Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence tool that helps you to handle data from different sources and provides visualization after the cleaning and integration process. It also offers a feature of Adhoc report generation, which helps in the analysis of the data.
What is Tableau?
Tableau is a powerful and fastest-growing data visualization tool used in the business intelligence industry. It allows you to simplify raw data into a very easily understandable format. Data analysis is very fast with Tableau, and the visualizations created are in the form of dashboards and worksheets. This helps professionals to understand the data that is created using Tableau at any level in an organization.
Features of Power BI
Here, are the essential features of Power BI
Customizable dashboards Datasets Reports Navigation pane Q&A question box Help & feedback buttons Ad Hoc reporting and analysis Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) Trend indicators Interactive reports authoring Complete reporting & data visualization tools Real-time dashboards that help business owners solve problems as they occur Offers Power BI embedded, azure service that allows applications to interact with Power BI Q&A feature of Power BI allows users to ask questions using natural language to get answers in a specific graphical form. Content Packs: for sharing dashboards with team
Features of Tableau
Here are important features of Tableau:
Data blending No need of technical knowledge Real-time analysis Data collaboration and data notifications DAX analysis function Patented technology from Stanford university Toggle view and drag-and-drop List of native data connectors Highlight and filter data Share dashboards Embed dashboards within Mobile-ready dashboards Tableau reader for data viewing Dashboard commenting Create “no-code” data queries Translate queries to visualizations Import all ranges and sizes of data
Difference Between Tableau vs Power BI
Here, are major differences between Tableau vs. PowerBI
Tableau Products
Here are various types of Tableau products:
Tableau Desktop:
Tableau Desktop offers a rich feature set and allows you to code and customize reports. Begin by creating the charts, reports, to blending them all together to form a dashboard to all the necessary work is created in Tableau Desktop. The workbooks and the dashboards created here can be either shared locally or publicly.
Tableau Desktop Personal:
The development features are similar to Tableau Desktop. Personal version keeps the workbook private and offers limited access. The workbooks cannot be published online. Therefore, it should be distributed either offline or in Tableau Public.
Tableau Desktop Professional:
It is pretty much similar to Tableau Desktop. The difference is that the work created in the Tableau Desktop can be published online or in Tableau Server. Also, in the Professional version, there is full access to all sorts of the datatype.
Tableau Public:
It is the Tableau version specially build for cost-effective users. Filed saved in Tableau’s public cloud, which can be viewed and accessed by anyone. There is no privacy to the files saved to the cloud as anyone can download and access the same. This version is the best for the individuals who want to learn Tableau BI.
Tableau Server:
Tableau server is used to share the workbooks and visualizations that are created in the Tableau Desktop application across the organization. To share dashboards in the Tableau Server, you must first publish your work in the Tableau Desktop. Once the work has been uploaded to the server, it will be accessible only to the licensed users. However, It’s not necessary that the licensed users need to have the Tableau Server installed on their machine.
Tableau Online:
As its name suggests, it is an online sharing tool of Tableau. Its functionalities are similar to Tableau Server, but the data is stored on servers hosted in the cloud, which are maintained by the Tableau group. There is no storage limit on the data that can be published in the Tableau Online.
Tableau Reader:
Tableau Reader is free to use tool which allows you to view the workbooks and visualizations created using Tableau Desktop or Tableau Public. However, the security level is zero in Tableau Reader as anyone who gets the workbook can view it using Tableau Reader.
Power BI Products
Here are some important Power BI tools:
Power BI Desktop
Power BI Desktop is the primary authoring and publishing tool for Power BI. Developers use it to create brand new models and reports from scratch.
Power BI Service
Power BI service is an online Software as a Service (SaaS) where Power Bl data models, reports, and dashboards are hosted. Administration, sharing, and collaboration happens in the cloud.
Power BI Data Gateway
Power BI Data Gateway works as the bridge between the Power Bl Service and on-premise data sources like Direct Query, Import, Live Query. It is Installed by Bl Admin.
Power BI Report Server
It can host paginated reports, mobile reports, & Power Bl Desktop reports. The users can modify Power Bl reports other reports created by the development team.
Power BI Mobile Apps
Power BI mobile app is available for iOS, Android, Windows. It can be managed using Microsoft Intune. The tool allows you to view reports and dashboards on the Power Bl Service Report Server.
Advantages of Tableau
Here, are pros/benefits of using Tableau BI:
Less cost of training Very fast and easy to create visualizations Good customer support Data Interpreter Story-telling ability Tableau offers a feature of visualization It helps you to combine shape & clean the data for analysis. It helps you to handle a large amount of data. Uses scripting languages like R & Python to avoid performance for complex table calculations. Allows users to create reports, dashboards, and stories using Tableau Desktop.
Advantages of Power BI
Here, are pros/benefits of Power BI
Offers pre-built dashboards and reports for SaaS Solutions Provide real-time dashboard updates. Secure and reliable connection to your data sources in the cloud or on-premises Power BI offers quick deployment, hybrid configuration, and a secure environment. Data exploration using natural language query. Feature for dashboard visualization New features frequently added that are great for excel users. Extensive database connectivity capabilities Q&A feature publish to the web. integration with both Python and R coding to use visualizations. Power Query provides many options related to wrangling and clean the data. Post publishing the data into Power BI web service can schedule refresh without manual intervention. Power BI backed by the superpower of with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Disadvantages of Power BI
Here, are cons/drawbacks of Power BI
Dashboards and reports only shared with users having the same email domains. Power Bl will never mix imported data, which is accessed from real-time connections. Power BI can’t accept file size larger than 1 GB. Dashboard never accept or pass user, account, or other entity parameters.
Disadvantages of Tableau
Here, are cons/drawbacks of Tableau
Relatively high cost No change management or versioning It is expensive, BI, when compared to other tools. Importing custom visualization is a bit difficult. Not offers easy methods for embedding reports to other applications. Tableau is suitable only for a large organization which can pay for licensing cost. The tableau does not offer support for artificial intelligence and machine learning. There is integration with other Microsoft products like Power Apps , Dynamics 365, Office 365, and Microsoft Flow, which uses Single Sign-On (SSO).
