Tableau licensing updates has changed their subscription offerings to make it easier for more people to see and understand data, by delivering the right capabilities to the right users at the right price. Their new offerings deliver more value than ever before for the analyst and power user, adding the new Tableau Prep, as well as access to Tableau Online or Tableau Server to Tableau Desktop.
Now customers buying Creator have more power than ever with Tableau Prep, Desktop, and Server/Online, all for $70 per month. Tableau has also created a new offering for the more casual user, who is looking to make data-driven decisions with data, but will not be doing deep analysis or creating their own content. The Tableau Viewer is ideal for larger deployments and allows customers to interact with existing content, set subscriptions for dashboards they rely on, and receive data-driven alerts to ensure they are staying on top of key data points. These offerings help organizations broadly deploy analytics across their organization in a cost-effective way.
Analytics is becoming a requirement for every organization, and companies are wanting to deploy analytics more broadly and more quickly than ever before. Tableau is focused on helping people see and understand data. Tableau’s new offerings are tailored to meet the needs of different users, making Tableau more accessible to everyone, regardless of their specific needs or skill sets. Tableau’s new offerings allow customers to empower everyone – from the individual analyst to all users in organizations. The offerings are tailored to meet the unique needs of all types of users, so customers can now choose the most appropriate and cost-effective way to enable people to work with data. Tableaus’ offerings make it easy to start and scale, and include access to an end-to-end platform, with no hidden costs.
For users looking to take advantage of the capabilities from the Tableau Licensing updates:
Do existing customers get Prep for free?
Yes, existing qualified (active maintenance) Desktop customers will receive a subscription to Tableau Prep through June 30, 2020, for free. A license will be available in the Customer Portal which will allow for the same number of Tableau Prep installs as active Desktop licenses within your organization. After this date, existing users who purchase perpetual Desktop licenses will not benefit from Tableau Prep access until they convert to Tableau Creator.
Are all new requests automatically subscriptions?
You can purchase new Perpetual licenses, but they do not include free Tableau Prep access or Server/Online access. Tableau cannot guarantee that Tableau Perpetual licenses will still be available in the future so they are aiming to switch customers to subscription licensing to ensure that it won’t be an issue. Existing perpetual clients can still buy perpetual licenses.
What will happen to my current perpetual licenses after the Tableau licensing updates?
You will continue to have access to your Tableau Desktop Perpetual licenses. You do not have to switch over to subscription licensing after 3 years – you still have the option to continue to pay your annual maintenance fee on your Perpetual licenses. However, after June 30th, 2020, you will no longer have free access to Tableau Desktop Prep. If you convert to a Creator license, you can save money by converting earlier as you will receive a credit for un-used maintenance, and you will also get access to a server license for free with the Creator license. Tableau will also honor your existing maintenance price for 3 years.
Are all new requests automatically subscriptions?
You can purchase new Perpetual licenses, but they do not include free Tableau Prep access. Tableau cannot guarantee that Tableau Perpetual licenses will still be available 4 years from now so they are aiming to switch customers to subscription licensing to ensure that it won’t be an issue in the future. Existing perpetual clients can still buy perpetual licenses.
Do I have the option to continue paying regular Perpetual support?
Yes, clients can continue to pay their annual maintenance.
What are the specific capability differences between these offerings?
See the capabilities matrix at the following link for details: https://www.tableau.com/pricing/teams-orgs
Is Explorer different than the previous Interactor?
The Explorer offers is the same functionality as the previous Interactor offering. Connecting to net new external data from the browser is limited to the Creator license.
Can I still buy Tableau Desktop on its own?
No, new customers will no longer be able to purchase Tableau Desktop but will be purchasing the Tableau Creator offering which includes Desktop, Prep, and Server/Online, for the same price of the Tableau Desktop. Existing perpetual Desktop (Professional) customers may buy additional perpetual Desktop licenses but without access to Tableau Prep or Server/Online. Desktop (Personal) will no longer be available for sale (perpetual or subscription). Existing subscription Desktop customers will receive Creator licenses for their subsequent purchases, as they will get more capabilities for the same price.
What is the benefit of a subscription model?
There are many benefits to a subscription model:
- Reduced upfront investment – customers can easily get started and add on as needed, rather than committing to a large upfront investment
- Flexibility – Subscription models reduce the need to predict future changes in workload, employee count, or organizational growth, thereby eliminating the problem of over/under-buying licenses
- No hidden costs – no additional costs: Tableau offers a transparent pricing model that includes everything needed to deploy BI at scale or enterprise-wide.
- Shared risk – With Tableau’s subscription offerings, our customers are accessing an analytics platform that delivers market-leading value and innovation with every new release, but with no sunk cost, which allows for choice. As such, Tableau is focused on earning our customer’s business not only on day one but at every point throughout the lifetime of the subscription.
Is Tableau Personal still available?
Tableau is also no longer selling Desktop Personal licenses but will continue to support existing Tableau Personal customers. Personal users (subscription and perpetual) do have offers available to migrate their existing licenses over to Creator at and take advantage of the full power of Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep.
Is Tableau Reader still available?
Yes, Reader is still available at no cost for those who are looking to try out viewing Tableau dashboards. Although Reader is a great way to try out some viewing capabilities, it leaves your data and analytics unsecured and ungoverned. TWBXs are shared via email or shared in insecure ways. Viewer gives you the same level of interactivity and adds security, ease of distribution, visibility into usage, governance and the ability to use data-driven alerts and subscriptions.
For more questions regarding the Tableau Licensing updates, contact our team at [email protected] and we will be happy to help you out!
