Not All Charts are Created Equal:ο»Ώ

PowerBI | Tableau | Looker















Scroll to Learn More ↓


Not All Charts are Created Equal:

PowerBI Tableau Looker












Scroll to Learn More ↓

Not All Charts are Created Equal:

PowerBI | Tableau | Looker


















ο»Ώ






Scroll to Learn More ↓

Olivia Lee

INTELLIGEN CONSULTANT

Meet Olivia Lee – one of our brilliant consultants.

With a background in customer and insights analysis across industries like gaming, insurance and retail, Olivia brings a sharp eye for data storytelling and dashboard design. She’s skilled in tools like PowerBI, BigQuery, Tableau, Looker and SQL, and has a knack for turning complex datasets into clear, business-friendly insights.

Olivia Lee

INTELLIGEN CONSULTANT

Meet Olivia Lee – one of our brilliant consultants.

ο»Ώ

With a background in customer and insights analysis across industries like gaming, insurance and retail, Olivia brings a sharp eye for data storytelling and dashboard design. She’s skilled in tools like PowerBI, BigQuery, Tableau, Looker and SQL, and has a knack for turning complex datasets into clear, business-friendly insights.

Published on April 7, 2025 by Olivia Lee

As businesses become increasingly data-driven, the need for effective platforms to deliver insights has grown. But with so many options out there, I often get asked: which tool is best? 


As controversial as this may be, I’m going to take the risk and walk you through three of the most popular data visualisation tools, Power BI, Tableau, and Looker Studio, and rank them across a few key categories:

Nature's Symphony

Breathtaking colors of our planet
Button

Faces of Humanity

Portraits of people from around the globe
Button

Sands of Time

Stark beauty of desolate dunes
Button

  • Sands of Time

    Stark beauty of desolate dunes
    Button

  • Beyond Boundaries

    Visual odyssey across continents
    Button

  • Nature's Symphony

    Breathtaking colors of our planet
    Button

    • Published on April 7, 2025 by Olivia Lee

    As businesses become increasingly data-driven, the need for effective platforms to deliver insights has grown. But with so many options out there, I often get asked: which tool is best? 


    As controversial as this may be, I’m going to take the risk and walk you through three of the most popular data visualisation tools, Power BI, Tableau, and Looker Studio, and rank them across a few key categories:

    Nature's Symphony

    Breathtaking colors of our planet
    Button

    Faces of Humanity

    Portraits of people from around the globe
    Button

    Sands of Time

    Stark beauty of desolate dunes
    Button

  • Sands of Time

    Stark beauty of desolate dunes
    Button

  • Beyond Boundaries

    Visual odyssey across continents
    Button

  • Nature's Symphony

    Breathtaking colors of our planet
    Button

    • Visualisation Features

    For me, Tableau takes the lead here. It offers crisp, sleek visualisations and a wider range of options straight out of the box. I’ve found it incredibly versatile, especially when I want to customise visuals, manual sorting, calculation-based colour scaling, and even linking to JavaScript visualisation libraries to build interactive dashboards.


    Power BI isn’t far behind. It gives you a good selection of visualisation options and the ability to download custom visuals from an online library. That said, I’ve run into some limitations when trying to customise visuals, like needing workarounds just to manually sort a table.

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    As for Looker Studio, it gets the job done for basic dashboards, but customisation options are pretty limited in my experience.

    Ease of Use Features

    When it comes to ease of use, Looker Studio takes the top spot. Its web-based drag-and-drop interface is intuitive, especially for non-technical users. If you're used to the Google ecosystem, the interface will feel familiar right away.


    Power BI and Tableau come in as close seconds. Both tools have sleek interfaces that make it easy to drag and drop fields into visuals. I’ve seen plenty of beginners pick them up quickly and start building out basic dashboards.


    That said, Power BI does have an edge if you’ve used other Microsoft products before. The DAX formula language feels similar to Excel formulas, and Power Query (used in Excel and Access) adds a nice layer of familiarity. But whether it’s Power BI or Tableau, moving from basic to advanced visualisations does involve a learning curve which I’ve experienced firsthand.

    Ease of Use Features

    When it comes to ease of use, Looker Studio takes the top spot. Its web-based drag-and-drop interface is intuitive, especially for non-technical users. If you're used to the Google ecosystem, the interface will feel familiar right away.


    Power BI and Tableau come in as close seconds. Both tools have sleek interfaces that make it easy to drag and drop fields into visuals. I’ve seen plenty of beginners pick them up quickly and start building out basic dashboards.


    That said, Power BI does have an edge if you’ve used other Microsoft products before. The DAX formula language feels similar to Excel formulas, and Power Query (used in Excel and Access) adds a nice layer of familiarity. But whether it’s Power BI or Tableau, moving from basic to advanced visualisations does involve a learning curve which I’ve experienced firsthand.

    Functionality

    Functionality-wise, both Power BI and Tableau support a wide range of data sources and allow for complex calculations. But Tableau takes the top spot in my view, mainly because it works across both Windows and Mac, processes large volumes of data more efficiently, and provides robust visualisation capabilities for interactive dashboards.


    Power BI, while limited to Windows, still packs a punch. It allows you to transform data before visualising it and includes features like deployment pipelines for better governance. Plus, its tight integration with Microsoft tools like Power Automate adds an extra layer of power I really value.

    ο»Ώ

    Looker Studio is a great lightweight option if your data has already been prepped and transformed. And since it runs in your browser, it’s platform-independent—something that can be quite handy.

    Pricing

    This one’s pretty straightforward.


    > Looker Studio is the most affordable—it’s free as part of the Google ecosystem.


    > Power BI comes next, with flexible pricing options based on your needs:

    • Power BI Pro: $15 per user/month
    • Power BI Premium Per User (PPU): $20 per user/month

    The PPU licence unlocks additional features like automated report exports, deployment pipelines, and increased data capacity (100GB vs 1GB in Pro). It’s worth noting that even to view a Power BI report in a Pro or Premium Workspace, you’ll need a valid licence.


    > Tableau is the priciest option:

    • Tableau Viewer: $15 per user/month (for report viewing only)
    • Tableau Explorer: $42 per user/month (for interacting with dashboards)
    • Tableau Creator: $75 per user/month (for full dashboard creation)

    Pricing

    This one’s pretty straightforward.


    > Looker Studio is the most affordable—it’s free as part of the Google ecosystem.


    > Power BI comes next, with flexible pricing options based on your needs:

    • Power BI Pro: $15 per user/month
    • Power BI Premium Per User (PPU): $20 per user/month

    The PPU licence unlocks additional features like automated report exports, deployment pipelines, and increased data capacity (100GB vs 1GB in Pro). It’s worth noting that even to view a Power BI report in a Pro or Premium Workspace, you’ll need a valid licence.


    > Tableau is the priciest option:

    • Tableau Viewer: $15 per user/month (for report viewing only)
    • Tableau Explorer: $42 per user/month (for interacting with dashboards)
    • Tableau Creator: $75 per user/month (for full dashboard creation)

    In Conclusion

    Each of these tools has its strengths and weaknesses, and the best one really depends on your business needs.


    Personally, I tend to recommend Power BI. It’s beginner-friendly, integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft ecosystem, and offers

    solid functionality at a lower price point than Tableau. That said, if visualisation flexibility is your top priority, Tableau is hard to beat.


    Whichever tool you choose, make sure it aligns with your team’s skills and your data goals.

    That’s what really makes the difference.

    Each of these tools has its strengths and weaknesses, and the best one really

    depends on your business needs.


    Personally, I tend to recommend Power BI. It’s beginner-friendly, integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft ecosystem, and offers solid functionality at a lower price point than Tableau. That said, if visualisation flexibility is your top priority, Tableau is hard to beat.


    Whichever tool you choose, make sure it aligns with your team’s skills and your data goals.

    That’s what really makes the difference.