Tableau vs Power BI: Which one to learn in 2023?

Business intelligence tools are beautiful because they can expose hidden trends and patterns that could go overlooked when only looking at raw data. This is due to the fact that visual information is generally processed more effectively by our brains. Data analysts and laypeople alike may find business intelligence to be a useful tool for simplifying complex information.

When Excel is such a flexible, strong tool to analyze and illustrate datasets, why use visualization tools?

Modern organizations generate an enormous amount of data, which can come from various sources like customers, suppliers, or competitors. Dealing with complex data becomes challenging for Excel sheets, causing you to miss out on valuable business insights. However, with the help of business intelligence (BI) software, you can effortlessly collect, organize, and uncover significant insights from the data, empowering you to optimize your business for success.

What is Tableau?

Tableau has gained significant popularity as a robust business intelligence and data visualization tool, a product of Salesforce. Its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface enables both technical and non-technical individuals to easily analyze and understand data. With its powerful data visualization capabilities and comprehensive analytics tools, Tableau is increasingly favored by businesses and analysts. It empowers users to uncover insights, share data-driven stories, and make informed decisions based on visual representations of data.

What is Power BI?

Power BI is a business analytics and data visualization tool developed by Microsoft. Users can connect to different data sources, transform and model data, and produce interactive visualizations and reports with this tool. A full range of functions for data analysis, reporting, and collaboration are available in Power BI. For business intelligence, reporting, and data analysis across industries, Power BI is widely utilized.

Power BI vs Tableau

Learning Curve & Ease of Use

  • **Power BI **Excels at swiftly handling smaller datasets. It Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft tools like SharePoint and Excel. The intuitive drag-and-drop functionality makes it incredibly user-friendly.

  • **Tableau **is a go-to choice for tackling intricate and large datasets. It boasts extensive support for third-party data sources and a wider array of data connectors. Tableau offers advanced analytics capabilities for intricate calculations, while Power BI takes a straightforward approach to visualizations and analytics. It provides more advanced customization options for crafting highly detailed visualizations.

Pricing

  • Power BI has a free version available for use by anyone.

  • Power BI’s premium version costs around $4,995 per capacity per month with storage resources.

  • Their pro plan is priced at $9.99 per month.

  • Tableau is more expensive. Its pro plan starts at $70 per month per user.

User Interface

  • Power BI seamlessly integrates with Microsoft tools like SharePoint and Excel, It is very user-friendly and easy to learn as well.

  • It has three views — report, model, and data view.

  • Tableau boasts extensive support for third-party data sources and a wider array of data connectors and has a scalable workspace that lets users experiment and explore.

  • The workspace consists of various tools, sidebar, sheet tabs, etc

Data Visualization

  • Tableau offers advanced analytics capabilities for intricate calculations. It provides a rich set of visualization options, including charts, graphs, maps, and dashboards. Users can generate interactive reports that enable dynamic data exploration, alter visualizations, and add filters and parameters.

  • Power BI takes a straightforward approach to visualizations and analytics. It offers a wide range of visualization tools to help users build engaging reports and dashboards. To represent data, users can pick from a variety of charts, graphs, maps, and tables. Additionally, Power BI enables unique visualizations made by the Power BI community.

Platform

  • Power BI Desktop is a Windows-based application. It is a cloud-based platform where users can publish, share, and collaborate on reports and dashboards created in Power BI Desktop. Power BI Mobile is available as a mobile application for iOS and Android devices.

  • Tableau Desktop is a Windows and macOS application. Tableau Server is an enterprise-grade platform that allows users to publish, share, and collaborate on Tableau visualizations within an organization. Tableau Online is a cloud-based platform that offers similar functionality to Tableau Server but eliminates the need for on-premises infrastructure. Tableau Mobile is available as a mobile application for iOS and Android devices.

Certifications

Power BI

  • edX’s Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Power BI

  • Experience: Beginner

  • The Professional Certificate in Data Visualization with Power BI from edX

  • Experience: Intermediate

  • The Data Analyst Master’s Programme at Simplilearn

  • Experience: Expert

Tableau

Tableau Desktop certifications

  • Tableau Desktop Specialist (Entry Level)

  • Tableau Desktop Certified Associate (Intermediate Level)

  • Tableau Desktop Certified Professional (Advanced Level)

Tableau Server Certifications

  • Tableau Server Certified Associate

  • Tableau Server Certified Professional

Community & Support

  • Tableau is more dynamic than Power BI because it places a strong emphasis on community and collaboration in addition to business and organizations.

  • Tableau has very good documentation, making it simple to solve a problem by just browsing. While Power BI may not have sufficient documentation, it does have an active community where the issue will be resolved.

Machine Learning Support

  • While Power BI interfaces with Azure Machine Learning, Microsoft’s cloud-based machine learning platform, Tableau includes integration options with well-known machine learning systems and libraries like R and Python.

  • Tableau has the option to call other services, enabling you to include pre-trained models or unique algorithms in your dashboards and visualizations.

  • AI-powered visualizations and tools like Quick Insights are available with Power BI. These features use machine learning algorithms to automatically analyze your data and produce visualizations, key drivers, and other insights.

Final Thoughts

Deciding whether to focus on learning Power BI or Tableau depends entirely on the user’s needs, both personally and professionally. Both these tools have the ability to generate data insights and visualizations, and they each possess distinct features that make them suitable for different situations.

Power BI will be a wonderful option if you are completely new to the idea of business intelligence and have been looking for more affordable subscriptions.

However, if the user is interested in creating personalized and more advanced customization options for their dashboard and likes to have robust collaboration features, including creating and sharing interactive dashboards with other users, Tableau is an equally excellent option.