# Tableau Desktop vs Public: A Complete Comparison and Guide for Data Analysts

> 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:** 2023-01-29
- **Format:** Video · 18 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Tableau (data modelling, desktop, extensions, public)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-desktop-vs-public-a-complete-comparison-and-guide-for-data-analysts-tableau-crash-course
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB4dStejKzQ

This is a snippet from my Tableau Desktop crash course where I break down the differences between Tableau Public and Tableau Desktop. I cover how to download and use both, the browser-based web editor, data connection and saving limitations in Public, and how Desktop's connections, accelerators and sample workbooks differ.

## Key takeaways

- Tableau Public can be used either in the browser or as a downloaded desktop application, and downloading it best simulates the experience you'd have at work.
- Any Tableau Public visualisation made downloadable by its author can be opened and edited directly in the browser, letting you see exactly how it was built.
- Tableau Public only connects to flat files (Excel, text, JSON, Access, PDF, spatial, statistical) plus Google Drive, OData and web data connectors, and can only save to Tableau Public, not your local machine.
- Tableau Desktop offers the full range of server and database connectors, many delivered through the Tableau Exchange marketplace, with ODBC/JDBC and web data connectors as fallbacks.
- The three sample workbooks (like Superstore) act as a performance benchmark; if they run slowly your machine is likely underspecced, and accelerators are simply pre-built dashboard templates.

## Chapters

- 0:18 Downloading and installing Tableau Public
- 1:26 Using Public in the browser
- 1:46 Editing trending community visualisations
- 4:22 The Tableau Public interface
- 6:22 Public's data connection limitations
- 7:36 Saving restrictions in Public
- 8:58 Switching to Tableau Desktop connections
- 11:15 Accelerators and sample workbooks
- 13:57 Browsing the Tableau Exchange
- 16:42 Differences in the discover pane

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-desktop-vs-public-a-complete-comparison-and-guide-for-data-analysts-tableau-crash-course

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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