Not All Charts are Created Equal:ο»Ώ

PowerBI | Tableau | Looker















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Not All Charts are Created Equal:

PowerBI Tableau Looker












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EMPOWERING WOMEN IN DATA:

Committed to Help & Inspire Others in the Field

Dr. Catherine Lopes

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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.

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
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Faces of Humanity

Portraits of people from around the globe
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Sands of Time

Stark beauty of desolate dunes
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  • Sands of Time

    Stark beauty of desolate dunes
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  • Beyond Boundaries

    Visual odyssey across continents
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  • Nature's Symphony

    Breathtaking colors of our planet
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    • On Episode two of Intelligen's Mastering Data's Women in Data Series, we welcome Dr. Catherine Lopes, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Merkle and co-founder of Ada’s Tribe.


    Intelligen’s National Engagement Director, Adam Morton sits down with Dr Catherine to hear about her interesting career journey and lessons learned.


    Dr. Catherine is passionate about her role as a woman in data and analytics and her commitment to helping and inspiring others in the field is commendable.

    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.

    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)