SAP Analytics Cloud vs Tableau comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
SAP Logo
11,984 views|7,885 comparisons
Tableau Logo
26,921 views|23,202 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 15, 2022

We performed a comparison between SAP analytics cloud vs. Tableau based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Both SAP and Tableau users say the deployment and setup are very straightforward. On the downside, Tableau users say that while the server side is easy to use and set up, the upgrades are challenging to install.
  • Features: SAP users say they like the business intelligence and built-in AI and machine learning capabilities. You can create analytic applications. Users value the Android support for mobile and the multiple collaboration features. However, custom visuals need improvement, and connection and integration with other applications are lacking. SAP also needs support for more languages.

     Tableau users say the best feature is the ease of use, which allows anyone to use the platform. The visual capability       helps users explain the data more straightforwardly. On the downside, users say Tableau could improve its data               management and ETL features, especially in the Tableau Prep feature.

  • Pricing: Users of both solutions say the price is on the higher side.
  • Service and Support: According to users, SAP’s support is slow. It takes a lot of time to get help when you open a ticket. Tableau’s support has two tiers, with different results. According to users, the premium support is excellent, but their standard support is very poor.

Comparison Results: SAP Analytics Cloud seems to be a superior solution because of the multiple features. Although the support is slow, it is still better than Tableau’s standard support. Tableau’s upgrades are also challenging to install.

To learn more, read our detailed SAP Analytics Cloud vs. Tableau Report (Updated: March 2024).
763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The most valuable features are the analytical application and the user story.""SAP Analytics Cloud is a very good tool. The feature that's most useful for me is the reporting as it can be done via Google Chrome. The solution is also very nice, user-friendly, and easy to build. It's very easy to use the features of SAP Analytics Cloud.""Technical support is helpful.""One of the most outstanding features is being able to use the dashboard with a touch screen.""The most valuable features are on the application side, where you can design applications into your analytics on the platform.""The most useful feature of SAP Analytics Cloud is planning because it helps users with making predictions and forecasts. Clients can forecast, make data allocations, and other actions. The solution is useful for planning.""It is scalable.""The features that I have found most valuable with SAP ERP products are their good user interface, stability, functionality, and good interface options."

More SAP Analytics Cloud Pros →

"I have found the solution easy to use and the interface is very good.""The ability to deploy is the added ability to centralise the Tableau repository for all Tableau Developers.""Easy for beginners to use""The dashboards are amazing, with different report types and stunning visuals. Most importantly, Tableau's AI with machine learning automatically predicts features and reports based on historical data. These are the three most valuable features for me.""The geospatial maps representation and the visualizations are nice.""Tableau is easy to use and it has great predictive features.""Tableau has many good features. It is user-friendly, has a simple-to-use interface, and has a customizable dashboard.""Better interaction and less time spent with end users."

More Tableau Pros →

Cons
"An area for improvement in SAP Analytics Cloud is its planning feature because it's not that efficient when compared to BPC. Another area for improvement in the solution is the difficulty in building reports or dashboards, particularly if you don't have proper knowledge of the BI system. SAP Analytics Cloud technical support also needs improvement.""Technical support could be more helpful and responsive.""The integration with other vendors and solutions could be improved.""SAP Analytics Cloud requires a lot of coding and I would like the coding to be somewhat minimal.""I would like to see reporting to the Analytics cloud directly.""Currently only one data modeler can work at a time.""SAP could add some more visualization features to Analytics Cloud, like charts and analytics. I would also like to see some more data cleaning and ad hoc functions added to this solution.""The budget management could be better."

More SAP Analytics Cloud Cons →

"Its integration with Microsoft products such as Teams should be improved.""To be the best in the market, Tableau has to improve its user interface and also look into developing implementing the best machine learning algorithms.""Provide additional enhancements in any business process: Operations, Marketing and Sales, Finance, Human Resources, Logistics, etc.""I think Tableau could be improved with cheaper or more flexible licensing, though this is a generic improvement and applies for any product. It would be better if they had more flexible payment and licensing plans so that they could suit small- and mid-sized organizations.""There should be more widgets that would help less trained individuals create charts with less difficulty.""Some of our clients are looking for better UI when using Tableau as they often work with this solution directly.""The only issue with the solution is with its prices at a regional level.""The cost of owning the solutions from Tableau is much higher compared to any other analytical solutions."

More Tableau Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is a bit expensive, but really worth it, especially if you are already using other SAP tools."
  • "It is not the most expensive one. You have to do the cost-of-ownership analysis and take a lot of things into consideration to come up with the conclusion that it is cheaper or not, but its price is reasonable. It provides value for money."
  • "It's quite expensive and costs a lot to maintain, especially with licensing."
  • "It's not that costly as such for the time being."
  • "Its licensing is on a monthly basis."
  • "Compute and storage features should be sold separately."
  • "Its pricing is okay as compared to its competitors."
  • "Its price is slightly on the higher side."
  • More SAP Analytics Cloud Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "For big business, Tableau could be expensive as having a lot of Tableau server users (entering with a browser to reports) could be a bit expensive."
  • "Best advice on pricing is to anticipate the desire for more licenses once the results of this product are acknowledged in other parts of your company."
  • "Paying for users you never setup or buying expensive desktop licenses for users who can solve their users with web editing on the server are the two biggest expenses."
  • "Buy 50 at a time. Project your use base every three months, and project your requirements forward."
  • "Tableau can be costly (but this can be indefinable, such as user experience vs. cheaper etc.)"
  • "I wish there was more of a subscription model with the pricing when it comes to Tableau, so you can get all the latest version upgrades/features if you pay monthly/annually."
  • "The cost is high."
  • "Deployment of dashboards to viewers and unit supervisors can be prohibitively expensive."
  • More Tableau Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which BI (Business Intelligence) Tools solutions are best for your needs.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Comparison Review
    Guillermo (Bill) Cabiro
    I do use both Tableau and QlikView. Although very different, I really like both solutions. They belong to the new BI generation known as Interactive Visual Analytics In my opinion, QlikView has a more intuitive interface for regular users or executives that are not technical experts but the development side is a little more complex. Up to version 12 QlikView did not provide drag & drop features. If a user wanted to see something not included in the application the new object had to be created by a power user or developer because Qlikview's scripting has somewhat of a learning curve. On the positive side, QlikView's scripting is a great asset as it functions as an ETL allowing the integration of hundreds of different data sources into the same visual app. Another feature that’s extremely useful is Qlik’s proprietary Associative Model that allows the users to visualize data relationships that exist as well as those that do not. Tableau on the other hand is a lot easier to use for developers, analysts or power users who need to connect, manipulate and visualize data rather quickly. While this makes Tableau a better fit for the more analytical crowd, it may not be as appealing or intuitive to the regular or casual business users as QlikView is. Tableau has full pivot, drag & drop and drill down capabilities that are great for developers or power users. They can rotate measures and dimensions and graph them instantly using visualization best practices as suggested by the… Read more →
    Answers from the Community
    Mis Exec
    Milan Orendac - PeerSpot reviewerMilan Orendac
    Reseller

    In case you are working for a small accounting firm, Tableau or Power Bi may cover all your needs. It is important, what kind of ERP system do you use. Are you running SAP S4/Hana, stay in SAP word. If you run other product look to other options. Does not make sense to use SAP AC only, far too expensive and will be hard to utilize fully. Solutions like Tableau or Power Bi are easy to use and will give you great result. On the other side it is not so much about the system, but about data quality, this is the key. 

    Kapil Rampal - PeerSpot reviewerKapil Rampal
    Real User

    Tableau is a fantastic product. It works really well and is remarkably easy to use. SAP Analytics Cloud is also a good product. Both are quite inexpensive. Personally, I prefer Tableau for its ease of use and quick results. 

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies… more »
    Top Answer:The product is flexible and has features like AI, link analysis, and insights. It has many features. I can search, and it creates automatic charts without selecting anything. For example, I can ask… more »
    Top Answer:I wasn't directly involved in the pricing discussions, but when I joined the organization, they had already purchased the SAP Analytics Cloud solution. The organization faced challenges due to its… more »
    Top Answer:It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos… more »
    Top Answer:Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it… more »
    Top Answer:The platform's most important feature is predictive analysis.
    Ranking
    Views
    11,984
    Comparisons
    7,885
    Reviews
    24
    Average Words per Review
    500
    Rating
    7.7
    Views
    26,921
    Comparisons
    23,202
    Reviews
    19
    Average Words per Review
    620
    Rating
    8.6
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    SAP BusinessObjects Cloud
    Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online
    Learn More
    Overview

    SAP Analytics Cloud is an all-in-one Software-as-a-Service business intelligence tool that provides the key functionalities of an analytics tool to SAP business users. This tool is built on HANA Business Intelligence (BI) platform, providing analytics from data collected from multiple sources, such as ERP, Microsoft SQL, and Salesforce, among other solutions.

    You can use SAP Analytics Cloud to compile data and perform ad-hoc reporting and analysis for predictive planning. SAP Analytics Cloud collects and analyzes the raw data from transactional systems into intelligent insights that allow you to make better decisions.

    SAP Analytics Cloud uses machine learning to clean up data, identify errors, and issues, and suggest optimization or filtering options. You can use the modeling feature in Analytics Cloud to create hierarchies and get deeper data insights.

    The three core functions of SAP Analytics Cloud consist of Planning, Predictive Analysis, and Business Intelligence as a holistic SaaS solution that offers real-time analysis to business leaders.

    SAP Analytics Cloud Capabilities

    • Data discovery
    • Machine learning
    • Integrated financial and business planning
    • Predictive analysis
    • Automated data cleansing
    • Custom widgets
    • Mobile extension
    • Role-based customization
    • Data exploration and visualization

    SAP Analytics Cloud Key Features

    • Augmented analytics: SAP Analytics Cloud allows organizations to make the most of AI (Artificial Intelligence)-powered analytics through augmented analytics. It includes a Search to Insight feature that enables users not skilled or experienced in data science to access and use the platform.

      These smart insight tools allow organizations to visualize business data without manual intervention. By combining multiple machine learning algorithms, SAP Analytics Cloud automates predictive analysis so that organizations can have significant insight into secured data.
    • Enterprise planning: As SAP Analytics Cloud is an all-in-one financial planning and analysis solution, organizations can use it to align strategies across all departments. It allows end-to-end, data-driven planning decisions via financial modeling, allocations, smart insights, and automated reporting.

      The Zero-based budgeting feature allows for an effective resources allocation with built-in collaboration tools. The finance team can collaborate easily, create budget templates and make accurate decisions.

    SAP Analytics Cloud Benefits

    • Real-time cloud insights: SAP Analytics Cloud makes it easy for users at every level to generate instant insights and improve data-driven decision-making. With SAP Analytics Cloud, you can have immediate and central access to all figures, diagrams, insights, and evaluations for every employee on every device and updated in real time.

    • Customizable dashboard: You can customize your dashboard according to your requirements. This customization means you can easily access all the relevant data on a single pane of vision tailored to your business.

    • Collaborative planning: As an all-in-one platform, SAP Analytics Cloud integrates the multiple aspects of a business into a single solution, including finance, HR, sales, and supply chain management.

    • Data on any device: You can integrate SAP Analytics Cloud with SAP S/4 HANA and deploy insights to Android and iOS devices. The SAP S/4 HANA integration also enables the rolling out of changes to multiple files and devices from a central location, so you can carry your business operations on the go over a secured cloud network.

    • In-memory technology: Since it is based on SAP HANA in-memory technology, SAP Analytics Cloud can process massive amounts of data in a short time.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Segun O., SAP HANA Developer at SOA PEOPLE, says that "The most valuable features are on the application side, where you can design applications into your analytics on the platform."

    The Head of Finance Enterprise Application at a computer software company adds that "The visualization feature is the most valuable. SAP Analytics Cloud is also very easy to use."

    "Its many features make it the best in the market," sums up a Consultor SAP Business Object, Sap Analytics Cloud at a tech services company.

    Tableau is a tool for data visualization and business intelligence that allows businesses to report insights through easy-to-use, customizable visualizations and dashboards. Tableau makes it exceedingly simple for its customers to organize, manage, visualize, and comprehend data. It enables users to dig deep into the data so that they can see patterns and gain meaningful insights. 

    Make data-driven decisions with confidence thanks to Tableau’s assistance in providing faster answers to queries, solving harder problems more easily, and offering new insights more frequently. Tableau integrates directly to hundreds of data sources, both in the cloud and on premises, making it simpler to begin research. People of various skill levels can quickly find actionable information using Tableau’s natural language queries, interactive dashboards, and drag-and-drop capabilities. By quickly creating strong calculations, adding trend lines to examine statistical summaries, or clustering data to identify relationships, users can ask more in-depth inquiries.

    Tableau has many valuable key features:

    • Tableau dashboards provide a complete view of your data through visualizations, visual objects, text, and more.
    • Tableau provides convenient, real-time options to collaborate with other users and instantly share data in the form of visualizations, sheets, and dashboards. 
    • Tableau ensures connectivity to both live data sources and data extraction from external data sources as in-memory data. This gives users the flexibility to use data from more than one source without any restrictions. 
    • Tableau gives many data source option, ranging from spreadsheets, big data, on-premise files, relational databases, non-relational databases, data warehouses, and big data, to on-cloud data. 
    • Tableau has a lot of pre-installed information on maps, such as cities, postal codes, and administrative boundaries. 
    • Tableau has a foolproof security system based on authentication and permission systems for data connections and user access. Tableau also gives you the freedom to integrate with other security protocols.

    Tableau stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Some of these include its fast data access, easy creation of visualizations, and its stability. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

    Romil S., Deputy General Manager of IT at Nayara Energy, notes, "Its visualizations are good, and its features make the development process a little less time-consuming. It has an in-memory extract feature that allows us to extract data and keep it on the server, and then our users can use it quickly.

    Ariful M., Consulting Practice Partner of Data, Analytics & AI at FH, writes, “Tableau is very flexible and easy to learn. It has drag-and-drop function analytics, and its design is very good.

    Sample Customers
    Live Oak Bank
    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.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Retailer8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization19%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Computer Software Company12%
    University7%
    Healthcare Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization34%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business30%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise48%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise26%
    Large Enterprise58%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise50%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise39%
    Large Enterprise47%
    Buyer's Guide
    SAP Analytics Cloud vs. Tableau
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about SAP Analytics Cloud vs. Tableau and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    SAP Analytics Cloud is ranked 3rd in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 25 reviews while Tableau is ranked 2nd in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 18 reviews. SAP Analytics Cloud is rated 8.0, while Tableau is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of SAP Analytics Cloud writes "Great scalability, and stability, but does not integrate easily with non-SAP tools". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Tableau writes "Provides fast data access with in-memory extracts, makes it easy to create visualizations, and saves time". SAP Analytics Cloud is most compared with SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, IBM Planning Analytics, Microsoft Power BI, IBM Cognos and Anaplan, whereas Tableau is most compared with Microsoft Power BI, Amazon QuickSight, Domo, SAS Visual Analytics and Databricks. See our SAP Analytics Cloud vs. Tableau report.

    See our list of best BI (Business Intelligence) Tools vendors.

    We monitor all BI (Business Intelligence) Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.