IBM Watson Explorer vs Tableau Enterprise comparison

The compared IBM and Salesforce solutions aren't in the same category. IBM is ranked #9 in DM , and holds a 2.8% mindshare in the category. Salesforce is ranked #2 in BIT , with an average rating of 8.2, and holds a 6.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

IBM Watson Explorer

Read 10 IBM Watson Explorer reviews

653 Views
170 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Tableau Enterprise

Read 309 Tableau Enterprise reviews

19,124 Views
11,666 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IBM Watson Explorer

Tableau Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Watson Explorer and Tableau Enterprise based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Data Mining solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Watson Explorer vs. Tableau Enterprise Report (Updated: March 2020).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Watson Explorer vs. Tableau Enterprise

March 2020

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Helped 881,733 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

IBM Watson Explorer

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Mining (9th)

Tableau Enterprise

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

309

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (2nd), Reporting (2nd), Data Visualization (1st), Embedded BI (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Watson Explorer is designed for Data Mining and holds a mindshare of 2.8%, up 0.6% compared to last year.
Tableau Enterprise, on the other hand, focuses on BI (Business Intelligence) Tools, holds 6.2% mindshare, down 18.1% since last year.

Data Mining Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Watson Explorer	2.8%
IBM SPSS Modeler	19.1%
IBM SPSS Statistics	18.5%
Other	59.599999999999994%

Data Mining

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Tableau Enterprise	6.2%
Microsoft Power BI	8.9%
Amazon QuickSight	3.7%
Other	81.2%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

it_user1319820

Lead Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

A data analysis tool that is scalable and includes keyword search functionality

The solution is used for a government company for data collection and analysis I have found the auto-generated document very useful as well as the main keywords that are highlighted, which are used for the search functionality within IBM Watson Explorer. I have been using the solution for five…

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Uzair Faruqi

Head Of Analytics at Mjunction Services

Ease of developing dashboards and receiving strong technical support have enabled efficient data visualization

Introducing custom features, such as NLP-based reports, is not very good in Tableau. My MD has been asking us for a way to write in natural language to request reports that the system should generate, but that isn't very effective with Tableau. As a developer, I can develop an on-demand report in Python quite easily, but exposing a REST API on the Tableau platform is not a very easy task. AI enablement is an area for improvement for Tableau, and that is something they might have to work upon. I have heard that ThoughtSpot is quite better in this regard, but the cost of ThoughtSpot is much higher. ThoughtSpot has lots of natural language-based report generation features that Tableau lacks.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Ease of use is pretty good as is the standardization of not actually having to have my own natural learning algorithms, just to use the Watson APIs."

"I have found the auto-generated document very useful as well as the main keywords that are highlighted, which are used for the search functionality within IBM Watson Explorer."

"The valuable feature of Watson Explorer for us is data entities, and to see the hidden insights from within unstructured data."

"The ability to easily pull together lots of different pieces of information and drill down in a smarter way than has been possible with other analytics tools is key. Watson is all based on a set of AI and deep learning, machine-learning capabilities, and it is looking behind the scenes at some relationships that you likely would not have spotted on your own. It's pulling things together, categorizing some things, that are not something that you might have seen on your own."

"We take natural language that was happening in our repositories and our application and then feed it to the Watson APIs. We receive JSON payloads as an API response to get cognitive feedback from the repository data."

"For me, as a user, the most valuable feature is the ability to ingest and then retrieve information from a range of separate sources; the ability to dissect questions in context and actually answer them."

"This service is the combination of very pleasant, interactive graphical visualizations along with the application of advanced statistical models (in some cases)."

"The ease of presenting findings is very helpful."

"It is an excellent tool for data capture, processing, and visualization."

"There are already connectors to almost every single major database and service that you can possibly think of."

"The maps and colors and interface are all fantastic."

"When compared with Power BI, Tableau is much easier."

"I consider Tableau to be the best analytical tool available. It's really handy to use and can be used by non-technical people."

"The product’s performance is better than other tools."

More Tableau Enterprise pros

Cons

"It is a little bit tricky to get used to the workflow of knowing how to train Watson, what can be provided, what can't be, how to provide it, how to import, export, and what it means every time you have to add a new dictionary"

"Stability is actually one of the areas that could use improvement. Setting it up is always tough. Setting Explorer requires experts, but also the underlying platform is not that stable. So it really needs a good expert to keep it running."

"I would say, give some kind of a community edition, a free edition. A lot of companies do, even Amazon gives you some kind of trial and error opportunities. If they could provide something like that, it would be good."

"Small businesses will probably have a little harder time getting into it, just because of the amount of resources that they have available, both financial and time, but it really is a solution that should work for them."

"It needs better language support, to include some other languages. Also, they should improve the user interface."

"The solution is expensive."

"Much of IBM operates this way, where they have sets of tools that are in the middleware space, and it becomes the customer's responsibility or the business partner's responsibility to develop full solutions that take advantage of that middleware. I think IBM's finding itself in that spot with Watson-related technologies as well, where the capabilities to do really interesting and useful things for customers is there, but somebody still has to build it. Is that going to be the customer? Are they going to be willing to take on that responsibility themselves"

"More cognitive feedback would be good. The natural language analysis is great, the sentiment analyzers are great. But I would just like to see more... innovation done with the Watson platform."

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"When we put more information on a single screen, it gets compressed and superimposed in many places while scrolling."

"I find data prepping in Tableau challenging to understand, perhaps because I am new to it. It sometimes requires extensive investigation to determine why the data does not appear correctly."

"The user experience for less savvy or non-technical people (from my experience)."

"The architecture should be improved to better handle the data."

"Tableau's integration with Einstein Analytics could be better."

"The charting is overly complex in comparison with Power BI's"

"I would like Tableau to handle geospatial data better in terms of multiple layers and shapefiles."

More Tableau Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

"The product's price is relatively inexpensive and manageable for enterprise-level companies."

"For our organization, the cost hasn't been an issue."

"The value for money is definitely there."

"Tableau is not as cost-effective as Microsoft BI."

"I wish there was more of a subscription model with the pricing when it comes to Tableau, so you can get all the latest version upgrades/features if you pay monthly/annually."

"I believe it has a lifelong license, and once you purchase it, you don't have to renew it, but I'm not sure."

"The initial cost that is set according to CPU cores is expensive."

"The price of Tableau could improve. The license is too expensive."

More Tableau Enterprise pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user6330

Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

May 2, 2013

MicroStrategy vs. Tableau

After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Performing Arts

12%

University

10%

Educational Organization

Recreational Facilities/Services Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	117
Midsize Enterprise	67
Large Enterprise	184

Questions from the Community

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Seeking lightweight open source BI software

It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...

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Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?

Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...

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Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?

Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...

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Comparisons

IBM Planning Analytics vs IBM Watson Explorer

Compared 15% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs IBM Watson Explorer

Compared 14% of the time

Salesforce Einstein Analytics vs IBM Watson Explorer

Compared 13% of the time

IBM SPSS Modeler vs IBM Watson Explorer

Compared 11% of the time

SAS Analytics vs IBM Watson Explorer

Compared 9% of the time

More IBM Watson Explorer Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 17% of the time

Domo vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 4% of the time

Julius AI vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 3% of the time

Databricks vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 3% of the time

More Tableau Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Watson Explorer

January 2026

Download IBM Watson Explorer product report

Buyer's Guide

Tableau Enterprise

January 2026

Download Tableau Enterprise product report

Also Known As

IBM WEX

Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online

Overview

IBM Watson Explorer is a cognitive exploration and content analysis platform that lets you listen to your data for advice. Explore and analyze structured, unstructured, internal, external and public content to uncover trends and patterns that improve decision-making, customer service and ROI. Leverage built-in cognitive capabilities powered by machine learning models, natural language processing and next-generation APIs to unlock hidden value in all your data. Gain a secure 360-degree view of customers, in context, to deliver better experiences for your clients.

IBM

Tableau Enterprise offers powerful features for creating interactive visualizations, dashboards, and maps, including drag-and-drop functionality and easy integration with multiple data sources, promoting real-time collaboration and self-service analysis.

Tableau Enterprise stands out with its ability to create user-friendly, interactive visualizations, making it pivotal for business intelligence applications. Users benefit from its seamless connectivity and advanced analytical functions, facilitating data blending and storytelling. Despite a complex learning curve and high licensing costs, its features like geospatial analysis and efficient content distribution drive its indispensable value for data-driven insights. Enhancements in predictive analytics and support integration with machine learning tools further its capabilities across industries.

What are the most valuable features?

Interactive Visualizations: Enables users to create engaging reports.
Drag-and-Drop Functionality: Simplifies data analysis processes.
Data Integration: Offers seamless connectivity with multiple sources.
Real-Time Collaboration: Supports synchronous data sharing.
Advanced Analytics: Provides predictive analytics and geospatial analysis.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Informed Decision-Making: Facilitates data-driven insights.
Efficiency in Reporting: Streamlines dashboard and reporting tasks.
Cost-Effectiveness: Despite high licensing, value in robust analytics tools.
Customizable Options: Tailors analytics to specific needs.

Tableau Enterprise is widely used for business intelligence, supporting industries like healthcare, telecommunications, and finance. Organizations utilize it to analyze performance indicators, operational insights, and financial analytics, enhancing decision-making through interactive reports and real-time data integration.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

RIMAC, Westpac New Zealand, Toyota Financial Services, Swiss Re, Akershus University Hospital, Korean Air Lines, Mizuho Bank, Honda

Accenture, Adobe, Amazon.com, Bank of America, Charles Schwab Corp, Citigroup, Coca-Cola Company, Cornell University, Dell, Deloitte, Duke University, eBay, Exxon Mobil, Fannie Mae, Ferrari, French Red Cross, Goldman Sachs, Google, Government of Canada, HP, Intel, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Macy's, Merck, The New York Times, PayPal, Pfizer, US Army, US Air Force, Skype, and Walmart.

Buyer's Guide

IBM Watson Explorer vs. Tableau Enterprise

March 2020

Free Report: IBM Watson Explorer vs. Tableau Enterprise

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Watson Explorer vs. Tableau Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: March 2020.

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