Tableau vs GraphPad Prism

Tableau Desktop is a BI solution for data visualization, dashboarding and location analysis. In online reviews, users said they found its drag-and-drop charting a boon for creating charts and maps. Regarding customization, many users praised the platform for its various labeling and design options.I recently tried the Tableau Desktop 2024.1.3 version. The trial is only for 14 days and is enough for a sneak peek into Tableau’s dashboarding and data storytelling capabilities. For more straightforward use cases, Tableau is incredibly user-friendly and fast. Creating a new sheet gives you a canvas to create a visualization. Once you have the required sheets, combining them into a dashboard view is straightforward — select and add.My dataset included healthcare data, including details of patients, their hospital visits and insurance payer details. One use case was to find the total claim settlement amount. I dragged the Total Claims Cost and Payer fields to the column and row shelves, and Tableau gave me a bar graph. The toolbar had single-click options for sorting data from increasing to decreasing values or the other way around.To view the number of encounters by payer, I dragged the Payer field to the row shelf and used the SUM(ROW_COUNT()) function on the column shelf. The chart popped up with more visualization and layout options.I wanted an interactive filter to view the average claim cost by birthdate. I dragged the Birthdate field to the Filters shelf and right-clicked on it to set the end date as October 22, 1961. Selecting Show Filter added a slider conveniently to the right of my visualization. I could see the data for people born before October 22, 1961, and if required, I could change the end date.Another use case would be viewing the data by the type of hospital visits — how many people were inpatients, outpatients or those who needed emergency care. I dragged and dropped the Total Claims Cost and Payer fields into columns and rows, respectively. Similarly, I dropped Encounterclass into the Filters shelf and clicked on Show Filter to enable a checkbox on the screen. It had all the categories of visits, giving users the option to select the desired views.One-fourth of the users discussing adoption said there was a steep learning curve. Tableau relies on Python and R scripts for statistics in its visualizations. It's where the named licenses can prove to be a blessing, as you can opt to train upcoming Creators and Explorers. We recommend factoring in training if you want to hit the ground running.Some reviewers felt discounted packages for business editions should be available, similar to the free student licenses. At $70 per user, the Creator license can seem costly when compared to Power BI ($9.99 per user) and Qlik Sense ($30 per user).Here's the good news, though. Its built-in user management acts as a permissions layer for your organization - users can only access the relevant content. Plus, an organization will have very few Creators and a greater number of Viewers and Explorers, and the license fee reduces from Creator to Explorer to Viewer.We recommend opting for a wise license combination to get the most out of the product.On the upside, the vendor constantly releases new features, the latest one being Einstein CoPilot in beta.Overall, Tableau is a competitive BI solution, but if the pricing seems inflexible, quite a few other solutions offer live insights and advanced analytics out of the box.

Is GraphPad Prism the real deal or just a statistical mirage? GraphPad Prism is a popular software choice for scientists who need to analyze and visualize their data. Users praise its ease of use, especially for those without a strong statistics background. They appreciate the intuitive interface and the clear explanations provided for each statistical test. The software's ability to generate publication-quality graphs is a major selling point, with users highlighting the wide range of customization options available. For example, one user mentioned using Prism to generate figures for publication in peer-reviewed journals, highlighting its ability to create professional-looking visuals. However, some users have expressed concerns about the software's performance, particularly on older or less powerful computers. One user noted that Prism can be resource-intensive, even on a computer with 8GB of RAM. This can be a significant drawback for researchers who need to analyze large datasets or work on machines with limited resources. Additionally, some users have suggested that the tutorials could be improved, particularly for specific analyses like IC50 calculations. They believe that more real-life examples and detailed explanations would be beneficial. Overall, GraphPad Prism is a powerful tool for scientists who need to analyze and visualize their data. Its ease of use, comprehensive statistical analysis capabilities, and ability to create publication-quality graphs make it a strong choice for researchers. However, its performance on older computers and the potential for improvement in its tutorials are areas that could be addressed in future updates. GraphPad Prism is most suited for scientists who are looking for a user-friendly software that can handle a wide range of statistical analyses and produce high-quality graphs for publications.