Get Tableau Free

Overview

In recent years, Tableau has become one of the most powerful Business Intelligence tools in the world. Many organizations have started to move their analytics department towards Tableau. So, if you want to make your career in the analytics field then having knowledge about Tableau is a really big advantage. Learning Tableau is easy as there are many learning materials available on many websites. Tableau community on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook is also very good and helpful. But the only thing that keeps new learners away from this great Business Intelligence tool is its COST!

As you can see, the monthly charge for individual person is around $70. Will you be able to pay almost $840 per year just to use the Tableau? If you are in the learning stage then you don’t want to spend this much amount of money on just a license of Tableau. Instead, you can spend your money on learning the Tableau. Hence, in this article, I will explain the way of using Tableau for free. 

Note – This article does not talk about/support using of any crack versions or some illegal practices to use Tableau for free. 

So, let’s start. There are mainly three methods to use tableau for free. Those are –

1)    Tableau Desktop Free Trial

2)    Tableau Public 

3)    Tableau Student License 

Tableau Desktop Free Trial

Tableau offers a free trial to everybody who downloads the Tableau Desktop. You get to access the free trial of Tableau Desktop for 14 days. In this time, you can learn everything about tableau and then decide whether Tableau is good for you or not. If you feel like it is good then you can take the license and continue after 14 days.

How to get a free trial of Tableau Desktop?

Go to the Tableau website. Click on the Try now icon. After that, you will need to enter your Email ID. Then click on Download Free Trial. Downloading of Tableau Desktop will start automatically. After completing the download, install the software. Once the installation is complete, open the Tableau Desktop. Then fill out the trial registration form. Now click submit to activate your free trial.

The free trial only lasts for 14 days. So, it is not convenient if you plan to use tableau for a long time. To use Tableau for longer times you can opt for Tableau Public or Tableau Student version.

Tableau Public

Tableau Public is the official software launched by Tableau Software LLC in February 2010. The goal of introducing this software was to accommodate each and every analytics newbie in the tableau community. It is free to use the software. It almost has all the functionalities of the paid version of the tableau. As it is free and it has almost all the features of the Tableau desktop, it is ideal for beginners who want to start their journey in tableau. For downloading the Tableau Public, you need to visit the official website of tableau public. There you will need to enter your email id and the download will start automatically.

Major things which are absent in Tableau Public

• You can’t store workbooks in your PC

Tableau Public does not let you save your worksheet locally on your computer. If you want to share your work with others then you will have to create an account on the server of Tableau Public. You can upload all of your workbooks on Tableau Public Server where all the other people from the tableau community can see your work. It is a great place to showcase your skills and create a portfolio for attracting recruiters. If you are a new learner then it is convenient to use but if you are working professional then Tableau Public is not for you. Because you will be at risk of exposing your company’s data to the world while sharing it. Hence, if you are new to tableau and if you want to learn all the features for free then Tableau Public is best for you. 

•  You can’t connect many data sources 

In the learning stage, you will only come in contact with data sets like CSV, XLSX, JSON, etc. These all are the basic data sources. But there are many data sources that can be connected to Tableau. Also, the tableau desktop supports connection to the majority of big data servers. When your learning stage is over you might need to connect with some of these data sources. But tableau public does not support connecting those data sources to the workbook. Hence, this is a drawback of using tableau public. But, as it won’t affect much in the learning process, you can choose tableau public for learning tableau for free.

Due to these flaws, Tableau Public is not suitable for working professionals. To get full access to Tableau Software you should go for getting Tableau Student License. It will give you 1-year access to Tableau Services for free. Let’s know about it more in the next section.  

Tableau Student License

If you want to use the full version of Tableau for free, then the tableau student license is perfect for you. It gives access to Tableau Public, Tableau Prep and Tableau E-learning for one year. It gives full access similar to the paid version of these services. This license can be availed by using your college identity card. If you are not in college then don’t worry, you can ask your friends to let you use their ID card for getting free access to Tableau. The only condition for this license is that the student should belong to an accredited academic institution. So, if you belong to an accredited academic institution then no issues otherwise you will need to find someone else’s ID card to get access. 

• Process to apply for Tableau Student License 

Step 1 – 

For getting the Tableau Student License, first search Tableau for Students on google. Click on the first link that appears on search. It will redirect you to the page which will look like the following image. This is the official website through which you can enroll for a free tableau license – 

Step 2 –

Now click on the [GET TABLEAU FOR FREE] tile. It will open up a form for the verification process. These verification services are powered by SheerID & it only takes 3-4 minutes to complete this process and get your license key.

Step 3 – 

Fill your details in the form that appears on the screen.

You will need to enter your country, first name, last name, Email-ID and the name of your institution. In the end, you will need to tell tableau the reason for the application for a tableau student license, whether you are learning on your own or you are a part of any academic course. After filling in these details click on the verify student status.

Step 4 –

In step 4, you will need to upload your documents for proof that you are a current student of your educational institution. The following documents are accepted for verification–

1.    ID card with an expiration date in the future

2.    Transcript with the current course schedule

3.    Your mark sheet or any other school-issued documents

You can upload any of these documents in BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG or PDF format. Now click on submit for review. Your application is now submitted. SheerID will validate your document and if you have given the right document then it will send an email to you. This email will contain the license information about Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep and Tableau E-learning.  

Step  5 –

Now you will receive a mail from SheerID. In this mail following things will be included – 

1.    Link to download Tableau Desktop

2.    Link to download Tableau Prep 

3.    Product key for Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep 

4.    Access key for Tableau E-learning

You won’t need Tableau Prep that much if you are a beginner so first download Tableau Desktop. Install it on your computer and then enter the product key which you have received in the mail. Now you have successfully installed Tableau Desktop for free. This license is valid for 1 year and you can renew it again after it is expired. 

Tableau also offers free E-learning with a student license. In this E-learning, you can choose a path you want to follow and then according to that path you have to do the courses.

E-learning has many paths like designer, developer, analyst, data scientist, etc. You can earn all these badges by completing the courses and share these badges on social media apps like LinkedIn and Facebook. Also, it has courses like Desktop I : Fundamentals, Desktop II : Intermediate and  Desktop III : Advanced. These courses are really helpful for a beginner to get started with Tableau. 

So, these are the few methods by which you can start using Tableau for free. All these methods are legal and offered to us by Tableau. Out of all the three methods, Tableau Student License is the best method as it gives access to the full version of the Tableau and along with that it also provides access to the Tableau Prep and Tableau E-learning which is really helpful for Tableau rookies.