Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ggplot2 VS Tableau

Compare ggplot2 VS Tableau and see what are their differences

ggplot2 logo ggplot2

Application and Data, Libraries, and Charting Libraries

Tableau logo Tableau

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.
  • ggplot2 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-27
  • Tableau Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-18

ggplot2 features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Tableau features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Tableau offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that allows users to create visualizations and dashboards easily, even without extensive technical knowledge.
  • Data Connectivity
    Tableau supports a wide range of data sources including databases, spreadsheets, cloud services, and more, allowing for flexible data integration.
  • Advanced Analytics
    Advanced analytical capabilities, including real-time analytics, trend analysis, and predictive analytics, help users gain deeper insights from their data.
  • Community and Support
    A large, active user community provides a wealth of resources including forums, tutorials, and user groups for support and knowledge sharing.
  • Visualization Quality
    Tableau offers high-quality visualizations with customizable options that make it easier to create compelling reports and dashboards.

Possible disadvantages of Tableau

  • Cost
    Tableau can be expensive, especially for small businesses or individual users, with its various licensing and subscription fees.
  • Performance Issues
    For very large datasets or complex calculations, Tableau can experience performance slowdowns, affecting the efficiency and user experience.
  • Steep Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic features are easy to use, mastering advanced functionalities can require a significant learning curve and technical expertise.
  • Customization Limitations
    Although Tableau is highly customizable, some users find it lacks flexibility when it comes to very specific or unique customization requirements.
  • Export Limitations
    Exporting visualizations and dashboards to formats like PDF or PowerPoint can sometimes be restrictive, limiting the ways reports are shared.

ggplot2 videos

Learn R: An Introduction to ggplot2

More videos:

  • Review - Review ggplot2 Line Graph Exercise
  • Review - Code-through and review of Ggplot2 in 2

Tableau videos

Power BI vs Tableau 🔥 5 Factors to Choose a Winner

More videos:

  • Review - What is Tableau Desktop? | A Tableau Desktop Overview
  • Demo - Tableau Software Demo

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ggplot2 and Tableau)
Technical Computing
100 100%
0% 0
Data Dashboard
1 1%
99% 99
Data Visualization
2 2%
98% 98
Business Intelligence
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using ggplot2 and Tableau. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare ggplot2 and Tableau

ggplot2 Reviews

5 Best Python Libraries For Data Visualization in 2023
ggplot is a system for creating graphics declaratively. It’s based on the Grammar of Graphics of R programming language and is tightly integrated with Pandas. ggplot just requires you to declare how to map the variables to aesthetics and primitives to use and handles the rest automatically. Remember, ggplot is not recommended for creating highly customized graphics.
Top 8 Python Libraries for Data Visualization
Ggplot is a Python data visualization library that is based on the implementation of ggplot2 which is created for the programming language R. Ggplot can create data visualizations such as bar charts, pie charts, histograms, scatterplots, error charts, etc. using high-level API. It also allows you to add different types of data visualization components or layers in a single...

Tableau Reviews

Explore 7 Tableau Alternatives for Data Visualization and Analysis
Welcome to our complete reference, Tableau Alternatives for Data Visualization and Analysis. In this fast-changing digital age, data visualization and analysis have become critical for making informed decisions and strategies. Tableau is a well-known product that has had a considerable impact in this sector. Its user-friendly interface and powerful capabilities have made it...
Source: www.draxlr.com
Explore 6 Metabase Alternatives for Data Visualization and Analysis
To find the best Metabase alternative for your business, start by listing your specific requirements, such as customer support, data integrations, visualization options, user access controls, and budget. Compare these needs with the features of other BI tools like Draxlr, Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or Holistics. Once you've identified a few suitable options, take advantage...
Source: www.draxlr.com
5 best Looker alternatives
Tableau: Tableau is the earliest BI tools built to solve data problems, which means it has a lot of community support for all your queries and can lack what the new-age tools have and are building.
Source: www.draxlr.com
10 Best Alternatives to Looker in 2024
Tableau: Renowned for its powerful visualization capabilities, Tableau enables users to create highly intuitive and interactive dashboards. Favored for its user-friendly interface, Tableau effectively handles large datasets, making it a top choice for data visualization.
6 Best Looker alternatives
Pricing: Looker is typically more expensive than Tableau – but if you’re a growing company with increasing user numbers, Tableau can also get pricey.
Source: trevor.io

Social recommendations and mentions

ggplot2 might be a bit more popular than Tableau. We know about 11 links to it since March 2021 and only 8 links to Tableau. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

ggplot2 mentions (11)

  • Ask HN: What plotting tools should I invest in learning?
    For random, quick and dirty, ad-hoc plotting tasks my default is GNUPlot[1]. Otherwise I tend to use either Python with matplotlib, or R with ggplot2. I keep saying I'm going to invest the time to properly learn D3[4] or something similar for doing web-based plotting, but somehow never quite seem to find time to do it. sigh [1]: http://www.gnuplot.info/ [2]: https://matplotlib.org/ [3]:... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Relative frequency of letters in five-letter English words (Wordle aid) [OC]
    I got the list of five-letter words from the words package in R, created the QWERTY keyboard grid with base R and tibble, and visualized the data with geom_tile in the ggplot2 package. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • [OC] U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges: 2002 to 2023
    Thanks, it's an interesting idea! I definitely could implement this with scale_fill_gradientn) in ggplot2. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Facts about Aaron Boone's Ejections as Manager
    I used the ggplot2 package in R to create these figures. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Fueling Innovation and Collaborative Storytelling
    This might not be at the top of your list, but science fiction often presents advanced data analysis and visualization technologies. Open source data analysis tools such as Python's Pandas and R's ggplot2 have revolutionized the field, making complex data manipulation and visualization accessible to all. In the science fiction novel The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney uses a variety of data analysis and... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
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Tableau mentions (8)

  • Tableau Certified Data Analyst Exam Readiness
    Hey everyone, I'm interested in taking the Tableau Certified Data Analyst Exam Readiness course through tableau.com to prepare and get Tableau certified. I had some questions about the course, such as are the videos pre recorded or in person, do you have access to the material once the 90 days expire, and I was also wondering if anyone had input/advice for this course. Thanks! Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Where to publish knowledge sharing on Tableau reverse engineering and data dictionary generation?
    Could anyone recommend what media I should approach to publish my work (internet or print). I could try the Tableau forum in tableau.com but it's not very active + Tableau may be unappreciative as my work overlaps with their (pricey) data management solution. Plus it needs to be some high visibility / reputable media to count for my career development. Any recommendations welcome thanks!!! Source: over 2 years ago
  • I have huge loads of data in Redshift. How can I make this available to end-users after performing few procs and queries? It should be available online.
    Tableau public: tableau.com. Big player but your data will be made public and not really user-friendly data model. Source: about 3 years ago
  • What tips do you have on evaluating various BI tools for business needs? What are the essential criteria's you would include when evaluating different tools? The goal is to have an unbiased, objective approach.
    For example, we have a project to compare Tableau, Power BI, and InetSoft. The need for strong pagination-based email delivery eliminated Tableau. AWS's Linux instance is the targeted platform which makes Power BI less than ideal. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Anyone go into Data Analytics after this program?
    I just started learning Tableau because our dept is transitioning into Tableau from Power BI. Since I already have years of experience with Power BI I just went over their tutorials from tableau.com and got onboarded pretty quick. I'm still learning it but I'm at least able to build out reports and get things done. Its not too difficult to pickup one BI tool when you have experience with another. Source: about 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing ggplot2 and Tableau, you can also consider the following products

Matplotlib - matplotlib is a python 2D plotting library which produces publication quality figures in a variety...

Microsoft Power BI - BI visualization and reporting for desktop, web or mobile

Plotly - Low-Code Data Apps

Looker - Looker makes it easy for analysts to create and curate custom data experiences—so everyone in the business can explore the data that matters to them, in the context that makes it truly meaningful.

GnuPlot - Gnuplot is a portable command-line driven interactive data and function plotting utility.

Sisense - The BI & Dashboard Software to handle multiple, large data sets.