TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Power BI

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Power BI is a visualization and data discovery tool from Microsoft. It allows users to convert data into visuals and graphics, visually explore and analyze data, collaborate on interactive dashboards and reports, and scale across their organization with built-in governance and security.

    $10

    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 Power BITableau Cloud
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    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 Power BITableau Cloud
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    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 Power BITableau Cloud
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    We have used Microsoft Power BI for almost seven years. When looking for a reporting platform, remember that you are about to make a long-term choice. Moving reports to another system isn't easy. If you have, for example, more than 100 reports, the move to a different platform …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Microsoft PowerBI is easy to use, has leadership alignment, and is liked by everyone using it in the past and in the current setup. Thus, we decided to continue renewing Microsoft Power BI. We had also evaluated some competitors, but those platforms were not as easy to onboard. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    In the case of Tableau or Google Charts, thay have a lack on customization and on the options they have. For Qlik Sense, you need to spend too much time on the data model for doing quick tests or data validation when comparing it to Microsoft Power BI. Also, Microsoft Power BI …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Power BI is a great tool to create reports and share data. However, it does not have the budgeting, forecasting and predictive modeling tools we need for our Financial Planning and Analysis part of our business. So we also implemented Vena for our financial reporting, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    I selected Power BI because it is the best in all because of its ecosystem and its ability to connect with multiple data source like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SQL Server, web, analysis services etc. Moreover, its available on both Cloud and Desktop with some pro and cons …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Compared to Amazon QuickSight, if your dataset is coming from Amazon S3, it is much easier to just use QuickSight. However, if you are building a pipeline using prefect to transfer data, MS Power BI would potentially be a good tool to use and visualize the data by some none …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    We selected Power BI because we could push a single source out to a group of people for instant viewing and reporting. They could select from pre-created filters that we selected, but also land on a default view. It's intuitive to use and gets the job done in an enterprise …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Even though Power BI is not the only tool we use, is the most powerful one! Its easiness to integrate information and directly import queries makes it super easy to set up and start using it. Also, it's much faster handling a lot of data compared to other products like microstra…
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    The membership is cheaper compared to others. Great UX.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    MS Power BI is a bit more rigid than Tableau in terms of dynamic visualizations, but we chose it because we were already using the MS ecosystem. In terms of sharing and integrating with our MS Suite, MS Power BI was better in terms of licensing and integrations with our …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    We liked Power BI over the other options we looked at (primarily Tableau) because of its super easy integration with other Microsoft products like Dynamics 365, MS Server, as well as desktop applications that we use company-wide that are base don Windows. The price was also a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Our team selected Power BI because its features rival that of Tableau's, we are a Microsoft O365 company and the price is much more competitive.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Both do a good job from a presentation layer. I feel that PowerBI has better data modeling capabilities, and Tableau has a slight edge on the visualizations and end-user experience. Power BI is more attractive to most of our B2B clients, and Tableau is more attractive for B2C …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Microsoft BI tool does a better job than most of the other software. The reason is excellent visualizations and its capability to connect with various other software and data sources. Tableau does a better job when it comes to tutorials and being more user-friendly. Also …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Cheaper than Tableau but at the cost of certain functionality. However, PowerBI has an active developer forum and releases updates every month.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Power BI is usually the cheapest solution and most user-friendly for most people (since we are all used to the Microsoft Suite). However the connectivity to non-Microsoft soft tools (databases and data analysis tools) are somewhat limited, especially when compared to its …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Power BI, Tableau, and QlikView are the market leaders when analyzed on Gartner`s magic quadrant for business intelligence tool. One of the critical drawbacks of all these visionary tools is the absence or expensive back end that are needed to support the infrastructure. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    We selected Power BI because it had more flexibility in modelling/measurement definition, excellent per-user pricing, easy self-implementation, integration with our other Office 365 tools, and easy distribution of content to others in the organization.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI
    Power BI performs quite well in comparison to it's competitor's products. We compared it mainly to GoodData and Tableau. Power BI has a great pricing. It's affordable and efficient with mid-sized datasets. Hence many companies go for it. Competitive products like Tableau are …
    Incentivized
    Tableau
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    In my opinion, while Microsoft Power BI is a bit easier to build reports and dashboards with in part to its shared traits and connectivity with other Microsoft products, Tableau Online allows for a greater depth of customization, data sourcing, and most of all the sharing of …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    There are lots of excellent products are available in market for data analysis like SAP BusinessObjects, IBM Cognos, MicroStrategy Analytics, Microsoft Power BI, etc. I found other products are specific to their tools like SAP BusinessObjects suits great with SAP Products …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau works quite differently when compared to Microsoft Power BI. When using Tableau to generate reports, you are required to define your data field first, run the query, and only then format the visualisation options you wish to include in your reports. This is quite …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    We formally used Microsoft Power BI as our reporting software throughout our organization. I believe Tableau Cloud is a step above Power BI and is our preferred program. The end reports are look cleaner and are easier to work with than Power BI. There are more options and …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau Cloud is ery powerful and user friendly with minimal cost when compared with other BI tools.Its robust features like switching toggles, supporting SQL queries for buiding charts and all stands out as the best.It reduces time in creating difficult and complex dashbords …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau Cloud offers easier ways to make the content browsable by users. It also offers more flexible ways to set up self-service governance. Standard filtering functionalities are easier to use.
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    It seems more robust then the other platforms. There is a lot you can do from merging many different data sets together by joining them at like points, to creating visualizations of the data, or by showcasing some important data to any number of people within your organization. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau has a way easier Intuitive UI compare to Power BI or Amplitude. AMplitude is great since anyone could create their own dashboard, but building it it's a different thing.
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    When weighing the pros and cons of Tableau Online vs. SAP ERP, two key considerations emerged as clear winners. SAP ERP is a powerful data purification tool, but it doesn't measure up to the competition in terms of data presentation. When it came to data visualization and …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    • Breadth of services offered is good with Tableau Online
    • Tableau Online offers advanced analytics and visualisations with easy implementation
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau Online provides better data visualizations (especially when comparing out of the box visualizations that are available) than MS Power BI and historically we have connected more of our data sources to Tableau vs. other platforms like Google Analytics.
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau provides more robust system to perform data analytics as compared to the alternatives like Power BI and Qlik. Moreover, Tableaus is super simple to use and is very reliable in terms of its connection with databases. The ability to manipulate data is another big reason …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau has a wider adoption than the competition. Tableau Online can support interfaces built on Tableau.
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Spotfire can do similar things, but Tableau's plots are prettier in my opinion. However, if one needs to perform complex calculations on the data first, Spotfire can do it better than Tableau. So, it depends on the task at hand.
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau is among the top applications out there in the space and at this level. It really comes down to personal preference and data visualization goals. All of the top products I listed do their job very well and are packed with features. I prefer Tableau online for analyzing …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau does a great job compared to all of these mentioned tools. Other tools also have a great shape-up of dashboards but obviously all have their advantages and disadvantages. The reason Tableau has an edge over all the other tools is because of its excellent visual design …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    I believe Tableau is better for less experienced users. It is a straighforward interface for checking the dashboards.
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    This is user friendly, no coding required, easy to set up, easy to put data into, has a connector to our CRM/ERP so there are low barriers to get data into. Tableau is really the smart and easy choice in the business intelligence software area. Ease of deployment and the …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau Cloud is very easy to create entire company's Data visualization and dashboards
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    101 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    23 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    96 Answers
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    18 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    103 Answers
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    21 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    63 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    67 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft Power BITableau Cloud
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Microsoft Power BI and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.8
    140 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.0
    69 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports8.5120 Ratings7.051 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards10.0140 Ratings8.069 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates8.0128 Ratings6.058 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Microsoft Power BI and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.2
    140 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    6.9
    69 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Drill-down analysis7.0139 Ratings8.069 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities9.0138 Ratings6.066 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages8.0103 Ratings6.043 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration9.0135 Ratings7.567 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Microsoft Power BI and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.6
    134 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.1
    67 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Publish to Web8.0129 Ratings7.063 Ratings
    Publish to PDF9.0122 Ratings7.562 Ratings
    Report Versioning9.0102 Ratings7.050 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.0104 Ratings8.055 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers9.074 Ratings6.034 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Microsoft Power BI and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.7
    136 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    6.8
    65 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.0131 Ratings7.562 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.0122 Ratings6.561 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics9.0102 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 Power BI and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.6
    127 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.0
    64 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)9.0121 Ratings7.058 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model9.0102 Ratings7.051 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)10.0111 Ratings7.054 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control7.01 Ratings6.52 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)8.394 Ratings7.549 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Microsoft Power BI and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.0
    117 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    6.4
    54 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access8.0111 Ratings5.552 Ratings
    Mobile Application7.793 Ratings6.039 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.7112 Ratings7.046 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Microsoft Power BI and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Microsoft Power BI
    8.4
    80 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Tableau Cloud
    6.4
    36 Ratings
    20% below category average
    REST API8.072 Ratings6.031 Ratings
    Javascript API9.956 Ratings6.529 Ratings
    iFrames8.055 Ratings6.529 Ratings
    Java API8.046 Ratings6.026 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)8.163 Ratings6.530 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.444 Ratings7.029 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft Power BITableau 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 Power BITableau Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (142 ratings)
    8.0
    (70 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.9
    (58 ratings)
    8.0
    (23 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (53 ratings)
    8.7
    (20 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.5
    (82 ratings)
    8.0
    (49 ratings)
    Data Sources
    9.0
    (81 ratings)
    8.3
    (49 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft Power BITableau Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Has significantly improved collation of data and visualisation especially with business across Europe. Has given me the ability to see the Site availability at the click of a button to see which Site is in the "money" and seize opportunities based on Market data
    Incentivized
    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
    • Options for data source connections are immense. Not just which sources, but your options for *how* the data is brought in.
    • Constant updates (this is both good and bad at times).
    • User friendliness. I can get the data connections set up and draft some quick visuals, then release to the target audience and let them expand on it how they want to.
    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
    • It would be easier for users could Microsoft Power BI and Excel used the same programming languages.
    • Would like to see the online version of Microsoft Power BI be as powerful as the desktop version.
    • Publishing a Microsoft Power BI file online and then having to save the file is somewhat redundant.
    • Would like to export each page or chart as an image.
    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 Power BI is an excellent and scalable tool. It has a learning curve, but once you get past that, the sky is the limit and you can build from the most simple to the most complex dashboards. I have built everything from simple reports with only a few data points to complex reports with many pages and advanced filtering.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    The tool's capacity to handle complex data sources.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    Automating reporting has reduced manual data processing by 50-70%, freeing up analysts for higher-value tasks. A finance team that previously spent 20+ hours per week on Excel-based reports now does it in minutes with Microsoft Power BI's automated Real-time dashboards have shortened decision cycles by 30-40%, enabling leadership to react quickly to sales trends, operational bottlenecks, and customer behavior.
    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
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    It is a fantastic tool, you can do almost everything related with data and reports, it is a perfect substitutive of Power Point and Excel with a high evolution and flexibility, and also it is very friendly and easy to share. I think all companies should have Power BI (or other BI tool) in their software package and if they are in the MS Suite, for sure Power BI should be the one due to all the benefits of the MS ecosystem.
    Incentivized
    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
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    I wasn't part of the implementation team
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Power BI is free. If I didn't want to create a custom platform (i.e. my organization insisted on an existing platform that I *had* to use), I'd use Microsoft Power BI. For any start-up or SMB, I'd just use Claude & Grok to build it quickly, also for free. Would not pay for Tableau or Sigma anymore. Not worth it at all.
    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
    • Power BI usage reduced the effort of analytical reports creation by about 80%
    • Empowered all the level of employee to be more vigilant of the data and business insights, gained the profit of 8% overall.
    • AI-powered predictive analytics improved forecasting accuracy by 17%, that topped the overall sales.
    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
    ScreenShots

    Microsoft Power BI Screenshots

    Screenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Turns insights into impact for business usersScreenshot of Power BI integrates easily with Microsoft 365Screenshot of Microsoft Power BI - AI-Powered CapabilitiesScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Copilot can be used to create reportsScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Data HubScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Scales as organizational needs grow