Tableau is an America based software company dealing with data visualization techniques in software. Founded in Mountain View, California, in the year 2003, and presently has its headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Power BI is a software-oriented service offering a business analytics solution. Both being BI tools has different functionality & roles in BI technology. Let’s find out the key differences between Power BI & Tableau.
What is Tableau?
It is focused on providing software solutions to organizations all over the world with business intelligence at the core of its services. The founders of the company name, Christian Chabot, Pat Hanrahan, and Chris Stolte, were Computer Science researchers at Stanford.
The products of the company analyze various databases, analytical data cubes, cloud-based databases, and data spreadsheets from several sources to create graphic data visuals. The software is enabled for extraction, storage and retrieval of data from an internal data engine stored in its memory.
In terms of its functions, the software is capable of mapping latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates along with connecting to spatial files, for instance, KML, GeoJSON and others. These capacities can help the software to map administrative places easily.
Shortly after its foundation, the company was recognized as the Codie Award Winner in 2008 by the Software and Information Industry Association. Later, the company was recognized as the leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for seven years in a row.
What is Power BI?
As Microsoft is the parent company providing the service, the tools of this software aimed at making data analysis easier for organizations of all sizes. The service enables enriched visuals creating capacity and data analytics for business intelligence at its core. This, in turn, makes the data analytical functioning of the user organization simpler for every employee to create reports and dashboards.
Microsoft provides the Power BI services in two basic formats, namely, a cloud-based application known as the ‘Power BI Services‘ and a desktop-based system known as the ‘Power BI Desktop‘. Furthermore, the software provides a range of capabilities regarding data warehousing. These consist of discovery of data, preparation of databases from the acquired data, creation of visuals, dashboards and reports, among others. In addition to the existing services of the software, Microsoft, in 2016, introduced a new service termed Power BI Embedded on the company’s existing Azure cloud platform.
The enhancing factor of this Power BI is its ability to create visually attractive reports and dashboards that can arrange data into a comprehensive yet attractive pattern. The software service is additionally beneficial for organizations that seldom use business intelligence techniques for data analysis. Organizations can utilize the tools provided by the service in the process of acquiring, aggregation, analysis, storage and visual display of the data relevant to the specific business.
Tableau Software Features
Tableau software products can be categorized as follows –
- Tableau Desktop
- Tableau Desktop Personal
- Tableau Desktop Professional
- Tableau Public
- Tableau Server
- Tableau Online
- Tableau Reader
Power BI Features –
- Power BI Desktop
- Power BI Service
- Power BI Gateway
- Power BI Report Server
- Power BI Mobile Apps
What are the differences between Power BI & Tableau
| Tableau | Power BI |
| The software service is expensive for businesses | The service is more affordable in comparison to other BI tools. The subscription to the service is available on a monthly basis.
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| This software technology is used by advanced analysts and requires a certain level of experience in computer handling.
| The techniques of this software are easy to learn and can be used by employees of an organization who have had very less exposure to technology.
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| The concentration is on the visualization of data only.
| The software concentrates on aggregating and analyzing data along with visualizing it |
| The process of uploading data is difficult and time consuming | Uploading data in Power BI is easier and less time consuming.
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| In Tableau, the data is first selected and then visualized.
| In Power BI, data is first visualized, and later additions to it are made.
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| Data analysis follows a front-end pattern | Data analysis is performed in the back-end format.
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| The data analysis patterns and capacity are less. | Data analysis is the basic function of Power BI. The tools of the Power BI service make it one of the best data analysis tools in the market. |
