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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft BI (MSBI)

    Score7.1 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft BI is a business intelligence product used for data analysis and generating reports on server-based data. It features unlimited data analysis capacity with its reporting engine, SQL Server Reporting Services alongside ETL, master data management, and data cleansing.

    $14

    per month per user

    Tableau Cloud

    Score7.9 out of 10
    N/ATableau Cloud (formerly Tableau Online) is a self-service analytics platform that is fully hosted in the cloud. Tableau Cloud enables users to publish dashboards and invite colleagues to explore hidden opportunities with interactive visualizations and accurate data, from any browser or mobile device.

    $15

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Tableau Cloud
    Editions & Modules
    Power BI Pro
    $14
    per month per user
    Power BI Premium
    $24
    per month per user
    Tableau Viewer
    $15
    per month billed annually per user
    Enterprise Viewer
    $35
    per month billed annually per user
    Tableau Explorer
    $42
    per month billed annually per user
    Enterprise Explorer
    $70
    per month billed annually per user
    Tableau Creator
    $75
    per month billed annually per user
    Enterprise Creator
    $115
    per month billed annually per user
    Tableau+
    Contact Sales
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Tableau Cloud
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Tableau Cloud
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    Microsoft BI is very well suited to implement reporting and visualization within departments. Choosing Microsoft BI over tools like Tableau is the variety of third party apps it extracts data from. This functionality is limited in Tableau as it digests data from large data …
    Incentivized
    Tableau
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau Online is the best tool over Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets and Charts and Microsoft BI because it integrates most easily with Salesforce. We selected Tableau Online because it is easy to use and it integrates easily with Salesforce. There are other tools out there, but …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Both Tableau Online and BI solutions provide visualizations. In Power BI we choose the visualization first, then drag the data into it. In Tableau, we select the data and switch between visualizations on the fly. It’s easier to jump between visualizations in Tableau. Power BI …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud

    My work environment uses both Tableau Online, MicroStrategy & SSRS in parallel. Tableau is much closer to the SSRS in terms of visualization tool where as MicroStrategy is an enterprise data modeling and reporting tool.

    WHY SELECT TABLEAU ONLINE

    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    11 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    23 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    18 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    11 Answers
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    21 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    9 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Tableau Cloud
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.7
    48 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.0
    69 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports9.041 Ratings7.051 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.048 Ratings8.069 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates9.046 Ratings6.058 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.8
    48 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    6.9
    69 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Drill-down analysis9.043 Ratings8.069 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.048 Ratings6.066 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages9.038 Ratings6.043 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration9.048 Ratings7.567 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    9.0
    47 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.1
    67 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Publish to Web9.043 Ratings7.063 Ratings
    Publish to PDF9.043 Ratings7.562 Ratings
    Report Versioning9.039 Ratings7.050 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling9.042 Ratings8.055 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers9.023 Ratings6.034 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    9.0
    47 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    6.8
    65 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.046 Ratings7.562 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization9.043 Ratings6.561 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics9.041 Ratings6.553 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining9.01 Ratings6.52 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    9.0
    48 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.0
    64 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)9.045 Ratings7.058 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model9.042 Ratings7.051 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.045 Ratings7.054 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control9.01 Ratings6.52 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)9.027 Ratings7.549 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.5
    38 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    6.4
    54 Ratings
    21% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access8.035 Ratings5.552 Ratings
    Mobile Application8.026 Ratings6.039 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile10.035 Ratings7.046 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Microsoft BI (MSBI) and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)
    8.8
    20 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    6.4
    36 Ratings
    20% below category average
    REST API9.018 Ratings6.031 Ratings
    Javascript API9.018 Ratings6.529 Ratings
    iFrames9.017 Ratings6.529 Ratings
    Java API9.016 Ratings6.026 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)9.017 Ratings6.530 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.016 Ratings7.029 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Tableau Cloud
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score9.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Tableau Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (72 ratings)
    8.0
    (70 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (25 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.9
    (14 ratings)
    8.0
    (23 ratings)
    Availability
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (15 ratings)
    8.7
    (20 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    6.9
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.6
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.5
    (42 ratings)
    8.0
    (49 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.4
    (41 ratings)
    8.3
    (49 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft BI (MSBI)Tableau Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Microsoft BI is well suited for Stream analytics, easy data integration, report creation and UI/UX designs (limited but what all available are great ones) Microsoft BI may be less appropriate for handling huge number of datasets and difficult queries. It may also be difficult for a company with heavy data.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    If you're using Tableau as the primary BI tool, then Tableau Cloud is well suited to publish and share the results with a wide(r) audience. It is well suited for various degrees of self-service proficiency, from pure consumers of analytical work to more advanced users who can use web editing for smaller or larger adjustments, and even for desktop power users who will publish their work to Tableau Cloud. It has many good ways to organize the content and make it easily accessible via search, favorites, folders, collections ("playlists for your data"), or history ("recents"). It might not be ideally suited if there are many on-prem sources to be used (even though there are options to connect them) or if you have very special requirements regarding custom server setup, which is limited in a shared cloud environment like Tableau Cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Comparatively easy to use compared to other data analytics solutions, collaborating with other colleagues on data work is simple.
    • Using Visual Studio for database, ETL, reporting, and analytics development save time and money.
    • Transfer of data from one application to another via Excel and comparison of data attributes between applications
    • Dashboard functionality, as well as Python support, are available, allowing you to add additional charts and graphs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    • Tableau Online is completely cloud based and that's why the reports and dashboards are accessible even on the go. One doesn't always need to access the office laptop to access the reports.
    • The visualizations are interactive and one can quickly change the level at which they want to view the information. For example, one person might be more interested in looking at the country level performances rather than client level. This is intuitive and one doesn't need to create multiple reports for the same.
    • The feature to ask questions in plain vanilla English language is great and helpful. For quick adhoc fact checks one can simply type what they are looking for and the Natural Language Programming algorithms under the hood parse the query, interpret it and then fetch the results accordingly in a visual form.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • The race to perfect gathering of Non-Traditional datasets is on-going; with Microsoft arguably not the leader of the pack in this category.
    • Licensing options for PowerBI visualizations may be a factor. I.e. if you need to implement B2C PowerBI visualizations, the cost is considerably high especially for startups.
    • Some clients are still resistant putting their data on the cloud, which restricts lots of functionality to Power BI.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    • Can be a steep learning curve for new users
    • Modeling and building algorithms aren't always intuitive and take some testing/retesting to ensure it's working as it should
    • Inability to integrate easily with our HRIS platform. Reports are pulled from HRIS at various intervals and uploaded into Tableau
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    Microsoft BI is fundamental to our suite of BI applications. That being said, Northcraft Analytics is focused on delighting our customers, so if the underlying factors of our decision change, we would choose to re-write our BI applications on a different stack. Luckily, mathematics are the fundamental IP of our technology... and is portable across all BI platforms for the foreseeable future.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    The tool's capacity to handle complex data sources.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    The Microsoft BI tools have great usability for both developers and end users alike. For developers familiar with Visual Studio, there is little learning curve. For those not, the single Visual Studio IDE means not having to learn separate tools for each component. For end-users, the web interface for SSRS is simple to navigate with intuitive controls. For ad-hoc analysis, Excel can connect directly to SSAS and provide a pivot table like experience which is familiar to many users. For database development, there is beginning to be some confusion, as there are now three tool choices (VS, SSMS, Azure Data Studio) for developers. I would like to see Azure Data Studio become the superset of SSMS and eventually supplant it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    Based on comments from our clients, I awarded it this grade. Non-technical customers frequently compliment us on the ease with which they can utilize Tableau Online. Usability is rarely a source of contention amongst our customers. Few complaints have come from me as a user of our internal products.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    The product has been reliable.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Microsoft
    SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) can drag at times. We created two report servers and placed them under an F5 load balancer. This configuration has worked well. We have seen sluggish performance at times due to the Windows Firewall.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    While support from Microsoft isn't necessarily always best of breed, you're also not paying the price for premium support that you would on other platforms. The strength of the stack is in the ecosystem that surrounds it. In contrast to other products, there are hundreds, even thousands of bloggers that post daily as well as vibrant user communities that surround the tool. I've had much better luck finding help with SQL Server related issues than I have with any other product, but that help doesn't always come directly from Microsoft.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    I have not had any issues that require customer support from Tableau at this time, which speaks well to Tableau. I have taken an online course with Tableau and it was very professional and well done, so based on that I would assume a similar level of quality for their customer service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Microsoft
    This training was more directed toward what the product was capable of rather than actual programming.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Microsoft
    I have used on-line training from Microsoft and from Pragmatic Works. I would recommend Pragmatic Works as the best way to get up to speed quickly, and then use the Microsoft on-line training to deep dive into specific features that you need to get depth with.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    We are a consulting firm and as such our best resources are always billing on client projects. Our internal implementation has weaknesses, but that's true for any company like ours. My rating is based on the product's ease of implementation.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    I wasn't part of the implementation team
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    We have used the built in ConnectWise Manager reports and custom reports. The reports provide static data. PowerBI shows us live data we can drill down into and easily adjust parameters. It's much more useful than a static PDF report.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    In determining whether to go with Tableau Online versus Alteryx, two important factors stood out in determining our go-to solution. First, while Alteryx is an impressive tool for data cleansing, it did not stack up in terms of data visualization capabilities. Tableau, on the other hand, provided us everything we needed in terms of visualizing our data and analytics. The second factor is cost. Well neither solution would be considered cheap, Tableau was the more cost effective solution for our needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • As a SaaS provider we see being able to provide self-service BI to our client users as a competitive advantage. In fact the MSSQL enabled BI is a contributing factor to many winning RFPs we have done for prospective client organisations.
    • However MSSQL BI requires extensive knowledge and skills to design and develop data warehouses & data models as a foundation to support business analysts and users to interrogate data effectively and efficiently. Often times we find having strong in-house MSSQL expertise is a bless.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    • When we release new products, we are now able to quickly see data and toggle between current periods and previous to see performance
    • Generating new reports requires less IT time to build
    • Data can be shared across many different device types
    • We now have integration where our customers can extract data from our software more easily-this was a big ask from our customers
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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