Azure Data Factory vs. Tableau Prep

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Data Factory
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's Azure Data Factory is a service built for all data integration needs and skill levels. It is designed to allow the user to easily construct ETL and ELT processes code-free within the intuitive visual environment, or write one's own code. Visually integrate data sources using more than 80 natively built and maintenance-free connectors at no added cost. Focus on data—the serverless integration service does the rest.N/A
Tableau Prep
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Prep enables users to get to the analysis phase faster by helping them quickly combine, shape, and clean their data. According to the vendor, a direct and visual experience helps provide users with a deeper understanding of their data, smart features make data preparation simple, and integration with the Tableau analytical workflow allows for faster speed to insight. Tableau Prep allows users to connect to data on-premises or in the cloud, whether it’s a database or a…
$15
per month billed annually per user
Pricing
Azure Data FactoryTableau Prep
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Viewer
$15
per month billed annually per user
Explorer
$42
per month billed annually per user
Creator
$70
per month billed annually per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Data FactoryTableau Prep
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure Data FactoryTableau Prep
Features
Azure Data FactoryTableau Prep
Data Source Connection
Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
9.0
Ratings
7% above category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
Connect to traditional data sources9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Transformations
Comparison of Data Transformations features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
8.5
Ratings
4% above category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
Simple transformations9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Complex transformations8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Modeling
Comparison of Data Modeling features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
7.2
Ratings
10% below category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
Data model creation8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Metadata management7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Business rules and workflow7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Collaboration6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Testing and debugging7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Governance
Comparison of Data Governance features of Product A and Product B
Azure Data Factory
7.5
Ratings
8% below category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
Integration with data quality tools7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with MDM tools8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Azure Data FactoryTableau Prep
Small Businesses
Skyvia
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Score 9.9 out of 10
IBM SPSS Modeler
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Score 7.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.0 out of 10
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.0 out of 10
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure Data FactoryTableau Prep
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
5.3
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Data FactoryTableau Prep
Likelihood to Recommend
In a data pipeline, you will be able to add different kinds of activities for example connect from your on-premise SFTP and move CSV files to storage accounts. As well data factory has its own data flow if you are an ETL developer who experimented with maybe you have worked with SSIS, thus, you will start quickly with this new feature of the data factory.
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Tableau Prep is a very powerful tool when it comes to creating workflows to monitor each stage for data analysis and quality issues. Also, it is convenient to explore the data with the wealth of operators and checking work at each stage of the process. Also, some areas that would help is if there are more types of automation provided.
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Pros
  • Creating ETL and ELT workflows as well as orchestrating and monitoring pipelines without writing any code.
  • Hybrid data integration is easily and agilely possible through this software.
  • It has lot of various useful components
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  • Display the raw data coming in from the data warehouse
  • Point out situations that might be erroneous
  • Show the distribution of raw data figures
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Cons
  • Learning curve for pipeline creation interface.
  • Alerting isn't necessarily built in. Had to work around this to meet team needs.
  • With GIT enabled, some features can only be done via git, while some need to be done via the portal.
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  • Use of Macros within Workflow (and more types of automation)
  • Join Editor also giving a SQL Update Query
  • More types of visuals
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
It is a valuable tool for generating and cleaning files for multiple purposes.
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Usability
So far product has performed as expected. We were noticing some performance issues, but they were largely Synapse related. This has led to a shift from Synapse to Databricks. Overall this has delayed our analytic platform. Once databricks becomes fully operational, Azure Data Factory will be critical to our environment and future success.
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It works well and is user friendly for the basics but needs more options for bring in data (using SQL queries for example) and export format options.
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Support Rating
We have not had need to engage with Microsoft much on Azure Data Factory, but they have been responsive and helpful when needed. This being said, we have not had a major emergency or outage requiring their intervention. The score of seven is a representation that they have done well for now, but have not proved out their support for a significant issue
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I have not really had to reach out for any kind of customer support for Tableau Prep, so I can't really say. However, the support that Tableau has given for their other products has been great, so I would assume it would be the same here. They are also constantly adding new features and providing software updates, and that is always a plus.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Live connections to cloud services (Google Sheets for example) and cloud hosted databases (cloud hosted SIS for example) for scheduled flows are not supported
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Alternatives Considered
Azure Data Factory fits well into our overall systems architecture where we already utilize largely Azure services and also Microsoft based products in the on-premises environment. I think cost structure is also very competitive with Azure Data Factory. Most services provide a visual interface for designing ETL workflows, but our team found Azure Data Factory's interface more intuitive.
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Tableau Prep is covered in our license whereas Alteryx required additional fees and a separate license. Tableau Prep is similar to Tableau Desktop which a lot of our team is comfortable with so it wasn't difficult to get a feel for Tableau Prep. However, Alteryx would have been a totally new platform.
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Return on Investment
  • Limiting the amount of data moving up and down from the cloud for cloud-native applications.
  • Overall simple to use interface which is actually easier for a first time ETL developer than SSIS.
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  • Quicker data sets for online reports
  • More efficient data cleaning Ad Hoc reports
  • Costly if using data management to schedule data pull and cleaning (priced per viewer accounts not creator accounts)
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ScreenShots