When it comes to Business Intelligence tools, Tableau and Microsoft Power BI are the standout performers in the recent decade. Tableau since its inception has come a long way and has established itself as the market leader for BI tools and data analytics.
Microsoft Power BI though relatively younger has grown to be the closest competitor for Tableau. Both the tools have their own strengths and weaknesses and each will suit businesses based on requirements.
We will do a comparison study between the two which will help companies to decide the best for their needs.
Cost:
Tableau will be more expensive than Power BI when it comes to larger enterprises. To get the most out of Tableau you need to build data warehousing too which will further inflate the cost.
If you are looking for an affordable solution then Power BI is the clear winner here. Power BI professional version cost less than10$ per month per user whereas the pro version of Tableau is more than 35$ per user per month.
If you are a startup or a small business you can opt for Power BI and then upgrade to Tableau if the need arises. Learn more skills from Tableau Training
Data Visualization:
If your primary objective is Data Visualization, then Tableau is the most preferred choice. Tableau is the best tool when it comes to Data Visualization whereas Power BI focuses more on predictive modeling and reporting.
Deployment:
Tableau has more flexible deployment options compared to Power BI. Power BI is available only as SaaS model whereas Tableau has got both on-premises and cloud options.
If for some obvious reasons your business policy doesn’t allow for SaaS then Power BI is out of the picture. Though expensive due to its flexible deployment and licensing options, Tableau is the winner here.
Bulk data handling capabilities:
When it comes to handling the huge volume of data sets Tableau still ranks better than Power BI. Power BI tends to be a drag slow while handling bulk data which can be fixed by using direct connections instead of the import functionality.
Functionality:
Tableau is able to answer most of the questions users would like to ask on the data available compared to Power BI. The depth of data discovery is more sophisticated with Tableau than Power BI.
Integration:
Both the products easily integrate with most of the popular third party data sources. Tableau still has a thin edge over Power BI when it comes to out-of-the-box integrations.
Power BI has API access and pre-built dashboards for speedy insights for some of the most-used technology out there like salesforce, Google Analytics, email marketing, and of course Microsoft products.
You can also connect to services within your organization or download files to build your visualizations. In order to connect any data to Power BI, use the “Get Data” button. You’ll need to go through a short authorization process in order to get fully connected.
Tableau really invested heavily in integrations and connections to big tools and widely-used connections. You can view all of the connections included with your account level right when you log into the tool.
Tableau’s connection is a little more involved, because you’ll need to identify which data to pull into the tool when you make the connection. Because of this it might be helpful to understand what data you want to look at and why before you start making those connections
Programming tools support:
Both the software connects smoothly with programming languages. Tableau integrates much better with R Language compared to Power BI. Power BI can still be connected to R language using Microsoft revolution analytics but is available only for enterprises level users.
User Interface:
Tableau has a slick user interface which enables the user to create a customized dashboard easily. Power BI has a more intuitive interface and is much simpler to learn than tableau. It’s due to the simplicity and ease of use, why business users prefer Power BI.
Power BI has real-time data access and some pretty handy drag and drop features. The whole tool is built to speed up time to visualizations, and it gives even the most novice users access to powerful data analytics and discovery without a whole lot of prior knowledge and experience.
The real-time data access means that teams can react instantly to business changes fed to Power BI from the CRM, project management, sales, and financial tools.
Considering live data access is where most SaaS products and especially most dashboard products are moving toward, Power BI certainly has the leg up here.
Tableau’s features are just as powerful, but some of them a little less intuitive, being hidden behind menus. Forecasting based off of past behavior, calculations to transform existing data based on your requirements.
Tableau gives you live query capabilities and extracts, which is particularly helpful for data analysts who are used to stopping all work for the query process.
The interface uses a drag and drop table view to ask questions of the data. You put your data types in the x and y axes, and then Tableau instantly builds your visualization. The company line is that they “keep the focus on your questions,” but this really feels like Tableau lives somewhere in between query-based (and developer-dependent) data visualization and drag and drop.
They balance it nicely, however, because despite the UX’s somewhat cluttered appearance, Tableau is fairly easy to use, as long as you’re familiar with your data sets or are willing to spend some time studying.
Product Support & Community:
There is no significant difference between the two when it comes to supporting and user communities. Microsoft Power BI is relatively younger than Tableau and hence will have a smaller community but will catch up soon.
Both the tools work on different principles and there is no clearly defined winner here. You have to select the best tool based on your own requirements taking into considerations the above-listed points.
Tableau Weaknesses:
Unfortunately, Tableau comes at a cost. When it comes to the investment required to purchase and implement Tableau – 9 times out of 10 it will be more expensive than Power BI, by a fair margin.
Often, Tableau projects are accompanied by data-warehouse-building endeavours, which compound the amount of money it takes to get going. The results from building a data warehouse and then hooking up Tableau are phenomenal, but you’ll need an implementation budget of at the very least $50k – plus the incremental cost of Tableau licenses.
Power BI Weaknesses:
As I’ve mentioned, Tableau still has the slight edge on Power BI when it comes to the minutiae of product functionality; mostly due to their 10-year head start. But perhaps Power BI’s greatest weakness is its lack of deployment flexibility. For Power BI on-premise you need to install the Power BI Report Server as well as the SQL Server.
I also mentioned that Tableau works well for users with large amounts of data and for users that want on-premise systems.
You should be aware that there are some new features being added to Power BI via Power BI Premium that help catch Microsoft up to Tableau in the areas of large datasets and on-premise capabilities – but Power BI Premium adds significant cost, and these features are relatively new. Tableau still reigns in these areas.
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