SAS Visual Analytics vs. Tableau Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SAS Visual Analytics
Score 7.6 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
SAS Visual Analytics provides a complete platform for analytics visualization, enabling users to identify patterns and relationships in data that weren't initially evident. Interactive, self-service BI and reporting capabilities are combined with out-of-the-box advanced analytics so everyone can discover insights from any size and type of data, including text.N/A
Tableau Cloud
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Tableau 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 billed annually per user
Pricing
SAS Visual AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Editions & Modules
SAS Visual Analytics for SAS Cloud
$0
Annual By Users: 5, 10, 20
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
SAS Visual AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsSAS Visual Statistics and SAS Office Analytics are also available as add-ons.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SAS Visual AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Features
SAS Visual AnalyticsTableau Cloud
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAS Visual Analytics
8.3
Ratings
2% above category average
Tableau Cloud
7.0
Ratings
15% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates9.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAS Visual Analytics
8.8
Ratings
9% above category average
Tableau Cloud
6.9
Ratings
15% below category average
Drill-down analysis9.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration10.00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
SAS Visual Analytics
9.2
Ratings
10% above category average
Tableau Cloud
7.1
Ratings
16% below category average
Publish to Web9.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Report Versioning9.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling10.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers9.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
SAS Visual Analytics
9.7
Ratings
20% above category average
Tableau Cloud
6.8
Ratings
16% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)10.00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization10.00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Predictive Analytics9.00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
SAS Visual Analytics
8.3
Ratings
2% below category average
Tableau Cloud
7.0
Ratings
19% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)9.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
SAS Visual Analytics
8.7
Ratings
10% above category average
Tableau Cloud
6.4
Ratings
20% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access10.00 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Mobile Application9.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile9.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
SAS Visual Analytics
9.2
Ratings
17% above category average
Tableau Cloud
6.4
Ratings
20% below category average
REST API10.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Javascript API9.00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
iFrames9.00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Java API9.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)9.00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
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SAS Visual AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Small Businesses
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Medium-sized Companies
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
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User Ratings
SAS Visual AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SAS Visual AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
SAS Business Intelligence is more suited to organizations which are already using SAS as the primary software for their analytics needs. Learning curve is relatively shorter for teams already skilled in BASE SAS. For organizations already working with open source software like Julia and Python, it doesn't make much sense to use SAS BI.
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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.
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Pros
  • SAS BI makes it very easy to create interactive dashboards even for someone who is not from an IT background. For some specific requirements, basic knowledge of SQL is good enough.
  • A lot of functions have been predefined which makes it very convenient to create dashboards and reports. One doesn't need to be from an IT or a programming background to understand and create dashboards.
  • It supports other programming languages like R and also has a seamless API integration with various data management platforms.
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  • 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.
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Cons
  • Business Objects should provide a more consistent mobile/desktop interface so operation between the two is seamless
  • Business Objects needs to make it easier to query across disparate data sets such as Oracle to SQL to Mongo DB
  • Our installation of Business Objects does not natively allow the export of XLSX documents, only XLS
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  • 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
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Likelihood to Renew
There is no other product that can match SAS. There are some products that can compare to ETL but lack the analytics that SAS has. Others can perform a limited set of analytical procedures but lack the data processing that comes with SAS. Using thin client allows users to access data whenever they have an internet connection.
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The tool's capacity to handle complex data sources.
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Usability
SAS BI is good for creating reports and dashboards and then sharing it with the users. It also has ability to manage access to the reports and dashboards but somehow with most of the world moving to open source languages R, Python and Julia, SAS BI feels to be archaic in terms of feature set and integrations it allow[s]. Also, comparing it with other Business Intelligence tools like Tableau and Microsoft BI, the functionality of SAS BI is very limited and doesn't justify the pricing.
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From an end user perspective Tableau Online is overall very easy to navigate once you get used to it, my only complaint is that when expanding or contracting a graph, the "plus" and "minus" on the bottom left is sometimes hidden, and should always be visible. From a builder perspective, it can take some getting used to but the sheer depth of customization makes it all worthwhile.
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Support Rating
When you call tech support, you are immediately routed to a person who can answer your question. Often they can answer on the spot. However, if they cannot, you are given a track number and then followed up with. There have been times when I have had multiple track numbers open and they will actually TRACK YOU DOWN to ensure that your problem has been resolved. Issues do not fall into black holes with SAS. They are also willing to do a WebEx with you to diagnose the problem by seeing your environment, which is always helpful.
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I have no had a lot of experience with the support team, but I know that it’s hardly necessary for the end-user to contact. Usually, the main questions I get are on how to read a certain dashboard or how to navigate to a certain place. Overall, the simplicity of the software is what helps out with less need for support.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
I wasn't part of the implementation team
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Alternatives Considered
I have chosen SAS Visual Analytics because one of my colleagues suggests using the software for the same for our work. As earlier, we use to take a lot of time in analyzing the data but after using the SAS Visual Analytics software our work has improved and time has decreased. It's very helpful for us.
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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 analytics, Tableau was our go-to tool. The price is the second consideration. Tableau, on the other hand, was the more cost-effective option for our requirements.
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Return on Investment
  • SAS Visual Analytics licensing cost should be reduced to enable users to use it in mass scale.
  • More statistical and mathematical equations and theories should be converted into SAS functions for reusing.
  • Because of enriched ETL and reporting capabilities SAS Visual Analytics is most preferred by business users.
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  • No need to hire a team of developers to deliver our product, a huge cost savings for a start up company.
  • The ability to work off data extracts allows us to "set in and forget it" so to speak, which allows our customers to use the system during business hours with almost no cost in terms of database usage.
  • It has been a great internal tool for dashboarding company metrics and helping us track goals and implement solutions to meet those goals through efficient data analysis.
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ScreenShots

SAS Visual Analytics Screenshots

Screenshot of Explore your data using analytics and interactive data visualizations.