Cogny vs Tableau: AI Agent vs Enterprise BI Platform

Question

Should I use Cogny or Tableau for marketing analytics?

Answer

Tableau is an enterprise business intelligence platform for building custom data visualizations.

Cogny is an AI agent that analyzes your marketing data and generates actionable growth tickets.

Tableau shows you data in charts. Cogny tells you what to do.

Different tools for different needs.

At a Glance Comparison

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Core Difference: BI Tool vs AI Agent

Tableau: Enterprise BI Platform

Tableau is a business intelligence tool for enterprises.

What it does:

• Connects to hundreds of data sources
• Lets you build custom visualizations
• Create interactive dashboards
• Sophisticated data exploration
• Enterprise-grade reporting

What it's built for:

• Data analysts
• Large organizations
• Custom analysis needs
• Complex data visualization
• Cross-departmental reporting

Who uses it:

• Data teams
• BI analysts
• Data scientists
• Enterprise analysts

What it requires:

• Training (weeks to months)
• Data modeling skills
• Dashboard building expertise
• IT support
• Ongoing maintenance

Cogny: AI Marketing Agent

Cogny is an AI agent for marketing teams.

What it does:

• Connects to marketing data sources
• AI analyzes everything automatically
• Generates actionable growth tickets
• Tells you exactly what to optimize
• Natural language queries

What it's built for:

• Marketers
• Growth teams
• Performance optimization
• Fast insights
• No data team required

Who uses it:

• Performance marketers
• Growth teams
• Marketing managers
• CMOs

What it requires:

• 5 minutes to connect accounts
• No training
• No dashboard building
• No IT support

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The Real Cost Comparison

Tableau Costs

License fees:

• Tableau Creator: $70/user/month ($840/year)
• Tableau Explorer: $42/user/month ($504/year)
• Tableau Viewer: $15/user/month ($180/year)

Typical deployment:

• 2 Creators (analysts): $1,680/year
• 5 Explorers (power users): $2,520/year
• 20 Viewers (stakeholders): $3,600/year
• Licenses: $7,800/year

Infrastructure:

• Tableau Server: $800-2,000/month ($9,600-24,000/year)
• Or Tableau Cloud: Included in license
• Data warehouse: $500-5,000/month
• ETL tools: $500-2,000/month

People costs:

• Tableau admin: $100K-150K/year
• Dashboard developers: $80K-120K/year each
• Training: $2K-5K per person

Total year 1 cost: $150K-300K+

Cogny Costs

Subscription:

• Standard: $500-800/month ($6K-10K/year)
• Scale: $1,000-1,500/month ($12K-18K/year)
• Enterprise: $2,000+/month ($24K+/year)

No additional costs:

• No per-user fees
• No server infrastructure
• No admin needed
• No training costs
• No dashboard developers

Total year 1 cost: $6K-24K

Savings vs Tableau: $126K-276K/year

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What Each Tool is Best At

Tableau Wins At:

1. Custom Visualization Need a specific chart type? Tableau can build it.

Example:

• Waterfall charts
• Sankey diagrams
• Custom geospatial maps
• Multi-axis complex charts

2. Enterprise Data Exploration

• Drill down into any dimension
• Ad-hoc analysis on any data
• Interactive filtering
• Sophisticated calculations

3. Cross-Departmental Reporting

• Finance dashboards
• Sales analytics
• Operations metrics
• HR reporting
• All in one platform

4. Data Governance

• Row-level security
• Role-based access
• Certified data sources
• Enterprise compliance

5. Visual Flexibility

• Design custom layouts
• Brand-specific themes
• Pixel-perfect control
• Export to any format

Cogny Wins At:

1. Marketing Optimization AI finds what to optimize.

Example: "These 23 keywords spent €4,200 with zero conversions → Pause → Save €4,200/month"

Tableau would show you keyword data. You'd have to find the pattern.

2. Speed to Insights

• Cogny: Connect accounts, get insights in 24 hours
• Tableau: 4-12 weeks to build first dashboards

3. No Data Team Required

• Cogny: Marketers use directly
• Tableau: Needs data analysts to build dashboards

4. Actionable Recommendations

• Cogny: "Do this, expect this result"
• Tableau: Here's data, you figure it out

5. Continuous Monitoring

• Cogny: AI watches 24/7, alerts to issues
• Tableau: You check dashboards manually

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The Use Case Test

Marketing Performance Optimization

Question: "Which keywords are wasting money?"

With Tableau:

1. Open Tableau dashboard
2. Filter to keywords
3. Sort by spend
4. Look for zero-conversion keywords
5. Export list
6. Upload to Google Ads
7. Pause manually

Time: 30-60 minutes

With Cogny:

1. Open Cogny
2. Review ticket: "47 keywords, zero conversions, €3,200 spent → Pause"
3. Click execute

Time: 2 minutes

Winner: Cogny

Executive Board Presentation

Task: Create polished board presentation with custom branding

With Tableau:

1. Build dashboard with exact brand colors
2. Custom layouts matching presentation style
3. Interactive elements for questions
4. Export as PDF or present live
5. Beautiful, professional

Time: 4-8 hours (first time), 1 hour (updates)

With Cogny:

1. Export data
2. Build presentation separately

Time: Cogny not designed for this

Winner: Tableau

Cross-Department Data Analysis

Task: Analyze marketing + sales + finance data together

With Tableau:

• Connect all data sources
• Join across databases
• Create unified view
• Share with all departments

Capability: Excellent

With Cogny:

• Focused on marketing data
• Not designed for cross-department

Winner: Tableau

Daily Campaign Optimization

Task: Find optimization opportunities every day

With Tableau:

• Build dashboards
• Check them daily
• Manually identify patterns
• Decide on actions
• Implement

Analyst time: 2-4 hours/day

With Cogny:

• AI monitors automatically
• Generates tickets daily
• Review and execute

Marketer time: 20-30 minutes/day

Winner: Cogny

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Who Each Tool Is For

Choose Tableau If You Are:

1. Enterprise Organization

• 500+ employees
• Multiple departments need analytics
• Budget for BI infrastructure
• Data team in place

2. Data Team

• Data analysts
• BI developers
• Data scientists
• Need flexible exploration

3. Custom Analysis Needs

• Unique visualization requirements
• Complex data relationships
• Custom calculations everywhere
• Specific compliance needs

4. Cross-Functional BI

• Marketing + sales + finance + operations
• Unified enterprise analytics
• Single source of truth
• Governed data environment

5. Visualization-First Culture

• Love building dashboards
• Presentations are critical
• Visual design matters
• Interactive exploration valued

Choose Cogny If You Are:

1. Marketing Team

• Focused on ad performance
• Want optimization, not dashboards
• No data analysts on staff
• Need insights fast

2. Growth-Stage Company

• $2M-100M revenue
• Lean team
• Can't afford Tableau infrastructure
• Need ROI immediately

3. Performance-Focused

• Clear KPIs (CAC, ROAS, LTV)
• Standard marketing metrics
• Want AI to find opportunities
• Tired of manual analysis

4. Time-Constrained

• Can't spend weeks building dashboards
• Need insights tomorrow
• Want automation
• Value speed over customization

5. Non-Technical Marketer

• Don't want to learn BI tools
• Prefer natural language
• Want specific recommendations
• AI does the analysis

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Can You Use Both?

Yes. And many enterprises do.

Common pattern:

Tableau for:

• Executive reporting
• Board presentations
• Cross-departmental analysis
• Custom visualization needs
• Data exploration

Cogny for:

• Marketing team's daily optimization
• AI-powered insights
• Campaign recommendations
• Performance monitoring

Why this works:

Different audiences:

• Execs want polished Tableau dashboards
• Marketers want actionable Cogny tickets

Different purposes:

• Tableau: Reporting and exploration
• Cogny: Optimization and action

Example organization:

Data team (3 people):

• Builds Tableau dashboards for company
• Quarterly updates
• Custom analysis requests

Marketing team (8 people):

• Uses Cogny daily
• Executes AI recommendations
• Optimizes campaigns
• Doesn't wait for data team

Cost:

• Tableau: $180K/year (licenses + infrastructure + team)
• Cogny: $18K/year
• Total: $198K/year

Value:

• Company gets beautiful reporting (Tableau)
• Marketing gets fast optimization (Cogny)
• Data team isn't bottleneck for marketing

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Real User Scenarios

Scenario 1: Mid-Size SaaS Company

Profile:

• 80 employees
• $25M revenue
• 5-person marketing team
• No data team
• $100K/month ad spend

Best choice: Cogny

Why not Tableau:

• No one to build dashboards
• Would need to hire analysts ($150K+/year)
• 3-6 months to get value
• Overkill for marketing optimization

With Cogny:

• Up and running Day 1
• Marketing team uses directly
• Immediate optimization value
• 1/10th the cost

Scenario 2: Enterprise Corp

Profile:

• 5,000 employees
• Multiple business units
• 20-person data team
• Existing Tableau deployment
• $2M/month marketing spend

Best choice: Both

Use Tableau for:

• Company-wide reporting
• Executive dashboards
• Cross-functional analysis
• Already invested in platform

Add Cogny for:

• Marketing team's daily work
• AI optimization on top of Tableau data
• Specific marketing use case

Why:

• Tableau serves enterprise needs
• Cogny serves marketing team specifically
• Both have ROI in this context

Scenario 3: Marketing Agency

Profile:

• Managing 30 clients
• Need to optimize all accounts
• Each client wants reports
• Small team (12 people)

Best choice: Cogny

Why not Tableau:

• Would need to build 30 dashboards
• Ongoing maintenance nightmare
• Clients want results, not just reports

With Cogny:

• AI optimization across all clients
• Generate insights automatically
• Scale without hiring analysts
• Use Looker Studio (free) for client reports

Scenario 4: Data-Mature Organization

Profile:

• Love data exploration
• Data team with Tableau expertise
• Want best-in-class everything
• Budget not a constraint

Best choice: Both

Tableau as foundation:

• Enterprise BI platform
• All company data
• Beautiful dashboards

Cogny as marketing layer:

• AI optimization for marketing specifically
• Complements Tableau
• Different tool for different job

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Common Objections

"But Tableau can do marketing analytics..."

Technically yes.

But:

• You need to build it all yourself
• No AI recommendations
• No growth tickets
• Just data visualization

Tableau shows you numbers. Cogny tells you what to do.

"We already have Tableau licenses..."

Sunk cost fallacy.

Having Tableau doesn't mean it's the right tool for marketing optimization.

Use Tableau for what it's good at (reporting). Add Cogny for optimization.

"Our analysts can build whatever we need in Tableau..."

Can they?

Tableau analysts build visualizations. They don't build AI pattern detection. They don't build predictive recommendations. They don't monitor 24/7.

Different capabilities.

"Tableau is more powerful..."

More powerful at visualization and data exploration.

Not more powerful at:

• AI analysis
• Automatic pattern detection
• Generating recommendations
• 24/7 monitoring

"We need the flexibility of Tableau..."

For what specifically?

If you need:

• Custom visualizations → Tableau
• Cross-department reporting → Tableau
• Data exploration → Tableau

If you need:

• Marketing optimization → Cogny
• AI recommendations → Cogny
• Fast insights → Cogny

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FAQ

Q: Is Cogny built on Tableau?

No.

Cogny is a standalone AI platform. Built specifically for marketing optimization.

Q: Can I connect Cogny data to Tableau?

Yes.

If you want AI insights visualized in Tableau:

• Cogny can export data
• Load to your data warehouse
• Tableau connects to warehouse

But most Cogny users don't need this.

Q: Do I need to choose one?

No.

They solve different problems:

• Tableau: Enterprise BI and visualization
• Cogny: Marketing AI and optimization

Many companies use both.

Q: Which has a better user interface?

Depends on user:

For data analysts: Tableau (powerful, flexible) For marketers: Cogny (simple, actionable)

Q: Can Tableau do AI analysis like Cogny?

No.

Tableau shows data. You do the analysis.

There are AI extensions for Tableau, but they're not the same as Cogny's marketing-specific AI.

Q: Is Tableau overkill for marketing?

For most marketing teams: Yes.

Tableau is enterprise BI for all departments. That's overkill if you just want marketing optimization.

Q: At what company size does Tableau make sense?

Tableau makes sense:

• 500+ employees
• $100M+ revenue
• Cross-department analytics
• Data team in place

Below that: Probably overkill.

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The Bottom Line

Choose Tableau if:

• You're an enterprise ($100M+ revenue)
• Need cross-departmental BI
• Have data team with Tableau skills
• Want custom visualization flexibility
• Budget for BI infrastructure

Choose Cogny if:

• You're a marketing team
• Want AI optimization, not dashboards
• Need insights fast (days, not months)
• Don't have data analysts
• Budget-conscious

Use both if:

• Enterprise organization
• Tableau for company-wide BI
• Cogny for marketing-specific optimization
• Budget allows (~$200K/year)
• Want best-in-class for each use case

Most marketing teams should:

Choose Cogny

Why:

Tableau is an enterprise BI platform. It's powerful but overkill for marketing optimization.

If you need enterprise BI: Get Tableau. If you need marketing optimization: Get Cogny.

Different tools. Different jobs.

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See What AI Finds

Tableau can show you beautiful charts. But it won't tell you which keywords to pause.

AI does.

See it yourself:

Schedule a demo

We'll show you:

• What AI discovers in your campaigns
• Specific recommendations with dollar impact
• How this differs from dashboard analysis
• Expected ROI

Usually finds $5K-50K/month in quick wins. That Tableau wouldn't automatically surface.

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About This Comparison

Written by the Cogny team—built by the founders who created AI optimization systems for Netflix, Zalando, and Momondo at Campanja, and scaled growth for Kry, Epidemic Sound, and Yubico through GrowthHackers.se.

We respect Tableau. It's a powerful enterprise BI tool. But it solves a different problem than AI-powered marketing optimization.

Last Updated: December 20, 2024