I'm not using it on a daily basis. I've gone through the training and I've got my associate certification.
Project Manager at a local government with 51-200 employees
Easy to use, stable, and offers competitive pricing
Pros and Cons
- "The stability seems to be very reliable."
- "There should be more widgets that would help less trained individuals create charts with less difficulty."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The solution is very easy to use and simple to understand. They make it very easy to navigate around it and to learn the product.
The solution is very easy to set up.
The pricing is good.
The stability seems to be very reliable.
What needs improvement?
Personally, I have not extensively used it, and therefore it's hard to think of areas that might need improvement as I haven't fully experienced every aspect of the product.
I'd like to see more advanced forms of charting, if possible.
There should be more widgets that would help less trained individuals create charts with less difficulty.
Tableau probably does not have advanced big data analysis features. It's not in the same category. It doesn't have those features to the same degree as R. You do this recreational; kind of modeling and analytics. It does have some predictive items, however, it's very simple. You can't customize much.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution seems to be very stable. I wouldn't say that we have used it in a big data kind of way. We don't have big data; we're not really able to test Tableau to the limits.
Buyer's Guide
Tableau
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Most of the companies that we work with that use it are medium-sized enterprises and is typically public companies or government organizations.
How are customer service and support?
I can't really evaluate support services from Tableau. Our client agencies use them directly, and therefore they are the ones dealing with support. I don't have much experience on the support side.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Some of our clients also work with Microsoft BI. I'd personally worked with Talend, SAP HANA, and Power BI. I personally prefer Tableau due to its ease of use. With SAP HANA, I don't really have easy access to it. However, with Talend, if I wanted to, I could easily go to its website and download a copy of it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of the product is not difficult. It's very easy and quite straightforward. A company shouldn't have any troubles handling an implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's my understanding that the pricing of this solution is quite reasonable and very competitive. That said, I haven't really done an in-depth comparison against competitors.
What other advice do I have?
We are consultants and not exactly customers of the product itself. We run projects. We give policy guidance.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
If a company is looking for a way to create charts quickly, and communicate with charts, Tableau is definitely an easy place to start. Of course, users will need some training to understand how to create certain visualizations in Tableau. Other than that, Tableau is quite easy to set up. It's easy to connect to your data sources. Once you have connected to the data sources, you easily create the charts. There's a lot of options, a lot of charts that you can create. However, for the more advanced features, you definitely need some experience.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Delivery Lead at UST
Mature, easy to use, and connecting to OBIEE works well
Pros and Cons
- "It's intuitive and highly mature"
- "The customization in the front end is a bit difficult."
What is our primary use case?
I am a developer and I provide solutions to end-users using Tableau.
What is most valuable?
It's intuitive and highly mature.
I use OBIEE, which is in Tableau. It is much easier than in other tools and it is easier to bring up the data insights.
What needs improvement?
The customization in the front end is a bit difficult. If they provide any utility or UI feature, where a user can do their own customization it would be great.
I would like to see an option to customize your own reports. Not being able to customize is a pain point for the developers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Tableau for six years.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is good, but they could use some improvement. I would rate the technical support an eight out of ten.
There can be some delays in resolving issues because of the difference in time zones. The need to come with a way to match the time zones.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others but it would depend on their use cases.
I would rate Tableau a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Buyer's Guide
Tableau
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.
BI technical analyst at a government with 11-50 employees
Complete package, easy to use, and quality visualizations
Pros and Cons
- "While using this solution I have found the valuable features to be ease of use and the visualization. It is a complete solution."
- "The data preparation could integrate better with Tableau."
What is our primary use case?
We have used this solution for enterprise reporting, ad hoc data exploration, and visualization.
What is most valuable?
While using this solution I have found the valuable features to be ease of use and the visualization. It is a complete solution.
What needs improvement?
The data preparation could integrate better with Tableau.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for approximately eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
When it comes to stability this solution is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have found this solution to be highly scalable, we have approximately 800 people in my organization using it and plan to increase usage.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support responsiveness was good. However, we had some tough questions that they could not help us with.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used another solution and switched because Tableau is easy to use, support is good, lower price, and for their community.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is very straightforward for both desktop and server solutions. The desktop only takes a few minutes and the server takes half an hour.
What about the implementation team?
We used consultants for the implementation. We have a team of six that does the maintenance, which includes, server, application, and content administrators.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This solution is a bit expensive.
The pricing options have become more difficult over the years. I think they are bordering on pricing themselves out of the market. They need different pricing options for various-sized businesses. Where my organization is a large organization, we are happy to pay a higher price because we can leverage the products very extensively. For smaller enterprises, different pricing options would be good.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others to start using it.
I rate Tableau a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Solutions Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Offers a very good sound analysis quotient, is very intuitive and provides good performance
Pros and Cons
- "Provides a very good sound analysis quotient."
- "Could have more integrations with different platforms."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution as well as provide it to our clients. It's generally used for visualization and reporting.
What is most valuable?
This solution has a very good sound analysis quotient attached to it, it's very diligent in that way. It's also simple to implement, very intuitive and provides good performance. It's easy to use.
What needs improvement?
The solution is integrated reasonably well but I'd like to see some custom connectors and more integration with different platforms.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is definitely scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Tableau provides pretty good technical support. I have been interacting with them for a long time and never faced any issues
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward, there's nothing complex about it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Tableau has variable licensing models, the cost is usually based around the number of developers and users.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution. We are constantly promoting Tableau.
I rate this solution an eight out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Lead Data Architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Stable, easy to use, and almost everything can be done from the front end
Pros and Cons
- "It is definitely easy to use. It is intuitive, and more or less, everything can be done from the front end. As such, there is no concept of metadata. You can just take data from a database and start building your own stuff, such as OLAP data warehouse. You don't need extensive metadata modeling like Oracle BI."
- "It should have more integration with different tools and technologies. Its licensing cost should also be improved."
What is our primary use case?
It is mainly for reporting purposes. We have our users who are using the desktop, and I, as an admin, provide help and support the backend activities. I don't really develop the reports.
What is most valuable?
It is definitely easy to use. It is intuitive, and more or less, everything can be done from the front end. As such, there is no concept of metadata. You can just take data from a database and start building your own stuff, such as OLAP data warehouse. You don't need extensive metadata modeling like Oracle BI.
What needs improvement?
It should have more integration with different tools and technologies. Its licensing cost should also be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It does manage a good amount of enterprise data, but it is not like Oracle BI or MicroStrategy. They can handle huge volumes of enterprise data. Tableau doesn't have the same efficiency in terms of handling a large amount of enterprise data.
In terms of the number of users, I work for a client, and they have a user base of 14,000.
How are customer service and technical support?
When I get questions or doubts, I just Google them and find the answers. In my one year of experience in working with Tableau, I've not really found out any kind of difficulties. I have also not heard much about any difficulties.
How was the initial setup?
Its installation is straightforward. I have never done it, but I have seen my colleagues do it. I have worked extensively on Oracle BI or OBIEE, and I know how difficult it is. The installation of Tableau is comparatively pretty straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
In terms of the technical team for its deployment and maintenance, we don't need many people. Most of the things, users can do themselves. We only provide the required support and do the admin tasks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its licensing cost should be improved.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. It is quite good. It is an upcoming technology, and people are using it quite widely.
I would rate Tableau a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
DATA STRATEGY at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Great interface with excellent forecasting and analytics features
Pros and Cons
- "The maps and colors and interface are all fantastic."
- "The data entered into Tableau must be clean. Otherwise, it won't work properly."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution in order to get to know the data. Companies get to really explore and feel like the creators of their own destiny. Tableau is very different from and the other BI technologies I have used. They say that the main goal is not a dashboard; you're altering your exploration of the data.
How has it helped my organization?
Tableau in French is translated roughly to a blank page. You can do whatever you want on it. In that sense, Tableau is so amazing. It really helps us manipulate and understand data in interesting ways.
What is most valuable?
They have advanced statistics features that you can easily apply to your data. For example, I can do very quick calculations. In other software, I would have to code a bit to really work on that logic. In Tableau, it is drag and drop. You can drag and drop to calculate the annual growth year over year. It's so simple. Boom, there you have it.
They have advanced forecasting features. You can just select your dataset and select which model that you want to apply. You can use a stack, linear, exponential, or logarithmic algorithm. Tableau actually lets you drag and drop in order to see what a build is going to be like. Forecasting is rather new. It was introduced last year.
The maps and colors and interface are all fantastic.
What needs improvement?
The attention we receive from the partner manager would be an issue for us. The use case to have them is a bit niche. Not everyone wants a cookie-cutter analysis and it ends up being plain and not very specific. It's nice sometimes to do that. The expert analysts work on the solution once or twice or three times, and they get to a final dashboard. However, if you use a Tableau final dashboard, you can feel that it was not designed to just be used as a dashboard. Playing with that dashboard is not the end-game. It is not the final objective.
There are two types of users. There are those that are smart and proactive and constantly discovering new cases. Those are the ones that will benefit from Tableau. The others tend to just want to use dashboards, and they won't get as much out of the experience.
The data entered into Tableau must be clean. Otherwise, it won't work properly.
The support for vendors could be a bit better. There isn't much helpful communication happening.
For how long have I used the solution?
My company has been working with the solution for about five years. In terms of myself, I have only worked with it for two and a half years.
How are customer service and technical support?
We do have salespeople from Tableau that look to us and they do give information. However, I asked a month now today if they could give us a heads-up on Tableau's new features and Tableau's new pricing scheme for the new commercial people that have been entering the company. Our partner portal is not working anymore. We haven't been given much attention from the partner manager. We're not mad, don't think about that. However, it is something we need access to.
I stated that point with them. The salesperson from Tableau was sending emails to the partner manager to set up a one-hour chat with them to go over new features and in regards to the onboarding to new people. She hasn't answered. It's very volatile on their end, as they do change their personnel very often, and it's very difficult to keep track of that. They do not say, "Hey, Adrian, I am leaving the company. This person is the one that's going to be taking care of you guys. Let me schedule a meeting." That has been an issue.
What other advice do I have?
We are using the latest version of the solution at this time.
We're partners and we're currently working with Tableau.
Those considering the solution must be aware that Tableau is not an end-to-end platform. Tableau is a data analytics platform that works perfectly well, however, it has to be given an input that is clean, that is perfect. The information has to be very structured, very clean, very perfect. Once you have that, Tableau works very, very well. However, if you think that Tableau is going to solve your data problems as a whole, you are confused because you need a middle manager to help you with that.
Some people have used the Azure components to do the data clean, and preparation and finally put it into a data warehouse or a database in an imperfect fashion. After that process is done, then you can connect Tableau. Not before. That will be a mistake. A lot of companies have suffered that due to the fact that they weren't aware they needed clean data.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten due to the weakness on the data preparation side. It is not a weakness as they do not brand themselves to be clear the data needs to be clean, however, so no one should be shocked. I love it for the most part and find it a very interesting solution.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Useful self-service tools, user-friendly, and high quality visuals
Pros and Cons
- "I have found many of the self-service features valuable."
- "The process of embedding the dashboards on external portals and websites could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for multiple functions internally, mainly for finance, accounting, and the operations team.
What is most valuable?
I have found many of the self-service features valuable. One tool allows anyone within the business to create their own dashboards. However, their data has to be prepared properly. Everything is user-friendly, and the visualizations are high quality and esthetically pleasing. Additionally, there is a tool that enables not just the developers, but even the end business users to create jobs for them.
What needs improvement?
The process of embedding the dashboards on external portals and websites could be improved. We also experienced challenges with integration with analytics.
In an upcoming release, if the capabilities of Tableau Prep are improvised and expanded, that would be an added advantage.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have found the solution to be stable and reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have increased the number of users when we develop more dashboards for the new departments. We did not face challenges when we increased the number of users. We have approximately 50 users using the solution in my organization.
We are planning to increase the usage of the solution. We are doing internal training to help our employees because a lot of people do not know how to use it properly. This has caused a bit of an expansion problem.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial installation was straightforward. The deployment took approximately three months, this included the development of dashboards and customizations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a license for this solution and we pay on an annual basis.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did evaluate other options before we choose this solution.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to those wanting to implement the solution would be, if you are looking for ETL heavy tools, this may not be the right choice. However, if you want beautiful visualizations and getting insights from data at high speed. This would be a good solution for that focus.
I rate Tableau an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Head of Data Architecture at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Beneficial trend analysis, easy installation, and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "I believe one of the most valuable features of the solution is trend analysis."
- "I would like the solution to have certain features allowing the delivery of reports to the email."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the solution to monitor data platforms. This helps us to make forecasts of the use, growth, and disk space.
What is most valuable?
I believe one of the most valuable features of the solution is trend analysis.
What needs improvement?
I would like the solution to have certain features allowing the delivery of reports to the email. For example, publishing Pixel Perfect reports.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Since I have been using the solution it has been stable.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was simple and is easy to learn for the users.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment took a couple of weeks. Once the information for the data is ready, it only takes a couple of hours.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Tableau a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free Tableau Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Popular Comparisons
Microsoft Power BI
Informatica PowerCenter
Teradata
IBM Cognos
Amazon QuickSight
SAP Analytics Cloud
Qlik Sense
Domo
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform
Oracle OBIEE
MicroStrategy
SAS Visual Analytics
Oracle Analytics Cloud
Looker
Apache Superset
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Tableau Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- QlikView or Tableau - Which is better?
- What's your experience or opinion about Spotfire vs. Tableau vs. Qlik?
- I currently use Panorama Necto as a viewer on SQL Analysis services cube--what other solutions are out there?
- Business users moving from Tableau to MS Report builder
- Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?
- Tableau vs. Spotfire - What do I need to know regarding pricing and usability?
- I'm looking for real info about licensing, ease of setup and other costs involved. Can you help?
- Tableau 10: Best New/Improved Features
- A journalist is writing a story about which Data Visualization software product to choose. Can you help him?
- Tableau vs. QlikView - functionality and pricing schemes