# Tableau Desktop Is Now Free !  (Here’s What You Can & Can’t Do)

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2026-03-04
- **Format:** Short · 1 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Tool strategy, Industry trends
- **Tools:** Tableau (cloud, desktop, public, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-desktop-is-now-free---heres-what-you-can--cant-do
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX6S1RkLHx0

Tableau has released a free edition of Tableau Desktop that lets you connect to databases and build solutions locally on your machine with no trial, expiration or credit card required. I walk through what this free edition can and can't do compared to the public and professional editions.

## Key takeaways

- Tableau Desktop Free Edition removes the old Tableau Public restriction, so you can now connect to live databases and data sources locally, not just flat files.
- The two things you can't do are publish to Tableau Public and publish to (or use published data sources from) Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server.
- Embedded connections inside a workbook should still work locally, but anything that lives on Tableau Cloud or Server won't be accessible.
- To publish to the cloud and get governance you still need a paid Creator licence, which unlocks Desktop Professional Edition and Tableau Prep.
- Download is free with no credit card or trial, though you'll need to sign into a Salesforce account, which captures your email.

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-desktop-is-now-free---heres-what-you-can--cant-do

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena