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

0:00Tableau Desktop Free Edition.

0:04Yep, you heard it right.

0:05Tableau Desktop has a free version

0:09It's it's it's honestly wild.

0:12What essentially this means is if you want to use Tableau Desktop, connect to databases, build solutions locally on your laptop.

0:21Previously you had Tableau Public Desktop Edition, if that makes sense.

0:26That had a capability to let you do exactly that.

0:30But it could only publish a tablet public and you couldn't connect to databases.

0:35You could only connect to flat files

0:37What this does is it blows away that restriction and it means you can now use Tableau Desktop Free Edition to do exactly that.

0:47However

0:48If you want to build visualizations for Tableau Public, you won't be able to use this edition to post Tableau Public.

0:55Additionally, if you want to use Tableau Desktop Free Edition with a Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server,

1:02you won't be able to do that.

1:04That means published data sources are out of access.

1:07That means if you've got a connection that lives in Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server, that also won't be available to you.

1:13But if you want to create connections locally inside of desktop itself

1:17you'll be able to.

1:18And I think this also means that potentially the tableau workbook asset is also going to be something that you can edit

1:24So what I'm going to use here is a fact sheet sent across to me by Salesforce.

1:27I don't want to get this wrong.

1:28So I've got this up as a really nice way of comparing things.

1:31Now a tableau reader might be something that you've been familiar with in the past.

1:35You'll see that it's uh right here on the top left hand side.

1:37This is not that commonly used, has the restrictions it always has.

1:41Tableau desktop public edition here in this column, that again has always been there.

1:45But

1:46Tableau Desktop Free Edition kind of sits between the professional edition and the public edition in that it's got the same privacy and security.

1:54You can save visualizations locally, you can do auto recovery, that's a standard feature that was added to Tableau Desktop.

2:00You can download or copy publish workbooks.

2:03This is why, for example, you can go and get a workbook that's sitting on Tableau Cloud

2:08uh and bring it down to your laptop locally.

2:11However, if that connection is a published data source or a connection that lives in Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server.

2:17it won't work.

2:18But if the connection is embedded in the workbook, then technically this should work.

2:23So there's a whole bunch of things we're gonna have to try and test out.

2:25I just wanted to do this video to sort of get this announcement out there.

2:29Um

2:30You can do live data refreshes locally.

2:32You can do data sources, all of them locally.

2:35Everything that's available in the full edition is also available in here.

2:38You can see the two things you cannot do are basically Tableau Public.

2:42and uh publishing to Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server.

2:45So everything else is basically um left untouched.

2:50So it's wild.

2:52Like

2:52If there was a free edition of Tableau like public, uh Tableau Desktop, this would be it.

2:57This would be exactly what it is.

2:59And to be fair, yeah, Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server are essentially the platform.

3:03That is what the core product of Tableau seems to be now.

3:06And so therefore, if you need to be able to do that, if you need the governance that comes with that platform, then you're gonna have to pay.

3:12And what you do is you pay for a creator license.

3:15The creator license is what gives you access to Tableau Desktop Professional Edition and Tableau Prep.

3:20And that means you can then publish to the cloud and it sort of upgrades your desktop edition to that ability to be able to do that.

3:27So I don't know what the upgrade process will be like.

3:29It's definitely something to explore.

3:31But it just sort of creates a clear delineation between the two products to be aware of.

3:36So I think this is a really good feature.

3:38I just wanted to make a really short video

3:40just to highlight that yeah this feature is available.

3:42If I close this uh you know image and you go down to this URL at the time of this recording this URL is not public but

3:50When you see this video, the news will be public and you'll be able to go to this URL.

3:54I'll put it in the description of this video.

3:56I'll also put it on screen so you can go ahead and check it out as a QR code yourself.

4:01If you go to this page, as soon as you hit this page, it just downloads the version of Tableau that's applicable to you.

4:07So the Apple Silicon, Intel, or Windows version just starts automatically downloading

4:12I will say that I'm already logged in to my Salesforce account, so what might happen for you is that um you might need to log into Salesforce account.

4:20So um yeah, this is a genuinely wild time.

4:24You can use Tableau Desktop locally on your machine entirely free, no restrictions.

4:29Now, it's worth spending a bit of time on why now and why.

4:34Truthfully, I don't know.

4:35I could sit here and do a ton of speculation.

4:37You could sit here and come up with lots of um, you know, reasons.

4:40You could, you know, uh I'm sure the discourse will be going out there to say, hey

4:44you know, tableau's feeling the heat and they're responding to, you know, applications like Power BI and stuff like that.

4:50Honestly, I don't know the real answer to that.

4:52That that's gonna take time and it will take sort of better time to understand what's going on.

4:57My hunch is

4:58That when Tableau looks at its core product and I wrote a newsletter about the the core product recently, I'll I'll link to that in the description as well

5:06I think there is an argument to be said about why why protect this specific use case when in actual fact most of the value comes from being on the platform?

5:16Most of the

5:17value all the add-ons, the revenue, the real revenue mostly comes from the attachment to Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server.

5:23So why not make this side of the product free?

5:26and fuel the capacity and interest.

5:29You're essentially saying to the whole entire visualization market, here you go, use our product, connect to whatever you want to, even if you're an academic or a researcher or uh, you know, someone who works in a

5:39uh an environment where ac getting access to this kind of tool is just not something you have a budget for.

5:43Now you do and if you work up to the point where you're you know going well beyond the limits of what the tool can offer and you do need the governance

5:51then this is going to naturally generate that capacity.

5:54And I, you know, they will be capturing your email for sure in this.

5:57So yes, you will have to sign into a Salesforce account, get it and download it.

6:00But that's the same with Microsoft and many other providers now.

6:03Rarely do you get a free download without someone capturing your details.

6:07But you don't need to put any credit card.

6:09There's no trial, there's no expiration

6:11Just get it, download it, and boom, you can go ahead and use it.

6:14So this is fantastic.

6:16Um I think this is really, really great.

6:18I will call out there's lots of great tutorials.

6:20If this is your first time hearing about Tableau for whatever reason, now it's free, you're gonna try it

6:25I will call out two resources.

6:26I have a crash course on Tableau that's about three hours long, just specifically on Tableau Desktop, but it introduces to the Tableau platform as well.

6:35I'll also call out Barra's 21-hour Tableau course, which is incredible.

6:40It's really, really good.

6:42So if you want something more thorough to really get into what the product can do, this is a great opportunity for you

6:47Then additionally, if you're looking for something that kind of shows accreditation, I also have a course on LinkedIn Learning that brings you into the Tableau platform.

6:54I'm actually about to do a brand new course with them as well.

6:57We're calling it the sort of essentials for Tableau Desktop.

7:00So

7:00I'm super excited about that, so look out for those when those come out.

7:03But yeah, I just wanted to do this video to say, yeah, Tableau Desktop is now free.

7:08Few few notes on that, but they're not the kind of notes that I think will bother most people who just want to give it a go.

7:13Thanks for watching.

7:14I'll catch you in the next one.