What’s the difference between Tableau and PowerBI?
Both Tableau and PowerBI are business intelligence (BI) software that you can use to create interactive, data-based dashboards and reports. But which one is best?
To answer that question, let’s look at what each program does best, some of their key features, and the target audiences they cater to best. Then we’ll decide which program comes out on top in the battle between Tableau vs PowerBI . If you want to know about the two programs, continue reading!
The history of each tool
Tableau is a business intelligence software developed in 2003 by Pat Hanrahan, Chris Stolte, John McMaster and Brad Pueschel. The company was acquired by Microsoft in 2018 for $15 billion. It is more of a visualization tool that can produce interactive data analytics.
It excels at performance because of the way it manipulates large amounts of data without having to pre-process anything. Unlike other tools, such as Excel or Google Sheets, it performs real-time filtering and sorting of large datasets with high-speed calculations that require minimal resources to compute.
This helps users dig through their results with better precision than competitors who work on batches every time a request for information is made.
The power of this tool lies in its ability to visualize any given dataset and turn what would be hard data into an easy-to-digest form for your audience.
For example, you could show a pie chart which divides up your budget among the different types of expenses you have, like marketing and operations expenses.
From there, you could then break down each expense into categories like cost per month/year or cost per category with dollar signs indicating where you are spending too much money.
You could then take this even further by showing how each percentage affects what we call ROI (Return On Investment).
Power BI is also known as an enterprise dashboard software application created by former Microsoft employee Nick Polce.
The similarities of each tool
Tableau and PowerBI both have an intuitive graphical interface for exploring data.
They are cloud-based, visual analytics tools with a wide range of features that include interactive dashboard creation, data visualization, and business intelligence (BI). Both provide a free version of their product.
However, if you’re a heavy user or would like to perform large scale analysis then you may want to upgrade from their free versions to a paid plan that allows more data rows/columns. ##
The differences of each tool
There are many similarities in how each tool can be used, such as with dashboards and visualizations.
When it comes to reports and data analysis, there are key differences in where you begin (Tableau is typically done on one dashboard whereas Power BI has a search bar) as well as which visualizations each tool provides.
To get an even better idea of these differences, be sure to explore our Comparison Guide or ask us questions by contacting Support.
The table below outlines some key points for those looking for some more specific details. Dashboard- Creating a dashboard is much different with Tableau than it is with Power BI.
In Tableau, this would take place on one dashboard but within Power BI, this would take place in three different places: Designing the report>Filtering>Designing your report.
With Tableau, you have to use filters before using what they call Dimensions and Measures; however, when creating a custom tab with Power BI you would use measures only.
Visualization- On both platforms charts can be customized but there are also certain types that cannot be found on either platform: Bar charts vs doughnut charts for example.
Which is best for you
Both tools are designed for reporting. For any task involving visualization, both Tableau and Power BI are great options.
These two tools work in slightly different ways but with a good understanding of their nuances you’ll be able to choose the one that best fits your needs.
Tableau is known as a Data Discovery tool while Power BI is more geared towards analytics and business intelligence.
The biggest difference is how they store data: Tableau saves data locally on the user’s machine while Power BI saves data on Microsoft servers. If this doesn’t bother you then the choice should come down to which interface you prefer because they’re nearly identical otherwise.
PowerBI vs Tableau
PowerBI is a cloud-based business intelligence service that helps companies make more data-driven decisions by leveraging connections to data sources and powerful visuals.
PowerBI is simple to get started with because it does not require any installs or downloads on your device. Tableau, on the other hand, is an on-premises data analytics software which can be installed onto your desktop for use at any time.
Tableau was developed originally for analysts in mind; it offers live performance from Excels, high reliability tools for consolidating tableau workbooks, and new features added regularly (such as options in filtering).
With Tableau there is a learning curve required but they provide resources that help you through this process if you are so inclined to tackle it.
Conclusion
For starters, one of these programs is mainly focused on visualization with little analytical capabilities. The other is designed to be a holistic package for data reporting and analysis.
But that’s not where their differences end!
Tableau gives you much more flexibility in how you visualize your data, so if you need to do something like switch out how a line graph appears or change its axis, it won’t be a problem.
In contrast, Power BI gives you predefined layouts for your charts, meaning you have to use one of those options rather than create your own design. And when it comes to what they offer when it comes to analytics, Tableau has far superior features.
It allows you to perform different types of statistical tests with ease, whereas Power BI only has regression testing available.
It also lets you export your information into formats like Excel, PDF, HTML and even PDF.
There’s no need to export anything from Power BI as everything can be seen through the program interface.
The last major difference we found was how complicated each program can get depending on what types of things you want to analyze;
Tableau is generally easy-to-use but offers an option for advanced users while Power BI starts off simple but quickly becomes complex if you delve deeper into certain topics such as conditional formatting or scatterplots.
