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SAP Crystal Reports vs Tableau Enterprise comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 9, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.7
SAP Crystal Reports greatly enhances ERP reporting and efficiency, offering ROI over 1000%, despite costly user training.
Sentiment score
6.9
Tableau Enterprise provides rapid ROI through efficient report generation, cost savings, and streamlined operations with minimal integration challenges.
This saves a significant amount of time, particularly for reports that would have needed around fifty people.
Project Manager, Site at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
The ROI of using Tableau extends to its seamless integration across various platforms, as it's from Salesforce and thus not limited to any specific cloud provider.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
Tableau is saving me time, money, and resources, which I would rate as ten.
Founder at Mindclick Consulting
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.7
SAP Crystal Reports customer support is inconsistent, with mixed reviews, leading users to favor online resources and self-help solutions.
Sentiment score
6.1
Tableau Enterprise support is praised for expertise and responsiveness, with premium options and community resources highly rated by users.
I have not encountered any problems requiring assistance.
SAP Technical Manager at VS Furniture Middle East
They provide quick email and phone responses and have Thai-speaking personnel.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
There should be consistent standards for all users.
Associate Technical Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The technical support for Tableau is quite good.
Project Manager, Site at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
SAP Crystal Reports supports scalability and is suitable for medium to large enterprises, with room for scalability improvements.
Sentiment score
6.7
Tableau Enterprise offers strong scalability and improved performance with recent updates, despite potential cost and complexity challenges.
Tableau is easy to use across various dimensions, whether on-premises or on the cloud.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
The solution is fully scalable and performs well even with large datasets, provided there is proper supporting hardware.
Practice Head BI at Nous Infosystems
Tableau is easy to scale.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
SAP Crystal Reports is stable on Windows, with Unix challenges and improved performance on specialized servers post-2011.
Sentiment score
7.3
Tableau Enterprise is stable and reliable, with minor challenges tied to dataset size, server, or network factors.
The application hangs after continuous use due to the buildup of cache.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
I rate the stability a five or six because Tableau updates very often with new versions or patches.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

SAP Crystal Reports needs better visualization, modern tech integration, improved analytics, compatibility, and enhanced documentation and support.
Tableau Enterprise struggles with performance, integration, and features, with users seeking better analytics, data management, and cost efficiency.
If it is closed due to any problem, it should be able to recover where I left off, similar to Excel, which should be a feature for SAP Crystal Reports.
SAP Technical Manager at VS Furniture Middle East
Enabling better practices and testing to enhance data accuracy and efficiency for company sectors.
Inhouse SAP Business One Sr. Consultant at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
It would be beneficial to have easier integration with Azure, Microsoft Power Platform, and similar cloud technologies.
I'm at DTS Group
We cannot send the entire Excel file reports via email within Tableau.
Project Manager, Site at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
The product owner should enhance its benefits or clarify its role.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
It sometimes requires extensive investigation to determine why the data does not appear correctly.
Group Finance Head Of Investment Bank Product Control at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

SAP Crystal Reports pricing perceptions vary; some find it costly, but discounts and volume deals can reduce expenses.
Tableau Enterprise is pricier but valued for functionality, offering flexible licensing and discounts for larger purchases.
Power BI as a much cheaper alternative.
Practice Head BI at Nous Infosystems
A license for 150 users costs around $17,000 USD per year.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
Looker is known to be quite expensive.
Associate Technical Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

SAP Crystal Reports provides flexible data connectivity, custom design, and efficient reporting, enhancing decision-making and client communication.
Tableau Enterprise simplifies data visualization and integration, enhancing decision-making and collaboration with secure, intuitive tools for organizations.
SAP Crystal Reports has had a very positive impact and benefits. It's a powerful tool to design any kind of report if you have knowledge of the database, and it can attach to both HANA and SQL databases.
SAP Technical Manager at VS Furniture Middle East
The efficiency gained by our organization from SAP Crystal Reports is measurable through multiple export formats such as PDF and Excel.
Inhouse SAP Business One Sr. Consultant at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
The best features SAP Crystal Reports offers are powerful data connectivity, customized report design, interactive and visual reports, import, export, sharing options, and automation and scheduling.
I'm at DTS Group
A significant feature for me is the real-time connection to data sources because it effectively manages large data sets.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
Tableau serves as a stable dashboarding tool for higher management, aiding in quick decision-making.
solution architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Building hyper extracts and visualization capabilities make Tableau a robust tool for data analysis.
Practice Head BI at Nous Infosystems
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP Crystal Reports
Ranking in Reporting
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Tableau Enterprise
Ranking in Reporting
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
309
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (2nd), Data Visualization (1st), Embedded BI (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of SAP Crystal Reports is 2.6%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tableau Enterprise is 18.0%, down from 23.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Tableau Enterprise18.0%
SAP Crystal Reports2.6%
Other79.4%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Salman Mukhtar Baig - PeerSpot reviewer
SAP Technical Manager at VS Furniture Middle East
Unlock data insights with seamless integration and robust reporting features
I assess the impact of SAP Crystal Reports' dynamic parameters on the customization and flexibility of my reports as very good. Sometimes it creates a problem when it suddenly closes during work due to improper shutdowns, but most of the time it's beneficial since I can fetch the data in one report very efficiently, which is great for the company. The sub reports in SAP Crystal Reports help me enhance the depth and detail of my reports by allowing me to use multiple sets of records, especially when I have very large requirements, such as company dashboards that show what sales, purchases, productions, and HR are doing. Using sub reports as the main report is very beneficial because I can pull multiple department data into the main report. Over the years, SAP Crystal Reports has had a very positive impact and benefits. It's a powerful tool to design any kind of report if you have knowledge of the database, and it can attach to both HANA and SQL databases. I can also connect this data with Excel, which makes it a very powerful tool for me.
Uzair Faruqi - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Analytics at Mjunction Services
Ease of developing dashboards and receiving strong technical support have enabled efficient data visualization
Introducing custom features, such as NLP-based reports, is not very good in Tableau. My MD has been asking us for a way to write in natural language to request reports that the system should generate, but that isn't very effective with Tableau. As a developer, I can develop an on-demand report in Python quite easily, but exposing a REST API on the Tableau platform is not a very easy task. AI enablement is an area for improvement for Tableau, and that is something they might have to work upon. I have heard that ThoughtSpot is quite better in this regard, but the cost of ThoughtSpot is much higher. ThoughtSpot has lots of natural language-based report generation features that Tableau lacks.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Reporting solutions are best for your needs.
879,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user6330 - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise22
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business117
Midsize Enterprise67
Large Enterprise184
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with SAP Crystal Reports?
SAP Crystal Reports could be improved with more modern user-friendly interfaces and better integration with cloud platforms and AI tools. It would be beneficial to have easier integration with Azur...
What is your primary use case for SAP Crystal Reports?
I have been using SAP Crystal Reports for six months. I am using SAP Crystal Reports to develop data-driven reports and use customer data printing. When I use SAP Crystal Reports for customer data ...
What do you like most about SAP Crystal Reports?
We use SAP Crystal Reports for operational reporting.
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

No data available
Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Buenos Aires, ASR Group, Citrix, EarlySense, Usha International Limited, Automotive Resources International (ARI), LivePerson, Coelba (Grupo Neoenergia), RZD Russian Railways, National Basketball Association - NBA, TALLY WEiJL, El Machetazo, Young Heroes, Mozzart, Mitsui Knowledge Industry (MKI) , Surgutneftegas Open Joint Stock Company, The VELUX Group, AOK Bundesverband, AL-KO KOBER GROUP
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 Crystal Reports vs. Tableau Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.