Differences Between Excel vs Tableau

Excel is a spreadsheet application used for any calculations and also many statistical operations and analysis of data. Many of the data analysts’ handy tool is to excel. It’s distributed by Microsoft. Tableau is a business intelligence tool for Querying and reporting and online analytical processing and analytics. It’s a visualization tool where the data analysts use it to get the insights of the data on the business perspective and report.

Head to Head Comparison Between Excel and Tableau (Infographics)

Below is the top 10 comparison Between Excel and Tableau:

Key Differences Between Excel and Tableau

Below are the lists of points, describe the key Differences Between Excel and Tableau:

Excel is spreadsheet software that deals with data transformations like calculations and manipulations using formula. It goes with first data formatting and then representations. Tableau is one of the rich visualization tools in the market widely used for analytics.
In this modern age, organizations prefer some enriching visualization tools to view the insights from the data that impacts the business. Though excel has some important features, it is considered as a structured traditional tool. Tableau was founded in 2003. Whereas Excel was sort of ancient compared to the tableau.
Excel needs some vb(Visual basic) scripting knowledge as well in order to use its functionalities and components full-fledged. Tableau is very user-friendly and it’s very easy to design a dashboard. Drag and drop is the key feature where the users find it easy to use this tool.
Excel can connect to different external sources using plugins. Tableau has many sources to connect and also it has the capability of a cloud. Also, there are some system requirements in order to access or develop using excel. Tableau is much better in doing live connections to the external sources in terms of speed and access.
Tableau came into the market as a buzz because of the big data problems that the organizations face. Excel had been a limited resource when it comes to data. Excel also has limited rows and columns while usage.
For any on-off reports, excel is a straightforward and easy tool to use compared to tableau as the latter needs setup and configurations or any server deployments. For any short-term and minimal data for a business case, excel is a wise choice.
In terms of the applications and the usage, it all depends on the business need. For big data problems currently and performing analytics on it to get the insights even from the outliers, tableau takes the top choice. Whereas, any descriptive analysis and mathematical transformations from the data and static reports, excel is the first choice.
Tableau has multiple versions of desktop, prep, server, and cloud-based. It is an organization-specific in choosing the version as security is also considered. Excel is Microsoft licensed software that comes with the office tools.
Data points in the excel are stored in cells. Data is accessed and represented in the tabular format where any value or information is presented in the cell. Graphs or charts are represented afterward to highlight the insights.
Tableau primarily formats the data in a pictorial representation. It depicts the trends and the density of the data in the form of charts and graphs. It typically connects to any third-party tools to pull the data and visualize it. User access is very friendly and has drag & drop features which make the data analysts feasible to showcase the insights.
Excel is used in various fields and also in many sectors. It is not limited to certain fields or data related sectors. Even basic calculations and manipulations are used. The usage ranges from basic calculations to complex like macros where VB(Visual Basic) scripts are to be developed.
Tableau is used specifically to visualize the data being pulled from external sources or data that is being used on the spot. Data analysts are the primary resources that use tableau for many cases. It does not require any complex scripting. Ease access and user-friendly.
Excel is a static tool where you load the data first and then do the representation. Data from External sources can be plugged in using plugins. To implement the functionalities, one needs to get the advance knowledge of the features and the functions.

Excel and Tableau Comparison Table

Below is the Comparison table between Excel and Tableau:

BASIS FOR COMPARISON	Excel	Tableau
Definition	Software to organize, format and calculate the data	Software to represent and visualize the insights from the data
Usage	To store the data and manipulations	Data representation
Benefits	Manipulations and descriptive statistics.	Quick interactive visualizations, User-friendly
Real-Time Usage	External applications or programs have to be set up for real-time.	Real-time interactive deal with the data
Business purpose	Quick on-off reports	Self-service functions that would pull the insights of the data
Ease of use	Knowledge on scripting (VB) and macros to use it full-fledged.	No coding skills required.
Applications	Data analysts, Developers, ETL DBA	Data analysts, data scientists
Field	In many domains that deal with the data transformations	Business evaluations, key performance metrics
Stands out	Manipulations and descriptive statistics	Visualizations and also tableau store a large volume of data
Solution	It is best applicable and suited for small-scale & structured data	Insights from the big data problems are being represented.

Conclusion

In this modern age technology, some say excel and tableau are mostly the same in terms of need and usage. But it is not. The same functionalities can be performed in both Excel and Tableau. But how well enhancements can be taken forward, and there comes the choice between the excel and the tableau. Any developer or researchers would prefer excel over tableau as it has been for years and years. People hesitate to move forward with new tools and applications. Whereas Tableau has got popularized in the market because of its business intelligence capabilities and also building dashboards.

As big data problems are arising more and more in this age, there are also different visualization tools that will be brought to the market. An industry will not be able to stick to one particular tool for any data analytics. It’s a switch between both Excel and Tableau. There might be cases where both Excel and Tableau come into the picture that convinces an end product. Excel has its own powerful capabilities and tableau is getting more matured because of many big data use cases.

Quiz Result
Total Questions	Correct Answers	Wrong Answers	Percentage

Differences Between Excel vs Tableau

Head to Head Comparison Between Excel and Tableau (Infographics)

Key Differences Between Excel and Tableau

Excel and Tableau Comparison Table

Conclusion

Recommended Article

About Us

Apps

Resources

Certification Courses