SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) vs. Tableau Desktop

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SSIS
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a data integration solution.N/A
Tableau Desktop
Score 8.4 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
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)Tableau Desktop
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Tableau
$75
per month per user
Tableau Enterprise
$115
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SSISTableau 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
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)Tableau Desktop
Considered Both Products
SSIS
Chose SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
Alteryx Designer is easier to use for machine learning models. The functionality of drag and drop is the most valuable. It is a very user-friendly tool that can be understood easily. My teams also work with other solutions, such as Integration Services, and these solutions are …
Chose SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
I personally prefer SSIS. There are items that each do better than the others, but the ease of use of SSIS, along with its extensibility to 3rd party, ability to write any code required in the tool, and uses the same IDE for the MS BI suite (more of an issue if you're not a …
Chose SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
As noted, INformatica has more mature features for ETL, especially with the built in debugger but the SQL Server BI stack allows an integrated solution from ETL, Cube and BI development as well as report development.
Tableau Desktop
Chose Tableau Desktop
In tableau you can achieve things really quickly and it has the power to show you insight data very easily. Tableau is also economical in comparison to what these tools cost. It's a full value tool.
Chose Tableau Desktop
Tableau Desktop is powerful in terms of data sources and dashboarding creation. You can customize and fine-tune your graphics (color, size, text, tooltips and so on). You can make calculations on measures and dimensions. It's also has a cool geocoding function and maps layers.
Features
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)Tableau Desktop
Data Source Connection
Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
7.0
56 Ratings
16% below category average
Tableau Desktop
-
Ratings
Connect to traditional data sources9.056 Ratings00 Ratings
Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL5.043 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Transformations
Comparison of Data Transformations features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
6.8
56 Ratings
17% below category average
Tableau Desktop
-
Ratings
Simple transformations9.056 Ratings00 Ratings
Complex transformations4.755 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Modeling
Comparison of Data Modeling features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
7.5
54 Ratings
4% below category average
Tableau Desktop
-
Ratings
Data model creation9.028 Ratings00 Ratings
Metadata management6.035 Ratings00 Ratings
Business rules and workflow7.045 Ratings00 Ratings
Collaboration9.040 Ratings00 Ratings
Testing and debugging6.351 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Governance
Comparison of Data Governance features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
5.3
43 Ratings
40% below category average
Tableau Desktop
-
Ratings
Integration with data quality tools6.038 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with MDM tools4.538 Ratings00 Ratings
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.4
175 Ratings
3% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.0145 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings9.1174 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings8.1151 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.3
172 Ratings
3% above category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.5167 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.4170 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings8.0126 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.5165 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.3
166 Ratings
1% above category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings8.0155 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.0154 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings8.3120 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.5128 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.878 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
8.3
164 Ratings
4% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.5162 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.5156 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings8.6131 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.57 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
9.0
149 Ratings
6% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.0145 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings9.0125 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.7136 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings9.283 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
7.9
141 Ratings
2% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings8.7130 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings7.3101 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.4122 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
7.7
67 Ratings
1% below category average
REST API00 Ratings8.259 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings7.753 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings6.851 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings8.248 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.354 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.148 Ratings
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User Ratings
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)Tableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(54 ratings)
8.8
(203 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(4 ratings)
7.5
(41 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(9 ratings)
8.3
(73 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(11 ratings)
Performance
8.8
(6 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(8 ratings)
1.0
(57 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(4 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(2 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
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)Tableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
As I mentioned earlier SQL Server Integration Services is suitable if you want to manage data from different applications. It really helps in fetching the data and generating reports. Its automation make it very easy and time efficient. It works well with large database as well. But it doesn't work well with real time data, it will take some time to gather the real time data. I would not recommend using it in a real time/fast-paced environment.
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).
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Standard ETL use cases for daily loads
  • Loading incoming data from Vendors which is placed on FTP and adding them to the SQL Warehouse
  • Creating outgoing data files and writing them to Vendor FTPs
  • Easy Active Directory integration for seamless connections to SQL Server
  • CI/CD by hosting the code on visualstudio.com
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
  • Connection managers for online data sources can be tricky to configure.
  • Performance tuning is an art form and trialing different data flow task options can be cumbersome. SSIS can do a better job of providing performance data including historical for monitoring.
  • Mapping destination using OLE DB command is difficult as destination columns are unnamed.
  • Excel or flat file connections are limited by version and type.
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
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
Some features should be revised or improved, some tools (using it with Visual Studio) of the toolbox should be less schematic and somewhat more flexible. Using for example, the CSV data import is still very old-fashioned and if the data format changes it requires a bit of manual labor to accept the new data structure
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Usability
Microsoft
SSIS is a great tool for most ETL needs. It has the 90% (or more) use cases covered and even in many of the use cases where it is not ideal SSIS can be extended via a .NET language to do the job well in a supportable way for almost any performance workload.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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
SQL Server Integration Services performance is dependent directly upon the resources provided to the system. In our environment, we allocated 6 nodes of 4 CPUs, 64GB each, running in parallel. Unfortunately, we had to ramp-up to such a robust environment to get the performance to where we needed it. Most of the reports are completed in a reasonable timeframe. However, in the case of slow running reports, it is often difficult if not impossible to cancel the report without killing the report instance or stopping the service.
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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
Microsoft
The support, when necessary, is excellent. But beyond that, it is very rarely necessary because the user community is so large, vibrant and knowledgable, a simple Google query or forum question can answer almost everything you want to know. You can also get prewritten script tasks with a variety of functionality that saves a lot of time.
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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
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
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Implementation Rating
Microsoft
The implementation may be different in each case, it is important to properly analyze all the existing infrastructure to understand the kind of work needed, the type of software used and the compatibility between these, the features that you want to exploit, to understand what is possible and which ones require integration with third-party tools
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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
Microsoft
I think SQL Server Integration Services is better suited for on-premises data movement and ADF is more suited for the cloud. Though ADF has more connectors, SQL Server Integration Services is more robust and has better functionality just because it has been around much longer
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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
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
  • Without this, we would have to manually update a spreadsheet of our SQL Server inventory
  • We would also have poor alerting; if an instance was down we wouldn't know until it was reported by a user
  • We only have one other person who uses SQL Server Integration Services , he's the expert. It would fall to me without him and I would not enjoy being responsible for it.
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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.
Read full review
ScreenShots