Power BI vs Qlik Sense

Difference Between Power BI and Qlik Sense

Power BI and Qlik Sense are used for data visualization, each with its own set of features and capabilities. However, there are some marked differences between the two. Power BI is a powerful business intelligence and data visualization tool developed by Microsoft. It helps organizations gain valuable insights from their data through interactive and visually appealing reports and dashboards.  Qlik Sense is a powerful data visualization and business intelligence (BI) tool developed by Qlik. It helps organizations explore, analyze, and visualize their data to make informed decisions and gain valuable insights. Power BI is for those who want an easy-to-use platform with a low learning curve. Qlik Sense, on the other hand, offers a more flexible platform with advanced visualization capabilities.

Differences

Whether you are performing data analytics, visualization, or building reporting capabilities with drill-down options, industry-leading tools such as Power BI or Qlik Sense are the most known choices by industry stalwarts. However, when choosing between these two tools, you must consider some of the differences between these two market-leading business intelligence tools across various parameters before deciding to adopt them. They include:

• Interactive Dashboard and Analytics
  • Power BI follows an SQL engine for data modeling. It means you are bound to follow a specific path, which comes with data restriction. As a result, a portion of data is examined for each query, which implies some patterns and connections are not included for discovery.
  • Qlik Sense adopts an associative data engine that allows you to explore and examine data from different paths or directions. Qlik Sense has a cognitive engine that uses a machine learning feature to learn over time, providing explorative suggestions.

• Data Visualization
  • Power BI provides a comprehensive interactive and customized data visualization suite for your data requirements. Given the SQL engine, you can only explore a limited dataset.
  • Qlik Sense has a data engine that lets you discover the dataset in a comprehensive suite of visualizations. It allows you to condense vast volumes of data sets, and using AI, you can create charts and prepare data for reporting.

• Flexible Deployment Arrangements
  • Power BI requires the report to be published to the cloud using the Power BI Service portal to enable external users to access the reports or dashboards.
  • Qlik Sense follows a deploy anywhere approach and provides a complete enterprise Saas environment. You can also choose from on-premises or private cloud options.

• Total Cost of Ownership
  • Power BI has a significant advantage over Qlik Sense in terms of cost. Power BI license costs are low and have a simple pricing structure. However, as you scale, the Total cost of ownership may be a key factor to consider. 
  • Qlik Sense is pricier compared to Power BI. However, for a longer tenure, the Total cost of ownership for Qlik Sense may be better than Power BI.

• Scalable Infrastructure
  • Power BI fails to perform for large volumes of data when you visualize the dataset. Power BI Pro allows you to have 1 GB of data even after data storage, and you can opt for a Power BI Premium license, which comes with a cost. Note: If you use live query in Power BI for data connection, it may significantly degrade your data visualization performance
  • Qlik Sense is quicker than Power BI regarding data querying, calculation, and other performance, even with many concurrent users and real-time data sets. You can also refresh your data set frequently.

• Self-Service Tools
  • With a decentralized strategy, Power BI distributes data across users’ workstations and the cloud. End-users always depend on the authors to create new visualizations or adjust existing ones. Because of this, managing data is costly and time-consuming.
  • Your data is centralized and unified in the cloud by Qlik, which also creates controlled data models with high levels of data protection. Additionally, all content is created in the cloud, which is governed and managed at every stage. Additionally, controlled libraries offer standards and reuse for analytics.

• Data Integration Support
  • Power BI supports multiple data sources, including Cloud and SharePoint, and traditional databases, files, etc. It easily integrates with other Microsoft suites of products.
  • Qlik Sense has data integration capabilities and offers an enterprise-level class data integration platform for a seamless analytics data pipeline.

• AI-Powered Analytics
  • Power BI supports AI-powered analytics through Quick Insights and Q&A features. Additionally, it supports ML capabilities through Azure.
  • Qlik Sense has AI capabilities built into it at the base level that support AI analytics.

• Embedded Dashboards and Reporting
  • You can embed dashboards and objects within other apps in Power BI for collaboration and sharing. Power BI doesn’t have any self-service tools to support API-based capabilities.
  • Qlik Sense has in-built APIs using which you can embed dashboards.

• Graphical User Interface
  • Power BI has a simple GUI that allows you to navigate the different screens easily. Power BI GUI integration requires you to leverage Microsoft’s suite of products for seamless experiences.
  • Qlik Sense can perform broader activities ranging from automation, Auto ML, alert services, and real-time data analytics on a single platform.

• Mobile Layout
  • Power BI allows the display of reports in a mobile layout. However, you can’t create reports in a mobile app.
  • Qlik Sense enables you to create a responsive design and touch through a native mobile app.

• Data Literacy Support to Users
  • Microsoft Power BI documentation provides detailed literacy support for anyone wanting to start with Power BI. The documentation is quite comprehensive and provides a good level of clarity with the help of examples.
  • Qlik Sense provides data literacy training to all users to get started with this tool.

What is Power BI?

Power BI, a tool offered by Microsoft, is a cloud-based Business Intelligence and data visualization application widely used across several organizations. It enables users to connect with a variety of data sources ranging from simple CSV text files to cloud-based services like Salesforce and Google Analytics, the ability to apply data transformation and modeling, create visually appealing interactive visuals and dashboards and platform to collaborate and share the reports with stakeholders both internally and external.

Power BI has a simple user interface that allows users to create reports by following the drag-and-drop feature and comes up with lots of user documentation and training videos for user operationalization. With Power BI Mobile Layout, users can create mobile-aligned visuals and dashboards.

Power BI supports Advanced Analytics features such as AI-powered visualizations, predictive analytics, and support to Natural Language Processing through Q&A. These features assist users in drawing insights from the data, identifying trends, uncovering patterns, and making data-driven decisions.

Power BI comes in different versions that include 

• Power BI Desktop: Create reports or Visualizations
• Power BI Service: A self-service platform for sharing and collaboration
• Power BI Mobile: Tool for mobile access

What is Qlik Sense?

Qlik Sense is a data visualization and business intelligence (BI) tool developed by Qlik. It allows users to explore and analyze data, create interactive dashboards and reports, and make data-driven decisions. Qlik Sense is known for its associative data model, which enables users to make on-the-fly associations in the data, providing a flexible and powerful way to explore information. It comes in various editions, including Qlik Sense Desktop for personal use and Qlik Sense Enterprise for larger organizations.

Comparative Table (key Differences)

There are several similarities and differences between Power BI and Qlik Sense. Here, we have highlighted the key differences between these products in a comparative table.

Category	Power BI	Qlik Sense
Installation Process	Power BI has a very simple installation process and it provides different options to install it in your system as per configurations	The Qlik Sense installation process is a bit complex and requires time and skills for installation.
Product Offerings & Pricing Plan	Power BI comes with 3 different product suites • Power BI Desktop (free version) • Power BI Pro (comes with a free trial period of 60 days. The licensed version comes with $9.99 1 User Per Month) • Power BI Premium (For Individual users $20 Per Month and storage plans starting with $4995 Per Month)	Qlik Sense comes with 3 different product offerings • Standard Qlik Sense (30 days Trial Period followed by $20 Per User Per Month) • Premium ($2700 Per Month) • Enterprise
Capacity for Data Analysis	• Power BI Desktop free version provides data storage of up to 1 GB • Power BI Pro version allows you to expand the storage up to 10GB • You need the Premium version for cloud storage and beyond 10GB	The data storage capacity comes with 3 different plans • Standard with up to 50 GB • Premium starts at 50 GB • Enterprise starts at 500GB
Cloud Support	Power BI allows you to deploy the reports using Power BI Service and support cloud capabilities	Qlik Sense has a Saas based cloud support and you need a scripting language to perform data operations
Graphical User Interface	Power BI has a simple GUI to navigate and access different functionalities with minimal documentation support needed	The user interface of Qlik Sense is not easy to navigate compared to Power BI
Advanced Analytics Ability	Analytics and predictive modeling are fundamental skills that combine well with R and Python.	Qlik Sense has very few options for interacting with outside programs and doesn’t work with Python or R languages.
Augmented Analytics	Power BI supports AutoML for training the models for AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning	Qlik Sense has a smart search and cognitive Engine to support augmented analytics
Convenience of usage	To use it effectively, Microsoft Excel and DAX knowledge are necessary.	Qlik Sense is difficult to use without any prior understanding of data models and scripting
Data Connectivity Options	It interacts with data directly and doesn’t need any additional models.	It utilizes the in-memory approach and is data warehouse-free.
Tool Integration	In terms of integration, Power BI is superior. It integrates with multiple data sources of different kinds.	It provides no robust capabilities for integrating with external tools.
Automation Options	Workflow automation is done with Power BI using APIs and Power Automate.	The NPrinting platform for managing subscriptions and reports, as well as extensions and scripts for automating business operations, are all included in QlikView.
Natural Language Processing options	Power BI supports text and speech data analytics with Q&A functionality. Cortana integration enables voice-activated search engine results.	Along with offering user search benefits, the Qlik Insight bot also aids in decision-making using data and natural language.
Maps or geospatial data manipulation	Power Query or DAX techniques in Power BI support geographic functionality such as Maps.	A wide range of aggregation and non-aggregation functions specific to geographic computations are offered by QlikView’s extensive support for geospatial functions, which adhere to GeoJSON specifications.

Similarities

Both Power BI and Qlik Sense are business intelligence tools designed to help organizations make data-driven decisions.

• They support data visualization, interactive dashboards, and report creation.
• Both offer a range of data connectors for integrating various data sources.
• Collaboration and sharing features are available in both tools to facilitate teamwork and data sharing within organizations.
• They support on-premises and cloud deployment options, providing flexibility to users.
• Power BI and Qlik Sense can handle large datasets and provide real-time data analysis capabilities.
• Both tools have active communities, extensive documentation, and training resources available to users.

Ultimately, the choice between Power BI and Qlik Sense depends on your specific business needs, existing technology stack, budget, and user preferences. It’s advisable to evaluate both tools based on your unique requirements before making a decision.

Recommended Articles

Guide to Power BI vs Qlik Sense Differences. Here we learn Difference Between Power BI and Qlik Sense along with comparative table and their similarities. You can learn more from the following articles –

Power BI vs Tableau vs Qlikview

Power BI Query

Power BI vs SSRS