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MySQL vs SQL Server vs Tableau Enterprise comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.2
MySQL offers cost benefits with open-source use, achieving up to 60% ROI, despite challenges in precise financial calculations.
Sentiment score
7.0
SQL Server offers cost-effective, feature-rich solutions with quick ROI, enhancing efficiency and practicality for various business applications.
Sentiment score
6.9
Tableau Enterprise provides rapid ROI through efficient report generation, cost savings, and streamlined operations with minimal integration challenges.
I have seen a return on investment with MySQL, as it allows us to manage with fewer employees, focusing on business logic rather than database management.
Software Developer at Apptom
SQL Server is the most cost-effective with good human resource availability to manage it.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
All applications need our repository to provide services for our online business or our customers, so the return is good.
Infrastructure Coordinator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
With Standard edition, they have saved a ton of money and they are really happy about that.
Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)
This saves a significant amount of time, particularly for reports that would have needed around fifty people.
Project Manager, Site at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
The ROI of using Tableau extends to its seamless integration across various platforms, as it's from Salesforce and thus not limited to any specific cloud provider.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
Tableau is saving me time, money, and resources, which I would rate as ten.
Founder at Mindclick Consulting
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
MySQL users primarily rely on community resources for support, with official Oracle support noted as costly but effective.
Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft's resources are valued, but reaching experts can be difficult, prompting users to seek community forums or paid support.
Sentiment score
6.1
Tableau Enterprise support is praised for expertise and responsiveness, with premium options and community resources highly rated by users.
I would rate the documentation and online support a 10 out of 10.
Student at a university with 10,001+ employees
We have no issues and usually receive timely responses.
Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan
I give their technical support a rating of ten out of ten.
Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)
There was a time when Microsoft support provided very crisp answers, but over time, they have diluted their support to third parties, leading to a drop in support quality.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
When we created support tickets, the experience was very positive.
Subdirector of Support for Production at Servicios Electrónicos Globales -Oficial
They provide quick email and phone responses and have Thai-speaking personnel.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
There should be consistent standards for all users.
Associate Technical Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The technical support for Tableau is quite good.
Project Manager, Site at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
MySQL scalability depends on the specific environment, with challenges arising in larger applications and benefits from cloud solutions.
Sentiment score
7.0
SQL Server offers scalable solutions for SMEs with efficient cloud options, suitable for high volumes but challenging for large databases.
Sentiment score
6.7
Tableau Enterprise offers strong scalability and improved performance with recent updates, despite potential cost and complexity challenges.
Meeting scalability requirements through cloud computing is an expensive affair.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
MySQL's scalability is currently adequate, as we have increased operations from ten thousand to twelve thousand devices, and it is working fine for us.
Software Developer at Apptom
The server where we installed it has grown from 64 gigabytes in RAM to 256 gigabytes, demonstrating significant scalability capabilities.
Subdirector of Support for Production at Servicios Electrónicos Globales -Oficial
Most of the time, they simply add another node in the availability group.
Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)
I can scale both horizontally and vertically without challenges.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Tableau is easy to use across various dimensions, whether on-premises or on the cloud.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
The solution is fully scalable and performs well even with large datasets, provided there is proper supporting hardware.
Practice Head BI at Nous Infosystems
Tableau is easy to scale.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
MySQL is generally stable and reliable but faces issues with large data operations and server overload, needing regular maintenance.
Sentiment score
7.6
SQL Server offers robust performance and reliability, with minor stability issues occasionally due to design or configuration choices.
Sentiment score
7.3
Tableau Enterprise is stable and reliable, with minor challenges tied to dataset size, server, or network factors.
We face certain integration issues, especially when we integrate the database with security solutions like IBM QRadar.
Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan
From my experience, MySQL was pretty stable.
Student at a university with 10,001+ employees
There was an issue with memory-optimized tables, but it was resolved in 2025, allowing you to remove that file group, which was not possible before.
Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)
All applications supporting SQL Server in my experience work very well across various industries including telecom, finance, banking, ad, entertainment, and workforce management.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
SQL Server is absolutely stable.
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The application hangs after continuous use due to the buildup of cache.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
I rate the stability a five or six because Tableau updates very often with new versions or patches.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

MySQL needs improved scalability, performance, integration, replication, user interface, security, monitoring tools, documentation, backup, and clustering.
SQL Server needs improved scalability, better integration, enhanced performance, cost reduction, and user-friendly interfaces for diverse platforms.
Tableau Enterprise struggles with performance, integration, and features, with users seeking better analytics, data management, and cost efficiency.
It could be more beneficial if MySQL can enhance its data masking functionality in the same way it has improved data encryption.
Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan
Oracle could improve on scalability.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The load balancer, MySQL LB, which is used to connect to the application, lacks clear documentation.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
It is fine to do a first release that works, but you cannot simply abandon it in the following years without service packs and improvements.
Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)
I would appreciate using Microsoft Pro as it can integrate with Excel or, with a simple query, consume information from the database using Microsoft Excel.
Infrastructure Coordinator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
When we consider the price for replication in another site, the pricing becomes prohibitive.
Subdirector of Support for Production at Servicios Electrónicos Globales -Oficial
We cannot send the entire Excel file reports via email within Tableau.
Project Manager, Site at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
The product owner should enhance its benefits or clarify its role.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
It sometimes requires extensive investigation to determine why the data does not appear correctly.
Group Finance Head Of Investment Bank Product Control at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

MySQL's free community edition is popular, while the paid Enterprise edition offers advanced features and lower costs than competitors.
SQL Server is costly, especially the Enterprise Edition, prompting some businesses to explore alternatives due to high licensing costs.
Tableau Enterprise is pricier but valued for functionality, offering flexible licensing and discounts for larger purchases.
Oracle has different components, so if you need security, you have to procure a different license, but here everything is inbuilt and it's not costly.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
Cost savings on human resources for Windows plus SQL Server versus other solutions.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I think the pricing is high, but I am not sure how much our organization is paying, as I am not part of the management team.
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Power BI as a much cheaper alternative.
Practice Head BI at Nous Infosystems
A license for 150 users costs around $17,000 USD per year.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
Looker is known to be quite expensive.
Associate Technical Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

MySQL offers fast performance, open-source adaptability, reliability, scalability, and excels in web applications with strong community support.
SQL Server excels in usability, performance, and scalability, with tools and features boosting efficiency, reliability, and Microsoft compatibility.
Tableau Enterprise simplifies data visualization and integration, enhancing decision-making and collaboration with secure, intuitive tools for organizations.
With Oracle, we have to buy another solution for encryption and masking, but MySQL supports native encryption, which enhances our return on investment.
Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan
The main feature we utilize in MySQL is the view, and I can say that it is the most valuable feature for our needs.
Software Developer at Apptom
It allows programming, writing stored procedures, creating views, constraints, and triggers easily.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Always On HADR functionality is one of the features that I use on a daily basis and one of my most used features, saving me lots of time, especially since previously I had to build a SQL cluster and Windows clusters that had many dependencies on shared infrastructure, but now with Always On, it is too stable with easy management and almost zero maintenance, which SQL Server handles itself.
Manager - Production Database Administration at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I have been working with SQL Server for a long time, and it works well for me as I am using it in different applications, such as web applications, Windows applications, or the data warehouse reporting.
Infrastructure Coordinator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The best features of SQL Server are availability and stability.
Subdirector of Support for Production at Servicios Electrónicos Globales -Oficial
A significant feature for me is the real-time connection to data sources because it effectively manages large data sets.
Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees
Tableau serves as a stable dashboarding tool for higher management, aiding in quick decision-making.
solution architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Building hyper extracts and visualization capabilities make Tableau a robust tool for data analysis.
Practice Head BI at Nous Infosystems
 

Mindshare comparison

Open Source Databases Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MySQL10.5%
PostgreSQL13.3%
Firebird SQL10.3%
Other65.9%
Open Source Databases
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SQL Server10.7%
Oracle Database10.9%
IBM Db2 Database6.3%
Other72.1%
Relational Databases Tools
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Tableau Enterprise6.2%
Microsoft Power BI8.1%
Amazon QuickSight3.3%
Other82.4%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Prabir Kumar Kundu - PeerSpot reviewer
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
Offers robust security and availability with impressive replication capabilities
Regarding their documentation and interface, there is room for improvement. Documentation is definitely required when running multiple databases on a cluster system. The load balancer, MySQL LB, which is used to connect to the application, lacks clear documentation. When there are multiple application servers connecting to the MySQL cluster and going through the MySQL load balancer, the documentation is not user-friendly. It's there, but only technical persons with deep knowledge of the MySQL database can implement it. Most of the community users or ISVs who use MySQL don't have many technical persons or DBA experts, so they face some challenges for the high availability of connecting high available databases from high available applications. That documentation should be simplified.
Peter Larsson - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Warehouse Lead at Resurs Bank AB (publ.)
Ledger and seamless integrations have strengthened trusted analytics and unified workloads
SQL Server's high availability and disaster recovery features work for supporting mission-critical applications, but there is much more to wish for. These features are not quite ready yet, although they do function. However, they could be significantly better. High availability and disaster recovery features should be improved in the next releases. I have noticed that everything could be improved or enhanced in the future, particularly temporal tables and window functions. Sometimes, I believe Microsoft releases features to stay ahead of competitors, but they do not make them feature-rich or feature-complete. They release something to be ahead of leaders and then seem to forget to maintain and upgrade them. I want Microsoft to pay more attention and be more mindful about the things they implement. It is fine to do a first release that works, but you cannot simply abandon it in the following years without service packs and improvements. You must continue to build on features rather than forgetting about them.
Uzair Faruqi - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Data Science at Mjunction Services
Ease of developing dashboards and receiving strong technical support have enabled efficient data visualization
Introducing custom features, such as NLP-based reports, is not very good in Tableau. My MD has been asking us for a way to write in natural language to request reports that the system should generate, but that isn't very effective with Tableau. As a developer, I can develop an on-demand report in Python quite easily, but exposing a REST API on the Tableau platform is not a very easy task. AI enablement is an area for improvement for Tableau, and that is something they might have to work upon. I have heard that ThoughtSpot is quite better in this regard, but the cost of ThoughtSpot is much higher. ThoughtSpot has lots of natural language-based report generation features that Tableau lacks.
report
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager - BI Head with 5,001-10,000 employees
Feb 4, 2015
Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho
1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
40%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Computer Software Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business74
Midsize Enterprise34
Large Enterprise63
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business119
Midsize Enterprise60
Large Enterprise119
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business117
Midsize Enterprise67
Large Enterprise185
 

Questions from the Community

Why are MySQL connections encrypted and what is the biggest benefit of this?
MySQL encrypts connections to protect your data and the biggest benefit from this is that nobody can corrupt it. If y...
Considering that there is a free version of MySQL, would you invest in one of the paid editions?
I may be considered a MySQL veteran since I have been using it since before Oracle bought it and created paid version...
What is one thing you would improve with MySQL?
One thing I would improve related to MySQL is not within the product itself, but with the guides to it. Before, when ...
Would you say the price of SQL Server is high compared to that of similar products?
SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs...
Has using SQL Server helped your organization in any way?
SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smal...
Which authentication mode is best for SQL Server?
My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connec...
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik ...
Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?
Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have be...
Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?
Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use....
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Facebook, Tumblr, Scholastic, MTV Networks, Wikipedia, Verizon Wireless, Sage Group, Glassfish Open Message Queue, and RightNow Technologies.
Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
Accenture, Adobe, Amazon.com, Bank of America, Charles Schwab Corp, Citigroup, Coca-Cola Company, Cornell University, Dell, Deloitte, Duke University, eBay, Exxon Mobil, Fannie Mae, Ferrari, French Red Cross, Goldman Sachs, Google, Government of Canada, HP, Intel, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Macy's, Merck, The New York Times, PayPal, Pfizer, US Army, US Air Force, Skype, and Walmart.
Find out what your peers are saying about PostgreSQL, Oracle, ClickHouse and others in Open Source Databases. Updated: May 2026.
896,202 professionals have used our research since 2012.