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Metabase vs Tableau: What are the differences?
Introduction
This Markdown document compares the key differences between Metabase and Tableau, two popular data visualization tools. Metabase is an open-source business intelligence and analytics tool, while Tableau is a commercial data visualization software.
User Interface: Metabase has a clean and simple user interface that is easy to navigate. It provides a user-friendly experience for non-technical users. On the other hand, Tableau has a more sophisticated user interface with a wide range of features and options for advanced data analysis and visualization.
Cost: Metabase is a free and open-source tool, making it a cost-effective choice for small and medium-sized businesses or individuals with limited budgets. Tableau, on the other hand, is a commercial software that requires a license or subscription, making it more suitable for larger organizations with higher data analysis needs and budgets.
Data Sources: Metabase supports a limited number of data sources, including databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL, while Tableau supports a wide range of data sources, including databases, cloud services, and spreadsheets. Tableau's extensive connectivity options make it more versatile in terms of accessing and analyzing data from different sources.
Customization: Tableau offers more advanced customization options compared to Metabase. With Tableau, users have greater flexibility to design and customize visualizations, including the ability to create interactive dashboards and apply custom styles and themes. Metabase, while providing basic customization features, may have limitations in terms of design flexibility and advanced customization.
Collaboration and sharing: Tableau provides robust collaboration and sharing features, allowing users to share dashboards and reports with others, collaborate in real-time, and enable data-driven discussions. Metabase, on the other hand, has limited collaboration capabilities and may not be as suitable for teams or organizations requiring extensive collaboration and sharing functionalities.
Advanced Analysis: Tableau offers more advanced analytical features compared to Metabase. It provides users with the ability to perform complex calculations, create custom formulas, apply statistical models, and use advanced visualization techniques. Metabase, while offering basic analytical capabilities, may not have the same level of sophistication in terms of advanced data analysis.
In summary, Metabase is a free and open-source tool with a simple user interface, limited customization options, and basic analytical capabilities, making it suitable for small or budget-conscious users. Tableau, on the other hand, is a commercial software with a more sophisticated user interface, extensive data source connectivity options, advanced customization features, robust collaboration and sharing capabilities, and advanced analytical functionalities, making it well-suited for larger organizations with more complex data analysis needs and budgets.
Very easy-to-use UI. Good way to make data available inside the company for analysis.
Has some built-in visualizations and can be easily integrated with other JS visualization libraries such as D3.
Can be embedded into product to provide reporting functions.
Support team are helpful.
The only complain I have is lack of API support. Hard to track changes as codes and automate report deployment.
Power BI is really easy to start with. If you have just several Excel sheets or CSV files, or you build your first automated pipeline, it is actually quite intuitive to build your first reports.
And as we have kept growing, all the additional features and tools were just there within the Azure platform and/or Office 365.
Since we started building Mews, we have already passed several milestones in becoming start up, later also a scale up company and now getting ready to grow even further, and during all these phases Power BI was just the right tool for us.
Pros of Metabase
- Database visualisation62
- Open Source45
- Easy setup41
- Dashboard out of the box36
- Free23
- Simple14
- Support for many dbs9
- Easy embedding7
- Easy6
- It's good6
- AGPL : wont help with adoption but depends on your goal5
- BI doesn't get easier than that5
- Google analytics integration4
- Multiple integrations4
- Easy set up4
Pros of Tableau
- Capable of visualising billions of rows6
- Intuitive and easy to learn1
- Responsive1
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Cons of Metabase
- Harder to setup than similar tools7
Cons of Tableau
- Very expensive for small companies3