Power BI/Tableau vs Superset/Metabase

Hi, I am currently evaluating which BI tool will be implemented across the company. In my earlier companies I have used Superset where I wrote SQL queries for each dashboard or insight requirement and created a visualisation directly from them. I realised that in Power BI I can't write SQL queries directly, I can only connect directly to the database tables and do the transformation inside Power BI. A workaround would be to write sql queries separately and create a view in my db and then connect power BI to the view to create a dashboard. I want to ask for your opinions on this. 1. Should I move to a tool where I can write queries and make visualisations. 2. Use views with power BI. 3. Simply abandon SQL queries and just do transformations entirely in power BI.

Jordon Vernon

Stealth

10 months ago

To answer all your questions, there’s one question that needs to be answered. How large is the data? If it’s too big/the queries take a lot of time to run directly in PBI, it’s better to connect PBI with views in which transformations have been made. If the transformations are small, then do it directly in PBI.

Isaiah Olive

Stealth

4 months ago

Depends on the data size + cost. On cost side: Tableau is the most expensive tool among these with complex licensing per user pricing. PowerBI is comparatively cheaper. Superset is completely FOSS and Metabase's free version is good enough I guess. On data side: If the data is small, you can go with PowerBI/Tableau, in case of medium sized data, it would be better to use SQL queries directly and then integrating it with Metabase/Superset. However in case data is too big and SQL takes too much time to execute try creating aggregate tables using DBT and use those to power your dashboards.