Tableau vs. Microsoft Power BI
Data-driven organizations choose Tableau because they want to grow their revenue and lower costs—not because it's part of a product bundle.
Customers who chose Tableau report:
33
% ↑
Increase in insights-driven decision making.
32
% ↑
Increase in business user productivity.
27
% ↑
Increase in agility and flexibility of IT systems & platforms.
Results based on 2023 survey conducted by a 3rd party vendor of 706 Tableau customers on behalf of Salesforce.
Tableau empowers some of the world's top organizations.
Tech Buyer's Guide
"Power BI is free like a puppy is free. To do what we wanted it to do, we discovered we needed to upgrade to Power BI Pro or Power BI Premium, and it happened everywhere we turned. Director of Analytics, Casino Resort From Tech Buyer's Guide: Tableau Versus Power BI. Constellation Research, 2024."
— Director of Analytics, Casino Resort
From Tech Buyer's Guide: Tableau Versus Power BI. Constellation Research, 2024.
Tableau vs. Power BI: what's so different?
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FAQs
Customers choose Tableau for its superior AI analytics capabilities, ease of use for all skill levels, and scalability to support enterprise-wide data exploration and analysis.
Tableau offers greater overall value due to its intuitive interface, robust features, and ability to empower users of all technical abilities to make data-driven decisions.
Yes! While Tableau delivers business value to every organization, using Tableau with the Salesforce platform unlocks unique opportunities otherwise not possible. Learn why Tableau is the only real choice for Salesforce customers.
Yes! While direct integration is limited, Tableau can connect to some of the underlying data sources used by Power BI (like Azure Synapse or Azure Data Lake Storage), allowing users to leverage data prepared in Power BI within Tableau.
Yes! Tableau integrates across many of the core applications offered within Office 365, including Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, PowerPoint, Excel, Azure AD, and more. Organizations looking to take advantage of AI-powered insights in their flow of work choose to use Tableau with Office 365.
It depends on your requirements. That said, Tableau's pricing is transparent and predictable, based on user roles and needs, while Power BI's pricing can be complex and obfuscated by bundling and capacity-based costs.
While Power BI offers a free desktop version with limited features, all other plans are NOT free. Full functionality requires a paid Power BI license, which obfuscated or hidden when bundled with other Microsoft products.
Tableau's pricing is transparent with no hidden fees, while Power BI's bundling practices and capacity-based pricing can lead to unexpected costs.
Tableau boasts a large and active community of over 5 million users (aka the "Data Fam"), providing ample resources and support for both new and experienced users.
Yes! Tableau provides extensive online documentation, tutorials, and training resources through Salesforce's Trailhead to help users get the most out of the platform.
Yes! Tableau has a strong network of local user groups worldwide (TUGs- Tableau User Groups), providing opportunities for users to connect, share knowledge, and learn from each other.
Tableau's intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality make it easy for users of all skill levels to explore data and uncover insights.
Tableau prioritizes user-friendliness, offering an intuitive interface and robust features that are accessible to users with varying technical skills.
Tableau's ease of use and visual approach to data analysis make it a great choice for non-technical users who want to explore and understand their data.
Tableau's drag-and-drop functionality is highly intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy to create visualizations and dashboards.
Yes! Tableau offers unique purpose-built AI features, like Tableau Pulse, that automatically generate insights and surface key drivers within data. And, the launch of Tableau Next with its native integration to Agentforce and data skills will only extend this advantage to other platforms on the market.
Yes! Tableau Prep offers a visual and intuitive way to prepare and clean data, with AI-powered features to assist users in the process.
Yes! Tableau supports advanced analytics through its integration with R and Python, allowing users to perform complex statistical analysis and modeling.
Yes! Tableau Pulse and Agent automatically generates insights and recommendations, helping users quickly identify key trends and drivers in their data.
Yes! Tableau offers robust integration capabilities with a wide range of platforms, including Salesforce, cloud-based data warehouses, Azure and Office 365 tools.
Yes! Tableau offers flexible embedded analytics options, allowing users to seamlessly integrate data visualizations and dashboards into other applications.
Tableau offers a Tableau App for Microsoft Teams that empowers collaboration and data-driven decision making in the flow of work. To get started, end users and Tableau Admins can simply install the Tableau Cloud App from the Teams Store.
While both platforms are highly-customizable, Tableau is built for everyone, not just developers. Tableau doesn't require knowledge of coding language like DAX or M to customize visualizations.
Yes! Tableau's intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality make it easy to create reports and dashboards. With Tableau, you don't need to be a developer.
Yes! Tableau offers advanced mapping and geospatial analysis features, allowing users to visualize and analyze location-based data.
Tableau supports a wide range of data connectors, allowing users to connect to various data sources, including on-premises databases, cloud-based data warehouses, and web services.
Tableau is designed to handle complex data, with features for data preparation, blending, and analysis of large and diverse datasets.
Tableau is optimized for handling large datasets, with features like data extracts and Hyper engine for fast processing and analysis.
Tableau Prep provides a visual and intuitive platform for data preparation and transformation, with AI-powered features to streamline the process.
Tableau's calculated fields and measures are generally easier to create and manage, with a user-friendly interface and intuitive functions with VizQL.
Yes! Tableau offers strong compatibility with cloud-based data warehouses, including Snowflake, Databricks, Amazon Redshift, and Google BigQuery, allowing users to connect to and analyze their cloud data.
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