Leave Legacy BI Behind
Tableau's $70/user licensing and desktop-app dependency are relics of legacy BI. Preset is an open analytics platform — 100% browser-based, simple $20/user pricing, and no vendor lock-in.
Modern BI without the legacy overhead
Simplified, predictable pricing
Tableau's tiered licensing model (Creator, Explorer, Viewer) introduces cost variability and procurement complexity. Preset offers a free tier for smaller teams and a single, transparent per-user price for its Professional plan, making budgeting more predictable as usage scales.
Fully browser-based authoring
No Tableau Desktop to install, maintain, or license separately. Analysts create, edit, and publish dashboards in a browser on any operating system, which simplifies onboarding and makes collaboration immediate.
Native connections to cloud warehouses
Preset connects natively to the data platforms modern teams already run: Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks, and more. Live queries eliminate the "extract-and-refresh" workarounds that Tableau encourages as datasets grow.
Open-source core, no lock-in
Preset is built on Apache Superset™, the leading open-source BI project. Your dashboards, datasets, and metadata remain portable. If your strategy changes, your work does not get stranded inside a proprietary platform.
SQL-first, code-friendly
SQL Lab gives power users a first-class environment for exploration, virtual datasets, and Jinja-templated dynamic queries. Preset assets can be versioned, reviewed, and deployed through the same development lifecycle as the rest of your stack.
Built for the modern data stack
First-class support for dbt models, cloud warehouses, and semantic layers. Preset was designed for the stack teams are actually building, not retrofitted onto it.
60–80%
lower total cost vs. Tableau
Teams switching from Tableau to Preset typically see 60–80% savings on licensing alone — before accounting for the elimination of desktop app maintenance, extract infrastructure, and per-tier seat costs.
Preset vs Tableau at a Glance
Pricing model
Preset
Free tier for up to five users, then a single Professional tier with straightforward per-user pricing. No procurement complexity.
Tableau
Splits users across Creator, Explorer, and Viewer tiers, which adds procurement overhead and penalizes broad self-serve analytics.
Deployment
Preset
Runs entirely in the browser on any operating system. No install, no OS dependency.
Tableau
Requires a desktop application for authoring on Windows or Mac.
Vendor independence
Preset
Built on Apache Superset — export your work and move it elsewhere at any time.
Tableau
A proprietary platform owned by Salesforce. Your work stays inside their ecosystem.
How Preset Deploys
Most teams start on Preset Cloud — fully managed, multi-tenant, and available in minutes. Regulated or security-sensitive teams run on Preset Managed Private Cloud, which gives you an isolated environment in your own account, or move to Preset On-Prem when a fully self-hosted footprint is required. All three paths run the same certified Superset build, so you can change deployment models without rebuilding your dashboards.
Preset Cloud
Fully managed, multi-tenant, and available in minutes. The fastest path to production analytics.
Managed Private Cloud
An isolated environment in your own cloud account. Ideal for regulated or security-sensitive teams.
Preset On-Prem
A fully self-hosted footprint for teams that require complete infrastructure control.
Enterprise-grade security, out of the box
Preset is SOC 2 Type II certified and supports SSO/SAML, SCIM, role-based access control, row-level security, and audit logging. For details on controls, certifications, and data handling, see our trust and security page.
- SOC 2 Type II
- SSO / SAML
- SCIM
- RBAC
- Row-level Security
- Audit Logging
- Private Cloud
Preset vs Tableau Feature Comparison
| Feature | Preset | Tableau |
|---|---|---|
| Browser-based authoring | ✓ | ✗Tableau Desktop required |
| Open-source foundation | ✓Apache Superset | ✗Salesforce proprietary |
| Free tier | ✓5 users forever | ✗Paid seats only |
| Simple per-user pricing | ✓Single Professional tier | ✗Creator/Explorer/Viewer tiers |
| Native database connections | ✓40+ warehouses & engines | ✓Broad native coverage |
| Live queries by default | ✓ | ✗Extracts typically recommended |
| Cloud agnostic | ✓AWS, GCP, Azure | ✓Tableau Cloud on AWS |
| SQL Lab for exploration | ✓ | ✗Limited custom SQL |
| Jinja templating for dynamic SQL | ✓ | ✗ |
| Full theming and CSS control | ✓ | ✗Limited |
| REST API and CLI access | ✓ | ✓ |
| dbt integration | ✓Native | Partial |
| Private cloud in your account | ✓Managed Private Cloud | ✗Tableau Server is self-managed |
| Public roadmap influence | ✓Open source on GitHub | ✗ |
See Preset for yourself
Start free for up to five users, no credit card required.
Built for teams across industries
A few representative stories of teams running their analytics on Preset.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Preset customers process billions of rows against enterprise warehouses like Snowflake, BigQuery, and Databricks. Performance at scale is driven primarily by the warehouse, with Preset's caching layer optimizing repeated queries.
Preset is SOC 2 Type II certified and supports SSO/SAML, SCIM, RBAC, row-level security, audit logging, and private-cloud deployment options for teams with stricter isolation requirements.
Yes. Preset offers a drag-and-drop chart builder with curated datasets so business users can explore data without writing SQL. Power users also get SQL Lab, virtual datasets, and Jinja templating for dynamic queries.
Dashboards are rebuilt rather than directly converted. Most teams prioritize their highest-usage or highest-cost workloads first and run both tools side by side during the transition. Our team provides migration guidance and reference patterns.
Preset sits on top of your warehouse with native connectivity to Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, and more, and integrates with dbt for semantic models. For embedded use cases, see Embedded Dashboards and our API.
Our Apache Superset vs Tableau blog post covers the architectural and strategic differences in depth, including when each tool is the better fit.
Get in Touch
See why modern data teams choose open-source BI over Tableau. Start on the free tier and upgrade when you are ready, or talk to our team for a scoped evaluation against your current Tableau footprint.
Tableau is a trademark of Salesforce, Inc. Apache Superset is a trademark of The Apache Software Foundation. Preset is not affiliated with or endorsed by Salesforce or The Apache Software Foundation. Feature comparisons are based on publicly available information and may not reflect the most recent product updates.