Google Charts vs. Tableau Desktop

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Charts
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Google Charts provides a way to visualize data on your website - for free. From simple line charts to complex hierarchical tree maps, the chart gallery provides a large number of ready-to-use chart types. The most common way to use Google Charts is with simple JavaScript that you embed in your web page.N/A
Tableau Desktop
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Desktop is a data visualization product from Tableau. It connects to a variety of data sources for combining disparate data sources without coding. It provides tools for discovering patterns and insights, data calculations, forecasts, and statistical summaries and visual storytelling.
$75
per month per user
Pricing
Google ChartsTableau Desktop
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Tableau
$75
per month per user
Tableau Enterprise
$115
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google ChartsTableau Desktop
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAll pricing plans are billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google ChartsTableau Desktop
Features
Google ChartsTableau Desktop
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
8.8
Ratings
8% above category average
Tableau Desktop
8.3
Ratings
2% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.10 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Customizable dashboards9.50 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.80 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
9.3
Ratings
14% above category average
Tableau Desktop
8.7
Ratings
8% above category average
Drill-down analysis8.60 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Formatting capabilities9.50 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages9.50 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.60 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
9.0
Ratings
8% above category average
Tableau Desktop
8.1
Ratings
3% below category average
Publish to Web9.50 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.60 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Report Versioning8.60 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.70 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.80 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
8.8
Ratings
10% above category average
Tableau Desktop
8.4
Ratings
5% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.90 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.80 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.80 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
8.8
Ratings
4% above category average
Tableau Desktop
8.7
Ratings
3% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.80 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.80 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.80 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.80 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
9.0
Ratings
14% above category average
Tableau Desktop
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access9.50 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Mobile Application9.60 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.70 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
8.8
Ratings
12% above category average
Tableau Desktop
9.0
Ratings
14% above category average
REST API8.90 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Javascript API8.80 Ratings9.00 Ratings
iFrames8.80 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Java API8.90 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.80 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.80 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google ChartsTableau Desktop
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.1 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google ChartsTableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.3
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
5.0
(0 ratings)
6.1
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.3
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Online Training
5.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google ChartsTableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
Google Charts is perfectly suited for most presentations that are data oriented. There's not much of a limit on the type of table or chart you can create, and being able to integrate with Google Sheets just makes things even easier if you've already got the data stored somewhere. It works well on desktop browsers, Iphones, and Android phones. The only drawback I've been able to find is for those that prefer to have a desktop application.
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The best scenario is definitely to collect data from several sources and create dedicated dashboards for specific recipients. However, I miss the possibility of explaining these reports in more detail. Sometimes, we order a report, and after half a year, we don't remember the meaning of some data (I know it's our fault as an organization, but the tool could force better practices).
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Pros
  • Google Charts is free so a terrific tool for universities and students
  • Provides new users that need charts an inventory and gallery of potential charts and types to visualize data
  • The software is useful to add charts and data for websites with limited effort but with success
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  • The Visualizations graphics are really good and the color options help in designing attractive charts. They help to convey more information and can be made interactive.
  • You can add filters with offer you to plug and play with values and understand different outcomes.
  • You can drag and drop options while creating charts and dashboards. also it is a very fluid layout.
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Cons
  • I would like a couple more introductory videos or a live chat option for when you run into an issue. I think this is a Google-wide problem, not only linked to Google Charts.
  • I have run into some issues with the Dynamic Data but also admittedly could potentially dive in deeper and investigate.
  • It would be great if Google Charts made it possible to integrate Google Chat into the platform.
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  • Formatting the data to work correctly in graphical presentations can be time consuming
  • Daily data extracts can run slowly depending on how much data is required and the source of the data
  • The desktop version is required for advanced functionality, editing on [the] Tableau server allows only limited features
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Likelihood to Renew
Google Charts is a good product. It's widely supported with deep documentation and a large community. But for me, it wasn't customizable enough. When we started with simple charts, it was great, but as we got deeper and more complex, our needs outgrew the library. If I was going forward, I would choose a more barebones library with more freedom and extensibility.
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Because right now its the best option out there (disclosure: I haven't used Qlikview or some of the other direct competitors of Tableau). The big investment is in Tableau Server not desktop. For the cost of the license of Tableau desktop, its a pretty good deal. You can hook it up to pretty much any data source easily. You can easily share the visualizations with your team/colleagues easily. Tableau Desktop is generally easy to use for business users. But the more advanced stuff is better suited for a analyst or someone with a IT/CS background.
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Usability
Requires knowledge of Javascript, which can be difficult for a beginner. A business analyst often isn't as technically minded as a developer so collaboration is often required to produce a correct chart for the purpose required. However, the customisation capable due to this creates much better looking charts compared to other tools.
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Tableau Desktop has proven to be a lifesaver in many situations. Once we've completed the initial setup, it's simple to use. It has all of the features we need to quickly and efficiently synthesize our data. Tableau Desktop has advanced capabilities to improve our company's data structure and enable self-service for our employees.
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Reliability and Availability
Google charts is always available and provides fast output.
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When used as a stand-alone tool, Tableau Desktop has unlimited uptime, which is always nice. When used in conjunction with Tableau Server, this tool has as much uptime as your server admins are willing to give it. All in all, I've never had an issue with Tableau's availability.
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Performance
Connectivity is occasionally very slow.
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Tableau Desktop's performance is solid. You can really dig into a large dataset in the form of a spreadsheet, and it exhibits similarly good performance when accessing a moderately sized Oracle database. I noticed that with Tableau Desktop 9.3, the performance using a spreadsheet started to slow around 75K rows by about 60 columns. This was easily remedied by creating an extract and pushing it to Tableau Server, where performance went to lightning fast
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Support Rating
Google Charts has a very good documentation that we can just go in there and find the stuff we need to implement our solutions on Google Charts. Plus, if we get stuck, we can also email the support and they are very responsive. So overall, the support is very satisfying.
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The Tableau Desktop's support team has been very helpful and tend to response very quickly. After all you have paid very premium price for the product and it goes to the services. This makes using the tool much easier for these who doesn't have such experience to get help quickly.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
It is admittedly hard to train a group of people with disparate levels of ability coming in, but the software is so easy to use that this is not a huge problem; anyone who can follow simple instructions can catch up pretty quickly.
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Online Training
The online training was solely done through self training on google's guide to charts.
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I think the training was good overall, but it was maybe stating the obvious things that a tech savvy young engineer would be able to pick up themselves too. However, the example work books were good and Tableau web community has helped me with many problems
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Implementation Rating
Easy to implement
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Time needs to be spent ahead of implementation to make sure data sources are set up and ready. Consultants need to understand the data sources and the goals before setting foot on-site. Installation is easy, learning to use it takes time. The training resources available are great.
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Alternatives Considered
In comparison to Microsoft Power BI, Google Charts has more ease of use for businesses who simply need a way to visually display their data from their reports. Although Power BI may be more robust in more complicated data compilation, Google Charts can still be able to do some of the basics that Power BI delivers.
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Tableau Desktop is clearly one of the best in the business. It has incredible capabilities, and many features are extremely useful. The intuitiveness of the dashboards and the graphical nature of the visualizations are widely used features and super helpful. One of the other benefits is that both programmers and non-programmers can equally explore and create their own opportunities, and seamless integration is possible.
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Scalability
Google Charts is essential for quick, easy, reporting. There are opportunities for advanced features.
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Tableau Desktop's scaleability is really limited to the scale of your back-end data systems. If you want to pull down an extract and work quickly in-memory, in my application it scaled to a few tens of millions of rows using the in-memory engine. But it's really only limited by your back-end data store if you have or are willing to invest in an optimized SQL store or purpose-built query engine like Veritca or Netezza or something similar.
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Return on Investment
  • teams were easily able to create charts and find out progress on our learning courses and thus take actionable insights to their managers, professors
  • students could also know their progress on various courses from one single view, same for instructors in terms of imparting education
  • sales team could learn which kind of courses sold more to focus more on those areas
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  • Easy to share and manage viewer access on a different level to help identify fraud.
  • Faster report generation, increased revenue, better decision-making, and data storytelling.
  • One-click access to business health and the ability to build/maintain more effective and efficient reports.
  • It's easy to share and even manage access to viewers on a different level, and reports are done in a more visual and storytelling manner.
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ScreenShots