- Easy to connect to random sources of info. In my case, to MySQL + Google Analytics + an Excel file with Facebook Insights in one case, and another MySQL + PostgreSQL in another case.
- Easy to build with drag & drop even for a rookie like me.
- Fancy graphics in the end result. This is important when I use it during a demo in front of potential customers.
- Interactive filters. A selected option in one widget can filter automatically the other widgets that are used in a dashboard. This is awesome!
- A wide range of customisations.
Partner at a tech services company
Selecting an option in one widget automatically filters the other widgets in a dashboard.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
In less than 3-4 hours, I started from a pure installation on my Mac and succeeded in investigating a trip of a vehicle recorded in our records and had created a visualisation of that trip on a map.
That was used to prove a hypothesis that we can find answers to various questions about our vehicles without needing to wait for developers to handle the custom specific case.
What needs improvement?
I need to be able to combine in a worksheet from different sources because the insights could be much more powerful. It is possible that the product can do this now, but it was not easily found.
An option to interrupt the process of loading of external data (like from Google Analytics) would be helpful. A few times, I had issues with interruption of the initial data loading process, when it took longer than the expected.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for a month.
Buyer's Guide
Tableau
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not previously use a different solution. This is my first time with this. I did a lot of research into the final result of my BI work.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was pretty straightforward!
What about the implementation team?
It was an in-house implementation. Pretty easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If the price was cheaper, then my rating could have been a perfect 10 ;)
What other advice do I have?
If you are looking regularly for answers that are hidden inside your data - like 3-4 times in a week - then it is undoubtedly more valuable to take a shot with a BI solution (even if you don’t use Tableau). The speed; the deadlock dependency on your R&D resources leads to a loss of time. Tableau gave me the freedom to experiment with the hypothesis that I had.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Director at a tech services company
It has extended the native capabilities of various type of data sources (database, big data).
What is most valuable?
Self-service: Its ease of use means Tableau can be operated by business users. It is aligned with the mission “Help people see and understand the data”.
How has it helped my organization?
Tableau has extended the native capabilities of various type of data sources (database, big data). There are also significant features at the map and features level of detailed expressions.
What needs improvement?
With the Device Manager in Tableau 10, you can design, customize, and publish a single dashboard with optimized views for tablets and phones.
Other features include clustering segmentation data and a custom territories map.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it since 2012 (four years).
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We encountered issues with Tableau 8. However, since Tableau 9, there has been significant improvement.
How are customer service and technical support?
I rate technical support 8/10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We evaluated others, but Tableau is the business intelligence platform which allows everyone to use the product in a way that supports how they work with data.
How was the initial setup?
Tableau is easy to be deployed from the beginning, from the desktop up to Tableau Server, which you can implement at the organization level.
We have implemented Tableau in organizations of up to thousands of users.
What about the implementation team?
We are a Tableau partner. We provide system integration services to our clients. We begin implementation by focusing on a specific subject area where it is the most important and it will have a significant impact for executive management.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Research the variety of licensing schemes and choose the best one for your organization.
What other advice do I have?
Try it first by downloading the trial license. You will love it and experience how easy it is to use the product.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company is a Tableau partner.
Buyer's Guide
Tableau
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.
BI Specialist at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
It has a Sense-Me tool that indicates the most appropriable graphic to use with the selected dimension and measure information.
What is most valuable?
It can build in-memory data with an easy-to-use interface, connecting numerous data sources and linking referenced tables/origins. It also has an awesome Sense-Me tool that indicates the most appropriable graphic to use with selected information (dimensions and measures) and, in my opinion, works like a charm!
How has it helped my organization?
It shows us our client’s profile, our best services and what areas are not satisfying the target. Also, it gives us a better sense of market needs, using non-structured data (like social media, government data).
What needs improvement?
It needs a more robust way to connect and share the "big-data" origin. It also needs an easy-to-develop interface for creating new charts and tools in business dashboards.
For how long have I used the solution?
Version 8: 10 months, Version 9: 1 month.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
I have not encountered any deployment, stability or scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
Tableau has incredible consulting people and comprehensive support professionals, solving and clarifying any questions.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used (and continue to use) SAP Business Objects 4.1 Edge (and all the embedded tools...). We acquired the SAP BO licenses to initialize our business intelligence project. But, our bigger problem is using lot-and-not-linked tools to generate insights. Some of our needs are only answered by Explorer, another only by Dashboard Design (Xcelsius – and it’s so old...), another only by Lumira (and can’t be viewed on LaunchPad – The Web-Portal of BO - forcing users to install the app on their machines without mobile support).
How was the initial setup?
Tableau is an easy-to-install tool, like Next-Next-Finish!
What about the implementation team?
We installed it by ourselves, only viewing the vendor’s documentation to make sure we’re using the correct parameters. It is a good way to start; always see what the vendor’s site has in their documentation area.
What was our ROI?
Our employees no longer have to search for information in many systems and/or use a web search; they can just go to the BI platform and do a lot of analysis by just clicking. So, with this time savings, our ROI is more than 100% - a lucrative investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Before looking at the pricing/licensing, research all of the employees’ needs. Make a matrix with their needs and the available BI platforms on the market, checking which platform addresses the way your business way-to-do. Then, determine which users will use the platform to see information, to create information and to build information.
What other advice do I have?
Just test before you buy. All BI platforms have a lot of functionalities and, also, a lot of needs.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Tableau/Data Visualization Specialist, Reporting & Analytics at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Highly interactive and intuitive data discovery: helps people see and explore their data.
What is most valuable?
- Highly interactive and intuitive data discovery: helps people see and explore their data.
- Ease and breadth of connectivity to so many different data sources.
- The interface to make joins between tables is greatly appreciated.
How has it helped my organization?
Management is simply getting more insights from visual representations of their data, and we’re becoming a more data-driven decision-making organization.
What needs improvement?
I’d like more data integration across data sources.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used it for almost 2.5 years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
I have not encountered any deployment, stability or scalability issues with Tableau Desktop.
How are customer service and technical support?
I didn’t need much technical support, and I find the on-demand online video library for training new and experienced users is a great asset.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used IBM Cognos 8 with a previous employer, and I found that tool to be slow and clunky.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was done by our company’s Tableau Server team, which I am not a part of.
The Tableau Desktop install was easy.
What about the implementation team?
Tableau has an extensive network of Alliance Partners with expertise in its implementations, so you shouldn’t have any problem in getting adequate support for such a popular product.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
VP Strategy, Global Delivery & Operations at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
End users do not require BI developers for ad-hoc reports. It would help to be able to add custom code to the dashboard.
What is most valuable?
- Valuable to use smaller data sets
- Automatic Extract Creation
- Replace on publish data sources
- Online sync client
- Progressive-loading dashboards.
- Parameter to pass an initial SQL dynamically
- Combine multiple sets with union
- Subscribe and schedule the reports to receive email on data snapshot
- Ad-hoc reports and ease of use for the end user
- Reduces development effort
- Easy maintenance
- Security with role-based access and in line with Active Directory and SSO
- Alerts and scheduling
- Heat maps, geographical charts, 3D charts, drill down/drill up, drill through, cascading effects, and multi-dimensional and canned reports all in one tool
- Embedding into Microsoft SharePoint
How has it helped my organization?
- The end users need not depend on the regular BI developers for certain quick and ad-hoc reports.
- Generic avoidance of sharing the emails with an embedded Excel etc
- Can be accessed from multiple smart devices
- Snapshot facility to the end user for analysis
- Effective visuals
What needs improvement?
- Facility to add custom code to the dashboard will be helpful.
- Custom SQL feature is not working as expected from the performance perspective. Irrelevant of the SQL, the engine executes for everything available.
- Archive historical data using extracts
- MeasureName filter can’t be shared across multiple sheets in a dashboard.
- Cascading with relative has restrictions over the worksheets in a dashboard.
- Multiple selection in parameters
- Formatting option for individual filter is not available.
- Using HiveServer2 connector is a big challenge to pull, even with smaller data sets. Not sure if that has been improved with Spark Thrift server connector.
- Not much support for Hadoop / Hive as the backend in the market, connectivity issues not limited to the drivers.
- Few complex report requirements (for dashboards) could not be achieved with better performance (e.g. Dynamic Parameters).
- Reverse engineering from the front end report is not that impressive.
- For massive volumes of data, the performance acutely degrades.
- Permitting external users with no SSO is still a concern.
- Server support on Linux is lacking.
- Caps on report scheduling
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for more than three years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
TDS deployment will not encourage editing after the deployment.
With the TDS deployment, a few of the formats are lost. So far, this is not a serious issue.
How are customer service and technical support?
Approached from the client side, waiting time is reasonable high.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used MicroStrategy, QlikView, SQL Server Reporting Services, SQL Server Analysis Services, Panorama, SAP BusinessObjects, and in-house Java-based reports.
The reasons I chose this product were: ease of doing things, faster performance, and it is an all-in-one tool.
How was the initial setup?
Comparatively, basic setup is not a hard task.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our use case is met, but the pricing is still a matter of concern.
What other advice do I have?
It is a nice visual and high performance all-in-one BI tool which is becoming more popular with its ease of use and user-friendly features, effective visuals and apt major functionalities of BI.
However, it depends on one’s requirements and budget to balance the need.
We would recommend using it for mid-size datasets to visualize near real-time data, as there is no control over the execution model.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company has a partnership agreement with the vendor.
Business Intelligence Analyst at a government with 10,001+ employees
User-friendly, useful report publishing, and trial version available
Pros and Cons
- "Tableau's most valuable features are user-friendliness and have a connection between multiple source systems. You can publish a report by using Tableau Public and there you can make your data online, not only batches of data, you can use it as an online analytical tool."
- "There are more than a powerful tool in the market, such as Microsoft BI."
What is our primary use case?
I have used Tableau to generate visualizations to calculate system trend analysis for business.
How has it helped my organization?
Tableau has been very helpful to give a high level of insight into our business.
What is most valuable?
Tableau's most valuable features are user-friendliness and have a connection between multiple source systems. You can publish a report by using Tableau Public and there you can make your data online, not only batches of data, you can use it as an online analytical tool.
What needs improvement?
There are more than a powerful tool in the market, such as Microsoft BI.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Tableau within the last 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Tableau is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have found Tableau to be scalable.
I would recommend this solution for large enterprises.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted technical support. However, after reading many reviews others have found the support to be good.
How was the initial setup?
The setup and deployment of Tableau are very easy. I did not have a problem.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Tableau could improve. The license is too expensive.
There is a 14-day trial version available to those who want to try it.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Tableau, but if any organization wants to use it, they can see if the solution fits their business requirement. There is a very competitors market and with a low price. Those wanting to use this solution need to study the requirements to know which repository to use.
I rate Tableau a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technical Lead at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Rich visualizations, good performance, and low development time
Pros and Cons
- "Its performance is pretty good, and the development time is very low."
- "Its integration with Microsoft products such as Teams should be improved."
What is our primary use case?
It is mainly used for reporting and dashboarding purposes.
We implement it for our customers. We have different customers. For some, it is on the cloud, and for some, it is on-premises. Our customers have been using Google Cloud.
In terms of its version, we are probably using the latest minus one version.
What is most valuable?
The visualizations are quite rich. It has charts and other visualizations.
Its performance is pretty good, and the development time is very low.
What needs improvement?
Its integration with Microsoft products such as Teams should be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is quite good. The negative side would be the cost, but it is quite scalable.
For the projects we have worked on, one of the projects had about a thousand users, and one of the projects had about 200 users. I handle a development team here, and my team is not very big. It is just a four-member team.
It is used by the management, CXOs, and even the mid-level management people. It's basically for decision-making, so mainly the executive board uses these dashboards.
How are customer service and support?
We have not interacted with them. Our clients deal with that part. We don't do that.
How was the initial setup?
It is not very complicated. Deployment hardly takes a day or two.
What about the implementation team?
We do it on our own. We are a consulting company.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
A practical piece of advice would be that if you really have a requirement to use Tableau as a tool, you can go for it. Otherwise, there are some open-source and low-cost tools. For example, Amazon QuickSight is a relatively new tool by Amazon, and it is a very good one. It is a very good competitor for Tableau. Apache Superset is another one that has recently been gaining lots of traction. So, it depends on your budget. If you want to have low costing, you can go for these low-cost and good alternatives.
Tableau is quite a mature tool. I would rate it an eight out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
BI technical analyst at a government with 11-50 employees
Complete package, easy to use, and quality visualizations
Pros and Cons
- "While using this solution I have found the valuable features to be ease of use and the visualization. It is a complete solution."
- "The data preparation could integrate better with Tableau."
What is our primary use case?
We have used this solution for enterprise reporting, ad hoc data exploration, and visualization.
What is most valuable?
While using this solution I have found the valuable features to be ease of use and the visualization. It is a complete solution.
What needs improvement?
The data preparation could integrate better with Tableau.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for approximately eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
When it comes to stability this solution is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have found this solution to be highly scalable, we have approximately 800 people in my organization using it and plan to increase usage.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support responsiveness was good. However, we had some tough questions that they could not help us with.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used another solution and switched because Tableau is easy to use, support is good, lower price, and for their community.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is very straightforward for both desktop and server solutions. The desktop only takes a few minutes and the server takes half an hour.
What about the implementation team?
We used consultants for the implementation. We have a team of six that does the maintenance, which includes, server, application, and content administrators.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others to start using it.
I rate Tableau a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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Updated: March 2025
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Nice review ..