The new world of data visualization is rapidly emerging, and new players are entering the market. Business intelligence tools play a vital role for any business team. They provide end users with the accessible collection, storage, and visualization of several data types. Two of the most outstanding Business Intelligence tools are Power BI and Tableau. They help you perform data analysis, manipulation, and visualization to make sense of business data and gain insight. Students, practitioners, and researchers are often faced with the dilemma of deciding which tools they should learn or use in their work.
 
This blog will be about Power Vs. Tableau, their difference, and their comparison.
 

What is Power BI?


Power BI is a Business Intelligence and data visualization tool that helps you transform data from various data sources into interactive BI dashboards and reports. It also provides several software connectors and services.
Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence tool that helps you process data from various sources and provides visualization after cleaning and integration. It also offers an Adhoc report generation feature that enables data analysis.
 

What is Tableau?


Tableau is a famous data visualization and business intelligence tool for reporting and analyzing large volumes of data. It helps users create charts, graphs, maps, dashboards, and stories to visualize and analyze data to help them make business decisions. Data generated by Tableau is easy to understand for marketers of all levels, thanks to its easy-to-understand formats. One did not need to acquire high technical skills to create a custom dashboard in Tableau.
 

Some fundamental differences between Power BI and Tableau


Tableau


" Tableau deploys MDX for dimensions and measures.
" Tableau can process a massive amount of data and still offers better performance.
" Tableau has better data visualization.
" Tableau works best with massive data.
" Professionals and power users use Tableau.
 

Power BI


" Power BI uses the DAX language for column measurements and calculations.
" Power BI is best for a limited amount of data.
" Power BI offers many data points for data visualization.
" Power BI is not optimal with massive data.
" Both beginners and experts use Power BI.
 

Comparison between Power BI and Tableau


1. Based on performance

 
Power BI is easy to use. It is faster and works better when data volume is limited. Power BI tends to drag gradually when processing bulk data.
while
Tableau can process large amounts of data quickly. It is faster and provides extensive data visualization capabilities. Tableau doesn't confine the number of data points in visualization or enforce row or size limits, so you should have a 360-degree view of your data.
 

2. Based on the user interface


Power BI is more comfortable to learn and has a more intuitive interface than Tableau. Hence, businesses prefer Power BI over Tableau due to its ease of use and simplicity.
On the other hand, Tableau is usually used to create customized dashboards with an elegant design that allows for a user-friendly interface. Both tools have an exemplary user interface that makes them easy to work with.
 

3. Based on ease of use

 
Power BI has the advantage of the ease of use because it is based on a user interface rooted in Microsoft Office 365 that most end users are already familiar with.
 
Tableau provides some crucial advantages for detailed data exploration and visualization. Tableau also incorporates natural language capabilities into its software. This helps in finding solutions to complex problems by better understanding the data.
 

4. Based on the capacity to process complex data


Tableau processes extensive data more efficiently than Power BI. Tableau works best when the data is vast. Tableau is preferred when the use case has a large data store.
Power BI tends to lag when it encounters extensive data. It lags in performance when there is a large data store.
 

5. Based on the functionality


Tableau performs better compared to Power BI when it comes to data-related questions. This suggests that the depth of data to work with is much more sophisticated than Tableau.
 
And Power BI doesn't offer as many features compared to Tableau.
 

6. Based on machine learning in Power BI and Tableau

 
Power BI takes advantage of Microsoft's enterprise analytics, including platforms such as Azure Machine Learning, SQL Server Analysis Services, real-time data streaming, and many Azure databases. It helps to comprehend the data and analyze the trends and conventions in the data.
 
On the other hand, Tableau supports Python's machine learning features. This allows us to perform machine learning operations on datasets and forecast data.
 

Power bi vs tableau pros and cons


Pros of Power BI


" Power BI is an affordable tool. Desktop Power BI is free, you can create datasets, dashboards, and reports for yourself and share them with your colleagues for analysis, but you have to pay $9.99 per user per month to share reports in the cloud.
" It is straightforward to use. If you should have some knowledge of Excel, you can continue using this tool.
" Microsoft comes out with updates for its software monthly, and so for Power BI. Users can often take advantage of newly developed features.
" With the help of Power BI, you can access data from various data sources anywhere, anytime, and multiple times.
" Power BI comes with interactive dashboards, and users can filter, highlight features, etc., with a single click.
 

Cons of Power BI


" The desktop version of Power BI is not compatible with iOS.
" It has a clunky interface full of many icons that can block the display of reports and dashboards.
" It does not accept a file size larger than 1 GB.
" Sometimes it is challenging to process larger datasets with complex features because Power BI can fail in these situations.
 

Pros of Tableau


" Tableau equips with online resources, guides, training, and an online forum, making the Tableau community more engrossing.
" Software updates in Tableau are easy to do.
" The overall performance of this tool is high and safe. Tableau can make various kinds of visualizations in one shot.
" A huge quantity of data can be processed using Tableau.
" Users can incorporate Python or R to perform complex spreadsheet calculations.
 

Cons of Tableau


" Tableau does not provide an automatic option to refresh reports, which increases the manual effort of updating data in the backend.
" Tableau doesn't give you version control, which means you can't go back to a previous level of data after publishing reports and dashboards.
" Tableau has a table display limit of 16 columns, so users sometimes struggle to display data for larger tables.
" Tableau has static parameters, you can only select one value with a parameter, and whenever the data changes, these parameters are updated manually and not automatically.
 

Certification


Certification will add a stamp of excellence in a specific technology to your portfolio. It shows that you have invested significant time and effort in learning the technology or skill set and have taken full advantage of it.
Additionally, certifications will help you achieve a significant salary increase compared to a non-certified candidate. You can expect a 30-70 percent increase in your income if certified in a specific technology such as Business Intelligence.
 

Power BI certification


Below are some Power BI certifications that will help you advance in your career:

1. Exam 1.DA-100:


Microsoft conducts the DA-100 exam for data analysis with Microsoft Power BI certification but does not provide any training course to qualify for the exam. To pass the exam, you must thoroughly understand the basics of Power BI, its components, and how to connect data from various sources and visualize and run queries on other datasets.
 

2. Exam 70-778:


Explore and visualize data with Microsoft Power BI. Exam 70-778 equips you to create custom visualizations using Power BI Desktop, configure desktops, and deploy models to Power BI web applications.
 

Tableau Certification


Even in the Tableau Desktop certification suite, we have several options based on your understanding and expertise of the tool.

Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate (TDQA)


" It is advised for people with at least 5 months of hands-on experience using the tool, and someone who comprehends the basics of SQL and databases, joins, and standard Data Analytics terminology (Even if you have no previous Tableau experience but are willing to learn, you can get certification).
" Price: $250
" Time limit: 2 hours
" A score of 75% is required to pass this certification.

Tableau Desktop Certified Professional:


" Recommended for people who have significant experience with Tableau Desktop. More than 9 months of experience is needed. Unlike the TDQA, this certificate includes practical solutions, written response, and Tableau desktop creation/saving solutions.
" Price: $600
" Time limit: 3 hours
" Grading and Assessment: Hand-graded based on a detailed scoring rubric
 

Conclusion


In this blog, we have seen the difference and comparison between Power BI and Tableau. In short, we conclude that Power BI is a business analytics service provided by Microsoft that can analyze and visualize data, extract statistics and share them between different departments in your organization. In contrast, Tableau is a powerful Business Intelligence tool that manages data flow and turns data into actionable information. It can create a wide variety of different visualizations that present data and interactively demonstrate insights.

Advanced Certification in Applied Data Science, Machine Learning & IoT By E&ICT Academy, IIT Guwahati