But regardless of performance, it's just a design principle. In my opinion, your users will get used to switch pages instead, and in the long run, everybody (inc. the dev/mantainer) will benefit from it. I'm glad you were already giving it a try!

[@project365]

Filters pane don’t give flexibility. Edit interaction is available only in slicers.

[@diamondsandlipgloss]

i'm sooo confused...i thought this video was a comparison of slicers vs filters to see which is fastest... but it's actually talking about DAX etc what am i missing?