MicroStrategy Analytics vs. Tableau Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
MicroStrategy Analytics
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
MicroStrategy Analytics is an enterprise business analytics and mobility platform. Key features include automatic big data analysis and reporting, data discovery and visualization, digital security credentials, and support for mobile devices.N/A
Tableau Cloud
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Cloud (formerly Tableau Online) is a self-service analytics platform that is fully hosted in the cloud. Tableau Cloud enables users to publish dashboards and invite colleagues to explore hidden opportunities with interactive visualizations and accurate data, from any browser or mobile device.N/A
Pricing
MicroStrategy AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MicroStrategy AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing information.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MicroStrategy AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Considered Both Products
MicroStrategy Analytics
Chose MicroStrategy Analytics
Tableau was more costly and took longer to learn to use. While it does have some perks (such as no metadata layer), I find using the online version of Tableau is not as fast as the online version of Microstrategy, and creating data descriptors is easier in the latter. Tableau
Tableau Cloud
Chose Tableau Cloud

My work environment uses both Tableau Online, MicroStrategy & SSRS in parallel. Tableau is much closer to the SSRS in terms of visualization tool where as MicroStrategy is an enterprise data modeling and reporting tool.

WHY SELECT TABLEAU ONLINE

Chose Tableau Cloud
I think Tableau is better for a bigger firm with more data than MicroStrategy is. While MicroStrategy seems to be more user-friendly in terms of customization on the fly, and I find it a bit better organized - which is simply my preference of organizational style - my …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
MicroStrategy AnalyticsTableau Cloud
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
MicroStrategy Analytics
10.0
26 Ratings
20% above category average
Tableau Cloud
8.8
67 Ratings
7% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports10.023 Ratings8.650 Ratings
Customizable dashboards10.023 Ratings8.267 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates10.024 Ratings9.656 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
MicroStrategy Analytics
10.0
24 Ratings
21% above category average
Tableau Cloud
8.7
67 Ratings
7% above category average
Drill-down analysis10.022 Ratings8.167 Ratings
Formatting capabilities10.024 Ratings8.664 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages10.016 Ratings8.742 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration10.023 Ratings9.565 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
MicroStrategy Analytics
10.0
23 Ratings
18% above category average
Tableau Cloud
8.8
65 Ratings
5% above category average
Publish to Web10.022 Ratings8.761 Ratings
Publish to PDF10.023 Ratings8.760 Ratings
Report Versioning10.020 Ratings7.849 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling10.022 Ratings9.653 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers10.05 Ratings8.932 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
MicroStrategy Analytics
10.0
22 Ratings
21% above category average
Tableau Cloud
8.8
63 Ratings
9% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)10.020 Ratings8.760 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization10.019 Ratings8.059 Ratings
Predictive Analytics10.018 Ratings9.551 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
MicroStrategy Analytics
10.0
21 Ratings
15% above category average
Tableau Cloud
8.5
62 Ratings
1% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)10.019 Ratings8.456 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model10.020 Ratings9.049 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)10.020 Ratings7.652 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)10.09 Ratings9.047 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
MicroStrategy Analytics
9.7
19 Ratings
20% above category average
Tableau Cloud
7.7
52 Ratings
3% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access10.019 Ratings7.950 Ratings
Mobile Application10.015 Ratings7.038 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile10.019 Ratings8.745 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
MicroStrategy Analytics
10.0
8 Ratings
23% above category average
Tableau Cloud
9.1
34 Ratings
14% above category average
REST API10.06 Ratings9.729 Ratings
Javascript API10.07 Ratings9.727 Ratings
iFrames10.05 Ratings8.027 Ratings
Java API10.04 Ratings8.824 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)10.05 Ratings9.728 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)10.06 Ratings8.827 Ratings
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MicroStrategy AnalyticsTableau Cloud
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Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
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User Ratings
MicroStrategy AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(47 ratings)
9.8
(68 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(27 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
3.2
(5 ratings)
9.4
(21 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
2.2
(5 ratings)
8.8
(20 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
MicroStrategy AnalyticsTableau Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
MicroStrategy
MSTR is great for any organization that is looking for a way to deliver complicated data in an uncomplicated way. From business teams to marketing and finance, several departments benefit from using MSTR to keep track of KPIs enabling teams to make optimizations along the way. MSTR provides great visual representations of data enabling team members to distill thousands of data points into easily digestible charts and graphs
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Tableau
We just need to refresh our data once a day for our unique use case, which allows the complete online system to run on extracts. For us, this is critical because our daylight hours are spent focusing on new updates and implementations rather than worrying about excessive database traffic (which would be required with a direct connection to the online system). The process of importing extracts is straightforward and sturdy enough to handle massive amounts of data.
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Pros
MicroStrategy
  • They sell the product well, and make promises you will actually believe
  • "checks the box" for most features a company would need. Doesn't actually deliver them though
  • They answer the phone in a timely manner. Can't answer your questions or provide support, but the queue time isn't bad
  • They have online documentation. It's not up to date, and likely doesn't reflect the version of software you are using, but hey... they can point to it.
Read full review
Tableau
  • Tableau Online is completely cloud based and that's why the reports and dashboards are accessible even on the go. One doesn't always need to access the office laptop to access the reports.
  • The visualizations are interactive and one can quickly change the level at which they want to view the information. For example, one person might be more interested in looking at the country level performances rather than client level. This is intuitive and one doesn't need to create multiple reports for the same.
  • The feature to ask questions in plain vanilla English language is great and helpful. For quick adhoc fact checks one can simply type what they are looking for and the Natural Language Programming algorithms under the hood parse the query, interpret it and then fetch the results accordingly in a visual form.
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Cons
MicroStrategy
  • The graph options are not as robust as an Excel user might want.
  • The metadata layer can sometimes be slower, and it takes a long time for reports to run.
  • Viewing the data feed entered can be cumbersome at times, in terms of validation with reports.
Read full review
Tableau
  • Can be a steep learning curve for new users
  • Modeling and building algorithms aren't always intuitive and take some testing/retesting to ensure it's working as it should
  • Inability to integrate easily with our HRIS platform. Reports are pulled from HRIS at various intervals and uploaded into Tableau
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Likelihood to Renew
MicroStrategy
I would always choose to renew MicroStrategy as long as they lead the market in features, functionality and price. The support of MicroStrategy is timely and professional, I frequently get answers to my questions within 24 hours and normally have solutions within 48 hours. Training available for MicroStrategy completely covers everything required to be able to expertly use MicroStrategy and understand data warehousing.
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Tableau
No answers on this topic
Usability
MicroStrategy
The standard grid reporting could look more like the styling and object used for the Import and Visual Insight products. In addition, object properties almost seem to be hidden when first using the product. It's as if they are asking the engineers to only use the presets we make available...and, these presets are 10+ years old. On the positive side, Microstrategy seems to be the only product, not named Cognos, which can scale to Big Data. The product is "hackable" via the SDK or tricking the Intelligence Server to do uncommon things. The Microstrategy development team also seems to be very involved with their OEM partners; especially when it comes to features and enhancements. A large majority of the improvements we suggested have made it into the product or on the roadmap for future enhancements. Only suckas fall for the shiny objects from most other vendors; Microstrategy is really the only choice for Enterprise BI.
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Tableau
From an end user perspective Tableau Online is overall very easy to navigate once you get used to it, my only complaint is that when expanding or contracting a graph, the "plus" and "minus" on the bottom left is sometimes hidden, and should always be visible. From a builder perspective, it can take some getting used to but the sheer depth of customization makes it all worthwhile.
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Reliability and Availability
MicroStrategy
I've never had an issue with MicroStrategy not being available due to MicroStrategy application malfunction. It is very robust and only failures I've seen were due to user error or the platform the machine running the service failed some how.
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Tableau
No answers on this topic
Performance
MicroStrategy
Being able to customize the performance based on the business need is extremely powerful. Proper configuration and understanding of the usage pattern is key, if the technical ability of the architect is not at top level, then the product will not be configured correctly which will lead to poor performance.
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Tableau
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
MicroStrategy
Good user community. Support team is available if you are under AMC. You get decent support after raising the support ticket. If it is product bug they will inform you and let you know which patch will resolve the same.
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Tableau
In times where the system is down, support has always been quick to notify and keep us apprised of the latest developments. It's crucial for our system to always be available, but when emergencies have arisen, I don't recall a time where the Tableau Online Support hasn't been able to address our concerns in a timely manner.
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Online Training
MicroStrategy
I have attended many trainings offered by MicroStrategy; both distance and in-person training. I earned my CRD (Certified Report Developer) certification via the online training. I found the training to be well organized and concise. Overall I will definitely continue to increase my knowledge with MicroStrategy via the online training offering.
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Tableau
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
MicroStrategy
We measured following KPI for the success
  • Increase in Business Feeds Loads
  • Reduction in Controllers Manual Work.
  • Conversion of Manual Work into Systematic Workflows.
  • Increase in Customer Spend
  • Reduction in Service costs
  • Reduction in time-to-market for new campaigns
  • Increase in cross sell and Up sell
  • Error reduction in customer Identification
  • Existing client retained
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Tableau
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
MicroStrategy
Tableau is probably MicroStrategy Analytic's biggest competitor I've noticed over time, and I'm not sure why. Tableau only covers visualizations independently for each business user, which then creates the issues of every employee creating their own version of the data, and then you have 20 versions of the truth. A enterprise data warehouse and MicroStrategy's Visual Insight is a better method.
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Tableau
Googles dashboard suite is very user-friendly and anyone can edit and make changes with very little knowledge or practice. But nothing I’ve worked with compares to the customization and multi streams of data in a user-friendly package like tableau does. It’s a really cool piece of software and I would choose that again.
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Scalability
MicroStrategy
This software is extremely scaleable, one can add more core servers which performs as a load balancing. The configurations available to manage usage patterns and daily activity are as high a caliber as any other enterprise level software. This product can be installed on both a windows and unix platform allow for integration on a budget.
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Tableau
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
MicroStrategy
  • MicroStrategy was helpful for reducing the amount of time we needed to spend number crunching large data sets, and in doing so, allowed me as the primary users to spend more time gleaning insights from the data that in turn informed our leadership team to make strategic decisions.
  • By creating numerous canned reports available to all members of the team through email distribution or basic access to the platform, we were able to reduce the time I spent showing people how to pull the data in Microsoft Excel by nearly 40% .
  • We ended up needing to make many changes to the way our DMP was feeding data into MicroStrategy due to incorrect reporting that caused complications in accounting and finance.
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Tableau
  • When we release new products, we are now able to quickly see data and toggle between current periods and previous to see performance
  • Generating new reports requires less IT time to build
  • Data can be shared across many different device types
  • We now have integration where our customers can extract data from our software more easily-this was a big ask from our customers
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