SAP Analytics Cloud vs. Tableau Desktop

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SAP Analytics Cloud
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
The SAP Analytics Cloud solution brings together analytics and planning with integration to SAP applications and access to heterogenous data sources. As the analytics and planning solution within SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP Analytics Cloud supports trusted insights and integrated planning processes enterprise-wide to help make decisions without doubt.
$36
per month per user
Tableau Desktop
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Tableau Desktop is a data visualization product from Tableau. It connects to a variety of data sources for combining disparate data sources without coding. It provides tools for discovering patterns and insights, data calculations, forecasts, and statistical summaries and visual storytelling.
$75
per month per user
Pricing
SAP Analytics CloudTableau Desktop
Editions & Modules
SAP Analytics Cloud for Business Intelligence
$36.00
per month per user
SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning
Price upon request
per month per user
Tableau
$75
per month per user
Tableau Enterprise
$115
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SAP Analytics CloudTableau Desktop
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA 30-day trial with SAP Analytics Cloud is available, supporting analytics enterprise-wide. A trial can be extended up to 90 days on request.All pricing plans are billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SAP Analytics CloudTableau Desktop
Features
SAP Analytics CloudTableau Desktop
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.0
Ratings
2% below category average
Tableau Desktop
8.3
Ratings
2% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.10 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.90 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
SAP Analytics Cloud
7.9
Ratings
2% below category average
Tableau Desktop
8.7
Ratings
8% above category average
Drill-down analysis8.10 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.10 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.70 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration7.80 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.0
Ratings
4% below category average
Tableau Desktop
8.1
Ratings
3% below category average
Publish to Web8.00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.40 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Report Versioning8.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling7.70 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.0
Ratings
0% above category average
Tableau Desktop
8.4
Ratings
5% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.70 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.70 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.30 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining8.20 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
SAP Analytics Cloud
8.1
Ratings
5% below category average
Tableau Desktop
8.7
Ratings
3% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.10 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.80 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.20 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.50 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
SAP Analytics Cloud
7.9
Ratings
1% above category average
Tableau Desktop
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access7.70 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Mobile Application7.50 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
SAP Analytics Cloud
-
Ratings
Tableau Desktop
9.0
Ratings
14% above category average
REST API00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SAP Analytics CloudTableau Desktop
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.1 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
SAP Analytics CloudTableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.8
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
6.1
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.6
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
2.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SAP Analytics CloudTableau Desktop
Likelihood to Recommend
SAP Ecosystem Integration:For businesses already using other SAP solutions such as SAP BW or SAP HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud is a natural fit. It integrates well with the broader SAP ecosystem, providing a cohesive analytics experience for users familiar with SAP technologies.Predictive Analytics Use Cases:Companies seeking to incorporate predictive analytics into their decision-making processes can leverage SAP Analytics Cloud. Its built-in predictive features enable users to create models and gain insights into future trends based on historical data.
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The best scenario is definitely to collect data from several sources and create dedicated dashboards for specific recipients. However, I miss the possibility of explaining these reports in more detail. Sometimes, we order a report, and after half a year, we don't remember the meaning of some data (I know it's our fault as an organization, but the tool could force better practices).
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Pros
  • It makes it easier yo analyse order and related records easily.
  • We can easily maintain and track the performance of employees in organisation.
  • Can easily track various aspects for the growth of an organisation thus allowing real time analysis and tracking of organisation's growth and performance.
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  • The Visualizations graphics are really good and the color options help in designing attractive charts. They help to convey more information and can be made interactive.
  • You can add filters with offer you to plug and play with values and understand different outcomes.
  • You can drag and drop options while creating charts and dashboards. also it is a very fluid layout.
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Cons
  • Possibility of more advanced scripting for data transformation without analytics designer
  • Provision to consider rate types from TCURR in SAC and should be able to write FX conversion logic considering rate types
  • Read data directly from BW by reading aDSOs backend tables
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  • Formatting the data to work correctly in graphical presentations can be time consuming
  • Daily data extracts can run slowly depending on how much data is required and the source of the data
  • The desktop version is required for advanced functionality, editing on [the] Tableau server allows only limited features
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Likelihood to Renew
There’s no doubt I will renew SAP Analytics Cloud. It is the most vital tool in our organization that makes it seamless to make rapid business decisions by collecting, modeling and visualizing data in real-time.
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Because right now its the best option out there (disclosure: I haven't used Qlikview or some of the other direct competitors of Tableau). The big investment is in Tableau Server not desktop. For the cost of the license of Tableau desktop, its a pretty good deal. You can hook it up to pretty much any data source easily. You can easily share the visualizations with your team/colleagues easily. Tableau Desktop is generally easy to use for business users. But the more advanced stuff is better suited for a analyst or someone with a IT/CS background.
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Usability
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate 8 SAP Analytics Cloud's overall usability as a 7. SAC has a clean, modern user interface with drag-and-drop features. It is an integrated platform that combines reporting, planning, and predictive analytics in one tool. It has Real-time connectivity with SAP data sources like S/4HANA.


Self-service analytics capabilities allow non-technical users to build simple dashboards.
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Tableau Desktop has proven to be a lifesaver in many situations. Once we've completed the initial setup, it's simple to use. It has all of the features we need to quickly and efficiently synthesize our data. Tableau Desktop has advanced capabilities to improve our company's data structure and enable self-service for our employees.
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Reliability and Availability
I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud an 8 out of 10 for scalability. It offers a flexible, cloud-based architecture that supports expansion across departments and geographies. The platform adapts well to growing data volumes and user needs, making it a strong choice for organizations looking to scale analytics capabilities efficiently.
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When used as a stand-alone tool, Tableau Desktop has unlimited uptime, which is always nice. When used in conjunction with Tableau Server, this tool has as much uptime as your server admins are willing to give it. All in all, I've never had an issue with Tableau's availability.
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Performance
I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud’s performance an 8 out of 10. Pages generally load quickly, and reports run within a reasonable time frame, even with complex datasets. Integration with other systems is smooth and doesn’t noticeably affect performance. Overall, it’s a responsive and efficient tool for business analytics. But
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Tableau Desktop's performance is solid. You can really dig into a large dataset in the form of a spreadsheet, and it exhibits similarly good performance when accessing a moderately sized Oracle database. I noticed that with Tableau Desktop 9.3, the performance using a spreadsheet started to slow around 75K rows by about 60 columns. This was easily remedied by creating an extract and pushing it to Tableau Server, where performance went to lightning fast
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Support Rating
Since the implementation stage, the support team has been very helpful and assisting. Even in the later stages, the tech team had quite a rapid response. In general, SAP has provided us with great customer support, let it be for a specific product of SAP or for integration of different modules.
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The Tableau Desktop's support team has been very helpful and tend to response very quickly. After all you have paid very premium price for the product and it goes to the services. This makes using the tool much easier for these who doesn't have such experience to get help quickly.
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In-Person Training
Good videos and reference material available in SAP Portal.
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It is admittedly hard to train a group of people with disparate levels of ability coming in, but the software is so easy to use that this is not a huge problem; anyone who can follow simple instructions can catch up pretty quickly.
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Online Training
it's ok
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I think the training was good overall, but it was maybe stating the obvious things that a tech savvy young engineer would be able to pick up themselves too. However, the example work books were good and Tableau web community has helped me with many problems
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Implementation Rating
SAC is a simple solution ad it works fine when connecting it to other SAP tools. On the other hand, connecting it to third party solutions brings difficulties when there's no previous design and the objetives are not clear. It is really important to integrate Business users from the start to provide with valuable business insights
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Time needs to be spent ahead of implementation to make sure data sources are set up and ready. Consultants need to understand the data sources and the goals before setting foot on-site. Installation is easy, learning to use it takes time. The training resources available are great.
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Alternatives Considered
SAP Analytics Cloud and Power BI are both tools that help businesses understand their data, but they have some differences. SAC, made by SAP, works well if your company already uses other SAP products. It's in the cloud, easy to use, and has features for analyzing data, getting insights, and planning for the future. Power BI, made by Microsoft, can be used in the cloud or on your own computers. It fits well with Microsoft tools, is easy to use, and can do advanced data analysis. SAC has built-in planning tools, while Power BI needs extra tools for detailed planning
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Tableau Desktop is clearly one of the best in the business. It has incredible capabilities, and many features are extremely useful. The intuitiveness of the dashboards and the graphical nature of the visualizations are widely used features and super helpful. One of the other benefits is that both programmers and non-programmers can equally explore and create their own opportunities, and seamless integration is possible.
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Scalability
I would rate SAP Analytics Cloud an 8 out of 10 for scalability. It offers a flexible, cloud-based architecture that supports expansion across departments and geographies. The platform adapts well to growing data volumes and user needs, making it a strong choice for organizations looking to scale analytics capabilities efficiently.
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Tableau Desktop's scaleability is really limited to the scale of your back-end data systems. If you want to pull down an extract and work quickly in-memory, in my application it scaled to a few tens of millions of rows using the in-memory engine. But it's really only limited by your back-end data store if you have or are willing to invest in an optimized SQL store or purpose-built query engine like Veritca or Netezza or something similar.
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Return on Investment
  • Optimized our budgeting and forecasting processes. The platform facilitates real-time collaboration among our teams, allowing for more accurate and agile financial planning. This has led to improved precision in budget allocation, ensuring that resources are strategically deployed to support the most promising startups within our portfolio.
  • SAC's intuitive dashboards and visualizations provide a consolidated view of key performance indicators, startup health metrics, and portfolio analytics. This heightened data visibility enables our teams to make informed decisions promptly, identify emerging trends, and proactively address challenges.
  • Routine tasks, such as performance tracking and reporting, are automated, allowing our teams to focus on more strategic initiatives. This has resulted in time savings and increased productivity across various operational processes.
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  • Easy to share and manage viewer access on a different level to help identify fraud.
  • Faster report generation, increased revenue, better decision-making, and data storytelling.
  • One-click access to business health and the ability to build/maintain more effective and efficient reports.
  • It's easy to share and even manage access to viewers on a different level, and reports are done in a more visual and storytelling manner.
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ScreenShots