Data Analytics Tools

Qlik provides a full enterprise SaaS solution and on-premise or private cloud options. And, Qlik is an independent company, which means you have complete control of your data.

Microsoft’s Power BI only gives you one cloud option: Microsoft’s cloud solution, Azure. Further, Power BI's cloud experience is different from their on-premise functionality.

Salesforce now owns Tableau. It’s unclear what this means for Tableau customers’ data... where it could end up and whether it could get locked in.

Qlik Sense has best-in-class Data Integration capabilities for combining and transforming data as well as data cataloging. Qlik also offers an enterprise class Data Integration platform which provides a seamless analytics data pipeline.

Power BI’s platform is a patchwork of offerings. To achieve any data integration you’re required to purchase and add Microsoft stack products.

Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep both have data prep capabilities. But each solves different problems and neither can solve all. So which should you use? And what do you do about the data problems Tableau can’t solve?

Qlik can ingest billions of rows of data from an unlimited number of sources with complex schemas with dozens of dimensions – and still deliver answers in seconds. Plus, you can keep data fresher in a much smaller build window thanks to Qlik’s ability to add, modify and remove records.

Operating at scale becomes very expensive with Power BI. Power BI Pro has shockingly low data limits of 1GB per data set. This requires you to use live query, (which will slow your work to a crawl) or pay more and upgrade to Premium.

Tableau’s engine slows to a crawl when it attempts to handle large volumes of disparate data, especially when paired with complex analytics. And it’s not possible to increment data and keep it fresh in small build windows.

All content creation on Qlik happens in the cloud, where it’s governed and controlled. Plus, governed libraries provide reuse and standardization for analytics. In this way, Qlik unifies and centralizes your data, creating a single, updated, reliable source everyone can trust.

Power BI decentralizes data, spreading it across users desktops and the cloud. This makes managing and validating data especially challenging.

Tableau allows for multiple copies of content which means you will have to invest time and money to manage these different copies.

Qlik’s data engine is “associative” in that it lets users explore all data freely, on the fly, and from any angle. Plus, machine learning allows Qlik’s cognitive engine to get smarter over time – giving you ideas of where to explore.

Power BI works on a SQL database that restricts users to linear, predetermined query paths.

Tableau also operates over an SQL database that restricts users to following specific (and predetermined) paths within a narrow slide of data. In any given query, only part of your data is analyzed, leaving key patterns and connections undiscovered.

Qlik provides the full range of interactive visualizations and includes AI assistance that helps with chart creation, recommended associations, revealing the shape of your data and even data preparation. Plus, you can explore all your data from any direction.

Power BI also offers a full set of visualizations. These visualizations are interactive but you’ll be limited in filtering and data exploration by whatever query paths were preselected by the author.

Tableau offers a full range of visualizations as well. After all, this is what Tableau is best known for. But as with their dashboards, you’ll only be able to filter and explore the visualization based on whatever query paths the author selected.

Qlik allows users to ask any question in natural language and get robust answers. And, as you explore your data, Qlik automatically suggests insights and new connections to explore.

Power BI added AI with two features, Quick insights and Q&A. Quick Insights provides shortcuts to analyze anomalies in your data. Q&A brings natural language capabilities to the tool.

Tableau’s Ask Data feature cannot access workbooks, so it doesn’t work with the business logic built into workbooks. It also only connects to data sources, which means it can’t leverage the insight your analysts have built.

Responsive design and touch are native to the platform, so Qlik is able to offer a fully functional mobile app. This means you’re able to perform all the same functions on desktop, laptop, phone or tablet – wherever you are, even offline.

Desktops rule for Power BI. You need a variety of desktop software to perform different tasks and Power BI’s cloud is mainly used for uploading reports, which have fewer editing capabilities.

Tableau mobile only allows you to download one sheet from a broader workbook. And you can’t filter; you can only highlight one value at a time and scroll to see where that value shows up in related charts.

Qlik makes it easy to embed a dashboard, including individual numbers, values, and metrics in your products, workflows, portals, and edge devices. Qlik’s API-first platform works with the latest web and application technologies.

Power BI allows for embedding dashboards and other objects, but Power BI is not API-first and many capabilities are not available in their software development kits.

Tableau mobile only allows you to download one sheet from a broader workbook. And you can’t filter; you can only highlight one value at a time and scroll to see where that value shows up in related charts.

All users in your organization perform all activities on the same platform with a common analytics engine, AI capabilities and analytics data pipeline.

Microsoft requires users to use multiple products to deliver on a range of use cases.

Tableau really only has one use case (data visualization). Plus, you’ll need skilled business authors who know the rules of databases and SQL to create these visualizations.

Qlik is geared for self-service, letting anyone, at any skill level, explore their data. For example, users can drag-and-drop to create reports with ease. Qlik also offers data literacy as a service which blends training, processes and technology.

Only authors have self-service access in Power BI. And, once content is published, it only allows for very limited interactivity. Users need to go back to the author if they want to explore deeper.

Only authors can make discoveries in Tableau. That’s why their data literacy initiative is focused on authors. Which feels more like data dictatorship than data democracy.

Qlik’s TCO is lower than Power BI or Tableau and Qlik provides total transparency on costs. Qlik will not require extra data or compute costs as you grow.

With Power BI, working at enterprise scale will require you to pay substantial upgrade and add-on fees. Learn more.

Tableau requires you to create many reports to reproduce what’s contained in a single Qlik app. That takes time, and time is money. Plus, refreshing that content could cost you extra as well.