The global Business Intelligence market was valued at 27.11 billion USD in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.1% to reach 54 billion USD by 2030. As more and more businesses plunge in to leverage data analytics and gain an edge, data science and business intelligence tools like PowerBI and Tableau are witnessing a rapid increase in adoption. A lot of times, businesses endure struggles in choosing between PowerBI and Tableau.
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To help such businesses, we have outlined the key differences between Power BI vs. Tableau in various aspects. Read the blog to understand the difference between Power BI and Tableau and choose the most appropriate one for data analysis, business intelligence, and visualization tools.
What Is Power BI?
Power BI is one of the popular business intelligence and data visualization tools designed and developed by Microsoft. It offers a simple interface for business teams to create visually appealing reports and dashboards. The best thing about Power BI is that it goes well with Microsoft products, and you can directly import data from Microsoft Excel.
Power BI helps businesses gather data from multiple sources, and organize them, and translate them into charts, graphs, scatter plots, maps, tables, and other appealing visuals. You can access Power BI on desktop, browser, or mobile devices. PowerBI Desktop is available for download on Windows 10. It is also available as an Android, iOS, and Windows mobile app.
Power BI also offers a report server that lets businesses secure their data within their premises. So, it is appropriate for businesses in regulated industries like healthcare, defense, banking, financial services, etc.
Businesses that use Business Intelligence tools make decisions 5 times faster than their counterparts. So, businesses must leverage BI tools' visualization and reporting abilities and make well-informed decisions. Depending on the size and requirements of your business, you must choose between Power BI vs. Tableau.
What Is Tableau?
Tableau is one of the most sought-after data visualization and intelligence tools that help organize raw data in a business into a perceivable format. It simplifies data into dashboards and other visually appealing formats.
Tableau helps business analysts and organizational teams analyze large chunks of data through its drag-and-drop interface. The best thing about Tableau is that even non-technical users can learn and use the tool to create visuals. The tool can read data from various sources and formats, including Excel spreadsheets, cloud servers, big data, etc.
After reading the data, users can clean and organize the information, perform calculations, and draw insights. It has a broad suite of products, including Tableau Server, Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep, etc. Tableau Server is used to share the data and visuals across various platforms, while Tableau Prep is used to clean and organize the data for analysis.
Features of Power BI
As explained earlier, Power BI has become an exhaustive tool for organizing, analyzing, and visualizing raw, unorganized data. Following are some of the essential features and functionalities of Power BI.
1. Multiple Data Sources
Power BI can read real-time data from various sources, from on-premises to the cloud. It can read data from MS Excel, SQL Server, MySQL database, Azure, PDF, XML, JSON, etc.
2. Data Visualization
Visualizations are the cornerstone of business intelligence tools. Using Power BI, you can create a broad range of appealing visuals. It also has a library for creating custom visuals. You can represent the data in maps, trees, charts, graphs, etc.
Following are some of the interesting visuals you can create with Power BI.
- Stacked bar/column chart
- Clustered bar/column chart
- Line chart
- Area chart
- Filled map
- Pie chart
- Area chart
- Donut chart
- Funnel chart
- Waterfall chart
3. Data Relationships
In Power BI, you can create relationships between data in multiple columns and tables. For instance, if you have two tables with matching columns and data points, you can define relationships based on the matching columns.
4. Database Filtration
With multiple data sources, Power BI lets you filter specific data points and create subsets of data. This feature helps when analyzing a specific problem and requires only certain aspects of data.
5. Data Transformation
Often, raw data may not be usable for analysis. Power BI lets you clean and organize the data so it becomes easy for businesses to derive insights and information.
6. Data Exploration
Power BI lets you dive deep into each data point, filter, sort, or build hierarchies. You can also organize calculations and build KPIs and metrics to measure the data.
7. Mobile Application
Power BI has a mobile application available on Android, iOS, and Windows platforms. Users can access visuals, reports, and dashboards without being on the desk.
8. Real-time Data
Power BI can read data from real-time data sources like Power BI datastreams, Azure analytics, etc. So, for businesses that require dynamic visualization and dashboards, Power BI can be used.
9. Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Using Power BI, you can ask queries in natural language and seek answers through visuals.
Features of Tableau
As mentioned earlier, Tableau is a popular business intelligence tool that offers a broad range of analytic abilities and features to help users organize raw data and visualize information. Following are some of the key features of Tableau.
1. Data Sources
Tableau can read data from external as well as in memory. You can build real-time connections to the data sources and read live data as per the business requirement. So, businesses can read data from different sources, including on-premises, cloud, big data, relational and non-relational databases, etc.
2. Data Visualization
You can create advanced visualizations using Tableau, including plots, charts, graphs, maps, etc. You can create advanced maps like heat maps, flow maps, point distribution maps, etc.
3. Data Security
Tableau offers extensive data security, and you can integrate with protocols like Kerberos, Active Directory, etc. As Tableau opts for row-level filtering, it enhances data security.
4. Data Preparation
Tableau offers a wide suite of data preparation tools and modules, including Tableau Prep, which helps clean and prepare the raw data for analysis.
5. Mobile Access
You can access Tableau using the mobile app it offers. It is available for download on Android, iOS, and Microsoft platforms. Tableau lets you create custom mobile layouts for your dashboard so you can view and access reports and visuals on the go.
6. Collaboration
Tableau lets you integrate and collaborate with other common ERP, sales, and CRM tools like Slack, Google Drive, etc.
7. Real-time Data
Tableau helps you gather data from on-premises and cloud servers like Amazon Kinesis, Apache Kafka, etc., and converts them into dashboards, visualization, etc.
8. Time Series Analysis
Another key feature of Tableau is its ability to create trend lines and dynamic forecasts. It is simple, and users have just to drag and drop data points.
Key Difference Between Power BI and Tableau
Now that you know the important features of Power BI and Tableau, let us understand Tableau versus Power BI from different aspects.
Here is a summary table with a brief analysis of Power BI vs. Tableau.
| Parameter | PowerBI | Tableau |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Microsoft | Salesforce |
| Launch year | 2013 | 2003 |
| Appropriate for | Small and medium-scale businesses | Medium and large-scale businesses |
| Performance | Appropriate for handling the limited volume of data | Appropriate for handling a large volume of data |
| Learning curve | Easy to learn and use. So, it is optimal for experts and beginners | Appropriate for seasoned experts |
| Programming language | Supports R programming language but requires Microsoft Revolution Analytics | Revolution Analytics. Supports R, Python, C, C++, Java, etc |
| Desktop version | Works only on Microsoft | Works on Microsoft as well as iOS. So, Mac users prefer Tableau |
| Pricing | Affordable and cost-effective | Costlier and more expensive than Power BI |
| Embed option | Offers Power BI Embedded module so you can embed reports and dashboards in the websites and third-party applications | Embedding reports in Tableau involves challenges |
| Usability | Preferred by beginners and experts | Preferred by experts and veterans |
| Cloud integration | Exists only with Azure analytics | Broad range of third-party cloud providers |
| Community | Limited | Extensive as it is way older than Power BI |
| Query editor | Has a query editor that lets you edit data before loading it onto Power BI | Does not have this feature |
| Visualization | Basic charts and dashboards | Advanced charts and visualizations |
1. User Interface
When we compare the user interface aspect of Power BI vs. Tableau, the latter has a relatively more intuitive interface. It takes some time to learn and master Power BI features and functionalities.
2. Pricing
Power BI is affordable and cheaper when compared to Tableau. Tableau Creator costs $70 per month per user, whereas Power BI Pro starts at $9.99 monthly. It is due to this reason that startups and small businesses prefer Power BI over Tableau.
3. Deployment
While both Tableau and Power BI offer on-premises and cloud deployment, Power BI is compatible only with Azure regarding cloud servers, while Tableau has far greater access. So, Power BI has limited deployment abilities.
4. Ownership and Licensing Terms
Microsoft owns Power BI and offers licenses per-user basis. On the other hand, Tableau was recently acquired by Salesforce and offers licenses on a per-user and per-server basis.
5. Integration Abilities
As Power BI is from Microsoft, it goes well with other Microsoft products like Azure, MS Excel, Dynamics 365, etc. On the other hand, Tableau goes well with a lot more third-party tools and applications.
6. Programming Languages
Both Power BI and Tableau can be connected to the R programming language. The only difference is that Power BI requires an external tool called Microsoft Revolution Analytics, whereas Tableau Software Development Kit integrates directly with the R programming language. Also, you can integrate the Tableau kit with several other languages like Python, C, Java, C++, etc.
7. Compatibility
Regarding desktops, it must be noted that Power BI can be used only on Windows. If you have a Mac, you should deploy a virtual machine to install and use Power BI Desktop.
8. Reports Embedding
Power BI has a module called Power BI Embedded that lets developers embed reports and visualizations into websites and third-party applications. With Tableau, embedding reports into external applications is a complex affair.
9. Customization
Tableau offers a higher degree of customization when it comes to data preparation, dashboards, and visualizations when compared to Power BI.
10. Data Visualization
Tableau is known for its visualization abilities and offers advanced dashboarding and chart preparation options. On the other hand, Power BI is more appropriate for creating basic charts and visualizations.
11. Community
Power BI is relatively new when compared to Tableau. As Tableau has been in use for quite some time now, it has a wider community than Power BI. So, Tableau users get better support and tech guidance from their network.
12. Performance
A key feature of Power BI vs. Tableau is its performance. Power BI delivers faster visualizations with small datasets, and its abilities are limited to large datasets. On the other hand, Tableau performs well even with large datasets.
13. Customer Support
When you sign up to use the free account of Power BI, customer support is limited. Whereas with Tableau, you can seek customer support from agents and the large community.
14. Learning Curve
Power BI is easier to learn and use when compared to Tableau. So, Power BI is preferred by beginners, whereas seasoned professionals can use Tableau.
Interesting read: The Future Role of Business Intelligence: Trends and Predictions
Tableau Products
Now that you know the major differences between Power BI vs. Tableau, we have covered the Tableau and Power BI products in the coming sections.
Tableau offers a wide suite of products, including the ones given below.
1. Tableau Desktop
Tableau Desktop is a desktop app that helps collect data from various sources and convert it into interactive dashboards and dynamic visuals that you can share with users outside and inside the organization. It provides an intuitive interface that helps businesses make quick, effective decisions.
2. Tableau Prep
Tableau Prep is used for cleaning and preparing data for visualization and analysis. It derives data from multiple sources, cleans them, and converts them into a consistent format.
3. Tableau Server
Tableau Server allows users to upload, store, and share reports and visualizations created using Tableau. Using Tableau Server, you can manage the data and reports in a centralized location and share them with your internal team members.
4. Tableau Online
Tableau Online is very similar to Tableau Server, letting users share data, reports, and visuals through the Internet. Organizations do not have to create exclusive sharing and storage infrastructure for internal collaboration. Here, the data is stored on servers hosted in the cloud, and so using Tableau online, analysts can share the files with other team members.
5. Tableau Mobile
Tableau Mobile is a mobile application that lets Tableau users access reports and dashboards through mobile. It is available for download on Android and iOS devices, and this is more important for hybrid users and distributed workforce where they might have to access data and reports on the go.
6. Tableau Public
Tableau Public is a free platform that lets you add visualizations to the web and share them with the public.
Power BI Products
Like Tableau, Power BI offers a suite of analytics and visualization tools. Here are some of the Power BI products.
1. Power BI Desktop
Power BI Desktop is a desktop application for users with Windows OS, and using this, you can prepare reports using data from various sources. It has a drag-and-drop functionality using which you can build an interactive, insightful dashboard. A key point in Power BI vs. Tableau is that the Power BI Desktop is available only on Windows while Tableau is available on iOS, Windows, Linux, etc.
2. Power BI Mobile Apps
The Power BI Mobile app is available for download on App Store, Google Play Store, and Windows Store. You can access the reports and dashboards on the go using the mobile application even when you are not at the desk.
3. Power BI Service
Power BI Service is a cloud-based module that lets Power BI users share reports and visuals with colleagues and team members. It allows for centralized storage and distribution of Power BI content.
4. Power BI Embedded
Power BI Embedded helps embed reports, visuals, and dashboards into a website or third-party application of a business.
5. Power BI Premium
As the name suggests, Power BI Premium is the paid version of Power BI and offers advanced intelligence, visualization, and analytic features and functionalities.
6. Power BI Report Server
Power BI Report Server supports on-premises deployment and helps businesses exercise complete control over the data. You can organize, prepare, store, and maintain data, reports, and visuals on the organization’s servers. This is more appropriate for businesses in regulated industries like healthcare, defense, etc.
Interesting read: Business Intelligence Vs. Business Analytics: Differences Explained
Advantages of Tableau
While we are aware of the differences between Power BI vs. Tableau and their products, let us move ahead to understand their advantages and disadvantages.
Following are some of the important advantages of Tableau.
1. High Performance
A notable advantage and a key feature of Power BI vs. Tableau is the high performance of Tableau. Tableau delivers high-quality visuals and dashboards when compared to Power BI. It can handle large chunks of data and process them at greater speeds. Tableau also has advanced chart abilities that enhance business decision-making speed and quality. All these offer Tableau a competitive advantage in the BI tools market.
2. Multiple Data Sources
Tableau can access data from multiple sources, including SAP, Google BigQuery, SAP, etc., enhancing the quality of analysis. Tableau also uses Python, R, etc., to analyze complex data. All these features help users create insightful reports and make informed business decisions using Tableau.
3. Community Support
Tableau is one of the oldest BI tools in the market and has a strong user community. The community has evolved into a forum for users to seek support and share their experiences and knowledge with fellow users.
4. Highly Customizable
Tableau users can customize the look and appearance of reports, dashboards, and visuals based on their business needs.
Advantages of Power BI
In this section, we elaborate on the advantages of using Power BI as a business intelligence and visualization tool for your business.
1. Economical and Affordable
Power BI remains economical and cheap compared to other BI tools like Tableau. With just $10 per month, you can access all the features and functionalities of Power BI. So, small businesses and startups find this an appropriate choice regarding business intelligence tools.
2, Integration with Microsoft Products
Power BI is developed and owned by Microsoft, so it works well with other Microsoft products like Excel, Azure, SQL Server, etc.
3. Easy to Use
When compared to Tableau, Power BI has a shorter learning curve. So, even those without technical expertise can learn and master Power BI. So, it is preferred by beginner-level analysts and experts in the field.
4. Frequent Updates
Microsoft offers frequent updates to the features and functionalities of Power BI. Doing so increases the tool’s relevance in analytics, visualization, and business intelligence.
Interesting read: 18 Benefits of Business Intelligence
Disadvantages of Power BI
While Power BI offers several advantages, it also has some disadvantages, which are listed below.
1. Reliance on Microsoft Products
From OS compatibility to cloud and data source integrations, Power BI works well with Microsoft products. This limits its usability as users with other tools find it difficult to use Power BI.
2. Limited Customization
Regarding customization, Power BI features and functionalities can be customized only to a small extent compared to other tools like Tableau.
3. Incompatibility with iOS
Power BI Desktop version can be installed only on Windows. So, iOS users find it difficult to use Power BI desktop.
4. Data Limitations
Power BI can be used to process files that are less than 1GB in size. It is difficult to process large datasets.
Disadvantages of Tableau
Following are some of the notable disadvantages of Tableau when it comes to business intelligence and visualization.
1. Steep Learning Curve
Compared to Power BI, Tableau has a steep learning curve. So, beginners and those without technical expertise may find it difficult to use Tableau.
2. Expensive and Costly
Tableau may not seem expensive compared to high-grade BI tools like Oracle and IBM. But its license cost is way higher than tools like Power BI. Apart from the license cost, Tableau requires technical expertise. So, businesses may incur extra costs to train employees. So, it remains outside the affordable limits of small-scale businesses.
3. Lack of Version Control
Tableau does not offer version control support. So, it is hard to return to the previous version once the reports are published.
4. Display Limitations
Tableau has a limitation when it comes to display. It can only display 16 columns, so gaining a complete picture of the data is hard, particularly while handling large datasets.
Interesting read: 10 Business Intelligence Applications – Use Cases and Examples
Conclusion
While we have listed the features, advantages, and disadvantages of Power BI and Tableau, choosing one depends on the business’s specific requirements. The learning curve of Power BI is shorter than that of Tableau. On the other hand, when it comes to visualization abilities, Tableau provides advanced charts and graphs.
Both have pros and cons, so you must carefully evaluate Power BI vs. Tableau before choosing the right business intelligence tool for your business.
Tableau has advanced visualization abilities, customizable dashboards, larger community support, extensive integration abilities, etc., which is appropriate for large-scale organizations. On the other hand, Power BI has a shorter learning curve and integrates well with Microsoft products. Yes, the data models you create using Power BI can be connected to Tableau. When we compare Power BI and Tableau, Power BI is easier to use for beginners, and it has a shorter learning curve. Whereas, Tableau is preferred by seasoned experts who intend to create advanced visualizations.
Supriya is a highly skilled content writer with over 8 years of experience in the SaaS domain. She believes in curating engaging, informative, and user-friendly content to simplify highly technical concepts. With an expansive portfolio of long-format blogs, newsletters, whitepapers, and case studies, Supriya is dedicated to staying in touch with emerging SaaS trends to produce relevant and reliable content.
