We use Tableau to provide analytics and dashboards. We also use it to automate manual work.
Senior BI Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Good dashboards, analytics, and automation capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "You can create attractive dashboards that inform users using Tableau."
- "They need a write-back; that is what is missing. If they get the write back to the database, they will be fully automated, but for the time being, they are not."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
You can create attractive dashboards that inform users using Tableau.
What needs improvement?
They must have a write-back solution. You must have the ability to write back into the database, otherwise, it prevents full automation.
That's one reason why people still need their own Excel sheets and other tools where they can interact with data that's already in the database. You win completely the moment you load that in, in a central way. You could say that you are completely automated.
They need a write-back; that is what is missing. If they get the write back to the database, they will be fully automated, but for the time being, they are not.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Tableau for two and a half years.
We are using version 2021.3.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a fairly stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Tableau is a scalable solution.
Tableau is used by approximately 90 people in our organization.
We do not intend to increase our usage. I've asked for reports on how many users we get on a daily basis, as well as how many people use it and then don't use it for weeks. How long do they stay if they come in, and what are they looking at?
We are attempting to purchase a tool that will provide us with that information. We know which dashboards are popular, which are not, and why the popular ones are popular while the unpopular ones are not. We need to get an add-on that will tell us exactly what makes the dashboard sticky and what keeps people coming back to use it.
How are customer service and support?
We use technical support, but I don't interact with them directly. Our IT support team is the one who helps us. Our IT support team works with Tableau support to resolve issues, opening tickets and tracking them.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to using Tableau, I used Power BI.
How was the initial setup?
We don't do a lot of installation. Once you have a server license, you can literally create it in the server now that you have a server license. There are no issues with installation.
The installation does not require a lot of time.
We have one or two engineers who maintain this solution.
What about the implementation team?
We have a server team to deploy this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are paying an annual licensing fee.
What other advice do I have?
I believe it is a good tool, and I would recommend it to others.
I would rate Tableau an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Data Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Good solution for routine dashboards but its visualization could be stronger
Pros and Cons
- "Tableau is good for routine dashboards, and it has integration with Slack, through which it can send you daily updates."
- "Areas for improvement would be visualization and augmented analytics. In the next release, I would like to see automated insights from the data added to the dashboard."
What is most valuable?
Tableau is good for routine dashboards, and it has integration with Slack, through which it can send you daily updates.
What needs improvement?
Areas for improvement would be visualization and augmented analytics. In the next release, I would like to see automated insights from the data added to the dashboard.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for about six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Tableau can be a little slow when loading, and it can fail with higher gigs or terabytes of data.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
From working with my data analyst, I get the impression that Tableau can't take the load when scaling.
How are customer service and support?
We had embedded technical support from Tableau in our enterprise, who was awesome and kept Tableau updated at all times.
What other advice do I have?
Tableau is pretty good, interface-wise - it's easy to understand and to download data. It also has the most functionalities and capabilities of any tool. However, it doesn't have anything that differentiates it from its competitors, unlike Adobe Analytics' strength in visualization and data capture. If someone is looking for routine dashboards and wants operational dashboards, Tableau is the best solution. However, if they want to drive strategic decisions, they may have to look into a different product. I would rate Tableau as seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Tableau Enterprise
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about Tableau Enterprise. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Director Consultoria at a non-profit with 201-500 employees
Easy to set up and simple to use with good dashboards
Pros and Cons
- "It's very easy to use and users don't need any IT support to access it as the information is right there."
- "The solution needs to improve its integration capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
SAP BW , TABLEAU Server an TABLEAU desktop, the Info from SAP were downloaded using SAP Data services and ABAPin a very large Steel Makin company in Latin America
How has it helped my organization?
Better an accuracy info every morning for decision takers regarding sales production and Customers Financial situation
What is most valuable?
They were considered the gold standard for dashboard development. However, many people also have SAP.
The initial setup is very easy.
It's very easy to use and users don't need any IT support to access it as the information is right there.
What needs improvement?
There were a lot of dashboards everywhere in the organization, however, when the company wanted to get the operational databases they were not connected.
The solution needs to improve its integration capabilities.
The performance and security could be better.
Many people saw Tableau as a silver bullet and it isn't. It's good for small things, however, not for an institutional way of doing things.
I'd like to see better integration with SAP.
I'd like an integrated ETL or some sort of data preparation capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've used the solution since 2013.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
In the past, you couldn't do a full query. You could do the right query or the left query but not the full query. They fixed that n 2016.
Also, there was another problem in that their selling approach was very aggressive and they were selling to sales directors. However, the problem is that after that you need the Tableau server. You need the deployment of the Tableau server and you have your dashboard. You needed IT buy-in. In order that them to be able to be seen in all the organizations, or even outside your organization, you need to get the Tableau server. With that in mind, companies must have IT people or training in the Tableau server, and then the dashboard is just developed in the desktop so you can upload them to the server. With all of that comes a lot of issues around security, modelization, and performance theses issues were not approached or considered in any by the users
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalable in the sense of a very good performance in te Tableau Server , nevertheless the info must be prepared or downloaded in a very well defined DataWarehouse
How are customer service and support?
We had a lot of trouble with Tableau at the beginning. There were issues that nobody had dealt with in the past.
There was an issue that was open for about two months. They couldn't reach a resolution. We started the Tableau server in an English version server, however, it was decided to install the Spanish version instead. We defined success criteria for our developments, our systems. In the analysis and the scope of work, we decided that every Tableau dashboard or whatever was going to have an acceptable loading time of six to a maximum of eight seconds. The problem was that it took 30 to 60 seconds. Technicians from Tableau, from Brazil, from the USA, came and looked at it. In the end, it was the Spanish version that was causing performance issues, and therefore we had to install the English version again.
They had the Portuguese, French, or Spanish versions behind in terms of updating all their software. That was the problem. There was a bug in the Spanish version that in the English version didn't exist.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. You can install it on your computer and you can start to do a lot of dashboards. They have a gateway for many databases and you can get to the information in a very easy way.
The thing is if you don't provide it with a very good ETL design you have the problem that all the fields are going to be dashboards. That's pretty common. Many organizations have a kind of operational database. With specialized databases. It's updated daily. The information is validated and confirmed and authorized. Whatever you do with Tableau is your problem. They install Tableau in that new server and the users go to that information.
They make a copy of the transactional databases. They put it there and the users start to work. It's very easy.
In terms of deployment, for the desktop, you can have a visualization of information and you can get copies of the data on your personal computer. That can happen in minutes. It takes minutes or maybe half an hour to get going.
The problem is that you have to have some training. The training is going to take one week or so. In another week or two weeks, although you are not an expert yet, you start to understand Tableau. You don't have to be technical. If you understand Excel well, you will find Tableau pretty straightforward.
You only need one or maybe two people to deploy the solution. You need a technician mostly for security.
What about the implementation team?
The vendor team were sales especialist, not consultants
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated in 2013 QLICKVIEW .
What other advice do I have?
We're consultants.
We're using the most recent version of the product. What we do is download the on-premises for testing in order to see the new capabilities.
It's a very mature tool with a lot of enhancements in the last two or three years. Our advice is that, if you are going to use it as an end-user, it's a very beautiful tool. If you are going to use it in an institutional way, you have to take good care of your ETLs and you have to design a very good data warehouse. That's what they don't do. That's what many, many, many organizations don't do. I don't know if that's the case with Snowflake or Microsoft Power BI.
You must take care of your warehouse information if you are going to have a very good design, granularity, and time framing after three months to one year of information.
The dashboards and the ETLs must do more work than Tableau. If not, you're going to crash. One of the problems that we had was due to the fact that Tableau said that you could reach the SAP information and that was not true. You need a third-party developer. That's an additional cost and additional training. However, with a solution like QlikView, they have a very beautiful integration with SAP.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. We are a solution consultant and regarding BI we mainly work with Tableau
Director , Business Intelligence at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Good community support, easy to manage, and useful for getting things done quickly
Pros and Cons
- "Self-service is most valuable. Users can pick up quickly and do the resolution. There are a lot of out-of-the-box features, and it satisfies most of the needs. If users are properly trained, they can deal with any situation."
- "We need big servers to perform the operations that we are doing. They should probably relook at its architecture."
What is our primary use case?
We have a lot of use cases. We use it for real-time finance dashboard, real-time operations dashboard, and marketing insights.
What is most valuable?
Self-service is most valuable. Users can pick up quickly and do the resolution. There are a lot of out-of-the-box features, and it satisfies most of the needs. If users are properly trained, they can deal with any situation.
The Tableau community is really good. If we have an issue, it is already answered in the community.
What needs improvement?
We need big servers to perform the operations that we are doing. They should probably relook at its architecture.
There are limitations to the data source that we are building. We can put only 32 tables in a data source, which means we have to transfer some of the workload to a database.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for eight years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability depends on us. It depends on how we are configuring it based on the users' needs and experience. It has nothing to do with Tableau.
We have about 70 active users at any time of the day. Even Tableau was surprised to see that level of active users.
How are customer service and support?
They're good. We have got enterprise support or premium support, so they respond quickly.
How was the initial setup?
It is easy to set up. It is also easy to manage. Ours is a huge implementation, and we have five people for maintaining this solution. They take care of user provisioning, dashboard creation, and other admin work.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is more expensive than other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it depending on the use case. If you have money to spend and want something done quickly, then definitely go for Tableau.
I would rate it a nine out of 10.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Business Analyst at a media company with 10,001+ employees
A lot of complex visualization features that can make the visualization powerful
Pros and Cons
- "The geospatial maps representation and the visualizations are nice."
- "If you wanted to create something without making it an extra column in the data set, you can't just rename it to a more user-friendly short name."
What is our primary use case?
Right now I use Tableau for learning purposes, such as open data sources, trying to learn the various visualizations that can be done on it.
What is most valuable?
I liked the representation of the geospatial map. It was really cool to have that visual and be able to create hierarchies using the geolocation cities, states, just wording those names into appropriate provisions on the map. So that's really something nice. I feel the visualizations come out very pretty.
What needs improvement?
The price is definitely a point that can be improved because smaller firms, like my bank firm, don't use Tableau because it's an expensive tool. If there were an option that catered toward smaller firms, that would be great because Tableau does in fact help with a lot of different kinds of data sources. For instance, it lets you upload CSV on Excel. However, other tools that we currently use, such as Looker, do not let you upload Excel files for ad hoc analysis. So, definitely, this is something price-wise that can be catered toward smaller firms.
Creating variables, creating new fields in Tableau during analysis, actually adds columns to the data. That's something that could potentially give us an option. Do you want it as a column added to the data set or do you want it ad hoc in the visualization sheet? So if you create a measurement or a dimension, that creates a new column, but if you try to create a new filter directly on the visualization, it doesn't let you rename it. Basically what you see is just the calculation that you put in there. If you wanted to create something without making it an extra column in the data set, you can't just rename it to a more user-friendly short name. An improvement would be adding the ability to rename ad hoc creations if you do create a mark or a filter on the visualization. That doesn't really get added to the actual data fields.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Tableau for a few months now as a learning, research activity rather than a day-to-day activity at work. So I primarily was going to a Tableau Public Learning.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
As of now, I haven't had any issues with the stability of the solution. Not any glitches.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Given that it's Tableau Public, I don't feel I could give the right answer to that. However, given that you could share your visualizations on a server without sending a file to people, scalability seems like a good option here.
How are customer service and support?
I have not used their tech support, but I did refer to a textbook to learn how to use Tableau.
Tableau has resources for learning using videos as well.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
My company currently uses Looker, not Tableau. I've been working on Tableau on my own time outside of work, trying to learn their free application, Tableau Public.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was pretty straightforward. It doesn't take much to get it all set up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Tableau is an expensive tool for smaller firms.
What other advice do I have?
Do take time to learn the solution, because Tableau has a lot of features, a lot of complex visualization features that can make the visualization pretty powerful. I would advise people to learn it completely so they can use Tableau to its full extent rather than just ad hoc simple visualizations.
I would rate Tableau right at 8.5, leaning toward 9.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Data Analyst at a real estate/law firm with 10,001+ employees
You can create many different types of visualizations and charts, ranging from simple to highly advanced
Pros and Cons
- "Tableau is highly scalable. Now that they've introduced Hyper, you can create an extract of more than 5 million rows in minutes and then do your analysis."
- "We have products like Tableau, Power BI, Cognos, and QlikView in the data visualization segment. Compared to those, Tableau is quite costly."
What is most valuable?
You can create many different types of visualizations and charts, ranging from simple to highly advanced. And if you're doing advanced analytics, you can leverage Tableau by integrating it with other solutions. You can also do a lot of automation in Tableau, and collaboration is quite good too.
What needs improvement?
They currently don't have a great Workday connector. Right now, Tableau can connect to more than 80 different types of databases or data sources, but it's challenging to connect with a few types, like Workday. So if they can come up with a better version or a connector for Workday, it will solve a lot of problems.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Tableau for around five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I can say Tableau is highly scalable. Now that they've introduced Hyper, you can create an extract of more than 5 million rows in minutes and then do your analysis. So that's a very optimized way to analyze a lot of data. That's why many other companies like Amazon use Tableau to create their visualization, reports, and charts, considering that their data volume is very high.
How are customer service and support?
Tableau technical support is quite good. The Tableau community is also helpful.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Tableau's pricing structure is unusual. So let's consider all the other competitors in the market. For example, we have products like Tableau, Power BI, Cognos, and QlikView in the data visualization segment. Compared to those, Tableau is quite costly. Their desktop version is expensive, and if you're using their servers, it's even pricier. Of course, they give discounts to bigger organizations. For example, we are premium customers to them, so we are getting it at a different cost, but for an individual, it's costly.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Tableau nine out of 10. I would recommend this to anyone who is coming into the data analytics space.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Assistant Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
A BI solution with a useful calculation feature, but it would be better if there was more automation
Pros and Cons
- "I like the calculation feature. I would not say it's such a good feature in Tableau, but if you have the knowledge, you can make that feature visible to everyone. It's not a feature that we can drag and drop and get the information. But whatever the data, whatever the calculation, I'm able to do. It's basically the knowledge base. Whatever knowledge I have, I can make that information public and publish it for management."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
We use Tableau to make dashboards and valuable information and insights available for management. We are creating some solutions and a dashboard, and people are using it to see the information. We use it globally across 118 countries.
It is basically the manufacturing clients we have all across the globe. They want to measure the production level, how we are getting the product delivered to the customer, and where they are lacking. They want answers to questions like "why are we not getting it up? Where do we need to improve?" They are preparing and analyzing which steps are taking too much time to get that delivered.
How has it helped my organization?
Tableau has helped improve our organization by enabling layman people to use it.
What is most valuable?
I like the calculation feature. I would not say it's such a good feature in Tableau, but if you have the knowledge, you can make that feature visible to everyone. It's not a feature that we can drag and drop and get the information. But whatever the data, whatever the calculation, I'm able to do. It's basically the knowledge base. Whatever knowledge I have, I can make that information public and publish it for management.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Tableau for the last three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Tableau has been stable for us.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability depends on your data and how you make calculations. That becomes your scalability. About 20% of all our organizational users are currently using Tableau.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support for Tableau is just online, and they don't have an option where I can call support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used OBIEE Oracle before, but it was very limited. We were moved on to a different solution because we saw it as a better option. Tableau is a better option when compared to OBIEE, and we have been using it for six or seven years.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward for people who are using it at a basic level. The advanced level is highly complex. The implementation strategy depends on the requirements we are getting from the people and the stakeholder. I would say that management is talking to us, and they are asking us to build the solution they want to have in place. They do not know whether it is technically feasible or not, but they know that this is the requirement.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented this solution on our own.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In Indian Rupees, Tableau costs about 30,000 to 40,000 per year.
What other advice do I have?
I would tell potential users that many things are not available in Tableau. Even Power BI is better than Tableau because there are many things that are good for the business. Effective visualization is not there in a Tableau. If I know of a better solution than Tableau, I would surely go for that other solution.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Tableau a four.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Partner at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Scalable, easy to learn and very easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "It has a shallow learning curve and so you can go to market very, very, very quickly."
- "It's not an aesthetic platform at the moment."
What is our primary use case?
I use it for management control and for balance sheet analysis. As corporale finance consultant, the core of my job is financial analysis/modeling. I added Tableau to my workflow to improve the decision making process of my clients make decisions but I found it very useful also to produce reporting for Financial Istitutions, Investment Fund, etc.
How has it helped my organization?
Tableau has improved the way our clients “read” what’s happening in their company,
What is most valuable?
I think one of the best feature is usability: understanding dragging & dropping Measures & Dimension is so simple that you can easily learn the software.
Tableau is very intuitive, it has not a deep learning curve so you can build your dashboards in short time.
What needs improvement?
The forecast instrument. I still use my primary software (that is Quantrix Modeler) to build my financial models.
I’m not saying that is a “static” platform at the moment, it’s dynamic due to the fact that you can build parameters, however it's not the same as a spreadsheet in which you can write formulas and algotythms that are more and more complex.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Tableau since 2018. It's been about three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability has been good. there are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution can scale well. There shouldn't be any issues if a company needs to expand.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've dealt with technical support in the past. Two years ago I had a problem, a technical problem. It was a very serious issue with the software in my first installation and I came in contact with the engineer in London. They solved my problem very, very quickly. I've been quite satisfied with them overall.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very simple. It's not overly complex or difficult. A company shouldn't have any issues.
What about the implementation team?
While I handled the implementation myself, I chose to do a period of learning with the Information Lab a Tableau Partner company. I took two courses to have a better understanding and to more quickly understand the possibilities I had to work with.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I have a Tableau license. It's very, very cheap. For the use and the capability of the software, it's $70 per month, it’ an awesome price.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Yes I did: MicroStrategy because , it was the first competitor of Tableau. However, there is no comparison. Tableau's the best platform for me and offers the best software.
What other advice do I have?
We are only customers at this time.
We are focused on producing and using Tableau only for our clients. We bought a number of view licenses and we give them to our client so they can use Tableau via the online version.
I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten. I've been very pleased with its capabilities.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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