Exploring the realm of data visualization tools? This guide puts the spotlight on the top alternatives to Tableau.
Each tool has its unique strengths, catering to different business needs and user preferences. We’re cutting through the clutter to present you with options that stand out in functionality, user-friendliness, and versatility.
Whether you’re a small business owner, a data analyst, or someone in between, you’ll find a tool here that fits your data visualization journey.
Get ready to make an informed decision, as we dive into the features, benefits, and use cases of each Tableau alternative.
Welcome to your next step in finding the perfect data visualization & business intelligence software companion.
Best Tableau Alternatives
1. Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is designed with an interactive dashboard that necessitates powerful data analysis and production of customizable reports.
Power BI is compatible with both mobile and desktop devices.
Clients are free to import data from SQL servers, Hadoop clusters, on-premise, and Excel spreadsheets and transform, polish, and visualize it in a more organized way.
Power BI and Tableau are similar when it comes to self-service data visualization capabilities. It can connect large data from different data sources and consolidate it.
The data mining process allows you to apply algorithms to the data sets and uncover new incredible insights.
Microsoft Power BI comes with capabilities to perform AI-based diagnostic data analysis and problem-solving.
When combined with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Power BI ensures you get efficient cloud services, including smooth data pipelines and warehousing.
If you are looking for a self service BI tool that offers collaboration features and data report sharing, Power BI has them all and more.
Its similarities with Tableau include:
- Drag and drop canvas
- Data connectors
- Collaboration
- Data preparation
- NLP queries
- Personalized mobile app
- Publish to the web
What gives it an Edge over Tableau?
- Integration with Microsoft
- Excel integration
- Better NLP that includes Quill, a natural language generation tool, and voiced-based queries
- Automated machine learning
- Advanced Data models compared to Tableau
- Feature loaded mobile app
- 60-day free trial
- Cloud-ready reports
Related: 15 Best Tableau Dashboard Examples
2. MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy has a suite of business intelligence services and tools.
It links cloud data, big data, and contents from other databases and visualizes them to deliver simplified graphic information.
Its drag and drop user interface enables users to combine structured and unstructured data from different applications.
Its similarities with Tableau include:
- Drag and drop interface
- Data preparation
- Collaboration
- Data connectivity
- Geospatial analytics
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- Predictive modeling – It converts predictive modeling markup language (PMML) into algorithms so you can leverage the data mining work done directly within the BI application.
- Data security – Offered at row and column levels, unlike Tableau
- Zero click insights – Has hyperintelligence tools
- Robust mobile app
3. Sisense
Sisense lets you import and analyze data before producing interactive reports and advanced, customizable visualizations. It utilizes machine learning and AI to augment data analysis.
Sisense uses a data-driven approach in its operations. You can tailor its interface to your preferences and visualize both big and disparate data.
It enables the use of dashboards and widgets, permission management, and tracking logins.
With Sisense, you’ll be able to monitor threats, visualize multiple data sets, and drill granular raw data from all sources.
Some of its notable features include exporting data in multiple formats (images, PDF, Excel, and CSV), tracking widget usage, dashboard and logins, monitoring threats, analyzing complex data, and carrying out efficient big data queries.
Its collaboration tools allow you to share insights with partners, customers, and other stakeholders.
Its similarities with Tableau include:
- Flexible deployment options and pricing
- Drag and drop interface
- Data connectors including Amazon Redshift, SQL Server, MongoDB, CSV, Excel, FTP, ODBC, JDBC, and more
- Multiple integrations
- Data visualization
- Pre-built, web-based dashboards
- Data querying
- Natural language processing
- Personalized KPI monitoring
What gives it an edge when compared with Tableau?
- ElastiCube technology for high performance
- Built-in ETL tools
- Automatic KPI tracking
- Advanced analytics
- Embedded analytics
4. Oracle Analytics Cloud
Oracle Analytics Cloud is another AI-powered, cloud-based analytics tool for data visualization, preparation, reporting, and more.
Oracle will take you through personalized analytics, NLP, and data preparation from the convenience of the cloud.
It uses machine learning algorithms to help you get answers to your individual questions without relying on someone else.
Its similarities with Tableau include:
- Drag and drop dashboard
- Data preparation
- Collaboration
- Data connectors
- Conversational analytics with support for natural language explanations of patterns and visualizations.
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- Predictive analytics – It supports predictive model markup language (PMML) for accurate forecasts and predictions.
- Day by Day analytics app for smart feeds and mobile reporting. Data visualization app for augmented analytics features like geospatial analysis and personalization.
- Augmented data enrichment using intelligent machine learning technology.
- Write-backs – This functionality helps to update data in real-time.
- Voice-based NLP and NLG – It supports natural language queries in voice and text formats.
5. Qlik Sense
Qlik Sense is a business intelligence software with plenty of solutions and customization features that help in compiling and analyzing data using artificial intelligence.
Its associative engine is what differentiates Qlik Sense from Tableau. This is an in-memory data engine offering high-end calculation and aggregation, indexing, and data analysis.
Qlik Sense gives data engineers the freedom to explore unstructured data and discover patterns, outliers, and connections without modeling these relationships beforehand.
Qlik Sense is user-friendly but requires a learning curve to master. Currently, it’s only available on Windows, but the native app can be used on iOS and Android.
Its similarities with Tableau include:
- Interactive drag and drop visualizations
- Native mobile apps
- An insight advisor that suggests visualization types after analyzing data
- Conversational analytics based on AI and natural language
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- An associative engine that helps gather insights
- Artificial intelligence
- Column-level data security
- Edge analytics that analyses complex data as it flows in
- Gesture-based user interface and interaction model
6. TIBCO Jaspersoft
TIBCO Jaspersoft brings in timely data to your business process and applications. It uses embeddable analytics and reporting.
Jaspersoft works at a commendable speed to deliver the most actionable data on time. Furthermore, it’s good on the pocket and packs features that match with Tableau and more.
Its similarities with Tableau include:
- Web interface for quick administration
- Data warehouse
- Multi-data source reporting
- Pixel perfect reports
- Collaboration
- Responsive web access and multi-tenancy
- Multiple integrations
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- Audit logging
- Use of OLAP and ROLAP
- Publish as PDF
7. Board
Board is a business intelligence software with combined business intelligence functions, data discovery, analytics, and business performance management.
It comes with many sophisticated features and tools to help you collect data, interact with it, and perform analysis.
All the insights can be included in the planning process and simulation automatically to help in decision making.
Besides collecting and analyzing data, Board also provides tools for creating custom applications without the need for coding knowledge.
The drag and drop function makes things easier and you can design simulation applications and predictive data models according to your business needs.
Its similarities with Tableau include:
- Data collection
- Data connectors
- Collaboration
- Drag and drop interface
- Multi-user concurrent entry
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- Automated drill suggestions
- Real-time data modeling
- MS office integrations
- Fully customized automated processes
- No need for coding background when designing and configuring simulation applications
- Also, a corporate performance management tool
- It’s meant for all types of businesses
8. SAS Statistical Software
SAS is an excellent tool for business intelligence, predictive analysis, multivariate analysis, advanced analytics, and criminal investigation.
With SAS, you can access data from multiple data sources and carry out sophisticated, high-level data analysis.
If you need to transfer information to different departments in your organization, this is your tool.
Its customer-centric approach helps you solve any issues you may face.
Its similarities with Tableau:
- Data collection
- Collaboration
- Centralized feature updating
- Data connectors
- Data management
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- The one-to-many delivery model for applications
- View raw data files found in external SQL databases
9. Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics is a self-service data visualization tool & analytics software.
Zoho is user-friendly and can be used by SMBs and startups to manage their data efficiently and cost-effectively.
Zoho Analytics’ similarities with Tableau include:
- Data collection from multiple sources
- Collaboration
- Spreadsheet-like drag and drop Intuitive user interface .
- Data connectors
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- Powerful formula engine for statistical and mathematical functions
- Cross-functional reports
- Connect to any data source
- Visual analysis
- Secure digital collaboration
10. Pentaho
Pentaho is a business analytic software and data warehousing tool for information dashboards, data integration, OLAP, and reporting services.
It is also equipped with powerful mining, transformation, and loading capabilities.
Its data integration is simple, with no coding requirements for you to access data.
This software is to use straightforward include, with user-friendly features. You can discover, access, and merge your data efficiently before analyzing it.
Pentaho’s similarities to Tableau include:
- Custom information dashboards
- Data extraction, access, and management
- Data integration
- Collaboration
- Simplified embedded analytics
- Acceleration of data pipeline
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- Community dashboard editor
- No coding
- Operational reporting for MongoDB
- Free to use
11. TIBCO Spotfire
TIBCO Spotfire has user-centric interactive dashboards and visualization tools. The software can send alerts to mobile gadgets and define KPIs.
Spotfire is a flexible data analytics software that can help you grow your business.
It enables timely reporting and analysis and will make your data visualization easy and fast.
Spotfire’s similarities to Tableau include:
- User-friendliness
- Dynamic dashboards
- Data visualization capabilities
- Ease of collaboration
- Leverages automatic emailing reports
- Swift application updating
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- Uses formats based on the existing data elements
- Accessible template spreadsheet, charts, and reports
- Different chart and graph formats
12. Wyn Enterprise
Wyn Enterprise provides enterprise-grade self-service reporting, which is its main selling point.
It comes with an intuitive dashboard that visualizes all data in a single display. Its functionalities are more than you expect from a business intelligence application.
Wyn Enterprise presents data in a simplified way that lets you make better decisions. Its data governance allows you to manage the availability of your data.
Its interactive dashboard makes it easy to create all the data visualizations you need.
Wyn gives you a free trial to check out its comprehensive features and functionalities.
Its similarities with Tableau include:
- Interactive dashboard
- Data collection and data analysis
- Collaboration
- Data management
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- Self-service business intelligence
- Pixel perfect reports in hard copy
- Data federation and statistical modeling tools
- Automated data distribution
- Ad hoc reporting
- Multi-tenancy support
13. Salesforce Analytics Cloud
Salesforce Analytics Cloud is a business intelligence program based in the cloud.
Salesforce Analytics Cloud automates the data discovery process to ensure efficient visualization for all users in your business.
Salesforce offers end-to-end business intelligence solutions, including set up, data migration, collaboration, and data distribution.
It has an array of features that you can enable or disable based on your needs.
For example, you can decide to enable the data sharing function to allow other users access to data.
When all features are set up, you can migrate your data into its Analytics Cloud using connectors. These connectors help to integrate data from external sources or other Salesforce apps.
Once all data is imported into the Salesforce Analytics Cloud, you can work on the data set, app, and AI model preparation and share it with your teams.
Salesforce similarities to Tableau include:
- Data visualization
- Collaboration
- Data collection and distribution
- Data connectors
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- Enabling and disabling of features based on your needs
- Data integration from both internal and external sources
- Create a selection of charts and graphs to ensure easy visualization
- Discover trends and insights through Einstein Discovery to initiate data-based predictions
- Annotate dashboard widgets and present data through interactive, live dashboards
14. Looker
Google Looker is an excellent visualization tool that transforms data into better business decisions.
It comes with live, interactive dashboards that provide detailed information to translate into colorful charts that simplify data.
Looker is great for media, eCommerce, finance, technology, and gaming/eLearning enterprises that already set up data analytics.
The LookML feature helps to define business data and build reports. The data is then collected, analyzed, and translated into SQL queries.
You can connect popular data sources with Google Looker, such as Google Analytics, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM & perform ad hoc analysis.
Its similarities with Tableau include:
- Web-based interface
- Real-time dashboards
- Powerful visualizations
- Collaboration
- Data sharing
- Data connectors
- Real insights
What gives Looker an edge over Tableau?
- Modern API focused modeling language
- Self-service reporting
- App usage monitoring in real-time
- Easy to use drill-down capabilities
- Great for non-technical users
- Supports PDF, Google Docs, and Excel conversions
- Mobile and browser compatibility
- Share data and reports through email and URLs
- Export data manually in .csv or text files
15. Reveal
Reveal is an innovative software for business intelligence. It enables you to visualize both sorted and unsorted data. Its interface is quite intuitive, allowing you to work with charts, graphs, and other visualization tools.
Reveal supports modern reporting. It has unique dashboards from where you can filter, annotate, drill down, and interact with data.
You can access your data from your mobile, the web, desktop, SaaS, and on-premises applications.
What sets this provider apart is its application-embedded solutions. It does away with the complexity of integrating disparate BI software to proprietary systems in the back-end.
Reveal has a flexible architecture and rich APIs that give you control over its features.
It works with other data connectors, including Azure SQL, Azure Synapse, Google Big Query, and AWS.
The Reveal architecture incorporates containers and microservices. This is why it’s distributed across multiple servers for more scalability and resilience.
Reveal gives you a free trial to familiarize yourself with its features.
Reveal’s similarities with Tableau:
- Data visualization
- Intuitive drag and drop interface
- Unique dashboards
What gives Reveal an edge over Tableau?
- Easy to create interactive dashboards
- Simple to transform data into tactical insights
- Built to integrate into existing applications
- Architecture made of microservices and containers for scalability and resiliency
- Easy to create and leverage machine learning models to high-end data visualizations
16. Domo
Domo is an excellent option for gathering data from different sources, areas, and units in the company. It updates data in real-time, allowing you to access it by a coding-free visual editor.
With Domo, you get a variety of charts and a fully mobile-first approach. The analytics platform integrates with social platforms like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
Its similarities with Tableau include:
- User-defined interface
- Data connection
- Data collaboration
- Dashboard creation
- Alerts
What gives Domo an edge over Tableau?
- Domo Business Cloud helps to integrate data from many sources
- Mobilizing data teams on the fly and have them compete at the cloud speed
- Set automations
17. CXAIR
CXAIR is a business and data analytics software you can deploy on-premise and from the cloud.
With CXAIR, your data analysts can unify disparate and conflicting datasets easily. If your data team handle large data volumes daily, CXAIR can come to your rescue.
Your company can collect actionable insights from gathered data and consolidate and index separate data streams.
CXAIR is powered by Lucent search engine technology, which lets you retrieve your data accurately and fast.
Its similarities to Tableau include:
- Data collection
- Data analytics
- Easy to use interface
- Data distribution and sharing
What gives CXAIR an edge over Tableau?
- Apache Lucene search engine technology for rapid and accurate retrieval of data
- Consolidating different data sets
- Scalability and flexibility to work with current IT infrastructure
- User friendly interface
- Less expensive
- Self-service data discovery and analytics
18. ActiveBatch
ActiveBatch is an IT automation solution offering reliable features.
It was designed to help you improve data insights by leveraging data from multiple data sources like systems, applications, and databases.
ActiveBatch offers top-notch tools, including robust reporting tools, workflow monitoring, SLA reporting, alerting tools, and business intelligence features.
These tools will help you unearth insights, monitor, and manage workflows and systems with ease.
For instance, workflow monitoring and alerting tools will help you identify any issues on time and resolve them immediately before they affect the workflow.
ActiveBatch’s business intelligence tools will give you all the information your business needs to improve decision-making.
And with SLA monitoring tools, you’ll be able to enforce policy for timely service level fulfillment.
ActiveBatch offers multiple developer and operation views, including Gantt, forecast, and machine load views, so you’ll analyze your data and get more insights into functional areas.
It offers you a free trial to help you understand its capabilities.
ActiveBatch similarities with Tableau include:
- Innovative interface
- Data collection and data analysis
- Data visualization
- Data connectors
- Reporting
What gives it an edge over Tableau?
- Powerful business intelligence and reporting tools
- Dynamic visualizations for data consumption
- Multiple developer and operations views for data analysis based on functional areas
- SLA monitoring tools for enforcing policies to enhance the service level
- Workforce monitoring
- Multiple operations and developer views
Best Tableau Alternatives – In Conclusion
And there you have it—a comprehensive rundown of the top Tableau alternatives available today.
These BI tools each bring something unique to the table, ensuring there’s a solution that fits every need and preference.
From robust functionality to user-friendly interfaces, you have options to help you make the most of your data.
Remember, the right tool for someone else might not be the right tool for you. It all boils down to your specific requirements and how you plan to use the software.
So, evaluate your options, weigh the pros and cons, and choose the business intelligence platform that aligns with your goals.
With the right BI tool in hand, you’re ready to unlock the full potential of your data and elevate your analytical capabilities.
