Tableau Desktop vs. Yellowfin

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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.
$70
per month
Yellowfin
Score 7.8 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Yellowfin is a cloud-based business intelligence and dashboarding platform.
$250
per month
Pricing
Tableau DesktopYellowfin
Editions & Modules
Tableau Creator
$70.00
Per User / Per Month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Tableau DesktopYellowfin
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsAll pricing plans are billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Tableau DesktopYellowfin
Considered Both Products
Tableau Desktop

No answer on this topic

Yellowfin
Chose Yellowfin
Our reporting group uses Tableau extensively and compared to Yellowfin, Tableau is much easier to use (partially because more time was invested in setting it up properly, but also the design and features).
Chose Yellowfin
We ran a full procurement project to select Yellowfin and started with a long list of over 20 BI products. Key reasons for choice were ease of use, visual looks, product integrations and cost (both licence purchase and development of content).
Chose Yellowfin
Yellowfin BI has a strong focus on a clear structured and easy to use user interface. Furthermore, the licence model was adequate for a BI system with a lot of end users.
Chose Yellowfin
My selection of Yellowfin based on following criteria for the Indian market:

  • Availability in Linux platform to process high volume of transaction with CAL (concurrent user access license) model to use multiple server with high concurrent users
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Tableau DesktopYellowfin
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.5
166 Ratings
4% above category average
Yellowfin
6.2
12 Ratings
28% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.3138 Ratings5.85 Ratings
Customizable dashboards9.0165 Ratings6.212 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.3144 Ratings6.511 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
9.0
163 Ratings
10% above category average
Yellowfin
6.7
12 Ratings
19% below category average
Drill-down analysis9.2158 Ratings6.711 Ratings
Formatting capabilities9.0161 Ratings7.112 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.3121 Ratings6.38 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.3156 Ratings6.511 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.8
157 Ratings
5% above category average
Yellowfin
5.9
11 Ratings
34% below category average
Publish to Web9.3148 Ratings6.411 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.4148 Ratings6.211 Ratings
Report Versioning8.7115 Ratings5.89 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling9.2122 Ratings5.711 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.572 Ratings5.55 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.6
155 Ratings
6% above category average
Yellowfin
5.9
12 Ratings
31% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.9153 Ratings6.012 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.8148 Ratings5.812 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.7125 Ratings5.810 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.7
141 Ratings
1% above category average
Yellowfin
6.3
11 Ratings
31% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.8138 Ratings6.311 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.4118 Ratings6.510 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.7128 Ratings6.410 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.976 Ratings5.94 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.4
134 Ratings
6% above category average
Yellowfin
6.7
8 Ratings
17% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access8.6123 Ratings6.25 Ratings
Mobile Application8.396 Ratings6.48 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.7116 Ratings6.28 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.7
63 Ratings
9% above category average
Yellowfin
6.1
5 Ratings
26% below category average
REST API8.655 Ratings6.15 Ratings
Javascript API8.350 Ratings5.45 Ratings
iFrames8.948 Ratings6.05 Ratings
Java API8.845 Ratings6.35 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.552 Ratings6.55 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.845 Ratings6.55 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Tableau DesktopYellowfin
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Tableau DesktopYellowfin
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(193 ratings)
6.3
(12 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(39 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(63 ratings)
6.3
(7 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(10 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
6.1
(9 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
6.9
(56 ratings)
5.7
(7 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.4
(4 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(4 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(34 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Configurability
8.1
(2 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.0
(3 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Tableau DesktopYellowfin
Likelihood to Recommend
Tableau
Tableau Desktop is one the finest tool available in the market with such a wide range of capabilities in its suite that makes it easy to generate insights. Further, if optimally designed, then its reports are fairly simple to understand, yet capable enough to make changes at the required levels. One can create a variety of visualizations as required by the business or the clients. The data pipelines in the backend are very robust. The tableau desktop also provides options to develop the reports in developer mode, which is one of the finest features to embed and execute even the most complex possible logic. It's easier to operate, simple to navigate, and fluent to understand by the users.
Read full review
Yellowfin
We can recommend this software without hesitation, as it has the ability to generate reports and data analysis, as well as process the data automatically, which saves time. It is ideal for small and medium-sized companies that wish to improve their services in the business world
Read full review
Pros
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
Yellowfin
  • Yellowfin’s Storyboard, Timeline and Collaborative tools make it easy to share data and insights across an organisation.
  • Strong Operational and Executive Dashboards that reflect the business KPIs and can send out prompts to people within the business based on rules.
  • Yellowfin makes it incredibly easy to create dynamic reports and dashboards which incorporate maps through locational intelligence functionality.
  • Yellowfin is a single license and all access is via a web browser making it perfect for both on-premise and cloud deployment. Mobile apps are also available.
  • User roles and source filtering allows Admin/IT to offer different functions/views by user group/role.
  • Mobile BI applications to support any device ..
  • API connectors ( YF 7.2 on the way in Mar16 ) for a range of third-party Web-based applications, data sources, Enterprises CRM/ERP apps & open data platform apps, including Salesforce, Google Analytics, Twitter, Youtube , Zoho CRM, XE.com & more coming to make endusers to integrate their applications for better benefits
  • Yellowfin Integration with Predictive analytical and Big Data processing tools like R, UDF, Spark to build rich applications for end users
Read full review
Cons
Tableau
  • Formatting the data to work correctly in graphical presentations can be time consuming
  • Daily data extracts can run slowly depending on how much data is required and the source of the data
  • The desktop version is required for advanced functionality, editing on [the] Tableau server allows only limited features
Read full review
Yellowfin
  • The ability to predefine a colour for a specific graph as a selection option dynamically.
  • The ability to customise the label of a chart, especially with respect to performance related reporting graphs we need an increase in dynamic charting options to meet our more specialised requirements.
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Likelihood to Renew
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
Yellowfin
No answers on this topic
Usability
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
Yellowfin
As mentioned previously, if a newer company is looking for a strong, polished BI tool, Yellowfin would be a great software vendor to consider. Unfortunately, the high cost might be a barrier to these newer companies who dont have any legacy software/agreements such as an EA agreement with Microsoft.
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Reliability and Availability
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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Yellowfin
99.9% availability
Read full review
Performance
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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Yellowfin
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Tableau
I have never really used support much, to be honest. I think the support is not as user-friendly to search and use it. I did have an encounter with them once and it required a bit of going back and forth for licensing before reaching a resolution. They did solve my issue though
Read full review
Yellowfin
They have good support in what they provide. But what they provide is not what is promised. I would stay with them if I can. Be very careful before signing up with them. They are not what they seem in the sales pitches. Be very careful and make sure you test and test before you sign up.
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In-Person Training
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.
Read full review
Yellowfin
Yellowfin provides 3 levels of training to support consumers, business analytics, developers and Administrations :
  1. Yellowfin BI Training - Level 1 (Exploration)
  2. Yellowfin BI Training - Level 2 (Advanced)
  3. Yellowfin BI Training - Level 3(Expert)
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Online Training
Tableau
The training for new users are quite good because it covers topic wise training and the best part was that it also had video tutorials which are very helpful
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Yellowfin
Web-based training for large audiences for Level 1 and Level 2 I would suggest
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Implementation Rating
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.
Read full review
Yellowfin
Design the data model and views for each dashboard is very important and it is the success factor Configuration of cluster for large implementation
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Alternatives Considered
Tableau
If we do not have legacy tools which have already been set up, I would switch the visualization method to open source software via PyCharm, Atom, and Visual Studio IDE. These IDEs cannot directly help you to visualize the data but you can use many python packages to do so through these IDEs.
Read full review
Yellowfin
Yellow Fin platform is browser agnostic and is accessible from desktops as well as mobile devices. It is very simple and fast, it is integrated with Big Data, clients do not require a great training. It just works. But it’s easier to have things on the cloud, especially if you need to use different computers. Yellow Fin lacks the cloud feature.
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Scalability
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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Yellowfin
- Tested 500 con-current users in Linux platform with 4 cores systems - Tested with cloud based VM - Tested with 1000 reads per minutes
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Return on Investment
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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Yellowfin
  • Yellowfin gives us a BI tool that is incredibly sleek, which leads our data to be clean, concise, and in an "easy-to-digest" format.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Yellowfin Screenshots

Screenshot of Location IntelligenceScreenshot of Yellowfin DashboardScreenshot of Yellowfin SignalsScreenshot of Yellowfin MobileScreenshot of Yellowfin Sales KPIs