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Tableau Prep VS Azure Synapse Analytics

Compare Tableau Prep VS Azure Synapse Analytics and see what are their differences

Tableau Prep logo Tableau Prep

Tableau Prep is comprised of two products: Prep Builder and Prep Conductor.

Azure Synapse Analytics logo Azure Synapse Analytics

Get started with Azure SQL Data Warehouse for an enterprise-class SQL Server experience. Cloud data warehouses offer flexibility, scalability, and big data insights.
  • Tableau Prep Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-25
  • Azure Synapse Analytics Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-23

Tableau Prep features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Tableau Prep has a visually intuitive drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for users, even those with limited technical skills, to clean, shape, and prepare their data.
  • Integration with Tableau
    Seamlessly integrates with Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server, allowing for easy data flow from preparation to visualization and analysis.
  • Flexible Data Connectivity
    Offers a wide range of data connectors, enabling users to easily connect to various data sources including cloud services, databases, and flat files.
  • Automation and Scheduling
    Users can automate workflows and schedule data prep tasks, which saves time and ensures data is always up-to-date for analysis.
  • Collaborative Features
    Supports sharing and collaboration through Tableau Server and Tableau Online, making it easier for teams to work together on data preparation tasks.

Possible disadvantages of Tableau Prep

  • Limited Advanced Transformations
    While Tableau Prep offers many useful tools, it lacks some advanced data transformation capabilities found in more specialized ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tools.
  • Performance Issues with Large Datasets
    Users may experience performance slowdowns when working with extremely large datasets, affecting overall efficiency and user experience.
  • Steep Learning Curve for Complex Tasks
    Although its interface is user-friendly for simple tasks, more complex data preparation processes still require a deeper understanding, making the learning curve steeper for advanced functionalities.
  • Cost
    Tableau Prep is a paid product, and the cost could be a barrier for small businesses or individual users who might not have the budget for a subscription.
  • Limited Custom Scripting
    Does not provide extensive support for custom scripting, limiting the flexibility for users who need highly customized data transformation processes.

Azure Synapse Analytics features and specs

  • Integration
    Azure Synapse Analytics integrates with other Azure services like Azure Data Lake Storage, Power BI, and Azure Machine Learning, enabling seamless data movement and business intelligence processes.
  • Scalability
    It allows on-demand scalability, both horizontally and vertically, providing the flexibility to handle workloads of any size efficiently.
  • Unified Experience
    Offers a unified interface for data ingestion, preparation, management, and serving, simplifying data operations and reducing the need for multiple tools.
  • Advanced Security
    Includes robust security features like encryption, network protection, and advanced threat protection to ensure data security and compliance.
  • Serverless and Dedicated Options
    Provides both serverless and dedicated resource models, allowing businesses to optimize their costs by selecting the appropriate compute resources for their needs.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Synapse Analytics

  • Complexity
    The comprehensive range of features and tools can lead to a steep learning curve and complexity in setup and management for new users.
  • Cost Management
    Although flexibility is offered, managing and predicting costs can be challenging, especially in serverless scenarios where usage might fluctuate.
  • Resource Limitations
    Despite its scalability, there might be certain limitations in terms of data size or query complexity compared to some on-premises solutions.
  • Dependency on Internet Connectivity
    As a cloud-based solution, it requires stable and reliable internet connectivity, which may not be available in all regions or circumstances.
  • Integration Learning Curve
    While integration is a strength, mastering the integration with various Azure services and third-party tools can require substantial time and effort.

Tableau Prep videos

Tableau Prep Review [A Overview of Tableau Prep with Examples]

More videos:

  • Review - What is Tableau Prep? | A Tableau Prep Overview
  • Review - Tableau Prep Hands-on Training

Azure Synapse Analytics videos

Azure Synapse Analytics - Next-gen Azure SQL Data Warehouse

More videos:

  • Review - Is Azure SQL Data Warehouse the Right SQL Platform for You?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Tableau Prep and Azure Synapse Analytics)
Data Dashboard
78 78%
22% 22
Office & Productivity
65 65%
35% 35
Development
0 0%
100% 100
Data Transformation
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Tableau Prep Reviews

Free Data Science Tools for Students and Educators in 2020
Tableau is one of the best data visualization tools ever! If you have an educational email, please go ahead with the link above and get this awesome tool for free! You will get free one-year Tableau licenses of Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep. Then, renew it yearly.

Azure Synapse Analytics Reviews

Data Warehouse Tools
Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly Azure Data Warehouse) is a cloud-native data warehouse integrated with other Azure services. It unifies data warehousing and big data analytics for comprehensive insights, offering visually interactive tools for user-friendly data exploration.
Source: peliqan.io
Top 6 Cloud Data Warehouses in 2023
Azure Synapse analytics is scalable for large data tables based on its distributed computing. It relies on the MPP (mentioned in the beginning, revisit if you did not grasp it) to quickly run high volumes of complex queries across multiple nodes. With Synapse, there’s an extra emphasis on security and privacy.
Source: geekflare.com
Top 5 BigQuery Alternatives: A Challenge of Complexity
Azure SQL Data Warehouse, now subsumed by Azure Synapse Analytics, brings together the worlds of big data analytics and enterprise data warehousing. Over the years, Azure has made a name for enabling the seamless transfer of data between on-premise and cloud ecosystems.
Source: blog.panoply.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Azure Synapse Analytics seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 4 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.

Tableau Prep mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Tableau Prep yet. Tracking of Tableau Prep recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Azure Synapse Analytics mentions (4)

  • DbVisualizer 24.2: A Complete Review
    Azure Synapse Analytics: DbVisualizer now has extended support for dedicated and serverless SQL pools in Azure Synapse Analytics. That includes support for database-scoped credentials, external file formats and data sources, and external tables. For more information, see the Azure Synapse Dedicated and Azure Synapse Serverless pages on the official site. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Deploying a Data Warehouse with Pulumi and Amazon Redshift
    A data warehouse is a specialized database that's purpose built for gathering and analyzing data. Unlike general-purpose databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL, which are designed to meet the real-time performance and transactional needs of applications, a data warehouse is designed to collect and process the data produced by those applications, collectively and over time, to help you gain insight from it. Examples of... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • [WSJ] Facebook Parent Meta Expected to Post Slowest Revenue Growth Since IPO
    You don't run into these kinds of problems with other tools, like the ones I mentioned. I've never tried the Azure ones, but my gut says they may have some scaling issues (synapse analytics looks promising but I have no experience with it). Source: about 3 years ago
  • The Difference Between Data Warehouses, Data Lakes, and Data Lakehouses.
    Popular managed cloud data warehouse solutions include Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure SQL Database, and Amazon Redshift. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Tableau Prep and Azure Synapse Analytics, you can also consider the following products

Alteryx - Alteryx provides an indispensable and easy-to-use analytics platform for enterprise companies making critical decisions that drive their business strategy and growth.

Google BigQuery - A fully managed data warehouse for large-scale data analytics.

Datameer - An all-in-one data transformation platform for exploring, preparing, visualizing, monitoring, and cataloging Snowflake insights.

Databricks Unified Analytics Platform - One platform for accelerating data-driven innovation across data engineering, data science & business analytics

Trifacta - Data Transformation Platform.

Saturn Cloud - ML in the cloud. Loved by Data Scientists, Control for IT. Advance your business's ML capabilities through the entire experiment tracking lifecycle. Available on multiple clouds: AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI.