Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Altair Monarch
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Altair Monarch (formerly Datawatch Monarch, acquired by Altair in December, 2018) works with both relational and multi-structured data including support for a wide range of formats including PDF, XML, HTML, text, spool and ASCII files. The product can access data from invoices, sales reports, balance sheets, customer lists, inventory, logs and more. According to the vendor, the system is easy to use, allowing users to quickly select any data source and automatically convert it into…N/A
Tableau Desktop
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Desktop is a data visualization product from Tableau. It connects to a variety of data sources for combining disparate data sources without coding. It provides tools for discovering patterns and insights, data calculations, forecasts, and statistical summaries and visual storytelling.
$1,380
per year (purchased via a Creator license)
Tableau Prep
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Prep enables users to get to the analysis phase faster by helping them quickly combine, shape, and clean their data. According to the vendor, a direct and visual experience helps provide users with a deeper understanding of their data, smart features make data preparation simple, and integration with the Tableau analytical workflow allows for faster speed to insight. Tableau Prep allows users to connect to data on-premises or in the cloud, whether it’s a database or a…
$15
per month billed annually per user
Pricing
Altair MonarchTableau DesktopTableau Prep
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Tableau Creator License
$115
per month (billed annually) per user
Viewer
$15
per month billed annually per user
Explorer
$42
per month billed annually per user
Creator
$70
per month billed annually per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Altair MonarchTableau DesktopTableau Prep
Free Trial
YesNoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAll pricing plans are billed annually. A Creator license includes Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep Builder, and Tableau Pulse. Discounts sometimes available for volume.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Altair MonarchTableau DesktopTableau Prep
Considered Multiple Products
Altair Monarch
Chose Altair Monarch
Datawatch is very good value of money compared to QlikView; QlikView is really more of a BI tool and has a lot of functions that I didn't need. Datawatch is very strong in the real-time area where Tableau, Panorama, and Qlik don't do very well. If you need to set up a visual …
Tableau Desktop
Chose Tableau Desktop
When we first looked at getting a visualization software for analytics we looked into two options Microsoft Power BI and Tableau Desktop, and even though Power BI is more cost-effective we decided to go with Tableau Desktop as it had more options that we are looking for such as …
Tableau Prep
Chose Tableau Prep
Before Prep, we had to do all the data joining and connecting in a Tableau Workbook. Not only did this cause workbooks connected with live data to run frustratingly slowly, a new connection and set-up had to be established every time a new workbook as created, even if you were …
Chose Tableau Prep
We use both Tableau Prep and Alteryx and, although Tableau Prep integrates better with Tableau Desktop, I find that more often then not I open up Alteryx to do most of my data prep prior to bringing my data into analysis as it is just so much more robust. Not that this makes Tab…
Chose Tableau Prep
Tableau Prep is covered in our license whereas Alteryx required additional fees and a separate license. Tableau Prep is similar to Tableau Desktop which a lot of our team is comfortable with so it wasn't difficult to get a feel for Tableau Prep. However, Alteryx would have been …
Chose Tableau Prep
Tableau Prep is a good tool to use in tandem with Tableau. You can use Tableau by just plugging in an excel sheet or other form of dataset, but the tools that Tableau Prep has specifically makes the data set work better with Tableau. The extra time to optimize is worth it.
Features
Altair MonarchTableau DesktopTableau Prep
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.4
175 Ratings
3% above category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.0145 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings9.1174 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings8.1151 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.3
172 Ratings
3% above category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.5167 Ratings00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.4170 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings8.0126 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.5165 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.3
166 Ratings
1% above category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
Publish to Web00 Ratings8.0155 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.1154 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings8.4120 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.5128 Ratings00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.878 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.3
164 Ratings
4% above category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.5162 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.5156 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings8.6131 Ratings00 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.57 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
9.0
149 Ratings
6% above category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.0145 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings9.0125 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.7136 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings9.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings9.283 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
7.9
141 Ratings
1% above category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings8.7130 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings7.4101 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.4122 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Altair Monarch
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
7.7
67 Ratings
0% below category average
Tableau Prep
-
Ratings
REST API00 Ratings8.259 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings7.653 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings6.751 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings8.148 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.254 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.248 Ratings00 Ratings
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User Ratings
Altair MonarchTableau DesktopTableau Prep
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(6 ratings)
8.8
(203 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.2
(6 ratings)
7.5
(41 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(73 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(11 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(57 ratings)
5.3
(3 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(34 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Altair MonarchTableau DesktopTableau Prep
Likelihood to Recommend
Altair Engineering, Inc.
The product is especially useful when you have real-time and/or time series data to analyze. If you have more mundane, simpler requirements, other products might do the job you need for less money (there are even some decent open source visualization tools you can find.) I know the product is very widely used in capital markets applications to monitor and analyze risk and price and volume changes; if you're working in that area, I don't think there's a better tool to use.
Read full review
Tableau
The best scenario is definitely to collect data from several sources and create dedicated dashboards for specific recipients. However, I miss the possibility of explaining these reports in more detail. Sometimes, we order a report, and after half a year, we don't remember the meaning of some data (I know it's our fault as an organization, but the tool could force better practices).
Read full review
Tableau
If your data sets are coming in without much stewardship then Tableau Prep can help to clean the data before you start trying to create visualizations for your end users. You will save a lot of time this way - rather than seeing problems once you are creating dashboards. If you don't have large data sets or your data is relatively simple, then Tableau Prep may not be needed.
Read full review
Pros
Altair Engineering, Inc.
  • Creating a basic model to extract data from a report is very easy.
  • Advanced features like Calculated Fields and External Lookups allow you to augment the raw data.
  • You can create a "project" to automate the data extraction. Combined with Datapump (a separate DW app), you can fully automate the process once the raw report is generated.
Read full review
Tableau
  • An excellent tool for data visualization, it presents information in an appealing visual format—an exceptional platform for storing and analyzing data in any size organization.
  • Through interactive parameters, it enables real-time interaction with the user and is easy to learn and get support from the community.
Read full review
Tableau
  • Display the raw data coming in from the data warehouse
  • Point out situations that might be erroneous
  • Show the distribution of raw data figures
Read full review
Cons
Altair Engineering, Inc.
  • Recently, we had some major sticker-shock when we wanted to upgrade Data Pump. It is an exceptional product, but when the price jumped from $6,000 to over $60,000, it was impossible to get the funds approved internally for the upgrade.
  • We also paid for yearly maintenance contracts which included Professional Services, but rarely found those services beneficial. However, we did receive all software upgrades for Datapump as part of the contract which we found to be very beneficial. However, with the new pricing, that is not longer the case.
Read full review
Tableau
  • Pricing should be more user-friendly and usage-driven
  • Making edits to the production reports is fairly tough and has a vast scope of additional capabilities
  • Tableau Desktop should be able to differentiate itself from the Tableau server else there is no major meaning of two different products being offered
Read full review
Tableau
  • Use of Macros within Workflow (and more types of automation)
  • Join Editor also giving a SQL Update Query
  • More types of visuals
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Altair Engineering, Inc.
Even though we do not utilize it on a daily basis, I do hope my current company renews it's license. If not, I intend to purchase myself.
Read full review
Tableau
Our use of Tableau Desktop is still fairly low, and will continue over time. The only real concern is around cost of the licenses, and I have mentioned this to Tableau and fully expect the development of more sensible models for our industry. This will remove any impediment to expansion of our use.
Read full review
Tableau
It is a valuable tool for generating and cleaning files for multiple purposes.
Read full review
Usability
Altair Engineering, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Tableau
Tableau Desktop has proven to be a lifesaver in many situations. Once we've completed the initial setup, it's simple to use. It has all of the features we need to quickly and efficiently synthesize our data. Tableau Desktop has advanced capabilities to improve our company's data structure and enable self-service for our employees.
Read full review
Tableau
It works well and is user friendly for the basics but needs more options for bring in data (using SQL queries for example) and export format options.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Altair Engineering, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Tableau
When used as a stand-alone tool, Tableau Desktop has unlimited uptime, which is always nice. When used in conjunction with Tableau Server, this tool has as much uptime as your server admins are willing to give it. All in all, I've never had an issue with Tableau's availability.
Read full review
Tableau
No answers on this topic
Performance
Altair Engineering, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Tableau
Tableau Desktop's performance is solid. You can really dig into a large dataset in the form of a spreadsheet, and it exhibits similarly good performance when accessing a moderately sized Oracle database. I noticed that with Tableau Desktop 9.3, the performance using a spreadsheet started to slow around 75K rows by about 60 columns. This was easily remedied by creating an extract and pushing it to Tableau Server, where performance went to lightning fast
Read full review
Tableau
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Altair Engineering, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Tableau
Tableau support has been extremely responsive and willing to help with all of our requests. They have assisted with creating advanced analysis and many different types of custom icons, data formatting, formulas, and actions embedded into graphs. Tableau offers a weekly presentation of features and assists with internal company projects.
Read full review
Tableau
I have not really had to reach out for any kind of customer support for Tableau Prep, so I can't really say. However, the support that Tableau has given for their other products has been great, so I would assume it would be the same here. They are also constantly adding new features and providing software updates, and that is always a plus.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Altair Engineering, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Tableau
It is admittedly hard to train a group of people with disparate levels of ability coming in, but the software is so easy to use that this is not a huge problem; anyone who can follow simple instructions can catch up pretty quickly.
Read full review
Tableau
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Altair Engineering, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Tableau
I think the training was good overall, but it was maybe stating the obvious things that a tech savvy young engineer would be able to pick up themselves too. However, the example work books were good and Tableau web community has helped me with many problems
Read full review
Tableau
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Altair Engineering, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Tableau
Again, training is the key and the company provides a lot of example videos that will help users discover use cases that will greatly assist their creation of original visualizations. As with any new software tool, productivity will decline for a period. In the case of Tableau, the decline period is short and the later gains are well worth it.
Read full review
Tableau
Live connections to cloud services (Google Sheets for example) and cloud hosted databases (cloud hosted SIS for example) for scheduled flows are not supported
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Altair Engineering, Inc.
Datawatch is very good value of money compared to QlikView; QlikView is really more of a BI tool and has a lot of functions that I didn't need. Datawatch is very strong in the real-time area where Tableau, Panorama, and Qlik don't do very well. If you need to set up a visual monitoring dashboard, Datawatch is the best product I've seen for that. if you want to do a lot of in depth statistical analysis of large databases, Tableau is probably a good option.
Read full review
Tableau
I have used Power BI as well, the pricing is better, and also training costs or certifications are not that high. Since there is python integration in Power BI where I can use data cleaning and visualizing libraries and also some machine learning models. I can import my python scripts and create a visualization on processed data.
Read full review
Tableau
Before Prep, we had to do all the data joining and connecting in a Tableau Workbook. Not only did this cause workbooks connected with live data to run frustratingly slowly, a new connection and set-up had to be established every time a new workbook as created, even if you were working with the same data. The extracts produced by Prep allow several workbooks to be working from the same data set-up without any additional work, saving time and stress.
Read full review
Scalability
Altair Engineering, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Tableau
Tableau Desktop's scaleability is really limited to the scale of your back-end data systems. If you want to pull down an extract and work quickly in-memory, in my application it scaled to a few tens of millions of rows using the in-memory engine. But it's really only limited by your back-end data store if you have or are willing to invest in an optimized SQL store or purpose-built query engine like Veritca or Netezza or something similar.
Read full review
Tableau
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Altair Engineering, Inc.
  • Data Pump reduces complexity of report solutions by offering a standardized approach for organizing and scheduling
  • 97% service level for past 5 years for all of our jobs going through Data Pump
Read full review
Tableau
  • Tableau was acquired years ago, and has provided good value with the content created.
  • Ongoing maintenance costs for the platform, both to maintain desktop and server licensing has made the continuing value questionable when compared to other offerings in the marketplace.
  • Users have largely been satisfied with the content, but not with the overall performance. This is due to a combination of factors including the performance of the Tableau engines as well as development deficiencies.
Read full review
Tableau
  • Quicker data sets for online reports
  • More efficient data cleaning Ad Hoc reports
  • Costly if using data management to schedule data pull and cleaning (priced per viewer accounts not creator accounts)
Read full review
ScreenShots

Altair Monarch Screenshots

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