Spotfire vs. Tableau Public

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Spotfire
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Spotfire® is a data visualization platform that utilizes predictive analytics. In addition to data viz, it includes data wrangling capabilities, predictive analytics, location analytics, and real-time streaming analytics. Spotfire® is a business unit of Cloud Software Group, formerly known as TIBCO Spotfire.
$0.99
Per Hour (Starting)
Tableau Public
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Public is a free edition of the Desktop product. With this edition, data can only be published to the Tableau public website and does not allow work to be saved or exported locally.
$0
per month
Pricing
SpotfireTableau Public
Editions & Modules
Spotfire for Amazon Web Services
$0.99
Per Hour (Starting)
Spotfire Cloud - Consumer
$250/yr
per seat
Spotfire Cloud - Business Author
$650/yr
per seat
Spotfire Cloud - Analyst
$1250/yr
per seat
Spotfire Platform
Please contact Spotfire sales
Spotfire Cloud Enterprise
Please contact Spotfire sales
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SpotfireTableau Public
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsFor Enterprise engagements, please contact TIBCO directly for a custom price quote.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SpotfireTableau Public
Considered Both Products
Spotfire
Chose Spotfire
We evaluated Power BI and Tableau 4 years ago. Power BI at that time was in its infancy, but over the last 4 years have made huge leaps of improvements. At that time, the two products weren't comparable. Tableau 4 years ago was a very strong product and the acquisition from …
Chose Spotfire
In Spotfire, you generally don't have to program (write a code) for doing simple mainstream tasks. And yet you get the most effective and beautiful visualization of data.
Tableau Public
Chose Tableau Public
We evaluated about 15 products when we selected Tableau 7 years ago, and periodically review products from other vendors (e.g. Microsoft, QlikView, Tibco Spotfire, Birst, Pentaho, etc.). To date, Tableau offers the widest variety of options and functionality at a reasonable …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
SpotfireTableau Public
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Spotfire
8.3
299 Ratings
2% above category average
Tableau Public
9.8
12 Ratings
15% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.030 Ratings9.710 Ratings
Customizable dashboards9.1294 Ratings10.012 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.9258 Ratings9.712 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Spotfire
8.2
311 Ratings
2% above category average
Tableau Public
9.7
12 Ratings
19% above category average
Drill-down analysis8.3289 Ratings9.812 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.8302 Ratings9.712 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.3224 Ratings9.59 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.5274 Ratings9.811 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Spotfire
8.3
283 Ratings
0% below category average
Tableau Public
9.5
11 Ratings
13% above category average
Publish to Web8.2228 Ratings10.011 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.6267 Ratings10.09 Ratings
Report Versioning8.018 Ratings9.89 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.4178 Ratings9.59 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.17 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Spotfire
8.2
310 Ratings
2% above category average
Tableau Public
9.7
11 Ratings
17% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.6306 Ratings9.811 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.4271 Ratings9.811 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.1234 Ratings9.79 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining7.68 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Spotfire
8.1
250 Ratings
5% below category average
Tableau Public
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)8.7241 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.5206 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.8228 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control7.48 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Spotfire
7.3
189 Ratings
9% below category average
Tableau Public
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access7.9177 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application7.6126 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.5148 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Spotfire
8.3
89 Ratings
5% above category average
Tableau Public
-
Ratings
REST API8.371 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API8.370 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames8.454 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API8.257 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.269 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.560 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SpotfireTableau Public
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Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
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Score 9.9 out of 10
Mathematica
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Score 8.2 out of 10
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Score 9.7 out of 10
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All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
SpotfireTableau Public
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(335 ratings)
8.5
(14 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.3
(29 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(27 ratings)
10.0
(5 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.1
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(27 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
In-Person Training
7.3
(52 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.8
(55 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(17 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Configurability
7.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SpotfireTableau Public
Likelihood to Recommend
Spotfire
A high level of data integration is available here it supports various data sources and so on. Collaborating features allow users to give access to the dashboard and merge data analytics with other team members. It can meet the demands of both small and large size business enterprises. A customized dashboard and reports are provided to meet the specific needs and get support of extensibility through APIs and customized scripts.
Read full review
Tableau
Tableau public is the best platform to build dashboards for your personal profile and share with recruiters. It's always good to keep ourselves updated on the latest features, create sample dashboards and save them to a personal profile. Tableau public is free and doesn't need any subscription. anyone can create an account and start building reports.
Read full review
Pros
Spotfire
  • It has the best coding integration (python, R) of any BI product
  • The ability to work with very large datasets (10 mil+) is better than competitors
  • Export options are more complete and have better functionality
  • The data canvas is the best tool to join and transform data vs. competitors
Read full review
Tableau
  • Data visualization: lots of different options, including bar, scatter, pie, waterfall charts to explore relationships between variables, and to present findings/trends to different teams
  • Integrates readily with limited, though different data sources: TXT, CSV, TDE, Access
  • Exports reports for review of different dashboards: client-ready/team-ready, with a clean and tidy presentation in PDF format (or hardcopy)
Read full review
Cons
Spotfire
  • The donut chart is I guess a powerful illustrations but I hope it should be done quite simple in Spotfire. But in Spotfire there are lots of steps involve just to build a simple donut chart.
  • Table calculation (like Row or Column Differences) should be made simple or there should be drag and drop function for Table Calculation. No need for scripting.
  • Information Link should be changed. If new columns are added to the table just refreshing the data should be able to capture the new column. No need extra step to add column
Read full review
Tableau
  • Tableau Public (both Desktop and Server) like their "for a fee" counterparts offer very easy to learn and use tools to transform data into pictures and gain insights into your data. Most organizations report a reduction in development time of 10x vs. other similar tools, due to the intuitive user interface. That said, with Tableau Public, published workbooks are "disconnected" from the underlying data sources and require periodic updates when the data changes. Users are limited to 1 Gb of storage space per user ID and password as well.
  • I would like to see better options for public sharing of visualizations and data from within the "for a fee" products as more and more organizations are moving in the direction of data sharing with partners and their communities.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Spotfire
-Easy to distribute information throughout the enterprise using the webplayer. -Ad hoc analysis is possible throughout the enterprise using business author in the webplayer or the thick client. -Low level of support needed by IT team. Access interfaces with LDAP and numerous other authentication methods. -Possible to continually extend the platform with JavaScript, R scripts, HTML, and custom extensions. -Ability to standardize data logic through pre-built queries in the Information Designer. Everyone in the enterprise is using the same logic -Tagging and bookmarking data allows for quick sharing of insights. -Integration with numerous data sources... flat files, data bases, big data, images, etc. -Much improved mapping capability. Also includes the ability to apply data points over any image.
Read full review
Tableau
It's free, right? I'll keep using the free version. So the real question to ask is this? Will I pay $999 for the Personal version or $1,999 for the Professional? Yikes! That is a big stretch. I'm not sure about that. The product comparison chart is at: http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/comparison
Read full review
Usability
Spotfire
Basic tasks like generating meaningful information from large sets of raw data are very easy. The next step of linking to multiple live data sources and linking those tables and performing on the fly analysis of the imported data is understandably more difficult.
Read full review
Tableau
Tableau public is a great training tool to understand the basics of Tableau before buying it. A great tool to extend Excel's visualization and to publish data for others. Not useful for anything you need secure. No ability to access databases. Static information only.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Spotfire
Even though, it's a rather stable and predictable tool that's also fast, it does have some bugs and inconsistencies that shut down the system. Depending on the details, it could happen as often as 2-3 times a week, especially during the development period.
Read full review
Tableau
No answers on this topic
Performance
Spotfire
Generally, the Spotfire client runs with very good performance. There are factors that could affect performance, but normally has to do with loading large analysis files from the library if the database is located some distance away and your global network is not optimal. Once you have your data table(s) loaded in the client application, usually the application is quite good performance-wise.
Read full review
Tableau
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Spotfire
Support has been helpful with issues. Support seems to know their product and its capabilities. It would also seem that they have a good sense of the context of the problem; where we are going with this issue and what we want the end outcome to be.
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Tableau
I have not yet required to contact support as the documentation and help i found online has always worked so far
Read full review
In-Person Training
Spotfire
The instructor was very in depth and provided relevant training to business users on how to create visualizations. They showed us how to alter settings and filter views, and provided resources for future questions. However, the instructor failed to cover data sources, connecting to data, etc. While it was helpful to see how users can use the data to create reports, they failed to properly instruct us on how to get the dataset in to begin with. We are still trying to figure out connections to certain databases (we have multiple different types).
Read full review
Tableau
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Spotfire
The online training is good, provides a good base of knowledge. The video demonstrations were well-done and easy to follow along. Provided exercises are good as well, but I think there could be more challenging exercises. The training has also gone up in price significantly in the last 3 years (in USD, which hurts us even more in Canada), and I'm not sure it is worth the money it now costs (it is worth how much it cost 3 years ago, but not double that.)
Read full review
Tableau
I found it sufficient, and fast. I could easily "kick the tires" with Tableau on my data so I got up and running fast.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Spotfire
The original architecture I created for our implementation had only a particular set of internal business units in mind. Over the years, Spotfire gained in popularity in our company and was being utilized across many more business units. Soon, its usage went beyond what the original architectural implementation could provide. We've since learned about how the product is used by the different teams and are currently in the middle of rolling out a new architecture. I suggest:
  • Have clearly defined service level agreements with all the teams that will use Spotfire. Your business intelligence group might only need availability during normal working hours, but your production support group might need 24/7 availability. If these groups share one Spotfire server, maintenance of that server might be a problem.
  • Know the different types of data you will be working with. One group might be working with "public" data while another group might work with sensitive data. Design your Library accordingly and with the proper permissions.
  • Know the roles of the users of Spotfire. Will there only be a small set of report writers or does everyone have write access to the Library?
  • ALWAYS add a timestamp prompt to your reports. You don't want multiple users opening a report that will try and pull down millions of rows of data to their local workstations. Another option, of course, is to just hard code a time range in the backing database view (i.e. where activity_date >= sysdate - 90, etc.), but I'd rather educate/train the user base if possible.
  • This probably goes without saying, but if possible, point to a separate reporting database or a logical standby database. You don't want the company pounding on your primaries and take down your order system.
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Tableau
Start at the end and work backward. Identify the business case / issue and questions the end users have, then identify the data needed, and where to get it.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Spotfire
Spotfire is significantly ahead of both products from an ETL and data ingestion capability. Spotfire also has substantially better visualizations than Power BI, and although the native visualizations aren't as flexible in Tableau, Spotfire enables users to create completely custom javascript visaualizations, which neither Tableau or Power BI has. Tableau and Power BI are likely only superior to Spotfire with respect to embedded analysis on a website.
Read full review
Tableau
Google Charts/Drive is sufficient for simpler data sets, but it does not integrate with other web platforms and the visualization does not look as professional. I'm not aware of any other competitors that offer the same package as Microsoft.
Read full review
Scalability
Spotfire
In an enterprise architecture, if Spotfire Advanced Data services(Composite Studio),data marts can be managed optimally and scalability in a data perspective is great. As the web player/consumer is directly proportional to RAM, if the enterprise can handle RAM requirement accomodating fail over mechanisms appropraitely, it is definitely scalable,
Read full review
Tableau
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Spotfire
  • It is costly, so not suitable for small scale implementations.
  • Dashboards are as good as the developer, so need experience to get most out of it
  • You need to be on Spotfire 11 at least to implement out of the box visualizations
  • Integration with Python and R is a game changer, it comes very handy to onboard data scientists without much hassle
  • performance is exceptionally well.
  • Secure
Read full review
Tableau
  • Tableau Public visualizations have helped drive traffic to our content and sites
  • The lack of cost means it's easy to demonstrate our experience to attract paying clients
Read full review
ScreenShots

Spotfire Screenshots

Screenshot of Smart Visual AnalyticsScreenshot of Geospatial AnalyticsScreenshot of Intelligent Data WranglingScreenshot of Point-and-click Data ScienceScreenshot of Real-time Streaming Analytics