Tableau Desktop Public Edition, Free Edition and Professional Edition Feature Comparison


This guide provides an overview of the differences between Tableau Desktop Public Edition, Free Edition and Tableau Desktop Professional Edition (activated with a Tableau licence).

Tip: Visit the Tableau pricing page to learn more about pricing options for Tableau licences.

All three editions of Tableau Desktop allow you to explore and visualise your data, but each edition comes with its own characteristics, and the one you choose to use will depend on what you need to do with your data visualisations.

Who should use Tableau Desktop Public Edition?

Important: Tableau Desktop Public Edition is not for commercial use.

Tableau Desktop Public Edition allows individuals to:

  • Learn how to use Tableau

  • Analyse data consisting of up to 15M rows

  • Tell data stories using public datasets

  • Broadcast public information or embed public visualisation on their own sites

Who should use Tableau Desktop Free Edition?

Tableau Desktop Free Edition allows individuals or businesses to:

  • Work with data and assets that can’t be published publicly or shared with others

  • Connect to data sources that aren't supported by Tableau Public

  • Analyse data with more than 15M rows

  • Work with live data other than Google Drive

Who should use Tableau Desktop Professional Edition?

Activating Tableau Desktop Professional Edition with a paid Tableau licence allows individuals or businesses to:

  • Connect to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud

  • Share and publish data and content

Comparison guide

Features and CapabilitiesTableau Desktop Public Edition Tableau Desktop Free EditionTableau Desktop Professional Edition
Privacy and securityA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop
Save visualisations locallyA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop
AutorecoveryA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop
Publish or embed visualisations on other public sitesAn x icon indicating which features don’t apply to each version of Tableau Desktop

* Embedding options available after publishing to Tableau Public

An x icon indicating which features don’t apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop
Publish visualisations to Tableau PublicA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau DesktopAn x icon indicating which features don’t apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop
Publish visualisations to Tableau Cloud or Tableau ServerAn x icon indicating which features don’t apply to each version of Tableau DesktopAn x icon indicating which features don’t apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop
Share packaged workbooks with other usersAn x icon indicating which features don’t apply to each version of Tableau DesktopAn x icon indicating which features don’t apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop
Live data refreshLimited data refresh

(Google Drive only. Data is refreshed automatically once every 24 hours)

A tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop
Data sourcesLimited data source options

(Google Drive, JSON files, Microsoft Excel 2007 or later, OData, PDF, Spatial files, Statistical files, Text files)

A tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop

* Published data sources on Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server are not supported

A tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop

(Can connect to all data sources)

Data source rowsA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop

15M rows

A tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop

Unlimited

A tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop

Unlimited

Cloud StorageA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop

10 GB on Tableau Public

An x icon indicating which features don’t apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop

Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server if applicable

Local StorageA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau DesktopA tick indicating which features apply to each version of Tableau Desktop
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