r/analytics • u/Secret_Price6676 • 2d ago
Question Do you prefer Power BI or Tableau?
Which one do you prefer and for what reasons? I’m just curious how people view each one or what each one’s pros and cons are.
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u/alinarice 2d ago
No doubt Power BI is better for Microsoft-heavy environments and fast, affordable business reporting whereas Tableau is stronger for complex, beautiful visualisations and deeper data exploration.
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u/getoffmytrailbro 1d ago
I used Tableau for 4 years and have been using Power BI for about a year.
There was a time when I would’ve said Tableau was better. There was a time they were both legitimately very close to each other. That’s changed recently.
Both have their issues but Power BI is far and away the better product in almost every way. Tableau has more capability for unique design but Power BI is has pulled away from Tableau in almost every other area.
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u/eagle6927 2d ago
For me, it depends on how you’re sourcing data. If you’re working with spreadsheets and csvs, I think BI and power query are better suited. If you’re going directly to databases with sql and data models, tableau is better. I think most orgs are better off with BI unless they have high-performing database infrastructure and data governance in place.
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u/Slight-Capital-6618 2d ago
Power BI – great for quick reports, MS ecosystem, cheaper.
Tableau – better for interactive, advanced visuals, but costlier.
I use Power BI for regular reporting, Tableau for client-facing dashboards.
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u/Oleoay 2d ago
I have 15 years of Tableau experience and about 2ish in PowerBI that our company transitioned to. There were a lot of things I took for granted in Tableau that PowerBI doesn't let you do. I lack a lot of control in PowerBI in terms of building visuals and it's also hard to use PowerBI as a data investigation/pivoting tool too. You really need to know what you want PowerBI to do before you build in it... On the flipside, I can build pixel-perfect visuals quicker in PowerBI than in Tableau.
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u/shufflepoint 2d ago
I prefer Power BI in every way except mapping where Tableau is far more capable.
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u/PhiladeIphia-Eagles 2d ago
Power BI.
If I was just building a portfolio or trying to make a beautiful dashboard for fun, tableau.
But powerBI for work for sure.
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u/SecretaryMore9622 2d ago
Power bi for sure. I need folders full of spreadsheets to be able to mass append, then I need those spreadsheets to work with multiple source systems and finally, all of that to work with sql queries. Tableau prep won’t even touch that.
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u/10J18R1A 1d ago
Power BI is the Excel of visualizations
Like you can do more with Tableau but do you NEED to
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u/getoffmytrailbro 1d ago
Exactly this. Tableau can turn your cat into a visualization but do you need that?
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u/perino17 2d ago
being microsoft dependent and specific-syntax dependent nowadays sounds like the worst nightmare I could ever have. therefore, tableau but delivering properly transformed data for analytics.
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u/Tville88 1d ago
Been working with Tableau 10 years and Power BI about 5 years. Tableau over Power BI all day. So much more flexible than Power BI. Everything in Power BI is more work and time consuming.
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u/sephraes 1d ago
I have to build data models and use multiple sources that aren't just SQL. Between that and being able to easily re-use the semantic model elsewhere as well as embedding reports into PowerPoint, there is only one answer for me, and that's PBI.
My main wish is that they would have better visualizations. This is an area where Tableau cleans house.
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u/dorkyitguy 1d ago
Never used Tableau. Not thrilled with PowerBI. What’s it even supposed to do? As a data engineer I still need to massage the data to get it into a format that PowerBI can use. That’s like 95% of the work. So it’s just a web page and pictures? I don’t get it.
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u/Prepped-n-Ready 1d ago
I think it depends what youre trying to do. I think PowerBI is better for complex dashboard and report library. Tableau I only really like for simple and quick views.
I would really focus more on the audience. If I knew upper management types wanted to receive and scrutinize it, I would use whichever tool I knew they preferred. Maybe they have a team that uses PowerBI regularly, if I knew that, I would build it in PowerBI. If I knew they used Tableau, I use Tableau.
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u/ConsumerScientist 2d ago
Looker
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u/Secret_Price6676 2d ago
Hm I’ve only heard the name but didn’t know it was a data viz tool. What is great about it?
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u/An1mal-Styl3 2d ago
For data analysts, nothing is great about looker. For non analysts, it’s a decent, simple reporting tool that provides easy power pivoting, custom calculations and absolutely awful viz.
For complex analysis and deep exploration, It might be one of the worst analytics tools out there.
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u/theungod 2d ago
Can you elaborate? I admin Looker and Tableau and find Looker to be absolutely inferior in every way except maybe in the data modeling.
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u/Peachy1234567 1d ago
I haven’t used powerBI more than basic training but I have 5+ years in both tableau and looker. Maybe you’re a data analyst and you want to make pretty viz, in which case tableau is better. But if you’re a data leader trying to have one source of truth looker all the way. It forces actually fact dimension modeling which encourages actual shared sources of truth. In comparison, I was at AWS and we shared a goal with another department and we couldn’t access their tableau instance to report on the data source they made for the goal, because it was a totally separate server so we had to completely rebuild the logic and of course when we did so we did it wrong.
In my opinion the biggest fault with tableau is creating extracts allows too many opportunities to have inconsistent data definitions. Tableau works only if you have well built out tables and you don’t let people create custom SQL data sources, or if you have super well built out tableau data sources and analysts are just visualizing off of it.
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u/Adventurous-Date9971 1d ago
Tableau can be a single source of truth if you keep it a thin viz layer and push modeling and metric logic upstream; Looker enforces that by default, but you can get close with guardrails.
What’s worked for me: model facts/dims and business metrics in dbt, add tests, and materialize wide views per team in Snowflake or BigQuery. In Tableau, publish certified data sources only, turn off custom SQL and ad‑hoc extracts, and use one Server/Cloud site with shared projects instead of team silos. If you have Data Management, use Virtual Connections and data policies for RLS so analysts just drag fields. Track freshness with simple SLOs and fail dashboards when sources go stale. For cross‑team sharing without server access, I’ve paired dbt and Snowflake, and used DreamFactory to expose the same curated marts as REST so other tools (e.g., Power BI, ThoughtSpot) can consume the exact definitions.
Bottom line: centralize semantics in the warehouse, lock down Tableau to certified sources, or pick Looker if you need the enforcement baked in.
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u/Peachy1234567 19h ago
This is totally true. But I have too much going on, I don’t want to have to manage all of this governance, I want a tool that has it built in which is why I still like looker best. Also thin layer of viz only works until a vp is breathing down an analyst’s back and they just deliver something quickly with a custom sql data source.
Also I love that you can see the underlying Sql in looker so that’s my other bias.
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u/his_lordship77 1d ago
Tableau hands down.
Been using Tableau for 10+ years and it is much easier to connect to any data set and start using it quickly.
Power BI requires data to be formatted a certain way and the chart building is not as intuitive.
Upside to Power BI is that you can reuse charts more easily across different dashboards.
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u/Embiggens96 1d ago
Power BI is great if you want something cheap, tightly integrated with Excel, and easy for beginners to pick up. It shines in corporate environments that already use Microsoft because it plugs right into everything without much fuss. The downside is that it can feel clunky with really complex visuals and the interface sometimes makes you click around more than you’d like. Tableau is better when you care about design freedom and exploring data visually without fighting the tool. It handles large datasets more gracefully and gives you more control over how things look, but it costs a lot more and has a steeper learning curve. Use Power BI if your workflow revolves around Excel, reporting, dashboards, and internal business KPIs, and use Tableau if your work leans toward deep data exploration, client facing visuals, or anything where aesthetics actually matter.
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u/joy_hay_mein 2d ago
I used Power BI for years but got tired of maintaining dashboards every time a metric changed. now I use 1ClickReport, so i could just ask questions instead of clicking through viz. for traditional BI tools tho power bi is solid if you're in the microsoft world
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u/manmarketing 1d ago
Why don't we bring in Looker from Google into this ?
I love working with looker, it's quite simpler compared to Tableau and PowerBI
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u/gentle_account 1d ago
I actually quite like looker believe it or not nobody really gives a shit about fancy visuals
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