Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
Product Manager at Rabita Software
Reseller
Enables us to visualize our raw data
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very user-friendly. It's not like Power BI, Tableau is very user-friendly. Anybody can use Tableau. It's very easy to adopt things. I can visualize the stats."
  • "In the next release, I would like to be able to have the option to see more raw data that I'm converting on the dashboard."

What is our primary use case?

Tableau is an analytics tool so we use it to feed the data. I get the raw data. We use it for business problems. If I want to see what is happening in the market I have Tableau's raw data. I'll make sure that I take all that data and feed it into Tableau.

What is most valuable?

It's very user-friendly. It's not like Power BI, Tableau is very user-friendly. Anybody can use Tableau. It's very easy to adopt things. I can visualize the stats.

It's one of the fastest-growing data visualization and data analytics tools. It aims to help people see the data. You can simplify and convert raw data into a very understandable format. That's the good thing about Tableau. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Tableau for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. It's easy to use. It's user-friendly. 

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.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is quite flexible. It designed to give a more flexible scaling experience. It's quite easy to add users. The Tableau server can support 200 users.

How are customer service and support?

I get good support from the Tableau team. If I have any issues, they're able to solve my issue within 24 to 48 hours. If I create an issue, they resolve it between 24 to 48 hours. If I have an issue, I'll just send in a form in the Tableau portal. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy. My IT team took care of setting up the licensing part. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is expensive. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also evaluated Power BI and Qlikview. I'm more comfortable with Tableau, it's user-friendly.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Tableau a nine out of ten. 

It's a good thing that I'm able to visualize my raw data. In the next release, I would like to be able to have the option to see more raw data that I'm converting on the dashboard.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1384707 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
A user-friendly and intuitive interface with good community support
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the interface, which is user-friendly and intuitive."
  • "The charts in Tableau are quite limited."

What is our primary use case?

We use Tableau for BI reporting.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the interface, which is user-friendly and intuitive. Even for somebody new, who has no idea of how a BI tool is supposed to function from a technical standpoint, it is very intuitive. You simply import the data and then use the drag-and-drop capabilities.

What needs improvement?

Data cleansing and data transformation functionality need to be improved. Tableau is not a full-stack BI tool, like Sisense. Including this type of functionality would add flavor to the tool.

The main point is that Tableau requires the data to be in a certain format for the end-user, in order for them to create charts. If it's not in a certain format, or in a certain structure, then the user will have to manipulate it.

The charts in Tableau are quite limited.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Tableau for a few years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Tableau caters to a lot of databases and flat files, which means that you can connect to multiple data sources. In this regard, I would say that it is quite scalable.

We have between 40 and 50 users in the company.

How are customer service and technical support?

We are quite satisfied with community support. It is always there if you need any help and I am pretty happy with it.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have worked with other BI tools including Spotfire and Power BI. There are not as visually appealing as Tableau and I would stay that purely from the UI perspective, Tableau definitely has the upper hand.

Conversely, Power BI has some capabilities that are missing in Tableau. Examples of this are charts and graphs. If you want to create something that's customizable, it's a very difficult and tedious task in Tableau. This is unlike Power BI or Sisense. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very easy. Once you download it, it is a typical setup with a series of screens where you just press the Next button. Anybody can install it in a few minutes.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I am currently researching Sisense to get an idea of what the pros and cons of the different BI tools are. Sisense is a more complete tool that includes data cleaning, data transformation, and ETL capabilities right in the tool.

Tableau, on the other hand, is used for visualizations, dashboards, and storytelling. Their data has been cleaned or preprocessed in an SQL database beforehand.

What other advice do I have?

Tableau is a product that I recommend.

I would rate this solution an eight 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.
PeerSpot user
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.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Program Manager at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
It allows us to understand and evaluate our numbers in an expedient manner.
Pros and Cons
  • "It allows us to basically understand and evaluate our numbers in an expedient manner."
  • "It is a stable solution."
  • "I would like to be able to set the parameters in a more specific manner."

What is our primary use case?

We have used it for our program correspondence, basically, so how to program report to satisfaction of different programs. It helps us obtain information. We also use it for visualization.

How has it helped my organization?

It allows us to basically understand and evaluate our numbers in an expedient manner. It doesn't require us to need a huge number of data bases that we need to manage. This solution sets everything up for us. It has a good ease-of-use.

In the past, we were using several different solutions, and the packages were insufficient for our needs. We used a lot of different software solutions, and extreme Excel, but it wasn't enough for our needs. We were also looking for something that was a bit more user-friendly. 

What is most valuable?

One of the most valuable features are the different visualizations. It makes it much easier for us to represent what the data is showing. The dashboard is great, and the visualizations are really what we focus on. 

It's as powerful if you know how to use it, so it's made as much as we know how to use it. It's enough, but there's much more of a need to understand what you do to operate the solution. To be able to do more, we need to set it up to do different things. It is fine, but we have not really invested time or people into doing this much.

What needs improvement?

I would like to be able to set the parameters in a more specific manner. I feel as if it's not a questions of whether the solution is sufficient, it's whether we understand how to use it to the best of its productivity.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution. I think we can use it for a while for a lot of different things. Again, we do not know the full scope of the capabilities. I think we are using it the best we can, but we could find better ways for it to best suit our needs. So, we just need to learn how to use it more efficiently.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is good. They give solutions to our questions. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Microsoft BI.

How was the initial setup?

I was not involved in the initial setup of the solution.

What was our ROI?

Most people buy software because they know that it will help them do one thing, but they use it a tenth of the potential of what it could be used for. So, if you don't know what that is, you're stuck at ten percent. Be sure to explore the full capabilities of the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price is competitive. We always consider pricing when considering a new solution. We are a non-profit, and pricing is a huge concern.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We always like to evaluate other products in tandem with what we are using.

What other advice do I have?

When reviewing a possible solution, we always consider:

  • Price
  • Functionality
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Steve-Jose - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Research Analyst at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Allows me to connect to an Excel sheet to create a visualization, and comes with a free version that is helpful in developing data visualization skills
Pros and Cons
  • "The feature that is currently most valuable is the import feature where I can link to an Excel data source. I'm not using it with any other data source, such as SQL Server. I directly link it to an Excel sheet, and if I change anything in that Excel sheet, the changed data immediately gets reflected in the virtualization. This is something that is very convenient for me as of now."
  • "Its documentation can be improved so that a user can get a good hands-on experience. Tableau is well documented, and on their website, there are a lot of tutorials that are available for free. I started my learning process through those tutorials, but there are certain loopholes in those tutorials, which only got filled through a couple of good YouTube channels that talk about Tableau. YouTube helped me a lot. So, the documentation could be better, I understand that it is evolving day by day, and with more usage, there would be more such documentation."

What is our primary use case?

I am using it for my personal use. I'm using Tableau Public. It is a downloadable version. I downloaded it to my system and installed it.

What is most valuable?

The feature that is currently most valuable is the import feature where I can link to an Excel data source. I'm not using it with any other data source, such as SQL Server. I directly link it to an Excel sheet, and if I change anything in that Excel sheet, the changed data immediately gets reflected in the virtualization. This is something that is very convenient for me as of now.

What needs improvement?

Its documentation can be improved so that a user can get a good hands-on experience. Tableau is well documented, and on their website, there are a lot of tutorials that are available for free. I started my learning process through those tutorials, but there are certain loopholes in those tutorials, which only got filled through a couple of good YouTube channels that talk about Tableau. YouTube helped me a lot. So, the documentation could be better, I understand that it is evolving day by day, and with more usage, there would be more such documentation.

There are a couple of features that are only available in the cloud version, and I would like to see them in the hosted version. We can only use them in a demo or temporary account for 10 or 15 days, but I would love to see those features in the hosted version that I am using, which is Tableau Public.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Tableau for almost one and a half years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable, but at times, I have seen that it doesn't work for certain datasets. If the data is not correctly sanitized, there are chances that you would end up having no visualization at all, even after spending a lot of time. So, sanitization is a must in Tableau as of now. Other than that, I've not seen anything else. There are no bugs, but if the data is not sanitized, you will not get any visualization. That is a problem. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is pretty scalable. There is no doubt about it. In the cloud version, a live data source can also be integrated. So, it seems pretty scalable, but I've not tested how scalable that version is.

How are customer service and support?

I don't have any experience with their technical support. Whatever I've learned to date is from online resources such as YouTube and my personal sources. I've not contacted Tableau support.

How was the initial setup?

Its initial setup is quite straightforward. It took me a while to understand that this version is also available for free for users like me who want to understand the data visualization part, but its installation is pretty easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm using Tableau Public, which is free.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I compared it with QlikView, which is a leading data visualization tool, but because I had heard a lot about Tableau and I had seen that there is a lot of scope in the market to get hired, I decided to go ahead with Tableau. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it an eight 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.
PeerSpot user
Rajdeep Biswas - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Architect - Sr. Manager at Axtria - Ingenious Insights
Real User
Robust visualization, a functional UI, and it integrates well
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the richness of its visualization and from a self-service standpoint, the ease of use."
  • "The data processing in Tableau is pathetic compared to Qlik."

What is our primary use case?

There are many and various use cases. Some use it internally for inter-department analytics, sales analytics, campaign management, and sentiment analysis.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the richness of its visualization and from a self-service standpoint, the ease of use.

The interface is fine. The functionality in the UI front is good as well.

It integrates easily.

From a UI visualization standpoint, I think it's pretty robust.

What needs improvement?

The data processing in Tableau is pathetic compared to Qlik.

In Qlik, I can replace my ELD layer for an application. This can't be done in Tableau.

The initial processing of data in Tableau takes a lot of effort.

If there could be a feature that a particular visual can be exported or just the data behind the particular visual can be exported in one single click, just one button on a visual and it exports the relevant data out to Excel or a CSV output, that would be good.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Tableau since 2014, maybe even before that.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's decently scalable. I have been able to scale it pretty easily.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is good. On a scale of five, I would say four.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is neither straightforward nor complex.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is not bad. It's competitive.

What other advice do I have?

I'm a BI Architect.

My recommendation for this solution would depend on the use cases.

I would rate Tableau and eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Software Quality Assurance Engineer at Syapse
Real User
Interactive dashboards enable the end user to modify the criteria or the filtering
Pros and Cons
  • "One of the most valuable features is that the solution allows users to build interactive dashboards. This allows the end user to modify the criteria or the filtering if need be. As far as for my personal use as a QA Engineer, I really value how extensive their API document support has been."
  • "Improvements can be made in template support. The workbook file structure is really hard to version control. If there was some sort of version control support offered particularly for workbooks, that would help big time."

What is our primary use case?

We use this business intelligence tool to build dashboards to display some of the statistical and analytical information that our company gathers. We develop a precision medicine software platform that enables academic and community healthcare providers to implement and scale precision medicine programming. We capture clinical data, genomic and other molecular data, biomedical knowledge, and the relationships among them. We also provide integrated complex genomic and clinical data to clinicians with actionable insights. 

How has it helped my organization?

Previously, we built the dashboards manually but this practice proved to be inefficient and ineffective since it meant we spent a lot of time debugging. It's was hard to find developers capable of doing that kind of work at scale. Since the Tableau community user base is so big and a lot of people can use it; the widespread support is one of the biggest benefits. Besides that, it's a fantastic framework to build dashboards and innovative visualizations.

What is most valuable?

One of the most valuable features is that the solution allows users to build interactive dashboards. This allows the end user to modify the criteria or the filtering if need be.

As far as for my personal use as a QA Engineer, I really value how extensive their API document support has been.

What needs improvement?

Improvements can be made in template support. The workbook file structure is really hard to version control. If there was some sort of version control support offered particularly for workbooks, that would help big time.

Another note is that the interactions within the UI are not fast enough and in certain instances, there have been issues with the intuitiveness of the tool. Such as delays in configuring and achieving some specific effects. 

I have to say Tableau does have excellent and extensive online support.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. I've never had any problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

My impressions of the scalability of this solution are that there are ways to make it as scalable as you want. There have been some issues with the amount of the data that we had to use on the platform. We ended up using the extracts. It works fine now. I would say it is scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't contacted their live support or emailed them. Their documentation is fairly extensive and we also had a training session conducted by one of their partner companies. It was the Tableau Accelerated Course and that helped a lot.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward with respect to the deployment. 

What other advice do I have?

Tableau provides a UI which can be used to build a clear graphical visualization that allows quick and easy data comprehension. This functionality really helps turn data into scalable insights. This makes things a lot easier for people who don't have coding experience and with dedicated people focused on managing the visualizations, not requiring them all to be developers or to have any coding experience is a real plus.

If I was to give this solution a rating from one-to-ten, ten is the best, I'd rate it a 9 because it does all that we require of it and more. I would recommend this solution to my colleagues from another company. It's a nice tool to work with.  

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user712779 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Time saved by allowing the tool to make necessary changes is definitely worth my company's money
Pros and Cons
  • "Data Interpreter: Which can identify issues or potential errors with your imported data."
  • "The user experience for less savvy or non-technical people (from my experience)."

What is most valuable?

  • Data Interpreter: Which can identify issues or potential errors with your imported data.
  • Split: When you need to split columns.
  • Pivot: Good for changing date columns.
  • Metadata: This selection can clean up field names, especially after a pivot.

How has it helped my organization?

  • Data Interpreter: Can rid your data of null value fields.
  • Split: Click on the column you want to split, identify how you want to split it, and where you want to split the data.
  • Pivot: Great when you have many columns of dates. Just highlight your date columns, then right click and select Pivot. That's it. Now, your totals and region data will be based on any particular year.
  • Metadata: You can select the second icon above your previewed data source. You can select the dropdown arrow for each Field Name you would like to change and you can split the names here as well, or double click on the Pivot name and correct the name where it makes more sense for the type of data you are using. You can create alias names as well.

What needs improvement?

Tableau is always good at improving, but I typically get so busy with utilizing what is there, I have not had any needs yet for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

More recently in the past few months.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No deployment issues.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

I have not had to use customer service for Tableau. I just go online and google my needs typically.

Technical Support:

I have not had to use technical support for Tableau yet. As with customer service, I just go online and google my needs typically.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I really like the user-friendly (usability, user experience) layout of Tableau. The visual layout for me is very appealing.

How was the initial setup?

It is really straightforward, but I can see if someone has issues with the download and setup, you may want to contact technical support.

What about the implementation team?

Implementation was in-house on my own. It was easy.

What was our ROI?

I have not measured this, but the time saved by allowing the tool to make the necessary changes instead of going back to the spreadsheet is definitely worth my time and the company's money.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Not sure about this, except that Tableau can be costly (but this can be indefinable, such as user experience vs. cheaper etc.)

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Again, this was more based on learning curve and user experience for me. I've worked with MicroStrategy and BusinessObjects (learning curve is higher for me for these, then Tableau). Big thing here is the user experience for less savvy or non-technical people (from my experience). I'm sure MSTR and BO are good tools, just not my preference.

What other advice do I have?

As I had mentioned above in regards to improvements, I believe every tool or application or databases for that matter can always use improvement. That's why we work in the field of data and/or IT, it's ever changing and improving, so we need to change and improve as well. Keep abreast of new things in the market and the improvements of the tools or apps you use on a daily basis. The last thing we want in our industry is to become complacent. Then again, we should never become complacent in any facets of our lives.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Technology Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It lets power users like engineers create visuals on their data without waiting on a longer IT project timeline.

Valuable Features:

Geo Spatial maps and Time Series animation with Storyboarding. The easy to use interface has really accelerated adoption. 

Improvements to My Organization:

It lets power users like engineers create visuals on their data without waiting on a longer IT project timeline. The downside is you really need some SQL skills to take full advantage of it.

Room for Improvement:

For Tableau, R is just a script interface. It is missing the R-style Plot area the data scientists want to use. They really want to overlay pieces on the plot and derive new graphs.

They need to provide a Folder hierarchy for organizing content and setting security. Creating 900 sites takes way too much work and limiting. As a result, we have hundreds of Worksheets in one long list—not good.

Deployment Issues:

We had no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues:

Performance has issues when you get too many users. The latest upgrade made it worse and had to be backed off.

Scalability Issues:

The above issues brings into question how scalable it really is.

Other Solutions Considered:

I am most familiar with SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence, but have been to classes on Tableau, Power BI, and Qlikview as part of our internal efforts to help the business choose which is right for their needs.

R and SAS are under our heading of Advanced Analytic tools in the BI space and will be evaluated in phase 2.

Other Advice:

Plan how you need to organize and secure content up front. It’s too much work later when it becomes popular. Be sure to plan and budget for more client license bundle purchases as user growth approaches critical mass. Otherwise, you’ll be putting them on a wait list and waiting for management to approve more spending. Managing a lack of licenses is not fun.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Tableau Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Tableau Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.