Tableau Desktop vs. Zendesk Explore

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Zendesk Explore
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Zendesk offers Explore, a business intelligence and customer analytics tool which integrates with the Zendesk suite featuring ticket analytics, custom fields, dashboards, and other features. Zendesk is migrating customers of the BIME analytics product, which is approaching end of support, to Zendesk Explore in 2019.N/A
Pricing
Tableau DesktopZendesk Explore
Editions & Modules
Tableau
$75
per month per user
Tableau Enterprise
$115
per month per user
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Tableau DesktopZendesk Explore
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAll pricing plans are billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Tableau DesktopZendesk Explore
Considered Both Products
Tableau Desktop
Chose Tableau Desktop
Both power bi and Tableau Desktop has its own pros and cons. Microsoft power bi is best to work with Microsoft products. however for fast connection with diverse range of integration with data sources Tableau Desktop is best. if you are cost sensitive power bi is best option …
Chose Tableau Desktop
Tableau is more flexible than these - I liked Qlikview old version a lot but have not used the Qlik Sense etc new ones. Tableau user logic is harder to understand than Looker Studio. However it's more trust worthy. Connecting internet sources to Tableau Desktop is much harder. …
Chose Tableau Desktop
Tableau Desktop is older and just better overall. It has more capabilities and is more useful to have. I don't think you could have Alteryx as a standalone product like you can with Tableau Desktop. You'd want another bi tool.
Chose Tableau Desktop
We used to use products from the Google family in parallel. After migrating to GA4, we use Tableau much more.
Chose Tableau Desktop
Tableau Desktop has a more easy to use drag and drop interface and is easier to learn. It also allows greater customization of charts than Power BI. However, Tableau Desktop costs more than Power BI which is bundled into our Microsoft contract at no additional charge. Power BI …
Chose Tableau Desktop
The visualizations are far and away more powerful and it is more user friendly than Power BI. It would take 3-4 times as long to create the types of reports in Excel that I can create in Tableau Desktop and there are a slew of ways I can present the data in Tableau Desktop that …
Chose Tableau Desktop
Can handle large amounts of data
Chose Tableau Desktop
It has a better user interface compared to Microsoft Power BI. The Tableau integration process is quite simple and clear with the third-party application whereas Power BI is not easily integrated with other tools and requires a complex process to follow for integration. DAX …
Chose Tableau Desktop
When it comes to pricing, Tableau is kinda expensive but worth it as it has more features, not just features but really useful features that make our work easier especially as a project manager I need to pull up data almost every day in our meetings, and I find Tableau useful …
Chose Tableau Desktop
Tableau can create visually attractive customizable dashboards than can quickly by drag-drop while in power bi we can create simple dashboard. Power bi support lesser data source while in Tableau there is a lot of options
When we talk about data handling tableau is a clear …
Chose Tableau Desktop
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 …
Chose Tableau Desktop
Tableau Desktop provides some state of the art feature and capabilities that are just awesome. Its support, online blog, and tutorials are better than its competitors. That was the best selling point for me.
Chose Tableau Desktop
With Tableau Desktop, it's easy to create a report in the context quickly. It allows for the seamless management of the data sources, which is convenient for the data users. Because it is simple to use, it is
Chose Tableau Desktop
It does have a lot of potential when using Microsoft other technologies - in integration/Embedded, Visuals and connectivity to data sources. Advanced analytics is also smooth when working on python/r scripts. Automated insights are better in Tableau/Alphaa AI. NLG/NLQ - …
Chose Tableau Desktop
Tableau offers a lot of educational content, and for a limited time, we were able to use paid educational content for free, so we are very satisfied.
Chose Tableau Desktop
For complex data visualization, Tableau Desktop shines. Even though it uses highly granular databases, it has a powerful engine that can process large amounts of data quickly and produce high-quality charts. It has the broadest range of APIs and is extremely simple. The …
Chose Tableau Desktop
We decided to use Tableau Desktop as that's fairly standard in the industry, it is being taught in college, and is widely known. Tableau Desktop is nice, but in my opinion, it is VERY expensive. Unless you are really making money off of decisions, then your ROI is going to be …
Chose Tableau Desktop
Using Tableau Desktop, we have found it the most actionable and user-friendly application ever. It has the broadest range of APIs and is exceptionally user-friendly. It can handle a large amount of data and produce smooth charts quickly. For data geeks, this is the ideal stack.
Chose Tableau Desktop
When compared to Power BI, Tableau has a more flexible deployment. You can install the desktop version without having to install the SQL server. Tableau got you covered end-to-end — from collaboration, analytics, content discovery, data prep & access, down to deployment. …
Chose Tableau Desktop
Tableau Desktop is preferred over other BI software because it allows for more data visualization, storytelling, and dashboards. Microsoft Power BI may be a better option if you need to perform data modeling, however. Tableau Desktop is an excellent tool for nearly all other …
Chose Tableau Desktop
We preferred Tableau over Power BI due to its user-friendly interface and interactive GUI. Since we work with large datasets, we observed that Power BI can deal with only a limited amount of data when compared to Tableau which creates complex visualizations in a time-efficient …
Chose Tableau Desktop
Tableau Desktop is the most user-friendly and actionable application we have used in comparison to others. It has the best API connection potential along with easy start-up. They seem to always be updating the platform to solve newer problems which help keep my company up to …
Chose Tableau Desktop
We also use Power BI for small projects and teams that can't afford to pay for Tableau licenses. Tableau has more features and is more robust compared to Power BI. They also provide better and faster support compared to Microsoft. It is the standard visualization tool, but …
Chose Tableau Desktop
For databases or types of data that have high granularity and details, Tableau Desktop is better to plot and help visualize every detailed behavior with a great performance. It's engine can process a massive amount of data and generate a smooth chart without spending too much …
Zendesk Explore
Chose Zendesk Explore
Zendesk Explore stands out against Freshchat and Freshdesk for it's deeper analytics capabilities and seamless integration with Zendesk ecosystem. While Freshdesk offers reporting, it lacks on the same level of granular insights and customization that Zendesk Explore provides. …
Chose Zendesk Explore
I selected Zendesk Explore only to provide an easy and quick access for my managers and supervisors regading metrics and volume trends. Is not the most flexible nor complete data visualization tool, but works well for day-to-day follow ups.
You need to use another tool if you …
Chose Zendesk Explore
N/A - the company had already implemented Zendesk Explore when I was hired.
Chose Zendesk Explore
What's good with Zendesk Explore is that data is already provided since it's included in the package. We get the data from Zendesk Support and make a report in Zendesk Explore.

It provides suggested templates and report formats also which you don't get on the other platforms. …
Chose Zendesk Explore
Zendesk Explore is more user friendly and the software plus maintenance cost is less. The report section is more detailed and no lag while creating report for a large data source. The report segments and formats are editable which make it more convenient to make a report …
Chose Zendesk Explore
We tried other reporting and Zendesk Explore was by far the best as it was already implemented into our support system we were already using; Zendesk. The main selling point for us, is that all of the reports are customizable and that no coding knowledge is needed to build out …
Chose Zendesk Explore
Zendesk Explore is better than Freshservice Analytics. In Freshservice, even though the interface is more attractive, the functions are not as good as Zendesk Explore. Reports and dashboards are hard to build, and the materials to learn are not as good as the materials on …
Chose Zendesk Explore
For support data, we have only used Explore because it came with our ZenDesk membership. So I can't speak to other solutions! That said, it's awesome to have Knowledge Base and support data in one place.
Features
Tableau DesktopZendesk Explore
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.3
Ratings
2% above category average
Zendesk Explore
9.0
Ratings
10% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.80 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.80 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.7
Ratings
8% above category average
Zendesk Explore
8.3
Ratings
3% above category average
Drill-down analysis8.60 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Formatting capabilities9.20 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages7.70 Ratings4.80 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.20 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.1
Ratings
3% below category average
Zendesk Explore
8.4
Ratings
1% above category average
Publish to Web7.30 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Publish to PDF7.90 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Versioning8.20 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling9.20 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.4
Ratings
5% above category average
Zendesk Explore
7.1
Ratings
12% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.00 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.20 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.60 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining8.00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.7
Ratings
3% above category average
Zendesk Explore
9.1
Ratings
7% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)9.00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.80 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control9.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.80 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
Zendesk Explore
7.8
Ratings
1% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access8.20 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Mobile Application7.00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.80 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Tableau Desktop
9.0
Ratings
14% above category average
Zendesk Explore
5.9
Ratings
28% below category average
REST API9.20 Ratings5.40 Ratings
Javascript API9.00 Ratings5.90 Ratings
iFrames9.20 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Java API10.00 Ratings5.60 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.40 Ratings6.20 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.40 Ratings7.00 Ratings
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Tableau DesktopZendesk Explore
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Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
Tableau DesktopZendesk Explore
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Tableau DesktopZendesk Explore
Likelihood to Recommend
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).
Read full review
Compared to other analytics functions of other Ticket Management System, Zendesk Explore is the easiest to learn. Moreover, the learning curve is high. Once you pick up the fundamentals, you will be able to create all types of analytic reports. In addition, if you know basic coding or SQL, you can create your own metrics and attributes to capture extremely specific elements such as the tickets that contain a certain word or etc.
Read full review
Pros
  • 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.
Read full review
  • As with most "suite" products, if you already use other Zendesk features (Chat, Talk, etc), then Zendesk Explore adds an extra facet to the customer experience. The more we know about our clientele, the better we can understand/anticipate their needs.
  • I like that we can get as in-depth as we feel is necessary. For example, is just one customer having an issue? Or are many experiencing a similar problem? We can better rack this type of trend using Explore.
  • Our team can dive deep into the data based on exactly what we're looking for. If the marketing team wants a certain kind of segment, we can give them that info. If we want to sort by date or another set of parameters, we can do that as well.
Read full review
Cons
  • 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
Read full review
  • More detailed pieces of training on where to find datasets/queries.
  • Have demo reports to do live trainings; instead of watching videos.
  • Have a key as to what all of the datasets mean.
  • Have a pop-up that analyzes the data "looks like your csat dropped this week!" etc...
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Likelihood to Renew
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.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Usability
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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I rate Zendesk Explore 8 out of 10 for it's overall usability because it offers powerful reporting and analytics with an easy to navigate interface and intuitive dashboards. It helps improve customer satisfaction by providing valuable insights into ticket handling, agent performance and customer satisfaction. Though the complex query builder can be challenging for non technical users.
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Reliability and Availability
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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No answers on this topic
Performance
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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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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Zendesk Community is extremely useful for Zendesk Explore beginners. The live support provided by Zendesk will also help a lot. If you don't know anything you can ask live support right away. However, one drawback of Zendesk Community and Support is the creation of complex reports on Zendesk Explore. Zendesk Community and Support cannot really help you much if you are trying to build a complex report as they are not a complete expert on it as well.
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In-Person Training
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.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Online Training
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
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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.
Read full review
Zendesk Explore stands out against Freshchat and Freshdesk for it's deeper analytics capabilities and seamless integration with Zendesk ecosystem. While Freshdesk offers reporting, it lacks on the same level of granular insights and customization that Zendesk Explore provides. Compared to Freshchat which focuses more on live chat and conversational analytics Zendesk Explore excels in historical trend analysis and comprehensive dashboarding. We choose Zendesk Explore for it's robust reporting and drill down capabilities.
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Scalability
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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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • 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.
Read full review
  • Positive impact of around 5 hours/week in Dashboard building and visualization
  • 10 hours from Product to review dashboards and find potential patterns
  • Enabler to find opportunities based on agents´ occupancy rates
Read full review
ScreenShots