Tableau Public Review. The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful

What is Tableau Public?

Tableau Public is a free platform for exploring, creating, and sharing online data visualizations with the general public. Tableau Public facilitates the development of data skills by providing the greatest archive of data visualizations for study.

What are the benefits (the good)?

The advantages of using Tableau Public as a business intelligence tool include the following:

• Demonstrating your skills

A great way to advance your career in analytics is by gaining insight from an inexhaustible source of inspiration and building your very own data visualization portfolio.

• Zero cost!

The price of Tableau Public is unbeatable, as it is free! There are some restrictions, which we'll get into later, but the fact that Tableau Public is available at no cost is hard to argue with.

• Superior capacity for visualization

Tableau Public provides improved data visualization compared to other standard BI tools. The software's exceptional efficiency allows it to transform raw data into comprehensive logical information that is both fully functional and interactive.

• Comfort and ease of use

The application's UI is simple and straightforward, making it easy for anyone to use. Using a simple drag-and-drop interface, users may do intricate data visualization without needing to know any coding. The programme is also cheap to upgrade and simple to apply, making it convenient to take advantage of the newest and greatest features as they become available.

• Strong #Datafam community

The number of Tableau users contributing their knowledge and insights, known on Twitter as #Datafam, continues to rise. As a result, businesses now have access to a large pool of consultants from whom they may learn more about data reporting and other topics. In addition, there are numerous tutorials and guidelines available online to assist newcomers to the forum.

• Mobile-friendliness

Tableau is aware of the need for users to be able to monitor their data remotely. That's why there's an iOS and Android app for the data visualization tool. Indicative of its greater features, Tableau has the most downloads among active users among mobile BI tools.

What about the drawbacks (the bad)?

Despite all of its best-in-class features, Tableau Public does have a few drawbacks, some of which are discussed here:

• Limited choice of data sources

One of Tableau Public's main restrictions is the limited variety of data sources available to you in comparison to the commercial editions of Tableau. Tableau Public supports import from a wide variety of data sources, including spreadsheets (Excel and Google Sheets) and text files (including.txt and .csv formats). In Tableau Public, users are not permitted to directly access databases or any of the other data sources that Tableau offers.

• Concerns about security

Many people don't understand why Tableau Public is called "public" and is provided for free. All reports you generate and publish in Tableau Public are made public and have no security or protection. This is the most significant limitation for businesses that use Tableau Public for internal reasons or to analyse customer or business data. Tableau Public unfortunately lacks user-level security.

• You can't save your work locally

Unlike the premium version of Tableau Desktop, your workbook cannot be saved locally when using Tableau Public. You will only be able to save and publish data into the cloud using this (which is publicly available). The primary drawback is that you cannot save the work and share it with a colleague who has a commercial edition of Tableau, meaning that your collaboration options are limited.

• Lack of automation

Tableau Public does not provide the scheduling of reports, and the data imported from Google Sheets is only updated once per day. Any additional functionality beyond that would necessitate knowledge of advanced programming and scripting techniques.

• Constraints on data limits

Previously, Tableau Public had stricter limits on data size, but now that users can store up to 10 million records per data source and 10GB of material total, it's fair to say that the limits are extremely generous, despite the fact that the limit is not there in the commercial editions.

• Support is limited

This should go without saying, but because you're utilising their free product, you're confined to community forums for assistance. Although the Tableau website and the Tableau community contain a wealth of information.

Examples (the beautiful)

Tableau Public is a source of millions of interactive data visualizations on a multitude of topics, created by over a million creators globally. Gain inspiration from a range of data visualizations, found in abundance on Tableau Public.

Below is an example of just some of the incredible visualizations you will find in Tableau Public:

Examples (the beautiful)

Tableau Public is a source of millions of interactive data visualizations on a multitude of topics, created by over a million creators globally. Gain inspirations from a range of data visualizations, found in abundance on Tableau Public.

Below is an example of just some of the incredible visualizations you will find in Tableau Public:

Without access to electricity

by Iaroslava Mizai

Spend Analytics Dashboard | VOTD

by Pradeep Kumar G

County Median Home Prices In the U.S. (#VizOfTheDay)

by Adedamola (Damola) Ladipo

Public Sector Emergency Calls Dashboard | #B2VB #RWFD

by Rebecca Finlay

Explore Flight Delay & Tweet Data

by Sue Grist

Conclusion

It's undeniable that Tableau provides the superior performance required to process complicated data, as well as robust data visualization features. Whether you want to analyse data and build visualizations for recreation, or you want to put together your own public profile to showcase your skills, Tableau Public has you covered. I fully encourage you to explore public visualizations to see how they are made, follow the immense #Datafam community, and learn from some of the very best in the industry.