Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Tableau VS Apache Superset

Compare Tableau VS Apache Superset and see what are their differences

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.

Apache Superset logo Apache Superset

modern, enterprise-ready business intelligence web application
  • Tableau Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-18
  • Apache Superset Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-09-18

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.

Apache Superset features and specs

  • Open Source
    Apache Superset is fully open source, allowing users to modify and extend it as needed without any licensing fees.
  • Rich Visualization Options
    Superset offers a wide range of pre-built visualization types, including pie charts, line charts, and maps, allowing for versatile data representation.
  • SQL Lab
    The SQL Lab feature makes it easy to explore and query data in a natural SQL interface, which is highly valuable for analysts and data scientists.
  • Lightweight
    Superset is designed to be a lightweight platform, making it relatively easy to set up and manage compared to more cumbersome BI tools.
  • Extensibility
    With its plugin architecture, Superset can be extended to support additional visualizations and data sources, which makes it highly customizable.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    As part of the Apache Software Foundation, Superset benefits from a robust community and a broad ecosystem of tools and integrations.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Superset

  • Steep Learning Curve
    New users may find it difficult to get started with Superset due to its wide array of features and technical jargon.
  • Limited Documentation
    While there is community-driven documentation, it may not be as comprehensive or up-to-date as needed, posing challenges during troubleshooting.
  • Resource Intensive
    Superset can be resource-intensive and may require significant optimization to run efficiently, especially with large datasets or numerous concurrent users.
  • Basic User Management
    User management features are somewhat basic compared to other BI tools, lacking advanced role-based access control and detailed audit logs.
  • Less Polished UI
    The user interface, while functional, may not be as polished or intuitive as some of the commercial alternatives, impacting the user experience.
  • Scaling Issues
    Superset can face scalability challenges when dealing with massive datasets or a high number of concurrent users, though ongoing improvements are being made.

Analysis of Tableau

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Tableau is considered a good tool for data visualization and business intelligence. It is praised for its intuitive design, strong community support, and continuous updates that bring new features and improvements. However, its cost can be a consideration for small businesses or individuals, and there may be a learning curve for more advanced functionalities.

Why this product is good

  • Tableau is highly regarded for its powerful data visualization capabilities. It allows users to create interactive and shareable dashboards that deliver insights quickly. The platform supports a wide range of data sources and offers a user-friendly interface that is accessible to both novice and experienced users. Additionally, Tableau's robust analytics features and ability to handle large datasets make it a favorite among data professionals.

Recommended for

    Tableau is recommended for data analysts, business intelligence professionals, and organizations that need to transform complex data into actionable insights. It is also suited for industries that rely on data-driven decision-making, such as finance, healthcare, and marketing, as well as any company looking to improve its data visualization capabilities.

Analysis of Apache Superset

Overall verdict

  • Apache Superset is a good choice for teams and organizations looking for a flexible, scalable, and user-friendly data visualization tool. It offers a balance between simplicity for non-technical users and depth for advanced users who want to perform complex data analyses. However, it might require some initial setup and configuration, especially for those not familiar with managing web applications or working with databases.

Why this product is good

  • Apache Superset is a powerful, open-source business intelligence tool that provides a wide range of data visualization and exploration capabilities. It is designed to handle large volumes of data, offers an intuitive user interface, and supports a variety of data sources through SQLAlchemy. Its main strengths lie in its ability to create complex dashboards with minimal effort, and its extensibility through a plugin framework. Superset also benefits from a vibrant open-source community, which contributes to its continuous improvement and feature expansion.

Recommended for

  • Organizations with medium to large datasets that need efficient data exploration and visualization.
  • Data analysts and scientists who require a tool that provides powerful SQL capabilities and extensive chart options.
  • Teams looking for an open-source, cost-effective alternative to proprietary business intelligence solutions.
  • Developers who are interested in customizing or extending the platform to fit specific needs via a robust API and plugin system.

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

Apache Superset videos

Observing Intraday Indicators Using Real-Time Tick Data on Apache Superset and Druid

More videos:

  • Review - Apache Superset-Building Dashboard-Filter or Slicer
  • Review - Installing Apache Superset

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Tableau and Apache Superset)
Data Dashboard
86 86%
14% 14
Data Visualization
87 87%
13% 13
Business Intelligence
88 88%
12% 12
Data Analysis
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 and Apache Superset

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

Apache Superset Reviews

8 Alternatives to Apache Superset That’ll Empower Start-ups and Small Businesses with BI
Open-source vs cloud-hosted vs self-hosted Apache Superset open-sourceApache Superset interactive example dashboard. Image source: https://superset.apache.org/Main features and benefits Pricing and offersBest for Main drawbacks Apache Superset alternatives that are suitable for a small business or startup 1. Trevor.ioMain features and benefits Pricing and offersKey...
Source: trevor.io
Top 10 Tableau Open Source Alternatives: A Comprehensive List
Apache Superset is one of the best Tableau Open Source alternatives that you can opt for Data Exploration and Business Analytics. This Open-Source project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0, which allows anyone to use it and distribute a modified version of it. In comparison to Tableau, which charges a minimum of $15 per month for Tableau Viewer, this software is...
Source: hevodata.com
Top 10 Data Analysis Tools in 2022
Apache Superset It is an open-source software application, meaning it can be modified to suit a company’s needs. It is among the few data analysis tools available to handle big data. Apache Superset is free to use. Apache Superset is a free tool businesses can use to explore and visualize data. However, it does not support NoSQL databases.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Superset should be more popular than Tableau. It has been mentiond 59 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 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: over 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: over 3 years ago
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Apache Superset mentions (59)

  • RisingWave Turns Four: Our Journey Beyond Democratizing Stream Processing
    By making RisingWave compatible with PostgreSQL, we ensured that any developer familiar with SQL could immediately start writing streaming queries. This wasn't just about syntax; it meant RisingWave could plug seamlessly into existing data workflows and connect easily with a vast ecosystem of familiar tools like DBeaver, Grafana, Apache Superset, dbt, and countless others. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Apache ECharts
    Superset[1] BI tool is a good example of how useful ECharts are [1] https://superset.apache.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • The DOJ Still Wants Google to Sell Off Chrome
    Is this really true? Something that can be supported by clear evidence? I’ve seen this trotted out many times, but it seems like there are interesting Apache projects: https://airflow.apache.org/ https://iceberg.apache.org/ https://kafka.apache.org/ https://superset.apache.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Major Technologies Worth Learning in 2025 for Data Professionals
    Open source tools like Apache Superset, Airbyte, and DuckDB are providing cost-effective and customizable solutions for data professionals. Becoming adept at these tools not only reduces dependency on proprietary software but also fosters community engagement. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • ClickHouse: The Key to Faster Insights
    ClickHouse is highly compatible with a wide range of data tools, including ETL/ELT processes and BI tools like Apache Superset. It supports virtually all common data formats, making integration seamless across diverse ecosystems. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

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

Metabase - Metabase is the easy, open source way for everyone in your company to ask questions and learn from...

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.

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

Fluent BI - Chat with spreadsheets & docs for AI-powered insights, charts & dashboards in seconds. No code required. Perfect for small business reporting.

Manaflow - Automate repetitive office work in tables