Tableau vs Power BI: Which One Should You Choose?
Introduction
I’m often asked to compare Tableau vs Power BI and both of them are fantastic business intelligence and analytics platforms that have their pros and cons. While Tableau had a much earlier head start, over the last 5 years, Power BI has been aggressively winning market share and catching up, where today, it would be fair to say that they are neck to neck in the market.
I’ve used both tools extensively as a data and analytics consultant across a variety of industries which has allowed me to assess both Tableau and Power BI in different capacities. I’m certified in Tableau with my Certified Associate and as an Associate Consultant also in Power BI passing the DA-100 exam. More importantly, I’ve consulted with various colleagues and across my network to gather their perspectives to put together this article.
Follow along as we compare the two platforms.
| Tableau | Power BI | The Regression’s Take | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year Launched | 2003
Acquired by Salesforce in 2019 |
2015 | |
| Who’s it for primarily? | Data Analysts | Data Analysts | |
| Key Products and Terms | Tableau Desktop: Desktop application available for both Windows and Macs to analyze data and build visualizations. Tableau Server: Web platform for sharing and collaborating dashboards either on-prem or hosted cloud. Tableau Online: Cloud-based version of Tableau Server. Tableau Prep: Tableau’s modeling tool that allows analysts to perform ETL functions in a no-code environment. |
Power BI Desktop: Desktop application downloaded from the Windows Store to transform data, analyze data and build reports. Power BI Report Server: Web platform for viewing and sharing reports and dashboards available on-prem or hosted cloud. Power BI Service: Enhanced version of Power BI Report Server with greater functionality built for the enterprise available on the cloud. Report: .pbix file built from Power BI Desktop which is Power BI’s version of a “dashboard”. Dashboard: Collection of graphs and KPIs pulled from different reports and data sources. App: Collection of dashboards and reports packaged into single solution Workspace: Dedicated space on a server where reports, dashboards and apps are organized |
Tableau Desktop and Power BI Desktop serve the same purpose. Tableau has an additional offering called Tableau Prep that lets users clean and transform data before it enters Tableau Desktop. Power BI does not have a comparable offering to this yet. |
| Data Connectors | All the big ones you’d expect with a focus on cloud databases, financial systems, web connectors, etc. A clear focus on modern systems. | All the big ones you’d expect with a focus on cloud databases, financial systems, web connectors, etc. A clear focus on modern systems. | Both platforms have all of the large connectors you’d expect and both have an SDK for custom connectors to be built. |
| Data Visualizations | Tableau has beautiful visualizations that are considered best-in-class. While there’s a learning curve, the dashboards are polished and professional. Dashboards can also be interactive. | Power BI does a great job with simple visuals and if the goal is to get insights fast, Power BI is great. For complex and custom visualizations, Tableau may be better. | Power BI is great for simple visuals and if the goal is to get insights fast, Power BI is great. For complex and custom visualizations, Tableau may be better. |
| Data Analytics | Tableau excels as a modern BI tool with a focus on speed and beautiful visualizations. There is some advanced analytics available, but generally, the focus is on traditional BI. | Power BI should generally be seen as a reporting tool that has some additional analytical features. While Power BI is getting more into the analytics space, it’s not there yet. | For those wanting to follow a strict development methodology, Tableau might be the better choice. If you just want to create reports quickly and don’t mind if they’re perfect or not, Power BI is probably the better option. |
| Data Modeling | Tableau Desktop is fairly limited in terms of modeling. It does not have the advanced modeling features that Power BI has. Tableau Prep helps with this but it’s still not as robust as Power BI’s modeling capabilities. | Power BI has a great data modeling toolkit built-in. It’s easy to use and integrates well with the rest of the Power BI ecosystem. | Power BI is the clear winner with data modeling capabilities. It’s not even close. |
| Performance | Both have extracts and live connections Tableau is generally seen as having better performance. Especially at scale, Tableau is able to handle more data and complex calculations. | Direct Query and Import Power BI does work adequately here but generally is seen as slower than Tableau, especially at scale. | If performance is important, Tableau is generally the better choice. |
| Ease of Use and Effort to Learn | Tableau may be a bit harder to pick up, but still accessible. The learning curve is steeper than Power BI. There are a lot of resources available to learn Tableau. | Coming from Excel, Power BI is a natural transition. It’s generally easier to pick up and start using. There are also a lot of resources available to learn Power BI. | Both are good. If heavy excel users, can consider Power BI for an easier learning curve. |
| Server and Environment | Tableau Server/Tableau Cloud have the same interface as Tableau Desktop. This makes it easy for users to transition from development to production. | Power BI Report Server/Power BI Service is a bit different from Power BI Desktop. There’s a learning curve to understand how to publish and share reports. | If the server is important to you, Tableau is generally the better choice. |
| Pricing and Total Cost of Ownership | Tableau generally charges by the number of users. There is a free tier for Tableau Public which is limited. Tableau Desktop starts at $70 per user per month. Tableau Server and Tableau Online start at $35 per user per month. | Power BI has a free tier which can be considered adequate for personal use. Power BI Pro starts at $9.99 per user per month which is generally considered very affordable. Power BI Premium has a capacity-based pricing model that starts at $4,995 per month. | If you’re price sensitive and not at the enterprise level, then Power BI is usually the cheaper option and can be by a significant margin especially if you get Power BI Pro included with your existing subscriptions. Tableau generally is the more premium option although discounts are given out very frequently if you speak to an account executive or already a Salesforce customer. At the enterprise level, they start to even out a lot and they’re within the same ballpark usually. At that point, total cost of ownership probably plays a large factor in terms of time to develop, quality of insights, access to data, size of team, time to maintain. These things matter a lot more at the enterprise level and even at the small-medium size level and should be considered heavily when choosing based on cost/ |
| Community and Industry Momentum | Great community who are passionate about the product with a lot of people online who are available for support and have experienced similar issuesTableau Conference is held every year in Las Vegas with tens of thousands of attendees | Power BI is surging and is definitely taking market share. A community is there online but it’s still a relatively new tool and the user base is not as passionate around it. | Easy to hire for both of these options although Tableau may have slightly more still. Power BI definitely has the momentum. However, at the 2023 Gartner bake-off for visualizations and analytics tools, Tableau was heavily favored among attendees compared to Power BI and Qlik. |
Key Takeaways
Overall, Tableau and Power BI are both great data analytics and visualizations software for your business intelligence and analytics purposes. Selecting which one is the right tool for your business depends on your overall data strategy, and needs across your organization.
Tableau is the right choice…
If you care about… beautiful visuals and building a strong analytics culture and have the budget, then Tableau is probably the right choice for you. At the end of the day, Tableau brings to the table stronger discovery and analytics capabilities, more appealing visualizations and a simple and clean interface which makes for a better user experience. Taking into the fact that there is better performance and all of these things combined together probably make it the “better” strictly BI tool. It doesn’t hurt as well to have a strong community behind it who are passionate with a lot of resources online to support you. The data modeling capabilities are a major disadvantage but this can be mitigated with data transformations and ETL focused tools. While Tableau has been losing momentum to Power BI, it remains the gold standard for BI tools for analytically focused organizations.
Power BI is the right choice…
If you are… integrated into the Microsoft environment, just getting started in data analytics and price sensitive, and looking for a strong reporting tool, then Power BI is probably the right choice for you. What has really propelled Power BI’s rise over the last 5 years has been the idea that it’s not just a BI tool but an entire ecosystem which integrates with the rest of your systems allowing for easy collaboration and sharing of data and insights. Add in the fact that Power BI has very strong data modeling capabilities with Power Query, one can see why Excel users find Power BI to be a natural transition point. While Power BI is generally weaker in certain elements like discovery and analytics, data visualizations and performance, these deficiencies can be mitigated with alternative solutions and experienced team members. Over the next few years, Power BI should continue to gain market share and offers an extremely compelling use case for organizations focused on strong data reporting.
