Tableau vs Power BI - Which is Right for You?

[@TableauTim]

HI @MattMike this is always an interesting topic. I will say out of the gate there are a few incorrect points in this video. The main one being on desktop and prep. They come in the same license so its no extra cost. Another way to put it is having power query as a separate app that comes with your Power Bi license. You infact hold up a screenshot saying exactly that at 2:27 The creator license gives you 3 things, Desktop, Prep and a Cloud creator license in one. Did you mean to say theyre not in one app? if your open to it I'd love to talk to you more about some common misconceptions and why i think PowerBi and Tableau can't be compared and its rather a decisions about using what you have to or using what you love and that basis means everyone arrives at different value judgements about various aspects of their analytics stack.

[@MattMike]

Hi Tim, appreciate you chiming in here. This was a mistake on my part that my editor picked up on after filming. When I've used Tableau Desktop in previous roles, it never seemed like I had access to Prep Builder so there was some confusion on my part. I'm sorry about the mixup, and I do appreciate your insight. I'd love to chat btw and would certainly welcome that!

[@Beny123]

@@MattMike well done acknowledging an honest mistake .

[@kikiyweathers]

I started working with Tableau at IBM when it first launched...way back when. There was definitely a learning curve. But after using it for years, I almost became developer profient. On the other hand, Power BI was super easy to pick up. I agree, Tableau is beautiful--almost like art. Power BI just doesn't have that edge. BUT, I really like how easy it is to use.

[@MattMike]

I have very similar feelings towards both!

[@ezscootrr]

I agree that Power BI is easy to learn if you don't need data modeling.

[@MattMike]

@@ezscootrr Data modeling definitely adds another layer of complexity!

[@paulhavelin]

Great video Matt, I would love to see some tips/tricks/most useful things to learn for each of PowerBI and Tableau.

[@MattMike]

Thank you! Definitely planning to do more content like that in the near future!

[@franklinpeguero08]

Amazing Comparison, Thanks for share it!

[@MattMike]

Thank you!

[@MattMike]

Grab my FREE Data Skills Tracker here: mattmike.gumroad.com/l/the-essential-data-skills-tracker PSA: This is a VERY difficult comparison to make and there are always tons of opinions on either tool. I tried to approach this in the most unbiased way I could. I am certainly not an expert, but I hope this video was at least somewhat helpful and/or interesting. Thanks for watching!

[@fariyabano5995]

Absolutely loved your explanation!!

[@MattMike]

Thank you!

[@staticoverplastic7456]

As someone with access to both, powerbi seems much snappier when connected to a large dataset, so i really wanted to use it, but the date stuff in powerbi drives me crazy...

[@MattMike]

Yeah I love Power BI, but the limitations with dates are not my favorite lol

[@ericsbrennan]

Can you also compare Tableau to PowerBI from a corporation deployment standpoint? How does each stack up when administering the corporate site. User login, Folder management and protection. Tableau has a really robust server and then site admin options. I can lock folders by groups or individuals. Each project then has a large array of settings to allow or limit users from filtering, downloading, editing, Saving. Tableau also has their subscriptions and alert messages that can be sent to anyone that subscripts to them when data meets and certain criteria. Everyone always compares the building piece, but it is difficult to find the consumption comparison.

[@MattMike]

Great observation! You bring up a really great point and you’re right, those topics are rarely covered. I will definitely consider this for a figure video.

[@sohot345]

Hey Mike! I just wanted to thank you for the video! Can you please tell about other solutions that have some part of BI market?

[@MattMike]

Thank you! I think the only tool that even comes close to Tableau and Power BI is Looker, though I have no experience with it. I’ve used a couple other less popular BI tools in the past but they were terrible.

[@guocity]

Is there free version of tableau?

[@MattMike]

Yep! Tableau Public. You can download a desktop version too.

[@mostafagalal1584]

@@MattMikeI have been learning tableau and got a project of building a vis for a huge research data but am struggling with a prep of data. For example am thinking something is wrong with the joins that am performing. My question is, is tableau public so limited or is the problem in what am doing?

[@marklong4980]

I started with Power BI, it was nice because of the Microsoft home field advantage. However I used Power BI when it was first coming out (2015 2016 timeframe) seems like there was not much flexibility in the visualizations. You pretty much got what ever the visualization could do nothing more. You couldn't do much you to change it's look and feel. I'm am sure that has changed over the years. I find Tableau is easier to customize. I am starting to explore Tableau's API. It appears that there is a lot you can do with it. I have not fully explored it's capabilities. Don't know if Power BI has something like that? I think that ability is very important if you want to imbed visualizations into web pages.

[@MattMike]

Power BI has come a long way in terms of flexibility but Tableau definitely excels in that arena.

[@gauravpdaksh]

Mocrosoft sofware are always sub-standard. They win just bcz of market dominance. Windows until XP were great. Windows 7-11 are just over-simplified versions of XP.

[@MattMike]

It is tough to compete the Microsoft ecosystem.

[@marklong4980]

@@MattMike Honestly I think Microsoft is really dropping the ball on their ecosystem. Used to love MS products! Visual Studio, SQL Server, and all the Office products, not to mention Windows OS. Visual Studio now tries to be too many things to too many different developers. Seems like to support any language or even their own MS Tools you need several plug ins. Office products have this mentality of change for the sake of change. They don't do all the things they used to or if they do Lord only knows where they buried it. That applies to the OS also. SQL Server I think remains relatively unscathed but I'm sure they will find a way to mess that one up too!