Explore the ins and outs of Tableau, an industry-leading data visualization tool used for data analytics and business intelligence. Learn about its various features, current costs, and potential professional uses and career paths.
Key Insights
- Tableau is a powerful tool that simplifies raw data into an easy-to-understand dashboard, perfect for professionals from varying backgrounds. It offers numerous features like real-time analysis, data blending, and collaboration capabilities.
- Tableau's professional uses are vast, including data manipulation, integration, ETL operations, and creating visually appealing reports. Furthermore, it doesn't require coding knowledge to set up, making it an accessible tool for many businesses.
- Costs for Tableau subscriptions vary: Tableau Public and Tableau Reader are free, while Tableau Desktop is available for $70/user/month, Tableau Explorer for $42/user/month, and Tableau Viewer for $15/user/month.
- Tableau is widely used in many career paths, including software engineering, business intelligence, data analytics, and business analytics. Companies such as Dell, Meta, General Motors, and Bank of America actively seek individuals with Tableau training.
- Learning Tableau brings professional benefits, including the ability to create complex charts and graphs quickly. Additionally, the average salary in the U.S. for Tableau professionals is over $100,000 a year.
- Noble Desktop offers a variety of Tableau learning opportunities, including a Tableau Level 1 course, a comprehensive Tableau Bootcamp, and a rigorous Data Analytics Certificate program that includes Tableau training.
If you’re interested in business analytics or data visualization, you may have considered investing in a Tableau subscription. The cost of Tableau depends on which version you are using. Tableau Public and Tableau Reader are both offered for free. Tableau Desktop is currently offered for $70/user/month, Tableau Explorer is available for $42/user/month, and Tableau Viewer costs $15/user/month.
What is Tableau?
Tableau is a data visualization tool used for data analytics and business intelligence. It was designed to help individuals and organizations make better data-driven solutions. This software can simplify raw data into an accessible dashboard format that incorporates visual depictions of raw data from datasets, which can then be understood by various professionals working within a company, regardless of whether they come from a technical background. One of the main benefits of working with Tableau is that it performs fast data analysis and can create stunning visualizations based on data findings.
Tableau provides users with many helpful data analysis and visualization features, such as real-time analysis, data blending, and collaboration capabilities. It allows Data Analysts to manipulate live datasets and devote their efforts more to analysis rather than data wrangling. In addition, Tableau doesn’t require programming or technical skills, making it an accessible, effective tool for data analytics.
Read more about what Tableau is and why you should learn it.
What Can You Do with Tableau?
Tableau has a variety of professional uses. Ultimately, the more you know about Tableau, the more data-driven insights you can bring to your organization. Tableau can bring together various data sources into a single point of truth. For example, suppose you’re working with data in Microsoft Access and Excel, as well as in SQL databases and cloud-based applications such as Salesforce. In that case, Tableau can help you bring these data together with just a few mouse clicks. This provides one central source that can be used for all types of business reporting and doesn’t require you to have any coding knowledge to set up.
Tableau also provides a way to efficiently perform ETL operations (extract, transform and load). With the help of Tableau’s automated data reshaper tool, you can transform any data you want to use into the necessary format by splitting fields, eliminating header and white space, and changing data formats. Instead of spending a whole day extracting, transforming, and loading data using apps such as Excel, you can do it in just seconds in Tableau. In addition, Tableau’s automated reporting feature allows you to easily create a report, then set it to focus on a specific dataset so that the data will automatically refresh without requiring any coding know-how or additional time commitment.
One of Tableau’s most remarkable features is its visualization capabilities. Even for those new to visually presenting data insights, Tableau comes with built-in best practices to help you present information clearly, effectively, and engagingly. This helps ensure that data is delivered to internal and external stakeholders through eye-catching and informative reports.
In-Depth Review of the Cost
Although the cost of Tableau products is likely to change over time, the following is a breakdown of the current costs:
- Tableau Reader and Tableau Public are both free products.
- Tableau Creator licenses, which include Tableau Prep Builder and Tableau Desktop, are currently available for $70/user/month.
- Licenses for Tableau Explorer currently cost $42/user/month.
- The cost of Tableau Viewer licenses is $12/user/month.
If you are still deciding whether Tableau is right for you and don’t want to commit to buying a license just yet, Tableau offers a free trial. This provides an excellent opportunity to design and share visualizations in the cloud. This free Tableau Cloud trial also includes Tableau Prep Builder.
Although Tableau is relatively affordable, some comparable tools offer better price points. Microsoft Power BI costs less than Tableau. The professional version of Power BI is currently available for less than $10/user/month. In addition, Qlik Sense, a modern data discovery and visualization product, is another alternative to Tableau. Qlik Sense Business is offered for $30/user/month. Like Tableau, this product also comes with a free trial.
However, when deciding between data analytics and business analytics products, it’s essential to remember that Tableau is one of the most popular and widely used tools. Along with the cost comes the support of Tableau’s large online community, the power of its analytic and visualization capabilities, and its easy-to-use interface.
Why Learn Tableau?
Learning to use Tableau has many professional benefits. The following are just a few reasons why you should consider studying this powerful data visualization tool:
- Tableau is considered to be easy to use. Those with Tableau knowledge can quickly create complex graphs and charts that depict data findings.
- Many career paths rely on Tableau, such as software engineering, business intelligence, data analytics, and business analytics.
- The average salary in the U.S. for Tableau professionals is over $100,000 a year.
- Many top companies actively seek out those with Tableau training, such as Dell, Meta, General Motors, and Bank of America.
- Tableau makes data manipulation and integration much easier to perform. The Tableau Reporting Tool can manipulate or integrate any programming language or type of software.
- Because so many organizations currently handle large volumes of data, those who know how to use Tableau can help their employer process, analyze, and visualize this information. The insights in the data help their organization grow by making data-driven decisions.
Read more about why you should learn Tableau.
Free Introductory Tableau Course Online
Not ready to dive into a full Tableau course? Instead of committing to a rigorous bootcamp or certificate in data visualization, you may just want an overview of Tableau. If this sounds like you, the good news is that you can start learning Tableau for free online. Noble Desktop offers some excellent free online Tableau tutorials and resources that can help Tableau novices, along with more seasoned Tableau users, learn more about this popular application. Articles are available on topics like how to install Tableau Public, working with Colors in Tableau, and Creating Maps in Tableau.
In addition to Noble Desktop’s free Tableau resources, other top educational providers also offer free, beginner-level Tableau instruction. Udemy’s free Tableau Tutorial for Beginners provides nearly two-and-a-half hours of instruction on core Tableau skills, such as joining multiple datasets, writing powerful calculations, and performing visual analytics. Coursera’s Data Visualization and Communication with Tableau teaches students how to communicate business-relevant insights in a manner accessible to audiences from non-technical backgrounds.
Read about more free Tableau videos and online tutorials.
Learn Tableau with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop
Noble Desktop provides several great Tableau learning opportunities. For those new to Tableau, Noble’s Tableau Level 1 covers core Tableau tools and skills, such as creating various charts and data visualizations. Students receive an introduction to Tableau Public, a free version of Tableau, and learn how to create and edit graphs and charts.
In addition, Noble’s Tableau Bootcamp is a program that teaches students the fundamental components of data visualization. Those enrolled explore Tableau Public’s different tools to connect to datasets, analyze, filter, and structure the data to make visualizations. By course completion, students will know how to customize, manipulate, and publish various data visualizations. This class comes with the option of a free retake for students who wish to revisit course material.
For those seeking a more rigorous learning environment for learning Tableau, Noble Desktop’s Data Analytics Certificate is a great option. In addition to providing hands-on training with Tableau in the small classroom environment, those enrolled in this certificate study also gain industry-relevant training with other data analytic skills, languages, and programs, such as SQL, Excel, and Python. Expert instructors ensure that those enrolled receive training to become Data Analysts or Business Analysts. One-on-one mentoring is provided for all students.
In addition, for those interested in learning more about Tableau, Noble’s Tableau Resources page has more than 50 articles to help you learn more about this powerful data visualization tool.
How to Learn Tableau
Master Tableau with hands-on training. One of the world’s most popular data visualization tools, Tableau allows users to create graphs, charts, and other illustrations to share their analytical findings.
- Tableau Bootcamp at Noble Desktop: 12-hour live, instructor-led course available in NYC or live online
- Find Tableau Classes Near You: Search & compare dozens of available courses in-person
- Attend a Tableau class live online (remote/virtual training) from anywhere
- Find & compare the best online Tableau classes (on-demand) from the top providers and platforms
- Train your staff with corporate and onsite Tableau training