Tableau and Power BI Comparison
Comparisons between Salesforce Tableau and Microsoft Power BI as data visualization tools.
Key Questions
There are several key questions to consider when making decisions around data visualization tools. Keep these in mind with the following comparisons and references.
- How are existing skillsets in alignment with the selected tools?
- What skillsets are desired in future workforce resources?
- What internal communities are already making use of the selected tools?
- How do data sources align with visualization tool support? (Layers between data sources and tools may add otherwise hidden complexity and time costs.)
Feature Comparisons
| Feature | Power BI | Tableau |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor Support | ✅ ref | ✅ ref |
| CU System Support | ❌ | ✅ ref |
| Windows Compatibility (Desktop) | ✅ ref | ✅ ref |
| MacOS Compatibility (Desktop) | ❌ ref | ✅ ref |
Pricing
The following are public-facing pricing details. Enterprise-based pricing may differ.
- Power BI: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/
- Tableau: https://www.tableau.com/pricing/teams-orgs
Data Sources
Data sources which may be connected to the tools.
- Power BI: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/power-bi-data-sources
- Tableau: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/exampleconnections_overview.htm
Visualization Type Support
Visualization types which are supported by the tools.
- Power BI: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/visuals/power-bi-visualization-types-for-reports-and-q-and-a
- Tableau: https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/what_chart_example.htm
Programming Languages
Data visualization tools often include their own programming languages which help to specify detailed work which may be necessary beyond drag-and-drop defaults.
- Tableau Level of Detail (LOD): https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/calculations_calculatedfields_lod.htm
- Power BI Data Analysis Expressions (DAX): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/
Further Reading
Other Alternatives
- Google Looker Studio: https://lookerstudio.google.com/overview An all-online data visualization suite which integrates with Google and many other sources.
- Apache Superset: https://superset.apache.org/ An open-source data visualization tool supported by the Apache Software Foundation.