So, the first thing needs to keep in mind that Tableau is not a specific product, but it is a brand and that brand has different products.
Don’t confuse between these two words Tableau Brand and Tableau Product. If anyone is telling you to install tableau on your desktop, as a beginner you might be confused. But do not confuse and ask about which Tableau we need to install. Ask for specific tableau product to install. They might be talking about Tableau Desktop, Tableau Reader, Tableau Online, Tableau Public, Tableau Server, and so on.
Let us discuss each product one by one.
- Tableau Desktop
- Tableau Reader
- Tableau Online
- Tableau Public
- Tableau Server
- Tableau Mobile
- Tableau Prep builder
Tableau Desktop
Tableau desktop is the featured and rich product of Tableau. I can install Tableau desktop for 14 days trial version otherwise it is licensed product. One can analyze data by designing many charts, graphs, stories as well as dashboards in Tableau Desktop. Also, these files can be share with anyone publicly or locally. The connectivity to different data files in tableau desktop can be Live and Extract database connection. There are two types of tableau desktop as below:- Tableau Desktop Personal
- Tableau Desktop Professional
Tableau Desktop Personal
Tableau Desktop Personal is having the same features as Tableau Desktop like joining, blending, action filters, Groups, Sets, Extract feature, etc. and the dashboards designed by Tableau Desktop Personal can not be shared online but they can be shared offline or via Tableau public.Tableau Desktop Professional
Tableau Desktop Professional is also almost same as Tableau Desktop. This product also has all features which are present in tableau desktop. I can share files or workbooks or dashboards via Tableau Server or tableau online. Tableau Desktop Professional supports all types of data and will be more suitable to analysts who wants to share reports or dashboards on tableau server.Tableau Reader
Tableau Reader is the freely downloadable Tableau product where I can open and view packaged dashboard or workbook files. It only supports extract database connection. It helps people to download this software without license if they have Tableau Desktop license already. Tableau Reader will be used to read the tableau files but I cannot create or update dashboards or can not modify any tableau file not even formula. As I can check for security in Tableau Reader, it will be nothing. Anyone who have link to access your dashboard can see your dashboard or workbook. If you want to share your Tableau files with your colleagues, then they must have tableau reader to see your files.Tableau Online
The name ‘Tableau Online’ itself is self-explanatory as one can share workbooks and dashboards online and the data will be on cloud. So, this is online sharing Tableau tool. Tableau Online behaves same as Tableau Server. There is no storage limit to publish data on cloud. Tableau Online can connect to many data sources like Hive, MySQL, Amazon redshift, etc. This product of Tableau is also need license for per user to use.Tableau Public
Tableau Public is freely available non-licensed tableau product. As the word ‘Public’ is self-explanatory itself. This Tableau Product is very good for the students who are at beginner level of Tableau. I can create my Tableau public profile and can upload my all dashboards on cloud, where I can get up to 15GB cloud space to save my visualizations or data files or workbook. As per security concern Tableau Public is providing a less amount of security to your visualizations. Like you can deny access to download some workbooks to others or you can hide some visuals or workbooks from your profile so that it will not be publicly visible. Tableau Public is best for journalist, Sharing the Tableau data or workbooks publicly, beginners who are practicing tableau real time cases, etc. It can not contain any Live data but will contain only extract data. Many Tableau masters are sharing their ideas or different insightful designs on Tableau Public. So, Tableau Public is something like bloggers sites. I can learn many things, many ideas on this.Tableau Server
Tableau Server is licensed, and secure Tableau product used to publish workbooks or different dashboards or data sources. To upload your workbooks on Tableau server I need to publish the workbook on Tableau Desktop. In Tableau Desktop after click on Publish -> Tableau Server, I can make my dashboards available to specific person or to all my colleagues or to my organization. Licensed users can only access my dashboards. Licensed users don’t need Tableau server installed on their machine, but they can access it by credentials which can be used to access reports or dashboards. There are server admins who are responsible to take care of data management, memory management or user management. Also, they will take care of access and authorization of dashboards or data files published. Tableau Server is a very good for data sharing in a very effective and faster way.Tableau Mobile
Tableau Mobile is an android or IOS application installed on mobile. It can be used when I want to see the reports published on Tableau Server or Tableau online. Tableau mobile is same as tableau reader installed for mobile. This application is free and used to access the reports or interact with the different dashboards uploaded on Tableau server.Tableau Prep Builder
Tableau Prep Builder is the new product involved in Tableau brand. This is an ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool. I can do many data transformations in Tableau Prep Builder like data cleaning, data wrangling, data preparation, joins and many more. In Tableau Prep Builder, one can define the data preparation workflow to get clean and exact data. Automation of data preparation helps to avoid developers to do raw data related stuffs manually.We hope we have covered almost all things related to different Tableau Products. So, as per our work requirement we can take decision which tableau product we need to install, and which tableau will suit to us.
Some key factors need to be in consideration are like connectivity i.e. what databases we can connect, security means on a specific product how mush your files or data will be secure, Automation means we can check whether automation possible or not.
