Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services vs Tableau comparison

Microsoft and Salesforce are both solutions in the Reporting category. Microsoft is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.6, while Salesforce is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5. Microsoft holds a 3.5% mindshare in RT, compared to Salesforce’s 22.6% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Microsoft SQL Server Report...

Read 20 Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services reviews

2,819 Views
1,843 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Tableau

Read 301 Tableau reviews

12,019 Views
10,093 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Microsoft SQL Server Report...

Tableau

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Tableau and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services compete in the data visualization and reporting tools category. Tableau often has the upper hand due to its dynamic interactivity and advanced visualization capabilities.

Features: Tableau is renowned for its exceptional graphical representation, data blending, and ease of creating interactive, flexible reports. It supports a wide range of data sources and offers statistical capabilities. SSRS, on the other hand, is more suited for basic reporting and static visuals, primarily serving as a traditional tool for report generation.

Room for Improvement: Tableau can improve in handling large datasets and performance with high-cardinality models. Users request more built-in analytics features and simplified user permissions. SSRS is often criticized for its outdated interface and limited interactivity, suggesting enhancements in modern feature integration and dynamic visualizations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tableau's deployment flexibility across Hybrid, Private, and Public Clouds enhances its scalability appeal. Its customer service is highly rated, fostering strong community support. SSRS primarily offers on-premises deployment with traditional support, posing challenges for cloud transitions.

Pricing and ROI: Tableau's licensing costs are noted as higher than alternatives like Power BI, a concern for smaller firms. However, the powerful features can justify the investment through rapid ROI. SSRS tends to have lower costs, particularly when bundled with SQL Server licenses, appealing to budget-conscious enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services vs. Tableau Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft SQL Servering Services vs. Tableau

April 2025

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Helped 848,207 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft SQL Server Report...

Ranking in Reporting

6th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Tableau

Ranking in Reporting

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

301

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (2nd), Data Visualization (1st), Embedded BI (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is 3.5%, down from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tableau is 22.6%, down from 23.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Reporting

Featured Reviews

Gnanavel-Chakkarapani

Junior Consultant at CMA CGM

Offers useful templates but needs to improve the connectivity offered

In Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, not much of the interface part is used. With Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, its users face issues with the interface after they use Excel or create Microsoft SSIS Packages. The tool's interface is an area of concern requiring improvement. There needs to be an improvement in the product's connectivity so that the tool can connect easily with other third-party databases. In the dashboard, drag and drop functionality needs to improve, especially when compared to other tools like IBM Cognos Analytics and Qlik Sense. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is useful only for standard reports. In IBM Cognos Analytics, query studio can be used by users to drag the data and simply download the reports, so the user doesn't need to have any technical knowledge like developers. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is to be improved to offer features like query Studio, which is provided in IBM Cognos Analytics.

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ROMIL SHAH

Deputy General Manger - Information Technology at Nayara Energy

Provides fast data access with in-memory extracts, makes it easy to create visualizations, and saves time

When it comes to visualizations, Tableau has a limitation as compared to Power BI. It has a limited set of visualizations. Power BI has the entire marketplace, so you can connect and import many visualizations and use them, whereas Tableau has only 10 or 15 visualizations. There should be more visualizations, and there should also be data integration with more cloud providers. Tableau has recently launched a paid version for the documentation. So, documentation has become a little bit challenging when it comes to Tableau development because we do not have any tool to export the data out of it. It is a license-based feature that you need to purchase to prepare documentation. So, on the documentation front, for preparing clear documentation for any dashboard, it would help if we get an embedded option, rather than buying a license for each user for the documentation. To document anything, if I have to connect to each workbook and see what has been written as a formula and then document in the Word document, it is pretty time-consuming. We have the Microsoft stack, and we are currently evaluating Power BI because Tableau has a limitation of 50 columns for a drill-down report. If we want more than 50 columns, we have found a hack, but there is no ready-made option for doing it. So, we have to use another tool in case we need a drilled report with more than 50 columns. There are many instances where users need 80 or 90 columns for their analysis, and switching between two technologies becomes a challenge. It is not a cost-effective approach for us. Their support should be improved. We are not happy with their support. Whenever we raised queries, we were pointed to a few blogs, and we didn't get a proper solution from them. Their licensing should also be improved. They want us to purchase a Tableau Creator license for business users, whereas Power BI Desktop is free for business users. They should come up with a basic license with one or two connectors that our business users can use for preparing their visualizations. Tableau also charges us per user for users who want the data only through email.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The stability of SSRS has been reliable, with minimal issues encountered during our usage."

"It is a stable solution."

"The solution is known for its robust security features."

"The tool's valuable features are its drill-down feature, graphs, and charts."

"I'm very satisfied with the customer service. And usually, whenever we have any issue or details, we get to the person for the support. I'm really satisfied with the service. Within a few minutes or within a few hours, the support person will be available."

"Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services has been functional whenever I needed to use it."

"I am impressed with the product's seamless integration. It can work with different databases like Oracle."

"The SQL Server Reporting Services makes it very easy to get the data whenever we need it."

More Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services pros

"While using this solution I have found the valuable features to be ease of use and the visualization. It is a complete solution."

"The solution is configurable and flexible. We can customize the dashboards and configure the interface the way that we want. The data can be manipulated and arranged in different ways, such as columns."

"Analysis is now more visual than in the past."

"Tableau is highly scalable. Now that they've introduced Hyper, you can create an extract of more than 5 million rows in minutes and then do your analysis."

"The most valuable feature is the 3D charting."

"I believe one of the most valuable features of the solution is trend analysis."

"Easy for beginners to use"

"The number one thing was just the ease of getting something up quickly. The other thing that was good about it was that it was fairly fast for decent-sized data sets in terms of performance and run time."

More Tableau pros

Cons

"The solution's interface is old."

"We have had issues with the refresh interval since we have too many reports scheduled. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is also expensive."

"I would like the solution to add the scheduling feature for reports."

"It is not easy to integrate the product with other tools in the market."

"The product could be improved by reducing the time it takes to build and deploy reports."

"In this solution, the cost should be reduced for the enterprise edition."

"Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services needs to improve performance."

"They could improve the scalability and stability of SQL Server Reporting Services."

More Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services cons

"Tableau is difficult to scale because of the cost, which makes it difficult to scale."

"The user story model is the most deceptive part of Tableau. It is a big marketing option, however, the reality is that it is not enough."

"There should be more GIS features, such as location analysis, which is quite limited. There are very few location-based functionalities."

"An area needing improvement involves the complexity of the product should you need to alter a lot of parameters. If you have technical servers, much interface, different providers and more serious processes, that will be time consuming."

"Tableau's data modeling, mining, and AI library features need improvement."

"The visualizations should be user-friendly and allow for more custom visualizations."

"The forecasting feature in Tableau in my view is too limited because it must have dates but I should be able to predict the outcome of an event without having a date as part of the input."

"Creating empty extracts is not easy."

More Tableau cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Value-wise, the solution's pricing is good for the price that we pay."

"The product pricing is reasonable in terms of suitable features for business."

"The tool's licensing costs are expensive."

"The solution is cheaper than its alternatives."

"The price is pretty good."

"The pricing is high."

"The solution is free to use for developers."

"The solution is expensive."

"It is reasonable based on what it offers."

"The price of Tableau is high, although there are different types of licenses available."

"If they want to be competitive in the market, the price must be improved."

"The price could be higher for the quality of software, so they revised the pricing in this version, and I agree with the price for top version. The top version costs about $70 per month, and the price is cheap for the quality."

"This solution is a bit expensive. The pricing options have become more difficult over the years. I think they are bordering on pricing themselves out of the market. They need different pricing options for various-sized businesses. Where my organization is a large organization, we are happy to pay a higher price because we can leverage the products very extensively. For smaller enterprises, different pricing options would be good."

"Tableau has reasonable pricing."

"The price is definitely a point because smaller firms don't use Tableau as it's an expensive tool."

"The initial cost that is set according to CPU cores is expensive."

More Tableau pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

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Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

May 2, 2013

MicroStrategy vs. Tableau

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

44%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?

I mainly use the solution for the ease of reporting and for executive dashboards.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?

I don't recall the current pricing as it changes frequently.

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What needs improvement with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?

They could improve the scalability and stability of SQL Server Reporting Services. I haven't used it recently, so I can't provide detailed suggestions on improvements.

See all answers

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...

See all answers

Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?

Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?

Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...

See all answers

Comparisons

TIBCO Jaspersoft vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Compared 19% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Compared 12% of the time

SAP Crystal Reports vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Compared 9% of the time

QlikView vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Compared 7% of the time

More Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Tableau

Compared 19% of the time

Domo vs Tableau

Compared 13% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Tableau

Compared 7% of the time

Databricks vs Tableau

Compared 6% of the time

SAP Analytics Cloud vs Tableau

Compared 5% of the time

More Tableau Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft SQL Servering Services

March 2025

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services report

Download Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services product report

Buyer's Guide

Tableau

March 2025

Download Tableau product report

Also Known As

SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft SSRS, SSRS, MS SQL Server Reporting Services

Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online

Overview

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is grounded in both the world in which we live and the future we strive to create. Today, we live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and the transformation we are driving across our businesses is designed to enable Microsoft and our customers to thrive in this world.

We do business in 170 countries and are made up of 114,000 passionate employees dedicated to fulfilling our mission of helping you and your organization achieve more.

Microsoft

Tableau is a tool for data visualization and business intelligence that allows businesses to report insights through easy-to-use, customizable visualizations and dashboards. Tableau makes it exceedingly simple for its customers to organize, manage, visualize, and comprehend data. It enables users to dig deep into the data so that they can see patterns and gain meaningful insights.

Make data-driven decisions with confidence thanks to Tableau’s assistance in providing faster answers to queries, solving harder problems more easily, and offering new insights more frequently. Tableau integrates directly to hundreds of data sources, both in the cloud and on premises, making it simpler to begin research. People of various skill levels can quickly find actionable information using Tableau’s natural language queries, interactive dashboards, and drag-and-drop capabilities. By quickly creating strong calculations, adding trend lines to examine statistical summaries, or clustering data to identify relationships, users can ask more in-depth inquiries.

Tableau has many valuable key features:

Tableau dashboards provide a complete view of your data through visualizations, visual objects, text, and more.
Tableau provides convenient, real-time options to collaborate with other users and instantly share data in the form of visualizations, sheets, and dashboards.
Tableau ensures connectivity to both live data sources and data extraction from external data sources as in-memory data. This gives users the flexibility to use data from more than one source without any restrictions.
Tableau gives many data source option, ranging from spreadsheets, big data, on-premise files, relational databases, non-relational databases, data warehouses, and big data, to on-cloud data.
Tableau has a lot of pre-installed information on maps, such as cities, postal codes, and administrative boundaries.
Tableau has a foolproof security system based on authentication and permission systems for data connections and user access. Tableau also gives you the freedom to integrate with other security protocols.

Tableau stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Some of these include its fast data access, easy creation of visualizations, and its stability. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

Romil S., Deputy General Manager of IT at Nayara Energy, notes, "Its visualizations are good, and its features make the development process a little less time-consuming. It has an in-memory extract feature that allows us to extract data and keep it on the server, and then our users can use it quickly.

Ariful M., Consulting Practice Partner of Data, Analytics & AI at FH, writes, “Tableau is very flexible and easy to learn. It has drag-and-drop function analytics, and its design is very good.”

Salesforce

Sample Customers

CMS Wire, The New York Times

Accenture, Adobe, Amazon.com, Bank of America, Charles Schwab Corp, Citigroup, Coca-Cola Company, Cornell University, Dell, Deloitte, Duke University, eBay, Exxon Mobil, Fannie Mae, Ferrari, French Red Cross, Goldman Sachs, Google, Government of Canada, HP, Intel, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Macy's, Merck, The New York Times, PayPal, Pfizer, US Army, US Air Force, Skype, and Walmart.

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft SQL Servering Services vs. Tableau

April 2025

Free Report: Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services vs. Tableau

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services vs. Tableau and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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