microsoft-power-bi-vs-tableau-desktop

Microsoft Power BI and Tableau are both business intelligence (BI) tools designed to allow users to query data and create visualizations. Microsoft Power BI is more popular with smaller businesses, while larger enterprises are more likely to use Tableau.

Microsoft Power BI offers ease of use and affordability, making it a useful tool for smaller teams with less technical staff. Tableau offers robust data cleaning and transformation features that allow for the creation of quick and detailed visualizations by a technical user.

Features

Microsoft Power BI and Tableau both offer standard business intelligence software features, but they also both have a few features that set them apart from each other.

Microsoft Power BI can easily integrate with other Microsoft technologies, such as Azure and Excel. Businesses already using Microsoft’s suite of technology will find Microsoft Power BI easy to integrate with existing systems. Additionally, Microsoft Power BI is easy to use for non-technical staff. Querying with Microsoft Power BI uses natural language rather than a query language like SQL. Additionally, visualizations can easily be created using Microsoft Power BI’s drag and drop interface.

Tableau provides advanced data transformation tools that can be leveraged by more experienced data analysts. A technical user can create visualizations and perform actions very quickly on Tableau. Additionally, Tableau provides thorough documentation and support that not only explains how to use the software, but also teaches fundamental data analysis.

Limitations

Though Microsoft Power BI and Tableau offer robust business intelligence features, there are a few areas where they have limitations as well.

Microsoft Power BI lacks some of the advanced querying and visualization features provided by Tableau. Additionally, Microsoft Power BI has limitations regarding deployment. The more affordable price point for Microsoft Power BI requires cloud deployment, while the premium offering includes on-premises deployment. Even the premium version of Microsoft Power BI requires other technologies such as SQL Server and Power BI Reporting Server to deploy on-premises.

Tableau can be challenging to use without technical knowledge as it does not offer natural language querying, and it assumes the user has some experience with data analysis. Additionally, tableau doesn’t integrate as seamlessly with Microsoft technologies, which would make implementation more difficult for some businesses compared to Microsoft Power BI.

Pricing

Microsoft Power BI offers two pricing tiers for businesses. The Pro tier costs $9.99 per month per user, requires a cloud-based deployment and includes basic data visualization features. The Premium package starts at $4995.00 per month and includes on-premises deployment.

Tableau provides three tiers of pricing. Tableau Viewer costs $12.00 per user per month and allows for viewing data and visualizations. The Tableau Explorer Tier costs $35.00 per user per month and allows users to manipulate data and create visualizations. Lastly, the Tableau Creator tier includes Tableau software such as Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder. Businesses can also purchase add-ons to append additional features to their plan.