Tableau Reviews

Pros

We really like the easiness to upload and prepare data visualizations, charts, graphics and dashboards. It works with the mains data files such as text crv, xls and google sheet documents. They have a free version which present the main functionalities, perfect for a small business, then if you need to upgrade to a paid version the process is very simple. Their forums and community really support, and help to improve, learn and develop great visualizations.

Cons

As any other solution, it takes some investigation and learning to understand the way it works and how to prepare robust presentations in Tableau. Some older versions do not allow roll back. Some sharing and analytic challenges are presented and really wish they develop additional features.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Power BI

Reasons for Choosing Tableau

Tableau is a better product for the easiness and the complete customer service experience.

Switched From

Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Excel

Reasons for Switching to Tableau

Once we started working with Tableau, we would not change to another solution because the way we work with the tool fits our opertive needs.

Pros

To be honest I have only used tableau in a classrooms setup for learning purposes. In my course there is a unit referred to Actuarial Modelling where we are deep data management and that is where I get to interact with Tableau. There is alot of features I appreciate about it. For me it didn't take me long to familiarize with it .Creating a dashboard is soo engaging and it's UX is straightforward. Accessing it from my mobile phone gives me the convenience of doing my data analysis assignment even away from school. On functionalities, it connect with data sources especially Excel CSV which is our main data harbor. From there I can now I can clean the data, use the bin function to categoriesit for simplified analysis, visualize it and descriptively explain the insights data in a natural language. Tableau also allows me to make prediction using the statistical elements such as the mean, mode, quartiles etc on likeliness of certain events in reference to the data Iam using.

Cons

For novices it will take you time to unravel the complexity of Tableau to be able to enjoy each and every feature for deep analytics. But when you get to learn it, trust me you will like it

Pros

There are a lot of tools, and features that you can configure to make the visualisation you need. A lot of the complex visualisation are supported out of the box.

Cons

The learning curve is very steep. You will need to dedicate time to learn how to properly use tableau since the amount of configuration is high..

Pros

I love the application because it is widely used by many businesses for analysis, and I especially love the dashboard feature that provides a user-friendly interface.

Cons

What I dislike is the data exploration and analysis, which, in my opinion, are a bit slow and disproportionate.

Pros

Ease of use
Visualization capabilities
Ability to integrate different types of data sources

Cons

Some difficulty in getting correct level of joins within Tableau

Pros

Overall I like the customization of reports & possible ways to visualize the data. Love that there is a strong community on the internet within Tableau help forum.

I like that you can do most things on Tableau Online version, however, there are a couple of things that can only be done on desktop.

Cons

Sometimes same features are placed differently in desktop vs online version & that makes using the product a bit more confusing.

Pros

Drag and drop options for making interactive charts, graphs, and dashboards. The interface is very very user-friendly to technical and non-technical users. We can figure out various data using managing filters. We can connect Tableau from various data sources

Cons

Limited charts, graph options. Limited connector options, high pricing

Pros

This tool helps me make some analysis about the pipelines that I have on my company.

Cons

The fact that sometimes, the tool would freeze, but it rarely happens

Pros

I think the most imapctful thing about Tableau is the real time fast processing of files, it makes it insanely easy to update source files whenever you're working with data in real time. Dashboard making process is really well thought and easy for the first timer.

Cons

I think the collaboration-features could be improved, we did some search and had to help various team members with configuration on collab files, making the process not as smooth as it could have been.

Pros

Tableau is incredibly capable for reporting purposes.

Cons

It can very slow to load certain reports and it’s not the most user-friendly of products

Pros

- Very intuitive way o assemble data, no need for programming or special commands
- Easily change data from numeric to alphanumeric
- The most common and useful charts are available
- Easy to breakdown data into several clusters
- I once plotted 6 parameters in a 2 dimensional chart: X, Y, bubble size, color, name, icon
- You can build special read-only docs with the functionality to be read by Tableu Reader (as in acrobat reader)
- You can customize label, axis, trend and references lines

Cons

- Eventually some very specific charts are not there as chord, tornado, tree maps, nodes, gauges, alluvial diagram, dendograms
- Even with all the clustering, it lacks statistical analysis as Anova, hypothesis test between two set of data, normal probability plot

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Power BI

Reasons for Choosing Tableau

More easy to use, I can do my charts in less time and with less steps

Switched From

Microsoft Power BI

Reasons for Switching to Tableau

It requires less time to make charts and analysis compared with the other options

Pros

Tableau is an incredibly powerful and user-friendly data visualization tool. It is incredibly easy to use and provides incredibly powerful visualizations that can help users better understand their data. The drag-and-drop interface makes it incredibly easy to build complex visualizations with minimal effort. Additionally, Tableau has a wide variety of features that give users the ability to customize their visualizations to their needs.

Cons

One of the drawbacks of Tableau is that it can be quite expensive for larger organizations. Additionally, the user interface is not as intuitive as some of its competitors, which can make it difficult for new users to learn. Finally, Tableau does not have the ability to perform advanced analytics, which can be a limitation for some users.

Pros

Tableau is one of the best business intelligence tools available in the market. The visual interface is really good and easy to use. The entire aspect of building dashboards with ease, setting up alerts is really good.
The features available in desktop version are really good and caters to most of the requirements.

Cons

A few areas where Tableau can improve are:
1) Navigating between multiple sheets is sometimes a tedious process. Something can be done if a user wants to move multiple sheets here and there in the workbook.
2) Add more features to Tableau Explorer - a lot of features are available in Tableau Creator/desktop version which are important for creating dashboards. Those should be added to Online version as well
3) Integration with files stored in AWS S3 is not available right now - direct integration should be available.

Alternatives Considered

Sisense

Reasons for Switching to Tableau

Better pricing Better feature Better integration with databases

Pros

I love amount of features they have as compared to it's competitors. It just makes it so easy to integrate data within the software.

Cons

I don't like the fact that it has lesser functionalities when I comes to coding, preferably Python.

Alternatives Considered

Qlik Sense

Reasons for Choosing Tableau

It's just a lot better when it comes to the features.

Switched From

Microsoft Power BI

Reasons for Switching to Tableau

Sheerly due to the features offered.

Pros

Tableau seamlessly integrates with Salesforce and allows us to create beautiful reports and dashboards. Prior to this, we relied on Salesforce for all reporting and we found it pretty limiting or difficult to set-up. With Tableau, it's been very easy to see all of our reports in one place. I love that you can toggle on certain filters too to change the dashboards easily rather than having to edit the whole thing. We also have ours set to auto refresh daily, which saves us time. I always found that refreshing my reports or dashboards on Salesforce took some time, but with Tableau this process has been sped up.

Cons

I have yet to encounter any difficulties with this software. The process has been pretty smooth so far.

Pros

The ability to create and visualize sets of data in a number of different ways, and tailor it to your liking something very powerful about the tool that really stands out. Having one set of data and being able to visualize and paint of a picture of that data in two different ways side by side in one dashboard really stands out for me.

Cons

The time it has taken to get in touch with customer support at times when there are urgent issues has been a frustration and has prevented our team from being able to troubleshoot a few different technical product issues in a timely manner.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Power BI

Reasons for Switching to Tableau

Based on user reviews, through product demos and feedback on the initial product walkthrough, I found the solution to be tailored more to our teams needs.

Pros

The wide range of chart types, maps, and graphs allows me to present complex information in a visually appealing and understandable way. The intuitive drag-and-drop interface empowers me to create stunning visualizations without needing to rely on extensive coding or technical expertise. One standout feature of Tableau is its interactive dashboards. I can consolidate multiple visualizations and key metrics into a single, dynamic view. Being able to explore and interact with the data directly on the dashboard, applying filters, and drilling down into specific details, provides me with a comprehensive understanding of trends and patterns. The level of interactivity offered by Tableau truly engages my curiosity and helps me uncover insights that would have otherwise remained hidden.

Cons

While Tableau offers an array of powerful features, there is a slight learning curve involved in mastering its advanced functionalities. As a beginner, I found myself needing to invest time in understanding the intricacies of certain features, such as statistical analysis and forecasting. Although Tableau provides resources and a supportive community, a more user-friendly onboarding experience or interactive tutorials would have been beneficial.

Pros

I have been using Tableau Desktop for over five years now and I still get excited about it. First, Tableau is so easy to learn and use--the intuitive interface allows even first-time users to create amazing visualizations. Second, Tableau is a time saver. What used to take me weeks now takes days and what used to take days now takes minutes. Third, Tableau is versatile. There are many different chart types available, and with the ability to tweak everything from size to font to color, your imagination is the only limit. Fourth, Tableau is always evolving and improving. With each update, Tableau adds new features and capabilities that continuously make my job easier to perform. The software is capable of connecting with data in many different formats from spreadsheets and SQL to PDF's and spatial files, making it useful for any field or company that works with data. I could go on and on about the benefits of using Tableau, but the best way to understand my enthusiasm is to try the product--it speaks for itself!

Cons

Sometimes large data files can take several minutes to load. Tableau allows for the creation of extracts to speed up the process, but the initial upload still takes time. Tableau also does not have an auto-save feature, which has caused me to lose work on several occasions.

Pros

I used to use Access and Excel to create reports on data aggregation and analysis of the current situation, which changed every day, and I had to repeat the same tasks over and over again each time. However, since I started to use Tableau, the freshness of the most important data has not deteriorated, and I can visually view the data reflecting almost real-time data. The basic operation is not difficult for beginners. The basic operations are easy to get used to, even for beginners, and it is not that difficult to get started. I can organize data that Excel can't handle and put it together in a way that is easy to understand, and I can use the UI to cross-tabulate, graph, and visualize changes in numerical values, making it very convenient to use. Another advantage is that no knowledge of SQL or other programming languages is required to handle the data. Since visualization can be done interactively, which is usually difficult when there is a considerable amount of data, it is easy to make considerations based on the data.
Since it is possible to quickly change the chart (change the aggregation unit, change the axis, change the filter, etc.), it is easy to get new insights since it is stress-free to look at the data, consider the results, and change the approach again. Data visualization that involves aggregation is powerful anyway.

Cons

I would like to see a more complete set of manuals. Statistical knowledge is not necessary, but some of the expressions on the screen are difficult to interpret, and it takes time to get used to them. The visualization is not intuitive, and when you try to do something a little more elaborate, it has its own quirks, and I think it requires training to make the visualization look the way you want. As for the display format of the graph, you can easily switch the format by selecting from the palette, but it is difficult to find the menu for things like drawing auxiliary lines. Sometimes it takes a long time to load the data, so it would be very helpful if that could be improved. It doesn't depend on the size of the data or the environment of the PC, so I would really like to see this improved. It tends to be very slow due to slow loading of data and loading every time you switch tabs. It is not suitable for advanced analytical simulations such as statistical analysis or predictive modeling. It is only a visualization tool.
I would like to see more options for license types and prices. The price hurdle is too high, so please make it easier to introduce.

Pros

It has amazing data visualization capabilities. Working for an organization where mostly reporting and visualization done on excel, When Tableau was introduced to our team and has been so much beneficial for us. You can create a scintillating and self-explanatory dashboard using this which is easily understandable by higher management even if they don't have any technical knowledge.

Tableau can handle a large number of datasets also very easily and that dataset can be easily visualized without facing any performance issue. One thing which I like the most about tableau is report scheduling where your reports can be updated automatically every day.

Another thing which i love about tableau is that multiple and different kind of data sources can be easily connected at one place.

Cons

Till now nothing that hinders me while working on this tool as its meeting all my expectations.

Pros

1. Tableau is one of the widely accepted software. It is being used by every 8/10 data-driven companies for managing and representing large amounts of data.
2. Ready to use tools which can produce Senior Leadership level reports/ dashboards.
3. Supports channels for real-time feeding data directly into the dashboards which removes the requirement of manual creating of reports.
4. Capable of producing interactive reports which are highly liked and appreciated by Senior Leaders of any organisation.
5. Supports multiple export methods - Tableau specific dashboards, Generic Dashboards, PDFs, Spreadsheets and even PowerPoint presentations. So this gives the user flexibility to share the reports/ dashboard in whatever form they would like to.

Cons

1. Starting to produce reports for Senior Management via Tableau would take quite an amount of effort in the start. You need to learn and then setup a lot of things in the start, but once done, you can use those blueprints for all the future reports.
2. A number of formulas are supported in Tableau, but you need to have a good grasp of how to use those and input the correct parameters, else Dashboards will show data which is not correct in nature.
3. The user interface is not that user-friendly, and for a new user, it can become overwhelming at times. The feature set is powerful, but since the usage is complex, it becomes challenging for the users to find correct options and use them correctly.

Pros

Tableau has many great features but my favorite is its intuitive working which enables first-time users to quickly learn its basic functionality and gradually learn some tricks along the way.

Tableau's connectivity to Excel, sharepoint, APIs, google sheets, text/csv files, databases - SQL, oracle etc covers pretty much all bases for my organisation's needs. I have also been using Tableau Prep from the suite to scrub data while recording each step along the way which is a great feature that helps with reproducibility.
The Tableau online community has been a big help troubleshooting my issues and providing inspiration through showcased works.

Cons

Some of the API connections (e.g. with Safety culture) are not as seamless when compared to the competitor product - Microsoft PBI.

Pros

• Awesome BI Tool
• Very User-friendly
• Pretty visualization
• Easy to ramp up. Even new users can get to the speed really fast
• Tableau Reader is free - so developers can make it and anyone can view it for free
• Creating Interactive Dashboards and Storyboards is an awesome way to tell a story with the data - Great for presentations!
• While you can have only limited developer licenses but pretty much anyone in your organization can view or even interact with Tableau reports on the server - which is very nice if your audience is huge. Easy to export data/reports in Excel and PDF.

Cons

• Not much flexible for numeric/tabular reports, if you need a BI Tool for Finance reports - you really need this part!
• If you are building a tabular report with numbers you will miss few very basic and must have things - assigning row numbers. There is no such feature to append row numbers.
• In tabular reports, your hierarchy will remain fixed for every section. You can't have 2 rows in section and 3 in other. All secitions will be rigid.

Pros

How easily it can retrieve the data from worksheets and sql server is really amazing. Once done it is easy to publish or put this into production. I like the capabilities it has to offer on how to visualize data with simple chart techniques. Also hover over option helps to provide more details for a data point either by calculated field or with an picture.

Cons

Fewer time it becomes difficult to process larger amount of data and it does not offer support to google big query. So manual extraction or an intermediate source has to be used.

Pros

Tableau is accessible and easy to use across teams with various levels of technical ability. You can build the simplest of tables or bar charts, or go all in with dynamic stories, automated data pipelines, email reporting, alerts, etc. The ability to automate graphs/charts with alerts and email output has streamlined our entire analytics reporting process and saves hours per person per week. It's the kind of tool you don't fully appreciate until you use it, and almost all teams could benefit from a dedicated tool that goes beyond Excel for all things visual.

Cons

One small annoyance is that alignments can be tricky when using multiple tables or charts in a single dashboard. Trying to adjust column widths across tables can be especially challenging. This comes up a lot with client-facing reports where we want to present multiple tables with a clean, cohesive look. I'd also love to see more analytical features built in. For example, we use Tableau to visually demonstrate conversion rates for A/B testing, but there isn't an easy (first-party) way to perform any kind of A/B test (or show the results from one) in the dashboard.