I've used it for multiple purposes, for example, for exploratory analysis or just for dashboards for presentations.
Data Management Team Lead at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
Centralizes metrics and KPIs very well and is easily customizable
Pros and Cons
- "I really like the interactivity of the dashboards."
- "Users would like to be able to export an Excel file when they see a table or something like that. That's not an out-of-the-box feature for Tableau."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
I'd say it brings a centralized place to check day-to-day metrics and KPIs. It helps reduce the duplicated reports or sources of information to get the same data or information. Everyone knows that those dashboards are up to date. They know where to find the answers they're looking for.
What is most valuable?
I really like the interactivity of the dashboards.
I appreciate the fact that you can have filters and parameters so that users can really customize the view to what they want to see.
What needs improvement?
Truthfully, this solution offers pretty much everything that I need for my everyday tasks.
It seems that power BI is more targeted for report creation while Tableau is more of just a dashboard. If you need to have something report-like, or downloadable to share outside of the dashboard, that's where Tableau is lacking some features.
Users would like to be able to export an Excel file when they see a table or something like that. That's not an out-of-the-box feature for Tableau.
Buyer's Guide
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.
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For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for a year and a half so far. It hasn't been that long.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I've had a good experience with the stability. There are no bugs or glitches that I have experienced. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
We did have an issue with our server and it took a while for Tableau support to find a solution. However, that was a one-time thing. That's the only time where we've had issues with our server.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is pretty good. In our case, we did start small and we are now scaling in for our different departments. It's working great.
We are not a big group, however, I would say that we have around 80 to 100 users and that combines creators, explorers, and viewers - a little bit of everything.
We are getting used to it and using it more and more. We are expecting to increase usage in the future.
How are customer service and support?
I've never been in touch with technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not previously use a different solution prior to adopting this product.
How was the initial setup?
I wasn't around for the initial setup. I cannot speak to what the process was like and couldn't say if it is difficult or straightforward.
We have some server admins that take care of it and work with Tableau to support it whenever needed. It's a group of people, however, I am unsure about the actual number of personnel that handles it directly. It might be three to five people.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I've looked into Microsoft BI and downloaded some information about it recently.
What other advice do I have?
I'm just an end-user of the product.
I'm likely using the latest version of the solution.
Everything was implemented when I started, so I wouldn't know if there were any hiccups or best practices, or lessons learned from the process of setting it up.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten, from the experience I've had so far. It has helped us tremendously with our everyday reporting and things like that. I can do pretty much everything I want to do and it's been working fine for us.
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.
Manager, BI & Analytics at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Capable of handling a large amount of data, easy to use, and easy to deploy
Pros and Cons
- "It is easy to use, and it can handle a large amount of data."
- "An advanced type of visualization is a bit tricky to create. It has something called a Calculated field, and that sometimes gets a bit difficult to use when you want to create an advanced type of visualization."
What is our primary use case?
It is usually used to visualize how the data looks. It is used for drawing charts and different types of visualizations. You can visualize sales, profits, and metrics by geography, product categories, and so on.
I'm using the 2020 version. The latest version came out in 2021. I've not downloaded that one yet. I'm using the last year's version.
What is most valuable?
It is easy to use, and it can handle a large amount of data.
What needs improvement?
An advanced type of visualization is a bit tricky to create. It has something called a Calculated field, and that sometimes gets a bit difficult to use when you want to create an advanced type of visualization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for five to six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. We have around 10 users.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not contacted their technical support.
How was the initial setup?
It is just a matter of downloading the file from the internet and installing it. That's it.
What about the implementation team?
It is pretty simple to use. We don't require anyone for its deployment and maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I believe it has a lifelong license, and once you purchase it, you don't have to renew it, but I'm not sure.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others. I would rate Tableau an eight out of 10.
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.
Buyer's Guide
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.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Global Head of Professional Services at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Provides ease of getting something up quickly, but some of the more advanced modeling techniques are fairly difficult to do
Pros and Cons
- "The number one thing was just the ease of getting something up quickly. The other thing that was good about it was that it was fairly fast for decent-sized data sets in terms of performance and run time."
- "From a downside perspective, some of the more advanced modeling techniques are actually fairly difficult to do. In addition, I just fundamentally disagree with the way you have to implement them because you can get incorrect answers in some cases."
What is our primary use case?
It was for dashboards. The key use case was for creating visibility to performance metrics for the leadership team. It was the most recent version, and it was deployed on-prem.
How has it helped my organization?
The key use case that we were going after very specifically created visibility to performance metrics for the leadership team. So, it allowed us to give that common view of performance metrics and drive business conversations based on the common shared set of facts. We were able to expose data and relationships that we otherwise couldn't do in our enterprise system silos. From that perspective, we were incredibly successful in really driving performance. When you combine that with some real championing in the business and with some leadership to push it down, the fact that it was Tableau wasn't as relevant as the fact that we had the championing pushing the process and pushing it down.
What is most valuable?
The number one thing was just the ease of getting something up quickly. The other thing that was good about it was that it was fairly fast for decent-sized data sets in terms of performance and run time.
What needs improvement?
From a downside perspective, some of the more advanced modeling techniques are actually fairly difficult to do. In addition, I just fundamentally disagree with the way you have to implement them because you can get incorrect answers in some cases.
One of the key challenges is that you never know whether it is how your developers developed it or whether it was the tool. We did find that once we got into more complex models, the ability to keep objects that should tally the same way but didn't became more and more difficult. That was probably the big thing for me. I don't know enough about how the tool was developed to know whether that was because they didn't follow a recommended practice. That was probably the number one thing that I found frustrating with it.
When we started to try and get into some very granular data sets that had some complex relationships in them, the performance on it degraded pretty quickly. It did degrade to such an extent that we couldn't use it. We had to change what we were trying to do and manage its scope so that we could get what we wanted out of it or reduce the scope of what we needed out of it. It doesn't have a database behind it, per se. So, while doing some of the more complicated things that you might otherwise do on a database, we started hitting some pretty significant challenges.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used it for about three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Tableau worked fairly well for straightforward data sets, but it struggled when we got into the more complicated data sets and larger data sets.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We were able to deploy it fairly broadly without a whole bunch of work. From that perspective, it worked fine. I was deploying my stuff to about 200 users across Canada, and I don't think we saw a blip on the server when people logged in. It was fine. If we were to roll out some of the bigger applications broadly, like the ones that we were having performance challenges with, we probably would have crushed the box. We would have had to get more CPU. Most likely, it would have been a memory issue, but we never hit that inflection point.
There were about 200 users of the solution. It went all the way from the equivalent of a senior vice president and all the way down to the equivalent of a line manager. So, we had business unit leaders, vice presidents, and operational managers.
It was being used extensively for a specific use case. There were lots of other use cases that it could be used for, but there needs to be an appetite from leadership to go, drive, and commit resources to go do that.
How are customer service and technical support?
I didn't have to deal with technical support. Mr. Google is pretty good on the topic.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had previously used Cognos to do the exact same thing. The only reason why we replaced it was that the business decided to go towards Tableau. Otherwise, there really wasn't any real reason to replace it. It was probably a little bit easier and more interesting for people to learn and to develop applications in the program than in Cognos. The ramp-up time to get to reasonably proficient in Tableau plus the support through Mr. Google made it a lot easier for me to get resources and do development on Tableau as compared to Cognos.
The organization decided to move away from the old platform. So, basically, I was lost when they asked me to shift off so that they could shut it down. I personally prefer the previous platform. I understood it very well. I had used it for years, and it worked just fine. For the most part, the challenges that we had on the old platform were not resolved by Tableau, which just reinforced to me that it wasn't a tool problem. It was a people problem.
How was the initial setup?
It was pretty straightforward. The big thing that confuses people in a project that involves Tableau is that Tableau is a very visible but small component of the overall solution. That's because 80% of the work is data. It is not Tableau. So, Tableau is actually a fairly small component over that overall solution. It took a few days to get it up and going. Almost 80% of the work is actually on the data side, which takes forever, but the actual Tableau component of it was pretty straightforward. It was not that difficult.
You can get a Tableau dashboard up on a weekend. It is not hard to get something up and running. It is pretty trivial. It isn't any more or less difficult than any other tool to get up and going. I've used a number of them, and they're all pretty easy to get up and going. Tableau was the first one out of the gate with this democratized data perspective, where they were going to do departmental BI and up to enterprise BI years ago. Now, they now charge a fairly hefty premium to leverage that product. It is not a cheap product.
In terms of maintenance, it can take as much or as little as you want because it just runs. So, technically, you don't have to have anybody to do very much. You just need a very skeleton crew to operate as is. The challenge that you run into with solutions like this is that you need to continue to refresh the information with new and different views because people want to know more, and they want to go deeper into it. It is not a function of the technology. It is a function of the use case. So, you tend to have lots of new requests for new reports and analysis, and that's where you tend to have more challenges.
We didn't get into analysis users who are able to sort of do a little bit more themselves. There were viewer licenses where you are just using preset reports, but there are obviously additional training and things like that, and you have to deal with it if you start getting into more advanced power users.
What about the implementation team?
I was at another company, and we were the integrator.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is fairly expensive. I have no idea what they paid. We were on an enterprise license, so whatever it is they licensed at the enterprise level is what we paid.
What other advice do I have?
A good chunk of it has got nothing to do with the tool. It has everything to do with your leadership and your governance requiring it. We had our IT team roll up Tableau multiple times and not a single person used it because there just wasn't enough leadership support to use it. There is nothing wrong with the tool, and it worked fine for what it did, but every time I logged into it, I go, "Okay, but what did you want me to actually do with this? I see all this information. I understand it clearly. I'm not sure what I do with it though." So, without that additional guidance from leadership, rolling it out is irrelevant. You need to have that strategic leadership associated with it.
The key piece of advice would be that you got to look beyond your tool. You need to look at how you're going to get this information used in your organization. What kind of leadership support, governance support, and ongoing support are you going to have? It is all based on trusted data. The value of the tool is based on the quality of your data and the leadership's support to use it. So, if you don't have high-quality data and you don't have leadership support to use the data, you don't need any tool because nobody is going to use it.
I would rate Tableau a seven out of 10. It suits the purpose, but in and of itself, I don't think it is significantly better or worse than its key competitors.
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.
Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Is intuitive and easy to install and configure
Pros and Cons
- "The best thing I like about Tableau is that you don't have to go for creating; it is calculated free."
- "I have noticed that Tableau is not very compatible with ClickHouse. There's no direct connection to ClickHouse; you have to set up an ODBC connection."
What is most valuable?
Tableau is pretty intuitive. It has a great interface, and you can get multiple visualizations. The best thing I like about Tableau is that you don't have to go for creating; it is calculated free. Unlike Power BI, Tableau has create a calculated column with dimension.
Tableau is quite fast and provides connectivity to 75 plus data connections, which is great.
Also, installation and configuration are pretty fast and seamless in Tableau.
In Tableau, it's just the concept of creating one calculated column and one create calculated free. So, it's pretty simple, and it's pretty easy to locate and work on it.
What needs improvement?
I have noticed that Tableau is not very compatible with ClickHouse. There's no direct connection to ClickHouse; you have to set up an ODBC connection.
Tableau's performance takes a hit if you have huge data. The stability and scalability could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working for almost five plus years on Tableau.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Tableau's performance takes a hit if you have huge data. So in terms of stability, I feel that Cognos would be more stable because you can import all the metadata and store it in the Framework Manager. Tableau has scope for improvement regarding stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Tableau needs to be more scalable. The performance takes a hit if you have huge data. Even if you take an extract and you publish the extract and schedule it to refresh, if the report has multiple tabs, it can take quite a while to go from one tab to another.
We are going to scale the Tableau server so that it can accommodate more processes and can be more process inclusive.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have a Center of Excellence team, and anytime we have an issue, we reach out to them. They then raise an incident or a ticket with Tableau technical support. In the case where we had 1 million rows and the Tableau data was failing to refresh, we shared the log with Tableau Center of Excellence. They came up with the findings that it's more of a database issue and not a Tableau server issue.
How was the initial setup?
Installation and configuration are pretty fast and seamless in Tableau.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In general, if someone is new and wants to learn Tableau, it's around $70 per month.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have experience working with Cognos and Power BI. Compared to Cognos, Tableau and Power BI are pretty fast. Cognos has the concept of Framework Manager where you can build a framework model. Once you build the model, then you have to release the package, and only then is the subset or the package of data available for reporting. Tableau and Power BI eradicate the dependency on a framework model.
With Cognos, installation and configuration wise the setup takes a bit of time. You have to install and configure and then make the data available. After that, you can do reporting. Unlike that, Tableau is very quick; you can just directly connect to Excel or a file on your desktop.
The connectivity, installation, and configuration are pretty fast and seamless in Tableau and Power BI, unlike those in Cognos.
From a license perspective, I think Cognos is the most expensive, then Tableau, and then Power BI.
If I were to rate these solutions on a scale from one to ten, I would rate Power BI at 7 and Cognos at 8.
What other advice do I have?
You can do a lot in Tableau, and on a scale from one to ten, I would rate it at eight.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Owner at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Powerful visualizations, easy to use, and stable.
Pros and Cons
- "It is very good for data visualization. It has very powerful visualizations and is easy to use."
- "I am not a frequent user of this solution, so I am not sure what they've been doing recently. The last time when I used it, I had to use other tools with it for data extraction and cleansing. Its price should also be improved. It is more expensive than Power BI. In terms of training, there is generally better online training for Power BI, but I am not sure of that. It would be helpful to know from where to access its training."
What is our primary use case?
I am using it for personal and organizational purposes. Most recently, we used it to collect and analyze the personal and geographic data input by people over the web.
How has it helped my organization?
Makes analysis fast and easy, providing insights that could be missed otherwise.
What is most valuable?
It is easy to use with very powerful data visualizations.
What needs improvement?
I am not a frequent user of this solution, so I am not sure what they've been doing recently. The last time when I used it, I had to use other tools with it for data extraction and cleansing.
Its price should also be improved. It is more expensive than Power BI. In terms of training, there is generally better online training for Power BI, but I am not sure of that. It would be helpful to know from where to access its training.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution off and on for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable if you use it with other tools. I have used it with other tools.
I am a freelance consultant. I use it myself. My clients have hundreds or thousands of users.
How are customer service and technical support?
I don't have any experience with their support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also use Power BI. Tableau is very comparable to Power BI.
How was the initial setup?
If I remember it correctly, it was easy.
What about the implementation team?
I can do it on my own.
What was our ROI?
My clients don't measure an ROI, they are interested in getting insights faster and when the get past the basics right then modelling scenarios. If you invest in BI tools it is part of a journey requiring investment. Analysis often helps to increase revenues and reduce costs.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is expensive when you compare it with Power BI. It should be cheaper.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have looking at SAP SAC and Oracle / Essbase for a client.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. I would rate Tableau a nine 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.
Digital Strategy Manager at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Good visualization with great features and good stability
Pros and Cons
- "The best part about Tableau is the visualization."
- "The pricing is a bit expensive."
What is our primary use case?
We just created the data visualization and analytics models and the complete setup file was sent to the client for deployment in their own premise as that was their client policy. We just created the solution and the solution was transferred to them.
We were trying to create a dashboard for the contractors in an oil and gas plant. It's for a million-dollar company. That was the level one priority. The use case involved a pilot project meant to drill down the visualization of each contractor and the sub-KPIs at a sub contracting level, plus the geographies involved. Tableau is a data visualization tool with analytics involved in it. The art was to create a set of dashboards that were geography-specific plus contractor-specific. Along with that, there were some common KPIs against which the visualization was supposed to cover as well.
What is most valuable?
The best part about Tableau is the visualization.
Tableau has some amazing features. We can have some additional UI features that act like a skin. You can get it to really customize to your needs and then you can incorporate items as a plugin in your Tableau version and the user interface.
The graphics are quite good.
The solution can scale.
Technical support was helpful.
We found the solution to be quite stable.
What needs improvement?
Tableau is good, however, it lacks a bit on the integration side if you compare it to Power BI, for example. Power BI has quite a good amount of connectors. Even though Tableau does have some, Power BI works well with the Microsoft environment and most of the firms are in granular detail. That's where Microsoft shines. Maybe Tableau can collaborate with other bigger, well-recognized solutions in order to get an edge in the market the way Power BI does with Microsoft.
The pricing is a bit expensive.
There's a bit of a learning curve for those new to implementing the solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution for less than a year so far. In the last eight months, we've developed and deployed the solution. We haven't been using it as long as, for example, Power BI.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a reliable solution. There's no doubt about it. The solution is stable. It does not crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For deployment, the capacity was increased. It required really strong contractors also. That was easily manageable. It is quite scalable.
We had a team of around 20 developers who are working on the solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
We only dealt with technical support once or twice. There wasn't a lot of interaction in the time we used Tableau. That said, they were always helpful and responsive. We were happy with their amount of assistance.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are also using Power BI. We use both products currently.
How was the initial setup?
For us the solution's initial setup was complex as we were just aware of how to use Power BI previously. It was a completely new solution. We had to get an instructor to get the things in place.
I'd say it was about an eight-month installation process for the particular software. In-app work was one month and then seven months of development everything and all over the board.
What about the implementation team?
We had an instructor assist us in the implementation process. and show us how to use the product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We bought a monthly license as we were not able to continue with it long-term. It was simply a specific client requirement that was not needed forever.
The pricing of Tableau is a bit on a higher side compared to Power BI, however, for us, it didn't matter much as we were charging it to the client. That said, for a normal end-user, it would be considered a bit pricey compared to Power BI.
What other advice do I have?
For Tableau we have been using only for a specific team within that also was for the external clients. That experience was only around eight months. However, it was a pretty good experience. Up to that point, we had been strictly using Power BI. Adding Tableau was for a specific client who just wanted the Tableau licenses created and developed for them.
We were using the latest version. It was not a cloud version. It was the desktop on-prem version we were using.
The solution would work well for small, medium, or large enterprises. It caters to all different sizes of companies.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten overall. We've mostly been quite happy with it.
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.
Operations & BI Analyst at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Easy to use with good drag-and-drop functionality and very stable
Pros and Cons
- "It's very easy to set everything up."
- "There's no mature ETL tool in Tableau, which is quite a negative for them."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for our data visualization, our different types of data. It is linked to our normal data visualization. It's not usually related to the medical side of the business. However, it is related to the revenue, and financial accounting, and submission on the RCM side.
What is most valuable?
If I compare Tableau with Power BI, I prefer Tableau. It's easier to use.
The solution has very good drag-and-drop functionality and the screens are easy to navigate. You can easily create measures and dimensions. It has a user-friendly layout that makes task completion simple. In comparison, in Power BI, all of these actions are quite cumbersome.
It is quite similar to Excel. If a person has good Excel knowledge, it will be quite intuitive to learn.
Tableau is the whole package.
The solution allows you to write in SQL and Python. We don't need to write the Python code and we don't need to write the SQL script. However, it is an option that's on the table.
The solution is very stable.
You can scale the solution well.
It's very easy to set everything up.
What needs improvement?
There is another ETL tool for Tableau that is new. It takes time to reach some level of experience. IN Power BI, they have Power Query. I find it easier to convert the information in Power Query with a single shortcut key. That's not an option in Tableau.
You have to prepare your data. It will take a lot of time to clean the data.
There's no mature ETL tool in Tableau, which is quite a negative for them. They need to offer some built-in ETL tool that has a nice and easy drag-and-drop functionality.
There needs to be a bit more integration capability.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for about six months to one year. It wasn't very long. I used it at my previous organization. We're also using it at my current company. At this organization, we've only had it for about three or so months. It's quite new here.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is extremely stable. It's much more stable than, for example, Power BI. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable. The performance is great. We've never faced any stability issues while using the product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'm not sure how many users we actually have within the company.
Tableau is one package and there isn't too much complexity. The main pieces are Tableau itself, Prep Builder and Tableau Server, and Tableau Mobile. Sorry, Tableau Online. These four are the most basic software pieces of Tableau.
Whenever you purchase Tableau, you will pay a bit more and more. You will have access to the four main software products. After this, there is no need to purchase something extra. Therefore, in Tableau, there is no scalability issue. In comparison, if you will to Microsoft, there is a lot of products - such as Power BI. There is Power Automate RPA and Power Apps and MicroPower Apps also. You will need to call to Microsoft and they will integrate this Power App with your account. It takes time. With Tableau, there isn't an issue like that.
How are customer service and technical support?
We haven't had any sort of technical issues. They did assist us a bit at the outset. and they were very good. They are always online and easily approachable. We're quite satisfied with their level of service.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also use Power BI.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very simple. It's not a complex process.
They have an excellent team here over at Tableau. They assisted us.
The setup wasn't too difficult due to the fact that our system is not very complex. We work with rather simple data, which helped save us from suffering through many complexities.
Maintenance is required at our database level. Our database is smart and lean, and therefore it's pretty straightforward. However long it takes for maintenance tasks is based on the level of data and on the heaviness. We basically do a sort of troubleshooting and some fine-tuning at the database level.
At the time of making visualization, we have to do some research to load everything properly on Tableau and have a refresh rate we can maintain. There should not be too much of a refresh rate every time.
What about the implementation team?
We had Tableau's technical team help us here and there. They were great and we were satisfied with their help.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is $70 per month. You have to pay about $800 or something in that ballpark annually for one license.
What other advice do I have?
We are a customer and an end-user.
We are currently using the latest version of the solution.
I would recommend the solution. If a company really wants to go for some easy solutions, and something that is robust and dynamic this is a great option. Microsoft's Power BI also has its advantages and could be a good option as well, depending on what a company needs. If Mircosoft offered a bit more, we might even consider switching over. However, for us, Tableau is the better option.
I'm using Microsoft Power BI also. Therefore, personally, I see the importance of the ETL tool. Microsoft is also adding many items rapidly - with new features two or three times a month. Tableau isn't making such advances regularly.
Many people are considering shifting from Tableau to Microsoft very seriously. Therefore, Tableau needs to begin to compete. They need to offer more integrations and invest in a robust and easy ETL solution. It would really assist in cleaning the data.
If a company wants to onboard Tableau, they need to have some sort of ETL tool on the side as well. If they don't, and they don't have SQL or Python, I'd actually direct them to Power BI - simply to get that ETL capability. However, if the data is ready, and no ETL is required, Tableau is an excellent solution. If you just need to visualize the data, Tableau is the best.
Overall, due to the lack of ETL, and the inability to effectively clean the data, I would rate the solution at a six 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.
Product Consultant at a tech consulting company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The best analytics platform with great visual capabilities, best stability, and rapid enhancements
Pros and Cons
- "Our customers love the visual capabilities on top of it and the ability to explain and get the required data. There is no other product like Tableau in the business intelligence and analytics space."
- "Tableau is an end-to-end analytics platform, and it is doing a pretty good job in terms of connecting to the data and analyzing it. It can, however, do better in terms of data management and the ETL features, which are not on the advanced analytics or machine learning side. Tableau Prep is where users would want to see more advancements. They can improve Tableau Prep, which is an analytic platform tool for data cleansing. People who work with data spend most of their time curating the data. Cleaning up the data and getting it ready for analysis is what takes the most time. If Tableau can invest more time in improving the Tableau Prep platform, it would be great. Previously, Tableau didn't have the functionality for writing to a database. So, you couldn't really alter the database tables and write to your database, but they fixed that in one of the very recent releases. However, it isn't really advanced and should be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We are into the distribution of licenses, and we also have a services arm that takes care of the implementation.
Our customers use it for different use cases, such as fleet management, HR analytics, and retail analytics. They also use it for forecasting and predictive modeling. In the EMEA region, the analytics market isn't very mature. Therefore, many customers just restrict themselves to basic statistics in Tableau. At the most, they go for the predictive functionality, which is inbuilt in Tableau.
Its deployment depends on the use case. Some customers use it on the cloud, which is Tableau Online, and some of them go for Tableau Server, which is on-premises.
What is most valuable?
Our customers love the visual capabilities on top of it and the ability to explain and get the required data. There is no other product like Tableau in the business intelligence and analytics space.
What needs improvement?
Tableau is an end-to-end analytics platform, and it is doing a pretty good job in terms of connecting to the data and analyzing it. It can, however, do better in terms of data management and the ETL features, which are not on the advanced analytics or machine learning side. Tableau Prep is where users would want to see more advancements. They can improve Tableau Prep, which is an analytic platform tool for data cleansing. People who work with data spend most of their time curating the data. Cleaning up the data and getting it ready for analysis is what takes the most time. If Tableau can invest more time in improving the Tableau Prep platform, it would be great.
Previously, Tableau didn't have the functionality for writing to a database. So, you couldn't really alter the database tables and write to your database, but they fixed that in one of the very recent releases. However, it isn't really advanced and should be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Tableau for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
With respect to stability as a performance-driven metric, it is wonderful. Tableau is being used by one of the biggest gaming companies. Stability has mostly got to do with:
- Connectivity to your different data and database platforms
- The amount of data that you're dealing with
The Tableau platform can handle both of these because there is no limit per se in terms of the data size. However, a big fee is a challenge for everybody, and there is no escape from it.
Tableau has recently acquired Hyper, which speeds up the performance. Hyper is also something that Facebook uses. Therefore, when it comes to stability, it is one of the best solutions in the market. You don't need to worry about it.
If there are some glitches because a huge amount of data is coming in, there is an inbuilt performance monitoring option in Tableau where it actively monitors every user click on the platform. It will show you the results on the fly and tell you the part of your dashboarding or activity that is consuming the most memory. This way, you can optimize its performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. The beauty of this product is that it is for everyone. Tableau is a good fit for small enterprises to large enterprises. It can also be used in small departments of a company. The mission of Tableau is to help people see and understand data. So, it is not only for the IT people who understand the technicality of it. It is end-user-centric, and therefore, everybody can use it. It can be used by the marketing, finance, credit, and sales departments. The developers, data scientists, statisticians, and other people can also use it. It is for everyone.
You can scale it vertically or horizontally, or you can go both ways. You can have a single node configuration and add more RAM or more memory to the same node, or you can have a multi-node configuration. Both are supported. You can add nodes depending on the number of users who want to consume the analytics.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am not completely aware of it because I mostly handle pre-sales, but I do know that you can raise a support ticket with Tableau very easily. They have 24/7 support, and the priority of your use case depends on the agreement or the contract that you have with Tableau. There is Tier 1, 2, and 3 support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used SQL on different platforms. I have also worked on Python and R to generate plots. I can't stress enough on the fact that as compared to other solutions, Tableau is much easier, clearer, and more intuitive while using your data. You can actually see every bit of your data. They are able to achieve their mission and help people see and understand data.
How was the initial setup?
Its initial setup is very easy because Tableau has a new graphical user interface, and there is no need for you to script or code your installation process. It only takes a day to set up everything, and it does most of the configuration on its own. It is a very easy process.
In terms of maintenance, there are product upgrades that get released every quarter. It has quarterly upgrades and updates because it is enhanced so rapidly. They spend 25% of their annual revenue on R&D. They have constant interaction with its broad community, and they constantly take in user feedback. If there is a maintenance requirement or some issue with the product, most of the time, it automatically gets resolved in the next upgrade.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Tableau has core-based and user-based licensing, and it is tied to scalability. The core-based licensing is about you buying a certain number of cores, and there is no restriction on the number of users who can use Tableau. The restriction is only on the number of cores. In user-based subscription licensing, there is a restriction on the number of users. Big companies and government organizations with a lot of users typically go for core-based licensing.
User-based subscription licensing is a more common model. It has user roles such as creator, explorer, and viewer. A creator is someone who does the groundwork or development work. An explorer is someone who is into middle management but is not technically savvy, such as a category head. A viewer is like a typical decision-maker in senior management. For each role, Tableau is priced differently. The viewer role has the minimum price, and the creator role has the highest price. This pricing is available on their website. Everybody can see it.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise checking your minimum configuration. There is a specific hardware configuration that you need before installing the software, which varies based on your development, test, and production. You should also decide on whether you need Tableau Online or Tableau Server. Tableau Online supports most of Tableau Server functionalities, but there are some limitations for certain data connections and refreshes. This is something that you need to be aware of while choosing between Tableau Online and Tableau Server.
Sometimes, organizations that can spend or have a good budget just go for Tableau Online because they don't have to worry about maintenance and upgrades. You're already on the latest version, and everything is taken care of by Tableau. The trade-off is that sometimes you may not have your refreshes and connectivity in the widest section possible, which is something that you can do with Tableau Server, but it happens only in rare cases.
It is the best product at the moment. If you look at Gartner's report for BI and analytics, Tableau has been the leader for nine years in a row, which is a very big achievement. There is nothing else like it. You will see Microsoft above Tableau, but Microsoft provides a product suite, whereas Tableau is just BI and analytics. It is not an apple to apple comparison.
I would rate Tableau a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
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Updated: January 2026
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