Tableau Software Reviews

“Handles data well”

Pros

Creating both static and interactive dashboards with Tableau has been really useful. The interface is user friendly and it handles large datasets from different data sources without much trouble.

Cons

There are times when performance becomes an issue. It would also be better if map visualizations could recognize geolocations for cities around the world more accurately, not just those in the United States.

“Easy filters with simple dashboards”

Pros

Creating visualizations with this software is very easy. Moving through the different filter options and aggregations is simple and putting together dashboards doesn't take much effort.

Cons

A few of the more technical parts were harder to understand than expected. The instructions for connecting to websites and pulling data would be much better if they included clearer, more detailed step-by-step guidance.

“Lots of chart types to choose from”

Pros

There are tons of options for creating charts and I am still in the process of learning how to use the program.

Cons

It feels a little overwhelming at first but I am hoping the training videos will help everything make more sense.

“Easy maps with nice visuals”

Pros

Creating maps in Tableau has been a lifesaver for me. The interface is very user friendly and it's simple to use even without any extra programming knowledge. I also like being able to clean up the data before building visualizations. Uploading files or connecting directly to a server is easy too and the drag and drop setup makes the whole process really convenient.

Cons

It does an excellent job when it comes to building visualizations but I wouldn't really suggest it as a tool for deeper analysis. It's missing some data manipulation features that would make working with datasets more complete and the pricing is on the expensive side.

“Natural-looking visuals without coding”

Pros

Working with Tableau is not a problem and you can build quite advanced visualizations without needing to know any programming language. It also does a really good job of recognizing data types automatically. For instance, when you load latitude and longitude GPS coordinates, it understands what they are and starts suggesting geographic visualization options right away.

Cons

The only downside is that some of the more detailed features are not very obvious when you first start using it so figuring everything out on your own can be difficult. I'd definitely recommend going through its online training to get the most out of the software. For example there's an aggregate measure option in the menu like if it stays enabled, you'll see statistical summaries but if you turn it off, you can plot a time series instead which is the kind of thing that's much easier to learn through training.

“Setting up servers is not a pain”

Pros

Getting Tableau installed is pretty hassle-free. They've done a really good job of making the server installation easy and simple to handle.

Cons

My only issue came up during the move from version 2019.2 to 2019.3 since it required a full rebuild and a different installation process. That won't matter if you're starting fresh but if you're upgrading from an older version, make sure to go through all the documentation before moving to 2019.3 or later.

“Quick setup with strong BI”

Pros

Tableau is user friendly and comes with great business intelligence features. Getting it up and running was also fast and easy.

Cons

Querying isn't where it performs best and it can struggle with very large datasets since it tends to slow down and get buggy when handling that much data.

“Useful for comparing year over year”

Pros

One thing that's genuinely helpful is being able to search financial data from the current year and also compare those numbers from one year to the next.

Cons

At the same time the software is a bit outdated and it's not particularly user friendly when it comes to using it or manipulating the data.

“Fast reports without knowing databases”

Pros

Tableau feels like a game-changing tool because it lets me create reports very quickly, even without having much database knowledge.

Cons

It does get a bit slow when I build a model that pulls from a lot of tables and some features are less user friendly than I'd expect.

“Broad integrations with strong dashboards”

Pros

Right from the trial period the community support and setup help were really good. It provides very detailed capabilities for building just about any kind of dashboard from almost any data source. The integration options are also extensive, with support for most common file types, databases and data structures.

Cons

The licensing is much more expensive than many other tools in the industry. A major downside was needing to purchase 100 viewer licenses just to share the final dashboard, even though our company only needed around 15 to 20 which felt like a big limitation.

“Live updates with great charts”

Pros

Putting data into tables is pretty easy and the charts update automatically which saves a lot of time. I also really like being able to interact with the charts and drill into the data behind each point whenever I need more detail.

Cons

Getting it integrated with our systems took a bit of work at first. Once that was sorted out though, it worked perfectly and gave us exactly the parameters we needed.

“Strong analytics but costs more”

Pros

It brings together business intelligence and analytics in one platform and turns raw data into meaningful insights. Pulling information from multiple data sources is a big plus and the interactive dashboards make it possible to slice and dice the data in useful ways. There's also plenty of room to customize it for stakeholders across different industries. On top of that it can be deployed either on-premise or in the cloud and the mobile app is handy for checking dashboards and insights on the go.

Cons

I genuinely like most of what this tool offers. The only real downside is the pricing which feels much better suited to large companies than to individuals or smaller businesses.

“Rich integrations with great visuals”

Pros

Working with Tableau has been excellent from end to end. It stands out as the best visualization tool I have used and other options really don't come close to matching how versatile it is. The interface is user friendly and the step by step guidance makes it approachable while still being powerful. One of the biggest advantages is how well Tableau integrates with a wide range of software, platforms and databases which is something many other visualization tools simply don't offer at the same level. Its support for customized calculated fields, along with the ability to build stories, dashboards and animations, are some of the features that make it such a strong competitor in the data visualization market.

Cons

It packs a huge number of features into a single interface to deliver a full user experience but that also creates some drawbacks. With so much available in one place, certain functions can easily go unnoticed or remain unused. The large number of tools and capabilities can also make it hard at times to find a specific feature quickly. From regular use, I have also seen cases where arranging pills in a certain order across rows and columns can unexpectedly alter the visualization and roll it back to an earlier state. When that happens, important steps can get undone and it ends up creating extra rework.

“Reports that tell a clear story”

Pros

It does a really nice job of turning reports into clear visuals that bring the data together in a way that makes the metrics actually make sense. It's much easier to walk clients through overall performance when everything is presented visually and it helps tell a clear story about where they currently stand and where there's room to improve.

Cons

This might be more about how my company has things set up but the reports do seem to run on the slower side. I also have to pause them to keep the data from constantly running which takes away from the convenience because I sometimes forget to do it and then my computer slows down a lot. It may come back to how our reports are configured but performance definitely feels slow at times.

“Tell stories with strong visuals”

Pros

Tableau does a really good job of turning almost any type of data into visual formats which makes it much faster and more efficient to understand the information at a glance.

Cons

That said, you do need to know how to use the software properly to create the right visualization since it offers many different ways to present the same data.

“Dashboards that actually get results”

Pros

The dashboards and data visualizations were outstanding and they let us build reporting tailored to each business owner so the information they needed was much more focused and efficient. A big advantage was how interactive the final deliverables were which made them especially valuable and impactful.

Cons

The integration took quite a while to get through. Securing buy-in from different business users around the back-end data also slowed the rollout. The training package we received was very detailed but analysts still faced a pretty steep learning curve when it came to building the final product.

“Helpful for joining data across databases”

Pros

One thing that has been really useful for us is being able to join tables from different databases through the data source connection tabs. It's the first tool we've used that handles this that way and it makes it much easier to trace where the data is coming from especially when someone notices an anomaly.

Cons

That said it still seems to have some lingering bugs. We keep running into connection problems between tabs. When switching from one worksheet to another, we often see this error message that Bad Connection so could not connect to the data source. No such table.

“Nice charts that connect to many sources”

Pros

Tableau creates really attractive data visualizations and offers plenty of data connectors for pulling in data and building charts from it. It also comes with prebuilt chart options, can connect to cloud data sources and is easy to work with overall.

Cons

It's mainly a visualization tool so data manipulation is limited since it isn't designed as an ETL platform. Performance can slow down depending on the size of the dataset and the connectors being used. Formatting can also be a little tricky because certain containers have to be adjusted to get the layout right and publishing is limited to Tableau Server directly.

“Strong dashboards with data connections”

Pros

One of the biggest advantages of Tableau is how simple it is to connect with different data sources like Google Analytics, Amazon Redshift and Adwords. The dashboards are also user friendly so people can move around them easily and make decisions based on the work built in Tableau.

Cons

A few features aren't completely user friendly at first. For example, working with dates can take a bit of time to understand because of how that functionality is set up.

“Good visuals to share with clients”

Pros

Tableau makes it really simple to turn data into visuals and keep track of key metrics which is especially helpful when I need to share relevant insights with clients.

Cons

One issue I run into pretty often is the its servers being unavailable and it always seems to happen right when I need the platform the most.