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SAP Analytics Cloud vs Tableau Enterprise comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 4, 2025

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
7.1
SAP Analytics Cloud boosts ROI within three years, improves processes, speeds decision-making, and enhances efficiency across industries.
Sentiment score
6.9
Tableau Enterprise users experience increased efficiency and strategic insights, achieving returns despite high initial costs within months.
This saves a significant amount of time, particularly for reports that would have needed around fifty people.
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.
Tableau is saving me time, money, and resources, which I would rate as ten.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.1
SAP Analytics Cloud's customer service is responsive and knowledgeable but needs faster resolutions and improved technical support access.
Sentiment score
6.1
Tableau Enterprise offers superb customer service, though response times vary; forums and a vibrant community enhance support.
We are satisfied with the technical support from SAP because when we reached out, we were able to get very good support from SAP colleagues.
I am satisfied with SAP's technical support team; they provide very good support.
They provide quick email and phone responses and have Thai-speaking personnel.
There should be consistent standards for all users.
The technical support for Tableau is quite good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
SAP Analytics Cloud offers strong scalability and seamless integration, supporting diverse enterprises, though limited by data volume and licenses.
Sentiment score
6.7
Tableau scales effectively with good design, but challenges exist with large datasets, requiring hardware optimization and best practices adherence.
I would rate its scalability up to nine on a scale of one to ten.
Tableau is easy to use across various dimensions, whether on-premises or on the cloud.
The solution is fully scalable and performs well even with large datasets, provided there is proper supporting hardware.
Tableau is easy to scale.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
SAP Analytics Cloud is stable and reliable, but faces occasional connectivity and large dataset memory challenges.
Sentiment score
7.4
Tableau Enterprise is stable with smaller datasets, but faces challenges with larger datasets, SQL integration, and occasional crashes.
The application hangs after continuous use due to the buildup of cache.
I rate the stability a five or six because Tableau updates very often with new versions or patches.
 

Room For Improvement

SAP Analytics Cloud needs better integration, visualization, real-time updates, flexible pricing, and enhanced AI capabilities for improved user experience.
Tableau Enterprise users seek improved ETL capabilities, integration, interface, cost-effective licensing, advanced analytics, customization, scalability, and real-time reporting.
Documentation-wise, we see some gaps when trying to connect different solutions.
We cannot send the entire Excel file reports via email within Tableau.
The product owner should enhance its benefits or clarify its role.
It sometimes requires extensive investigation to determine why the data does not appear correctly.
 

Setup Cost

SAP Analytics Cloud has higher pricing, but offers comprehensive features and integration, viewed as costly yet valuable by some.
Tableau Enterprise pricing is high yet competitive, with complex licensing compared to more affordable options like Microsoft Power BI.
Power BI as a much cheaper alternative.
A license for 150 users costs around $17,000 USD per year.
Looker is known to be quite expensive.
 

Valuable Features

SAP Analytics Cloud offers integration, user-friendly features, real-time analytics, and planning, supporting diverse business needs with scalability.
Tableau Enterprise excels in data integration, user-friendly visualization, and geospatial analysis, enhancing data insights and organizational adaptability.
For SuccessFactors and S/4HANA Cloud, there are pre-built reports available which are commonly used by customers.
A significant feature for me is the real-time connection to data sources because it effectively manages large data sets.
Tableau serves as a stable dashboarding tool for higher management, aiding in quick decision-making.
Building hyper extracts and visualization capabilities make Tableau a robust tool for data analysis.
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP Analytics Cloud
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
Predictive Analytics (2nd)
Tableau Enterprise
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
308
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (2nd), Data Visualization (1st), Embedded BI (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of SAP Analytics Cloud is 2.6%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tableau Enterprise is 9.2%, down from 20.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Tableau Enterprise9.2%
SAP Analytics Cloud2.6%
Other88.2%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Bhupesh Akkineni - PeerSpot reviewer
Pre-built reports facilitate data unification but documentation issues hinder complete integration
In SAP Analytics Cloud, there is a functionality called the best practice reports. SAP provides pre-built reports for certain functions and certain modules. For example, for SuccessFactors and S/4HANA Cloud, there are pre-built reports available which are commonly used by customers. This functionality is very useful, as once connectivity is done, it allows users to easily populate data and generate reports from the system out-of-the-box.
Uzair Faruqi - PeerSpot reviewer
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_user6330 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 2, 2013
MicroStrategy vs. Tableau
After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…
 

Answers from the Community

ME
Sep 27, 2023
Sep 27, 2023
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 wi...
See 2 answers
Kapil Rampal - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 27, 2023
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. 
Milan Orendac - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 27, 2023
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. 
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Retailer
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise39
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business117
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise183
 

Questions from the Community

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. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...
What do you like most about SAP Analytics Cloud?
In the data warehouse, you're free to make changes. You can make everything text, meaning it's always a string. Even numbers appear as text, giving you the flexibility to work with all columns.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Analytics Cloud?
I normally do not deal with the commercials, so I am not aware of the pricing part of it.
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 Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...
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 been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...
What do you like most about Tableau?
Tableau is a fantastic tool that provides impressive dashboards and customized reports.
 

Also Known As

SAP BusinessObjects Cloud
Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online
 

Overview

 

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.
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP Analytics Cloud vs. Tableau Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: November 2025.
873,209 professionals have used our research since 2012.