We compared Microsoft BI and Tableau based on our users reviews in six parameters. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Users generally find the initial setup for Microsoft BI to be simple and effortless, requiring minimal time and effort. In comparison, Tableau's setup process can range from uncomplicated to more intricate, depending on specific circumstances and requirements.
Microsoft BI is highly regarded for its impressive capabilities and adaptability, as well as its capacity to retrieve data from diverse origins and create personalized visuals. On the other hand, Tableau is commended for its ease of use, intuitive design, and proficiency in managing substantial volumes of data.
Both Microsoft BI and Tableau have areas where they can improve. Microsoft BI could enhance its user-friendliness, support, graphical and analytical features, cost, performance, integration, metadata management, visualization capabilities, stability, security, compatibility, data management process, support for product management and customer services, and documentation. On the other hand, Tableau could focus on improving its compatibility, performance, memory data concept, architecture, charting and calculations, modeling techniques, visualization options, integration, customization process, report creation, forecast instrument, GIS features, support for business insights and trend analysis, interface, licensing options, automation, write-back capabilities, drill-down functionality, security measures, workflow, and data modules.
Microsoft BI has a potentially high setup cost, particularly for enterprise-level usage. While some users find the pricing reasonable for desktop use, it becomes costly for larger-scale implementations. In contrast, Tableau's pricing is diverse, with opinions ranging from expensive to cheap. Some users perceive Tableau as expensive, especially for smaller firms, while other tools like Power BI are seen as more affordable. Generally, there is a consensus that Tableau's pricing could be enhanced to maintain competitiveness.
Microsoft BI has been highly praised for its return on investment, with users giving it a perfect rating. It is projected to generate substantial revenue growth and achieve breakeven in a relatively short period of 2-3 years. In contrast, Tableau's specific ROI is uncertain, but it is presumed to be impressive based on existing data. Customers have observed a return on investment within a quicker timeframe of 5-6 months.
The opinions on customer service for Microsoft BI are divided, with some users finding it satisfactory while others believe it needs improvement. On the other hand, Tableau's customer service has had a range of experiences, with some customers having positive ratings and others encountering limitations and difficulties in contacting the right people.
Comparison Results
Microsoft BI is praised for its ease of setup and powerful features, but users find it difficult to learn and use, with weaker graphical and analytical features compared to Tableau. The cost is considered high, and users desire better support, a more user-friendly interface, and improved performance. On the other hand, Tableau's setup can range from simple to complex, but it is highly valued for its user-friendliness and customization options. However, Tableau lacks compatibility with certain tools, has performance issues with large data, and needs improvement in visualization options and integration capabilities. Pricing is also a mixed opinion, with some finding it expensive. Customer support for both products has mixed reviews.
"The uploading of information is very easy, as you just use an Excel sheet to start work right away and obtain the benefits of Power BI."
"I like the fact that Power BI lets me use Excel data. At least 90% of my state data is in Excel spreadsheets. Having the ability to just attach a spreadsheet as a data source is very, very important. It's also good for training and teaching. Sometimes you don't always have access to a live production database, so having a spreadsheet with sample data is always nice."
"I like that I can use Power BI to upload data. That is very important for me. The visualization is also convenient and easy to use."
"I like data modeling. You can connect with your database, which is quite useful for me. It is a good tool if you have a large amount of data and you want to gather different data and interconnect it. The Power Query functionality is quite an interesting feature. If you have a query in Excel, you can also copy your query and run it in Power BI. Its dashboard is also very nice and not complicated. You don't need to be a developer to be able to use it. I am not an IT guy, and it is quite easy to use for somebody who is not an IT person."
"In the process of using data there is the Extract, Transform and Load (ETL). For extracting we are using another software, for transforming we are using our own coding in C#, and then we use Microsoft BI for loading the information. Microsoft BI displays information very well."
"Like all Microsoft products, it is very easy to set up initially."
"The solution has a good toggling feature."
"The dashboard features are really valuable, you can connect to multiple data points."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the permission management and the user management."
"It gives us a new dimension to the way that we analyse our data."
"The solution offers very good reporting."
"Tableau is very good in the front-end visualization compared to Power BI."
"It's very user-friendly. It's not like Power BI, Tableau is very user-friendly. Anybody can use Tableau. It's very easy to adopt things. I can visualize the stats."
"It has a shallow learning curve and so you can go to market very, very, very quickly."
"One of the most valuable features of Tableau is that it's a visual analytics solution, not just a dashboarding solution. Compared to Power BI, which is a dashboarding solution, there are no limitations with Tableau. For example, when you add a chart or a map to Power BI, it has a 3,000-point limitation. When you try to track your whole vehicle on the map, you only see the first 3,000 rows on the map, and Power BI doesn't tell you which part of the data is shown on the map. But Tableau doesn't have any limitations, which means that you can see five million data points on a map. It starts the project by creating the visuals that directly converts to SQLs. In that way, all the components have no limitations. When we compared Tableau to Power BI, we also found Tableau to be more fancy. Fancy means you can create more visual graphics and more visual dashboards. With Power BI, this isn't so—it's just some tables and some simple charts together. Tableau is more for business users who want to analyze data. Tableau can directly connect the analytics systems, like R or Titan, and get the results in screen, so it's a good solution for analytics scientists. It has some predefined capabilities to understand the data."
"Data handling, visualizations, and aesthetics of it are the most valuable features."
"I would like to see more visualization options."
"There is room for improvement in terms of pricing for the solution."
"There needs to be improved guidance and documentation for the initial setup of Power BI as it currently remains complex."
"I would like to see more AI capabilities in future releases. There's a strong interest in AI, including technologies like GPT, which facilitate real-time interactions."
"Compared to other applications, like Tableau, Microsoft BI doesn't have as many functions that allow you to do more in-depth analysis and represent the findings."
"We did have some issues building the Microsoft blog."
"You do need to do some hard coding for certain things in Microsoft BI."
"I believe the price should be degressive, and we should have a lower, or better unit price if we have more users."
"The pricing is a bit higher than the competition. They'll need to lower it to stay competitive."
"With performance tuning, it generates a pretty complex query when it is not required."
"The architecture should be improved to better handle the data."
"It needs more ETL capabilities, to be able to address the end-to-end BI need."
"Many things have to be improved in Tableau. Right now, we make the calculation, and then we get that information. It would be better if business users could do that. I would ask the people at Tableau to provide that option to business users to get that information in one click. It would be better if they automated some calculations. There should be more automation in Tableau. However, there are many things in automation mode, but it is very limited at the moment. We need automation for people who do not know much about Tableau. It would also be better if there were good community support like in Alteryx."
"Overall, the only major frustration that I have had so far is with Tableau Public. I first used Tableau Public when I was building capacity, and when there was a later release to download and you wanted to upgrade, all your work would have to be manually re-entered."
"Small multiples (a.k.a. Trellis charts) are possible only through very hacky means. Update: Still remains a challenge."
"Tableau is a company that does not respect partners."
Microsoft Power BI is ranked 1st in Reporting with 297 reviews while Tableau is ranked 2nd in Reporting with 290 reviews. Microsoft Power BI is rated 8.0, while Tableau is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Microsoft Power BI writes "A complete ecosystem with an builtin ETL tool, good integrations with python and R, and support of DAX and Power Query (M languages)". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Tableau writes "Provides fast data access with in-memory extracts, makes it easy to create visualizations, and saves time". Microsoft Power BI is most compared with Amazon QuickSight, KNIME, Domo, Oracle OBIEE and MicroStrategy, whereas Tableau is most compared with Amazon QuickSight, Domo, SAS Visual Analytics, Databricks and SAP Analytics Cloud. See our Microsoft Power BI vs. Tableau report.
See our list of best Reporting vendors and best BI (Business Intelligence) Tools vendors.
We monitor all Reporting reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
Sorry to hear you have to move to Report Builder. Tableau is superior by a long shot! Find another gig. Don't go backwards. Move forward with Tableau !
Tableau is more suitable for somebody that is not developer and it's very easy to use and to create great visual presentation. For developers Report Builder would be more domestic.
It is really the outcome and target goals that are achieved with the right set of BI solutions,people using it to add more efficiency and productivity at all fronts is the kind of result you want to see. Tools include human and technology bonded together to produce results, After all it is the function of both parties to work together, collaborate and share resources together. In the human perspective we look at the training and how best we can create solutions . With the BI solution it is the way we distinguish between the existing solutions that will to the best of its capability serve our business interests and requirements.
Current business leadership include the VP of Finance, so determining a business case was and is a problem for him and those directly under him. So is a no my problem.
Thanks,
Rich
Rich- What is it that current leadership perceives as lacking in the current reporting tool set?
Why change if the only benefit is features or a products capabilities?
Can the products features and capabilities be exploited?
By who and when?
How does that make money for the company?
Increased profit?
Cost reduction?
Increased resource utilization?
Fewer days for order to cash?
Reduced collections?
Better on time shipping?
Faster production?
Increased gross margin?
Reduced inventory?
You get the picture. It's the people that make the difference. Not the tool!
What is it that we need to know to grow our business constantly and continuously?
Every tool mentioned can do really great "stuff".
But what "stuff" does your company need?
To answer the initial question: Every change is difficult without buy-in from the stakeholders.
People love change. What they don't like is change without benefit. Perceived or real.
I hope this helps you a little to better meet the challenges you're facing.
I wish you the best.
Reading through the responses from all you knowledgeable persons out there is so very enlightening. It's like sitting in a room and getting your experiences on these tools first hand. Thanks a lot for your inputs, which will help in putting pros and cons for the company to make a trade off and choose over the two.
Rich- What is it that current leadership perceives as lacking in the current reporting tool set?
Why change if the only benefit is features or a products capabilities?
Can the products features and capabilities be exploited?
By who and when?
How does that make money for the company?
Increased profit?
Cost reduction?
Increased resource utilization?
Fewer days for order to cash?
Reduced collections?
Better on time shipping?
Faster production?
Increased gross margin?
Reduced inventory?
You get the picture. It's the people that make the difference. Not the tool!
What is it that we need to know to grow our business constantly and continuously?
Every tool mentioned can do really great "stuff".
But what "stuff" does your company need?
To answer the initial question: Every change is difficult without buy-in from the stakeholders.
People love change. What they don't like is change without benefit. Perceived or real.
I hope this helps you a little to better meet the challenges you're facing.
I wish you the best.
I wouldn't feel too sorry, it is a very good group to work with. After a lot of years working in IT both in the US and Europe one of the things I find interesting is that Americans in business, especially with regard to software, feel they must have the latest, greatest and most feature rich everything when very often being a little behind the bleeding edge gets the job done and costs less. The real issue is to look at the problem being solved and find good enough while keeping an eye on where you are going.
Having said that took a brief look at the link you indicated and I like the fact that it runs on Linux. Thumbs up on that aspect.
Thanks,
Rich