Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GnuPlot VS Tableau Public

Compare GnuPlot VS Tableau Public and see what are their differences

GnuPlot logo GnuPlot

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

Tableau Public logo Tableau Public

Your data has a story. Share it with the world.
  • GnuPlot Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-13
  • Tableau Public Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-07

GnuPlot features and specs

  • Highly Customizable
    GnuPlot offers extensive customization options for creating plots, allowing users to tweak almost every aspect of the graph, including colors, labels, line styles, and more.
  • Scriptable
    GnuPlot can be driven by scripts, making it convenient for automating complex plots and integrating with other software workflows.
  • Wide Range of Output Formats
    It supports many output formats such as PNG, PDF, SVG, and EPS, making it easy to generate graphics for different purposes like presentations, publications, and web content.
  • Cross-Platform
    GnuPlot runs on multiple operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, ensuring that it can be used in diverse computing environments.
  • Complex Plotting Capabilities
    GnuPlot supports a wide variety of plots, including 2D and 3D plots, histograms, heatmaps, and more, which caters to the needs of advanced visualization requirements.
  • Performance
    GnuPlot is efficient and can handle large datasets with ease, offering fast rendering times which is crucial when dealing with complex visualizations.
  • Free and Open Source
    Being free and open-source software, GnuPlot is accessible to everyone, and users can modify the source code to suit their needs.

Possible disadvantages of GnuPlot

  • Steep Learning Curve
    GnuPlot has a complex syntax and a steep learning curve, especially for beginners who may find it difficult to get started without substantial effort.
  • Limited GUI
    GnuPlot lacks a full-featured graphical user interface (GUI), making it less user-friendly for those who prefer point-and-click interactions over scripting.
  • Documentation
    While comprehensive, the documentation can be overwhelming and difficult to navigate for new users trying to find specific information quickly.
  • Date Handling
    Handling and formatting dates can be cumbersome in GnuPlot, requiring more manual setup compared to other dedicated plotting tools.
  • Interactive Features
    GnuPlot's interactive plotting capabilities are limited compared to other modern plotting tools that offer more dynamic and real-time interactivity.
  • Integration
    Integration with some modern programming environments and languages may not be as seamless as with other plotting libraries specifically designed for those ecosystems (e.g., Matplotlib in Python).

Tableau Public features and specs

  • Free to Use
    Tableau Public is available for free, allowing individuals and organizations to create and publish data visualizations without incurring costs.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The platform provides a drag-and-drop interface that simplifies the process of creating interactive visualizations, making it accessible to users without a technical background.
  • Cloud-Based Sharing
    Visualizations can be published to the cloud, making it easy to share insights and dashboards with others via a URL.
  • Community Support
    A large and active community offers a wealth of publicly available visualizations, tutorials, and forums, providing support and inspiration.
  • Rich Visualization Options
    Tableau Public offers a variety of visualization types, enabling users to create complex and insightful visual stories.

Possible disadvantages of Tableau Public

  • Limited Data Security
    Since visualizations are publicly accessible, sensitive data cannot be used with Tableau Public, limiting its use for confidential business information.
  • Data Source Limitations
    Tableau Public supports fewer data source connections compared to the full version of Tableau, potentially restricting data integration.
  • File Size Restrictions
    There are limits on the size of the data files that can be uploaded, which may be insufficient for large datasets and can constrain analysis.
  • No Offline Access
    Because it is cloud-based, an internet connection is required to access and publish dashboards, potentially causing issues for users with unreliable connectivity.
  • Limited Feature Set
    As a free platform, Tableau Public lacks some advanced features and customization options available in paid versions of Tableau, which may limit analysis capabilities.

Analysis of GnuPlot

Overall verdict

  • Gnuplot is generally considered to be a good choice for those looking for a reliable and flexible plotting tool, especially if the users need robust scriptability or work across different operating systems.

Why this product is good

  • Gnuplot is a powerful, portable, and multi-platform tool capable of producing high-quality 2D and 3D plots. It supports numerous output formats and can be used interactively or in scripts. Additionally, it has a large support community and extensive documentation, making it accessible for both beginners and advanced users.

Recommended for

  • Scientists and engineers who need to visualize data across diverse platforms.
  • Users comfortable working with command-line interfaces.
  • Individuals or teams needing to generate plots through automated scripts.
  • Those looking for a free and open-source alternative to other graphing tools.

GnuPlot videos

Gnuplot Introduction

More videos:

  • Review - DTrace Latency Visualization in gnuplot
  • Review - Basics of Gnuplot - Make your plot look Good

Tableau Public videos

Introduction to Tableau Public

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Introduction to Tableau Public | Tableau Public Tutorial | Edureka
  • Review - Tableau Desktop Vs Tableau Public | Tableau Training Videos | Tableau Certification - ExcelR

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GnuPlot and Tableau Public)
Technical Computing
100 100%
0% 0
Business Intelligence
0 0%
100% 100
Numerical Computation
100 100%
0% 0
Office & Productivity
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

GnuPlot Reviews

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Tableau Public Reviews

27 dashboards you can easily display on your office screen with Airtame 2
By connecting and visualizing your data in a matter of minutes, Tableau Public can make you forget about the old-school spreadsheets and reports that used to clutter your life.
Source: airtame.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tableau Public should be more popular than GnuPlot. It has been mentiond 12 times since March 2021. 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.

GnuPlot mentions (5)

  • Question about Project Management
    To some extent it extends the concept of tasks which only can be reasonably executed after the completion of other ones (though results of branches eventually may join each other) and offers an additional assisting birds' eye visual of projects. So far, I'm aware about the documentation on worg interfacing org-taskjuggler and taskjuggler, as well as a video tutorial interfacing gnuplot instead. Source: about 3 years ago
  • How do I make a transparent background on .ps or .eps file imported to groff
    Gnuplot is a program to plot diagrams. The Commands issued to use it don't change regardless if it is used in Linux/Windows/MacOS and it comes with less dependencies than a Spread sheet, or a statistics program. This is why I started to Become comfortable with it, and venture out some of its features. Here, "conditional plot" referred to "the diagram only displays a Thing/uses a pixel if the value in the table... Source: over 3 years ago
  • Drawing graphs and diagrams
    Or, does drawing diagrams refers to plotting data, but neither using matplotlib, nor gnuplot (export to .svg, .pdf, .png; pstricks, tikz to mention a few options)? Source: over 3 years ago
  • Are specific softwares avialable that are suitable for converting different diagrams, graphs and mindmaps to latex codes?
    There may the occasion you actually need the data from a publication, and want to plot them altogether with data newly collected data in one diagram in common. An overlay, though possible, can become tricky (scaling, centering, alignment, etc.) and plotting all data in a diagram generated from scratch (gnuplot/octave, matplotlib, Origin, ...) exported as an illustration in the usual formats (.pdf/.png), or... Source: over 3 years ago
  • Introducing Graphs
    Have you looked at the graphing capabilities of Octave or Gnuplot? Gnuplot in particular has a lot of options, and a GUI for those who want it. Source: over 3 years ago

Tableau Public mentions (12)

  • Jobs for people who just want to crawl under their desks
    Now, if you do want to play around with data visualizations, you can do that for free with Tableau Public https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Data visualization
    Tableau Public - https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Weekly Entering & Transitioning Thread | 02 Jan 2022 - 09 Jan 2022
    Tableau and PowerBI are generally viewed as industry standard tools. The good news is you have free options for both! Tableau Public and PowerBI Desktop are what you're looking for. Try them out and pick which one you like more. The skills are pretty transferable once you master the basics. As far as python ML tools, ones that pop up pretty frequently are scikit-learn (questionable math notwithstanding), XGBoost,... Source: over 4 years ago
  • Foxhole Statistics
    I played with the idea of doing something similar and putting it all in Google Sheets (https://www.google.com/sheets/about/) so I could visualize it all in Tableau Public (https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/). Source: over 4 years ago
  • Help on creating a weekly and monthly summary?
    I record everything in a spreadsheet and then built a set of dashboards using Tableau. Took a bit to get set up, but once I had it, I can produce the summary in a few minutes. Here's an example of my weekly summary. If you're interested, happy to send you the Tableau workbook so you can take a look. Source: over 4 years ago
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