Microsoft Power BI Embedded vs. Tableau Desktop

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Power BI Embedded
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
A solution from Microsoft to provide customer-facing reports, dashboards, and analytics in applications by using and branding Power BI as one's own. Designed to reduce developer resources by automating the monitoring, management, and deployment of analytics, while getting full control of Power BI features and intelligent analytics.N/A
Tableau Desktop
Score 8.3 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.
$70
per month
Pricing
Microsoft Power BI EmbeddedTableau Desktop
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Tableau Creator
$70.00
Per User / Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Power BI EmbeddedTableau Desktop
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAll pricing plans are billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Power BI EmbeddedTableau Desktop
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Power BI Embedded
Chose Microsoft Power BI Embedded
Microsoft Power BI Embedded is already established as a de-facto standard as a business intelligence platform for the enterprise world. It comprises the best features to be delivered for the products being developed by providing a wide range of functionality. For instance, …
Chose Microsoft Power BI Embedded
This tool is perfectly integrated with the rest of the Microsoft applications (such as Excel) that we use in our university.
Tableau Desktop

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft Power BI EmbeddedTableau Desktop
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI Embedded
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.4
173 Ratings
3% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.2143 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.9172 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings8.1149 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI Embedded
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.4
170 Ratings
5% above category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.5165 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.3168 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings8.1124 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.5163 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI Embedded
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.2
164 Ratings
1% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings7.9153 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.7152 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings8.0118 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.9126 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.376 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI Embedded
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.0
162 Ratings
1% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.3160 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.3154 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings8.4129 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings6.95 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI Embedded
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.7
147 Ratings
2% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.0143 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.6123 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.4134 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.88 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.981 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI Embedded
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.0
139 Ratings
2% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings8.9128 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings6.899 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings8.2120 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Power BI Embedded
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
9.0
65 Ratings
15% above category average
REST API00 Ratings8.557 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings9.051 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings9.449 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings9.946 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings8.653 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.946 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft Power BI EmbeddedTableau Desktop
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Sigma
Sigma
Score 9.1 out of 10
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
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User Ratings
Microsoft Power BI EmbeddedTableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(11 ratings)
8.5
(202 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
7.5
(41 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(71 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(11 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
1.4
(57 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(4 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(34 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Power BI EmbeddedTableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
This product is very convenient to use and implement and is considered a "de facto" standard in the Business Intelligence sphere. First of all, it contains numerous features in terms of visualization, data provisioning, data source integration which makes it a perfect tool for the development of BI analytics. Secondly, it provides great capabilities for the development of data markets for the whole development team. Thirdly, the sharing capabilities of dashboards that are updated in a real-time manner provides great incentives for end-users
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
Pros
Microsoft
  • It is very easy to connect multiple data sources for a single report. You can use CSV, Excel, database integration, etc.
  • Power Bi supports Python as well, which makes it a lot easier for us as it is known by most of our team.
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
Cons
Microsoft
  • Similar to how Excel has VBA, Microsoft Power BI uses PowerQuery (M/DAX). Though DAX is similar to Excel in terms of how it is written, I just think it's something that would be difficult for new users to figure out.
  • Something I would like to see done differently in Microsoft Power BI is the ability to have presets for sorting/arranging of visualizations. Though it is nice to arrange the dashboard freely, it would also be nice to have preset arrangements based on visualizations (for those of us bad at making dashboards look appealing).
  • With Microsoft Power BI, it is hard to show others your dashboard using the free platform (unless you show them from your computer/account). This can cause issues if your firm is trialing Microsoft Power BI before purchase.
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
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
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.
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Usability
Microsoft
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.
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
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.
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Performance
Microsoft
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
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Support Rating
Microsoft
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.
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In-Person Training
Microsoft
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.
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Online Training
Microsoft
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
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
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
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
I haven’t used any other software that can be compared to this and that is a good thing as this means that this software is the best one on the market. Tough other apps may exist we only use Microsoft Power BI because it is simply the best app out there.
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
Scalability
Microsoft
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.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • Saved a significant amount of time for reporting current rollout status to project stakeholders
  • Project stakeholders were able to view the live dashboards at any time so felt they had a better understanding of the rollout status
  • Project stakeholders found it beneficial that they were able to set their own filters. For example, to view rollout status for their own departments.
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
ScreenShots