SAS Viya vs. Tableau Desktop

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SAS Viya
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
An end-to-end platform for AI, data science, and analytics, used for modeling, as well as management and deployment of AI models.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.
$75
per month
Pricing
SAS ViyaTableau Desktop
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Tableau
$75
per month per user
Tableau Enterprise
$115
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SAS ViyaTableau Desktop
Free Trial
YesNo
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
SAS ViyaTableau Desktop
Considered Both Products
SAS Viya
Chose SAS Viya
SAS has a much superior and comprehensive data preparation capability with a clear approach on how to handle and scale for a large amount of data and users. However, it can be more expensive to implement.
Tableau Desktop

No answer on this topic

Features
SAS ViyaTableau Desktop
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAS Viya
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.4
174 Ratings
3% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.1144 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.9173 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings8.1150 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAS Viya
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.2
171 Ratings
2% above category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.3166 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.3169 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.8125 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.4164 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
SAS Viya
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.1
165 Ratings
2% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings7.9154 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings7.7153 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings7.9119 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.7127 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.277 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
SAS Viya
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.1
163 Ratings
2% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.4161 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.4155 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings8.5130 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.26 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
SAS Viya
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.7
148 Ratings
2% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings8.8144 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.5124 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.5135 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.89 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.982 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
SAS Viya
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
7.8
140 Ratings
0% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings8.8129 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings7.0100 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.5121 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
SAS Viya
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.1
66 Ratings
5% above category average
REST API00 Ratings8.058 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings8.152 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings7.950 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings9.147 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings8.054 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings7.647 Ratings
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SAS ViyaTableau Desktop
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User Ratings
SAS ViyaTableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(11 ratings)
8.5
(203 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
4.5
(5 ratings)
7.5
(41 ratings)
Usability
6.1
(2 ratings)
8.0
(72 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(11 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(3 ratings)
1.2
(57 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.4
(4 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(34 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
SAS ViyaTableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
SAS
SAS Advance Analytics is well suited for data that is visual. Data where you want to see multiple graphs and models are good for this software. However, if your data is more descriptive this may not be the best program. SAS is well suited for data where you need to make comparisons on the feasibility of two different programs. Data that can be compared is perfect for this software.
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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).
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Pros
SAS
  • SAS is can be used as query builder tool which can automate a lot of excel process.
  • There are variety of statistical options available that tie up good visual analytics.
  • There are inbuilt models available for different operations which doesn't require any coding and are easy to run.
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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.
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Cons
SAS
  • SAS Analytics does not have very good graphic capabilities. Their advanced graphics packages are expensive, and still not very appealing or intuitive to customize.
  • SAS Analytics is not as up-to-date when it comes to advanced analytical techniques as R or other open-source analytics packages.
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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
SAS
Not only does SAS become easier to use as the user gets more familiar with its capabilities, but the customer service is excellent. Any issues with SAS and their technical team is either contacting the user via email, chat, text, WebEx, or phone. They have power users that have years of experience with SAS there to help with any issue.
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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
SAS
If SAS Enterprise Guide is utilized any beginning user will be able to shorten the learning curve. This is allow the user a plethora of basic capabilities until they can utilize coding to expand their needs in manipulating and presenting data. SAS is also dedicated to expanding this environment so it is ever growing.
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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
SAS
SAS probably has the most market saturation out of all of the analytics software worldwide. They are in every industry and they are knowledgable about every industry. They are always available to take questions, solve issues, and discuss a company's needs. A company that buys SAS software has a dedicated representative that is there for all of their needs.
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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
SAS
Although nothing is perfect, SAS is almost there. The software can handle billions of rows of data without a glitch and runs at a quick pace regardless of what the user wants to perform. SAS products are made to handle data so performance is of their utmost important. The software is created to run things as efficiently as SAS software can to maximize performance.
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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
SAS
SAS is generally known for good support that's one of the main reasons to justify the cost of having SAS licenses within our organization is knowing that customer support is just a quick phone call away. I've usually had good experiences with the SAS customer support team it's one of the ways in which the company stands out in my view.
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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
SAS
SAS has regional and national conferences that are dedicated to expanding users' knowledge of the software and showing them what changes and additions they are making to the software. There are user groups in most of the major cities that also provide multi-day seminars that focus on specific topics for education. If online training isn't the best way for the user, there is ample in-person training available.
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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
SAS
There are online videos, live classes, and resource material which makes training very easy to access. However, nothing is circumstantial so applying your training can get tricky if the user is performing complex tasks. When purchasing software, SAS will also allocate education credits so the user(s) can access classes and material online to help expand their knowledge.
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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
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Implementation Rating
SAS
Ask as many questions you can before the install to understand the process. Since a third party does the installation your company is sort of a passanger and it is easy to get lost in the process. It also helps to have all users and IT support involved in the install to help increase the knowledge as to how SAS runs and what it needs to perform correctly.
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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.
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Alternatives Considered
SAS
SAS was the incumbent tool, and what the team knew. We did look into using Revolution Analytics enterprise version of R, but the learning curve on that caused us to stick with SAS. In my current position, I've opted for WPS over SAS. I can still leverage my SAS experience, but the price is about 15% of what SAS charges, with extra functionality, such as direct database access. I can supplement WPS with free software, such R for anything that it might be missing.
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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.
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Scalability
SAS
It all depends on the type of SAS product the user has. Scaleability differs from product to product, and if the user has SAS Office Analytics the scaleability is quite robust. This software will satisfy the majority of the company's analytic needs for years to come. In addition, if SAS is not meeting the users needs the company can easily find SAS solutions that will.
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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
SAS
  • SAS is pretty expensive, so a company would need to take that into consideration before purchasing a license.
  • A lot of companies are now starting to use SAS Advance Analytics, it is great for sharing data between departments.
  • Presentations come out better when using SAS, and estimates are more precise to the confidence interval.
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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.
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ScreenShots