Tableau is a market leader in providing analytics and data visualization in one platform. Despite a large fan base that swears by Tableau, other BI tools are disrupting the market. Domo is one such embedded analytics and automated data discovery tool.

In this article, we break down the Domo vs. Tableau comparison feature-by-feature, with Tableau taking the crown.

Compare Tableau and Domo Against Your Needs

Article Roadmap

• Feature Comparison
  • Advanced Analytics
  • Augmented Analytics
  • Dashboarding and Data Visualization
  • Data Management
  • Data Querying
  • Embedded Analytics
  • Geospatial Visualization and Analysis
  • IoT Analytics
  • Mobile BI
  • Reporting
• Next Steps

Tableau offers its services in three formats –

• Tableau Desktop is the vendor’s flagship product.
• Tableau Server is a browser-based data management and publishing platform for insight sharing and collaboration.
• Tableau Online is the cloud-based version of the Server module.

Domo is a self-service BI platform with machine learning for automation and advanced analytics. With built-in ETL (extract, transform and load) and seamless embedding, the solution delivers ready data within your business systems.

Feature Comparison

BI solutions are sophisticated programs running the complete data pipeline from ingestion to querying, visualization, analysis and enterprise reporting. Like gears in a clock, each aspect is critical.

Vendors struggle to provide competitive features in the face of evolving business demands and data types. How successful are they in the case of Tableau vs. Domo?

Let’s find out.

1. Advanced Analytics

Tableau fully supports advanced analytics, calculations, statistical functions and business forecasting. Cluster, time series and scenario analysis are available.

You can build personalized marketing campaigns using segmentation and cohort analysis. Sentiment analysis is possible with custom development.

The Domo Data Science Suite supports complex data manipulation and analysis techniques. They include classification, forecasting, outlier detection, multivariate outliers, clustering, prediction, and Python-R scripting within live ETL workflows.

You can obtain text descriptions of correlations, outliers and charts with Domo Insights, a deep learning module.

Contrary to Tableau, Domo fully supports sentiment and text analysis.

Winner: Domo leads advanced analytics with its dedicated data science module and built-in qualitative analysis.

Analyst Rating:

Tableau — 75

Domo — 93

2. Augmented Analytics

Tableau Ask Data allows text searches and auto-generates visualizations and text descriptions in response to queries.

But, the platform lacks algorithm selection, anomaly alerting, feature generation for classification, model monitoring and key driver analysis. It doesn’t support voice searches.

Domo fully supports manual data prep using drag-and-drop workflow authoring with R at the backend. Called Magic ETL, this module allows scheduling automated pipeline runs. Additionally, you can filter datasets and map values across columns.

Domo supports automated anomaly alerts and contextual insights. But, it doesn’t auto-generate visualizations or data models.

Winner: Domo takes the lead with its robust augmented analytics features.

Analyst Rating:

Tableau — 18

Domo — 34

3. Dashboarding and Data Visualization

Tableau dashboards are dynamic, interactive, embeddable and customizable. Multidimensional data analysis is available with the option to drill down and through to the desired level of granularity. The solution auto-refreshes dashboard data periodically.

Tableau supports web-accessible dashboards and advanced visualizations using Python-R integrations. You can display transitions across periods or groups using animations.

Use its “Show Me” option to view visualization recommendations for the selected data.

Domo Embed distributes live dashboards to customers in a Domo-hosted environment or a white-labeled solution.

The platform supports advanced visualization and auto charting of the selected data. Personalization options are available to display your brand identity. Like Tableau, data auto refresh is available.

Visualizations are interactive with third-party software compatibility. You can dig deeper into data — every Domo card is set up to allow drilling down to the raw information.

Winner: Tableau wins this category with advanced multidimensional data analysis.

Analyst Rating:

Tableau — 100

Domo — 94

4. Data Management

Tableau has two modules for creating and running data prep workflows — Prep Builder and Conductor.

Tableau Prep is available with the Creator license and uses minimal joins and calculations to maintain data set relationships. A semantic layer assists users in workflow building. Tableau allows querying multidimensional data only in Windows.

The vendor provides two data indexing techniques — metadata management and the Tableau Catalog.

Metadata management involves storing attributes for datasets, tables, views, joins, calculations, dimensions and measures. Additionally, it includes formatting and custom SQL used in specific queries.

Tableau Catalog indexes all Tableau Server content, including workbooks, data sources, sheets and workflows.

Domo’s dedicated data management toolkit includes Domo Magic, DataFusion and DataFlows. A data catalog makes data discoverable.

Domo Magic ETL is an intuitive data prep module with drag-and-drop and point-and-click functionality. The DataFlows module enables SQL-free data cleansing and transformation. DataFusion consolidates related datasets by matching their row and column values.

Domo allows direct data analysis within live ETL workflows in information pipelines. These code scripts run automatically each time the system refreshes the information.

Domo Workbench helps upload on-premise data manually or per schedule. You can modify it as desired before uploading.

Winner: In this Tableau vs. Domo comparison, both tie for data management.

Analyst Rating:

Tableau — 100

Domo — 100

5. Data Querying

Tableau fully supports complex queries with scheduled runs. Live source connectivity and in-memory analytics accelerate analysis.

The vendor provides a visual query language, VizQL, removing the need to write SQL code. It’s a primary reason for the platform’s popularity with professionals and data enthusiasts.

Batch updates to the database are available. Additionally, you can automatically refresh published content via its command line.

While Domo Magic ETL serves all users, DataFlows is a more technical data querying and transformation module. You can create transforms based on tables or write more complex code.

The dataflow authoring process is intuitive, leading you seamlessly from one step to the next. Autocomplete helps you write code fast.

Domo Cards are visualizations that answer specific business queries. They are present as boxes or tiles on dashboards and convey particular information. Clicking on a Domo card shows detailed information about that dataset.

Domo provides advanced calculations under the moniker of Beast Mode — robust, complex data transformations via a simple user interface.

The platform doesn’t support in-memory analysis, live connectivity and query scheduling.

Winner: Tableau wins for data querying with advanced options, real-time connectivity and in-memory data processing.

Analyst Rating:

Tableau — 99

Domo — 51

6. Embedded Analytics

With Tableau, you control background processes for ETL, data modeling and visualization. It allows you to allocate tasks to servers and decide whether the task manager should run them in parallel or serial order.

A robust set of JavaScript and REST APIs enables dashboard embedding, content and user management and web authoring. Additionally, the platform embeds with iFrames.

Multi-tenancy support and white labeling are available, and you can trigger action within the embedding application by making selections in Tableau using webhooks.

Write-backs are available with custom development.

Domo Embed is a part of Domo Everywhere and is available in two flavors — Public Embed for view-only access and Private (Authenticated) Embed for SSO-authenticated users.

You can share Domo cards and dashboards on private SSO-enabled customer portals, websites and custom apps. Additionally, you can display them on public websites and social media platforms. Multi-tenancy support is available with branding options.

Integrated workflow actions between embedding and embedded platforms aren’t available.

Winner: Tableau leads for embedded analytics with robust background processing and webhooks for triggering follow-up action.

Analyst Rating:

Tableau — 91

Domo — 77

Compare Tableau and Domo Against Your Needs

7. Geospatial Visualization and Analysis

Forward geocoding involves using a location address to find out its latitude and longitude and vice-versa for reverse geocoding. Location analytics requires map searches and service integrations, including web mapping servers (WMS).

Some BI platforms incorporate location analytics on mobile BI dashboards and reports.

Tableau has geocoding, map searches, geospatial functions and calculations, integrations with mapping providers and interactive map visualizations. It’s compliant with web map service (WMS) protocols and supports spatial files.

Domo supports spatial data visualization out of the box. Graphics include proportional symbols, choropleth, dot distribution, heatmaps, flow and spider maps. Mapping service integrations are available with custom development.

Domo allows performance monitoring across physical locations by leveraging the power of Google Maps — the Google Maps Pinboard App is available on Domo AppStore.

However, the platform doesn’t support map searches, geospatial functions and calculations, spatial files and WMS Servers integration.

Winner: Tableau wins for robust geospatial intelligence.

Analyst Rating:

Tableau — 100

Domo — 37

8. IoT Analytics

Tableau provides IoT (Internet of Things) analytics out of the box, helping businesses visualize data gathered from remote devices connected via the Internet.

You can incorporate remote data — vehicle routes, machine defects, locations and workers across outlets — into your reports.

Tableau supports streaming analytics using a Rockset JDBC connector with Kafka’s KSQL stream processing.

The platform doesn’t support edge analytics.

Domo IoT Cloud has a rich API library to connect to AWS, Azure IoT Hub and Apache Kafka. It offers ready-to-go apps for IoT fleet and production flow management.
You can get live JSON-based data into the platform using a JSON webhook connector.

Domo for AWS relies on Amazon Services for IoT analytics, using Amazon S3, Redshift, IoT Device Management, and AWS Billing and Cost Management.

Winner: Domo leads for advanced IoT analytics with out-of-the-box Azure and AWS integrations and IoT apps.

Analyst Rating:

Tableau — 50

Domo — 100

9. Mobile BI

Both solutions provide native Android and iOS apps.

You need a Tableau Server or Online account to access data on mobile devices. Once you log in, you can interact with data via scroll, search, pan and zoom actions on a responsive interface.

You can subscribe to receive alerts about data changes in workbooks. Offline mode is available — you can interact with cached reports and dashboards.

Tableau doesn’t allow geospatial analysis and code scanning on mobile devices.

Domo Cards are accessible on mobile phones, laptops and iPads. You can create new cards and modify them to include text or charts, or organize them into collections and filter and drill down for a closer look.

Custom alert setup is available. Domo doesn’t support code scanning and offline data access.

Winner: Both products tie in this Domo vs. Tableau comparison for mobile intelligence.

Analyst Rating:

Tableau — 71

Domo — 71

10. Reporting

Tableau has conventional and ad hoc reporting capabilities, though generating reports on the fly requires some groundwork. You must first publish the data on the server, create a sample workbook with a sample report and publish it to the server.

View a PDF snapshot of your workbooks regularly by subscribing to an email subscription service. You can search for information via plain text using Ask Data and highlight pertinent values with conditional formatting.

Tableau fully supports built-in alerts and report versioning.

Domo provides interactive reporting, version control and export options. A report scheduler manages automatic report distribution. Object-level security and built-in alerts about data changes are available.

With Sumo tables, Domo allows pivoting a column-format report as desired. Conditional formatting is available only for Sumo tables.

The platform doesn’t support voice-generated reports.

Winner: Tableau wins for reporting due to advanced search options and universally available conditional formatting.

Analyst Rating:

Tableau — 93

Domo — 87

Who Wins?

Tableau is the winner in this Tableau vs. Domo comparison, leading in five out of ten requirements.

Tableau Wins For…	Domo Wins For…	Tie
Dashboarding and data visualization Data querying Embedded analytics Geospatial visualization and analysis Reporting	Advanced analytics Augmented analytics IoT analytics	Data management Mobile BI

Compare Tableau and Domo Against Your Needs

Next Steps

There’s a public perception that Tableau is excellent for data analysts and technical professionals. However, the vendor has made tremendous inroads into the data viz community with its publicly available visualizations.

It’s part of their drive to spread data literacy by making it intuitive and accessible.

With Salesforce backing it, we can expect exciting innovations in the platform. How the vendor scales it for IoT and augmented analytics, including voice-driven data analysis, will be interesting to watch.

As mentioned in this Domo vs. Tableau comparison, Domo covers its bases well with advanced, IoT and mobile analytics.

Which one will you choose? Still not sure? We can help.

Generate a free comparison scorecard to score these or your preferred products by features on a scale of zero to 100. Or call our Solution Specialists to walk you through software selection.

What are your business needs? Which BI tools are on your shortlist? Let us know in the comments.

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