Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

SAP Business One vs Tableau comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

SAP Business One
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
ERP (5th)
Tableau
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
296
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (2nd), Reporting (2nd), Data Visualization (1st), Embedded BI (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

SAP Business One and Tableau aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. SAP Business One is designed for ERP and holds a mindshare of 3.7%, down 6.4% compared to last year.
Tableau, on the other hand, focuses on BI (Business Intelligence) Tools, holds 17.5% mindshare, down 19.1% since last year.
ERP
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Q&A Highlights

Tomasz Rabong - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Featured Reviews

Ijlal Naqvi - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy but needs to improve in the area of BI
If I speak about a feature in the tool that helps with financial management, I would say that of all the products I have ever worked on, used, or implemented, the finance part is pretty much the same in all ERPs and bookkeeping software tools. Finance is a regulated thing. It has to generate financial statements related to all the accounts. All financial management systems will look into the ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. Generally the tool has two models. If the tool's in-house model is opted, then just one person is needed to maintain the product as an ERP administrator. If it is through a partner, then we usually have managed services, so you get access to a whole bunch of resources, technical, functional, finance, manufacturing, supply chain, or resources that you can have as part of the managed services contract. My company does not use much of AI with SAP Business One since it is pretty much manual now. It's still pretty much manual for business process enhancements and it still requires more of a consultative approach with more of a human touch. With SAP S4/HANA, there is a process navigator, process data mining tool that does help users since with the use of AI it provides answers to their questions. Recommendations are subjective to the requirements of the users. I would not recommend SAP Business One to a financial services institution or a bank. I would most definitely recommend it to a small family-owned business with about 20,000,000 of revenue, and that too in the area of discrete manufacturing. I rate the tool a seven out of ten.
ROMIL SHAH - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of SAP Business One are user-friendliness, ease of use, visibility, and flexibility. Customizing the solution is simple."
"I like that it's stable."
"This is an all-in-one ERP solution for small businesses. Everything is linked. Once you have this, you have all the features available in SAP. You have PR, inventory items, journal entry, and project management features."
"We like it as it's easy to use, cost-effective, easy to deploy, and easy to get support for."
"The most valuable features of SAP Business One are the financials, sales, and production. They are very helpful. Additionally, it is very easy to use and the user interface is stable in the application and on the web."
"SAP Business One has good reports and is simple to customize and use."
"So there are a lot of features included with the ERP system."
"The most valuable feature of Business One depends on the industry. Generally speaking, Business One works best in automotive industry use cases."
"It provides supporting data for critical policy and operational changes"
"This solution has improved insights into quantitative data."
"The ease of presenting findings is very helpful."
"The most valuable feature is the drag and drop, then the simplicity to build dashboards which allows us to provide more usable data to our customers."
"A valuable feature of Tableau is that it is a useful tool for small setups. I shuffle between Tableau and MicroStrategy, so I use Tableau for personal purposes more than enterprise. I like the light version of Tableau for personal usage and doing some use cases on my own. When it comes to something small, I use Tableau for setups, rather than any other tool."
"I like Tableau's heat maps and the storyboard. You can create data stories and tons of visuals with it, and it goes together really well. Tableau lets you manipulate the data in various ways."
"The solution deployment was straightforward."
"Compared to other products, visualization features are really good."
 

Cons

"SAP Business One could improve project management, quality assurance, material management, forecasting, full costing, and quality control. Many modules are missing in this solution."
"There could be enhancements in plant maintenance, quality assurance, and HR management features."
"The solution could improve by having some added authentication, such as SAP CC or SAP S4HANA."
"The solution needs to have comprehensive visibility into the entire sales-to-purchase cycle, enabling businesses to monitor SO-PO relationships, track order progress, and generate insightful reports."
"SAP Business One lacks solutions for some specific use cases, particularly in HR functions and production planning, which require a lot of customization."
"Areas for improvement are the operating mechanisms, authorization of the production process, and sales cycle automation."
"More support can be provided on the web client end."
"There is no dependency, the integration between the other applications."
"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."
"Could have more integrations with different platforms."
"Many things have to be improved in Tableau. Right now, we make the calculation, and then we get that information. It would be better if business users could do that. I would ask the people at Tableau to provide that option to business users to get that information in one click. It would be better if they automated some calculations. There should be more automation in Tableau. However, there are many things in automation mode, but it is very limited at the moment. We need automation for people who do not know much about Tableau. It would also be better if there were good community support like in Alteryx."
"The setup was easy but we are having some problems with the configuration that is taking a long time. We have done some initial tests and some of the delays could be from bandwidth issues. However, the whole installation process should be simplified."
"I am not a frequent user of this solution, so I am not sure what they've been doing recently. The last time when I used it, I had to use other tools with it for data extraction and cleansing. Its price should also be improved. It is more expensive than Power BI. In terms of training, there is generally better online training for Power BI, but I am not sure of that. It would be helpful to know from where to access its training."
"I think Tableau could be improved with cheaper or more flexible licensing, though this is a generic improvement and applies for any product. It would be better if they had more flexible payment and licensing plans so that they could suit small- and mid-sized organizations."
"The charts need to be improved. The drawings and the visualization need to be more accurate."
"The product's features for cloud integration need improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is a bit expensive."
"If you are in the US or Canadian the costs of SAP Business One could vary per license, it can be anywhere between $2,000 tor $5,000."
"We feel that the licensing fees are a bit on the higher side."
"We recently acquired the license, so we are using the latest version."
"SAP has a high cost of licensing."
"I rate the price of SAP Business One a seven out of ten."
"The price of SAP Business One is reasonable."
"We pay annually. It is around 800 a month."
"There is a license for the use of this solution and it is on a per-user basis. The server is free but the users you have to pay for."
"For our organization, the cost hasn't been an issue."
"It is a bit difficult for some people when they hear $70.00 per month, as some solutions are available for less than $10.00 or for free."
"ROI is very high, but it requires a data preparation/blending tool."
"This license is on a yearly basis."
"Tableau has reasonable pricing."
"Be careful with the Tableau Viewer's licenses, and stay with the right number of users."
"Its cost is quite high. A corporate license costs about 150-200K per year for all the users, but there was probably some discounted amount. This cost includes everything."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which ERP solutions are best for your needs.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user6330 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 2, 2013
MicroStrategy vs. Tableau
After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…
 

Answers from the Community

Tomasz Rabong - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 20, 2022
Apr 20, 2022
Dear Community, Many thanks for yor support and help!
2 out of 6 answers
EB
Apr 18, 2022
Hi @Delmar Assis, @Angel Pineda, @reviewer1318779, @George McGeachie, @Carel Van Der Merwe and @Moorthy Natarajan, Can you please assist @Tomasz Rabong ​with their question?​​ ​ ​ ​ ​
Leandro Sodré - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 18, 2022
Hi Tomasz Rabong,  I believe that if you have a developer team in Amundsen it would be possible.  Alternatively, you can look at Informatica EDC or at Data Virtualization Data Catalog (from Denodo).
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Healthcare Company
6%
Educational Organization
6%
Educational Organization
44%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Are there any advantages of SAP S4 HANA over SAP Business One (SAP B1) apart from the cost?
SaP Business One is a complete solution for business management. The software applications are broad, ranging from accounting to project management and human resources. It is very versatile and com...
What do you like most about SAP Business One?
It's user-friendly and comes with comprehensive manuals. So, it is easy to learn to use SAP Business One
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Business One?
The pricing model of SAP Business One is average. It is neither too good nor too bad, and there is room for more flexibility in pricing.
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...
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...
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 ...
 

Also Known As

Business One
Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ego Pharmaceuticals Pty. Ltd
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.
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, Microsoft, Oracle and others in ERP. Updated: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.