Microsoft Project vs. Tableau Server

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Project
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Project is a project management software. It provides core PM functionality, including agile workflow support and resource management. Project can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise.
$120
per year per user
Tableau Server
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Server allows Tableau Desktop users to publish dashboards to a central server to be shared across their organizations. The product is designed to facilitate collaboration across the organization. It can be deployed on a server in the data center, or it can be deployed on a public cloud.
$12
Per User Per Month
Pricing
Microsoft ProjectTableau Server
Editions & Modules
Project Server
$0
Planner Plan 1
$10
per month per user
Planner and Project Plan 3
$30
per month per user
Planner and Project Plan 5
$55
per month per user
Project Standard 2024
$679.99
one-time fee per installation
Project Professional 2024
$1,129.99
one-time fee per installation
Viewer
$12.00
Per User Per Month
Explorer
$35.00
Per User Per Month
Creator
$70.00
Per User Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft ProjectTableau Server
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPlans are billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft ProjectTableau Server
Features
Microsoft ProjectTableau Server
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Project
8.0
111 Ratings
3% above category average
Tableau Server
-
Ratings
Task Management8.2110 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management7.7107 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts9.0107 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling8.5109 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation10.083 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration7.398 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology4.883 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology7.783 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management9.077 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration5.082 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access10.067 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking10.073 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management7.864 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management7.686 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Project
8.8
79 Ratings
13% above category average
Tableau Server
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates7.855 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing10.045 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting7.576 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software10.050 Ratings00 Ratings
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Server
8.4
95 Ratings
3% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings9.129 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings7.094 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings9.081 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Server
7.8
95 Ratings
3% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.095 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.093 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings8.059 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings7.089 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Server
7.2
91 Ratings
13% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings8.085 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.084 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings8.070 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.077 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings5.19 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Server
8.3
90 Ratings
4% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings9.086 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.085 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings8.064 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Server
10.0
95 Ratings
16% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings10.093 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings10.090 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings10.092 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings10.062 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Server
8.1
79 Ratings
4% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings10.077 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings7.061 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.068 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Project
-
Ratings
Tableau Server
6.4
46 Ratings
19% below category average
REST API00 Ratings8.040 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings8.037 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings6.040 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings5.57 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings6.19 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings4.67 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft ProjectTableau Server
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 8.9 out of 10
Yellowfin
Yellowfin
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
InEight
InEight
Score 8.4 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
InEight
InEight
Score 8.4 out of 10
Kyvos Semantic Layer
Kyvos Semantic Layer
Score 9.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft ProjectTableau Server
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(111 ratings)
8.0
(111 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(20 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(9 ratings)
8.0
(17 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(9 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(34 ratings)
3.0
(18 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(13 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft ProjectTableau Server
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
Microsoft Project Online is suited to Turnkey Projects where more Collaboration is required in Project Progress monitoring, risk assessment and conveying, issue recording and tracking. It is less appropriate when ERP Suites other than MS Dynamics are used, i.e when Enterprises need to integrate Finance / Accounting with It and having straight project management workflow
Read full review
Tableau
Whole funnel and specific channel performance from upper to lower funnel metrics. The ability to view full channel performance for some time, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly, has truly been monumental in how my team optimizes specific channels and campaigns. Daily performance tracking is a bit overwhelming, with load times and having to refresh specific live views over time. It can be challenging to do so at times, as extensive dashboards take much longer to load.
Read full review
Pros
Microsoft
  • I love the Gantt Chart that Microsoft Project offers me, because it provides me with a view from various aspects, it provides me with exact details about the fulfillment of tasks over a period of time, it also allows me to make comparisons with the necessary data and the fulfilled data. by the employees, in order to know exactly if the project's expectations have been met.
  • I love the Gantt Chart that Microsoft Project offers me, because it provides me with a view from various aspects, it provides me with exact details about the fulfillment of tasks over a period of time, it also allows me to make comparisons with the necessary data and the fulfilled data by the employees, in order to know exactly if the project's expectations have been met.
  • The alert system for the fulfillment and delay of assignments is perfect. Microsoft Project allows me to configure the task system, I can assign the necessary tasks to fulfill the project, and the software alerts me immediately if the managers are fulfilling the assignments.
Read full review
Tableau
  • It's good at doing what it is designed for: accessing visualizations without having to download and open a workbook in Tableau Desktop. The latter would be a very inefficient method for sharing our metrics, so I am glad that we have Tableau Server to serve this function.
  • Publishing to Tableau Server is quick and easy. Just a few clicks from Tableau Desktop and a few seconds of publishing through an average speed network, and the new visualizations are live!
  • Seeing details on who has viewed the visualization and when. This is something particularly useful to me for trying to drive adoption of some new pages, so I really appreciate the granularity provided in Tableau Server
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • Seems overly complicated for users sometimes in using Project and its functionalities
  • Hard to share files for those folks who do not have MS Project, and then have to print out for them
  • Can be confusing since it looks and feels like MS Excel
Read full review
Tableau
  • Tableau Server has had some issue handling some of our larger data sets. Our extract refreshes fail intermittently with no obvious error that we can fix
  • Tableau Server has been hard to work with before they launched their new Rest API, which is also a little tricky to work with
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
I like using Microsoft Project. It simplifies building a schedule
Read full review
Tableau
It simply is used all the time by more and more people. Migrating to something else would involve lots of work and lots of training. The renewal fee being fair, it simply isn't worth migrating to a different tool for now.
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
Microsoft
Project is easy to operate because data could be inserted, changed and
deleted like you are in an Excel timesheet. Besides, it provides a great
level of automation beween his fields allowing few data changes. Also, its
funcionalities are well defined and grouped in upper menus, so you can find a
funcionality quickly
Read full review
Tableau
Tableau Server takes training and experience in order to unlock the application's full potential. This is best handled by a qualified data scientist or data analytics manager. Tableau user interface layout, nomenclature, and command structure take time and training to become proficient with. Integration and connectivity require proper IT developer support.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Tableau
Our instance of Tableau Server was hosted on premises (I believe all instances are) so if there were any outages it was normally due to scheduled maintenance on our end. If the Tableau server ever went down, a quick restart solved most issues
Read full review
Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Tableau
While there are definitely cases where a user can do things that will make a particular worksheet or dashboard run slowly, overall the performance is extremely fast. The user experience of exploratory analysis particularly shines, there's nothing out there with the polish of Tableau.
Read full review
Support Rating
Microsoft
Microsoft in recent years has transformed itself and gives a positive feeling when one interacts with the company. The company is focusing on its customers and willing to go extra mile to make customers happy.The company continues to invest in its products and bringing new features from time to time. Overall it is a positive feeling to be associated with such an iconic company.
Read full review
Tableau
We have consistently had highly satisfactory results every time we've reached out for help. Our contractor, used for Tableau server maintenance and dashboard development is very technically skilled. When he hits a roadblock on how to do something with Tableau, the support staff have provided timely and useful guidance. He frequently compares it to Cognos and says that while Cognos has capabilities Tableau doesn't, the bottom line value for us is a no-brainer
Read full review
In-Person Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Tableau
In our case, they hired a private third party consultant to train our dept. It was extremely boring and felt like it dragged on. Everything I learned was self taught so I was not really paying attention. But I do think that you can easily spend a week on the tool and go over every nook and cranny. We only had the consultant in for a day or two.
Read full review
Online Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Tableau
The Tableau website is full of videos that you can follow at your own pace. As a very small company with a Tableau install, access to these free resources was incredibly useful to allowing me to implement Tableau to its potential in a reasonable and proportionate manner.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Microsoft
I wasn't part of it so I don't know
Read full review
Tableau
Implementation was over the phone with the vendor, and did not go particularly well. Again, think this was our fault as our integration and IT oversight was poor, and we made errors. Would they have happened had a vendor been onsite? Not sure, probably not, but we probably wouldn't have paid for that either
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
While many of the above tools are extremely well-versed, Microsoft Project's largest advantage comes from it being related to the largest business productivity company in the world. Project does have its sharing limitations - but regardless, offers one of the most robust tools in the market today. Microsoft Project is built with large-scale projects in mind but is more than up to the task for smaller projects as well. However, there are options available (especially cloud-based options) that may be more fitting for higher-level projects that do not require going into the weeds.
Read full review
Tableau
Today, if my shop is largely Microsoft-centric, I would be hard pressed to choose a product other than Power BI. Tableau was the visualization leader for years, but Microsoft has caught up with them in many areas, and surpassed them in some. Its ability to source, transform, and model data is superior to Tableau. Tableau still has the lead in some visualizations, but Power BI's rise is evidenced by its ever-increasing position in the leadership section of the Gartner Magic Quadrant.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • Project saved me, as the project manager, countless hours of digging through tickets and schedules to plan everything out. It also saved me time in adjusting the project triangle as needed, since it does so much automatically.
  • It is costly, and since it requires extensive training to master, it's not just the high licensing cost that you need to take into account.
  • The reporting features - even just printing out Gantt charts - makes it far easier to communicate with stakeholders. That means less time for PMs doing all of this manually, and it means less follow-up questions and delays moving forward.
Read full review
Tableau
  • Tableau does take dedicated FTE to create and analyze the data. It's too complex (and powerful) a product not to have someone dedicated to developing with it.
  • There are some significant setup for the server product.
  • Once sever setup is complete, it's largely "fire and forget" until an update is necessary. The server update process is cumbersome.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Tableau Server Screenshots

Screenshot of Tableau Server interface and administration view 1.Screenshot of Tableau Server interface and administration view 2.Screenshot of Tableau Server permissions view.Screenshot of Tableau Services Manager (TSM) view 1.Screenshot of Tableau Services Manager (TSM) view 2.