Ability BI vs. Tableau :
Pros and Cons

Written by co-founder Kasper Langmann, Microsoft Role Specialist.

If you're on a hunt for the all-time Business Intelligence (BI) tools, you lot might've heard virtually Power BI and Tableau already.

When information technology comes to BI tools, these ii are considered as the 'best' out there.

Unfortunately, information technology's hard to find whatever pages that hash out these two front end-runners without biases.

That's why in this article, we'll introduce you lot to Power BI and Tableau and discuss what we like and don't like well-nigh each of them.
Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

*This tutorial is for Ability BI Online (also called "Ability BI Service"). If y'all have Power BI Desktop, then click here and become to the online version.

Power BI

Getting started with Power BI for free

Power BI is Microsoft's business intelligence tool that'due south closely related to Excel. It'south fairly new in the market seeing that information technology simply debuted last 2013.

One of the things you should know about Power BI is that it'southward non just a single app or software. It's basically a group or an umbrella of cloud-based apps and services.

What we like virtually Power BI

With the main components of Power BI — Power Query, Power Pin, Ability View, Power Map, and Power Q&A — Ability BI is more than enough for your business intelligence needs.

One of the areas where Power BI shines the nearly compared to its peers is its integration with Office 365. By the numbers, Part 365 is the most used cloud service by user count.

Considering of that, Role 365 users are intuitively drawn to Power BI for business organization intelligence and analysis. On acme of that, Microsoft is really pushing its users to apply Power BI in visualizing their data.

Retail Analysis Sample Dashboard

With Power BI, it'south super like shooting fish in a barrel to create dashboards and reports. Well, that'south non to say that doing that in Tableau is hard.

However, i of Ability BI'south target market is naive and inexperienced users. And for Role 365 users, navigating Power BI is almost a no-brainer.

What nosotros similar best about Ability BI is its price value. You can literally apply Power BI's desktop version for free . And if y'all take a company email, you tin can too employ Power BI service (online version) for free.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

What we don't like about Power BI

Power BI also has its own disadvantages. For one, Power BI's functionality is a bit inferior to older BI systems similar Tableau.

This could be due to the fact that Power BI is adequately new. Simply but advanced users and those with monstrous information sets could feel the difference.

Unfortunately, Ability BI falls a little flake flat when it comes to on-premise deployment. To savour the full ability of Power BI on-premise, you need to install Power BI Report Service and the SQL Server.

Just again, Ability BI is more of a SaaS (Software as a Service) model. In reality, Ability BI is improve with Microsoft's other apps, services, and tools.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Microsoft calls the combination of dissimilar Power BI tools and apps "Microsoft Power Platform". Information technology includes Ability BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Ability Virtual Agents, and more.

Tableau Software

Tableau: Changing the way you think about data

Tableau is an analytics platform that'south been around since 2003 — 10 years earlier than Power BI. Information technology's as well known as the 'gold standard' in information visualization.

Considering of Tableau'southward headstart over Power BI, information technology's understandable that Tableau is more powerful and refined than Ability BI.

What we similar most Tableau

As mentioned above, Tableau is known for its data visualization prowess which shows in different areas like user-interface, data exploration, interactive visuals, deployment, and others.

Tableau'southward community is also massive with lots of conferences year-round. Because of this, Tableau has a firm grip on the needs and desires of its target audition.

Tableau Community: Connect with some of the smartest people we know

Tableau got you covered end-to-terminate — from collaboration, analytics, content discovery, data prep & access, downwards to deployment.

When compared to Power BI, Tableau has a more flexible deployment. You can install the desktop version without having to install the SQL server.

Suffice to say, Tableau actually packs a serious dial that using it for reporting would seem overkill.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

What nosotros don't like nigh Tableau

Unfortunately, Tableau'south features come with a heavy price, literally. What you can do with Ability BI will toll you 7x more than with Tableau.

In addition, using Tableau seriously means building your own data warehouse. Its implementation plus the incremental cost of Tableau licenses volition require a large investment.

In improver, connecting to more 3rd-political party applications will price you more. In terms of pricing, Tableau is costlier than Power BI past a broad margin.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Power BI vs Tableau

From the details in a higher place, yous probably have an thought already which platform suits you best.

Just if you're still having a hard fourth dimension, here are some questions to assist you decide:

  • How much is your budget?
  • How much functionality do you need?

When information technology comes to pricing, Power BI is a lot cheaper than Tableau.

Power BI's pricing program has a costless 1 and ii paid plans. You can use the Ability BI'south desktop version for free. You can likewise utilise Ability BI service without its sharing feature by using a company email.

Power BI: Create data dashboards and visualizations in minutes

Power BI Pro is the first paid plan which costs $nine.99 monthly per user. With this, you lot can share reports and dashboards with others.

The highest plan — Power BI Premium is for big businesses. Information technology currently stands at $four,995 per month. This plan is consummate with advanced administration and deployment controls as well as dedicated cloud compute and storage resources.

On the other manus, on Tableau's pricing, the basic program is called "Tableau Creator" which allows authorship on a study that costs $70 per user per calendar month.

Tableau pricing for data people

In that location's too a Tableau Explorer which costs $35 per user per calendar month and Tableau Viewer which costs $12 per user per month.

Explorers tin can access, interact, and collaborate the same with creators can. Notwithstanding, their authorship is express merely to existing workbooks, visualizations, and information sources. They can't create new workbooks from a new information source.

On the other hand, a viewer can merely access and collaborate with reports and dashboards. They can comment on a dashboard or visualization and fifty-fifty set up alerts. But that's it.

In add-on, there are Tableau add-ons which are required for all plans on an account. These could hands stack up on the cost you'll accept to pay so improve lookout out if you lot're planning on using Tableau.

Now, just considering Power BI is cheaper doesn't hateful it'south worse than Tableau. Power BI is more adequate for your business needs.

Kasper Langmann, Co-founder of Spreadsheeto
Create a data-driven culture using Power BI

Merely if you're an analyst who probably spends more than 2 hours on the tool per day, you should consider Tableau.

Tableau: Designed for the individual, scaled for the enterprise

The range of data visualizations in Tableau is unmatched equally of now. If you've got deep and specific BI needs, Tableau only might be right for you.

Conclusion

Still confused? 🧐

Hither'southward the brusk version:

If y'all're tight on budget and don't need much functionality (a.k.a. you're not an analyst that needs more than than 2 hours per mean solar day on the tool), go with Power BI.

On the other mitt, if you're serious about investing in a business intelligence tool (and probably has the need for information technology), Tableau is the better choice.