Qlik Sense vs. Tableau – is one more intelligent than the other? (15 top comparisons to find out)

Between both mighty Big Intelligence tools (Qlik Sense & Tableau) – Which is better for you?

Some of the most popular data analysis tools include Qlik Sense and Tableau, but which is better and more helpful for your business? Now let’s do some weighing between these two giants in the BI industry. We will compare Qlik Sense with Tableau based on a comprehensive consideration: –

Overview: Qlik Sense vs. Tableau

Principally, both Qlik Sense and Tableau is one of the top-ranked self-services BI tools and both have their own distinct set of functionalities. Both of them stand out from the crowd as they set the gold standard for analytics and business intelligence platforms which other tools might not be able to provide. However, although both tools aim to serve the same purpose, there are some major differences between the two when it comes to capabilities.

Introduction

Starting off with Qlik Sense, this tool is known for its enterprise capabilities, such as data access, management, repeatable reports and scalability. Particularly in visualization and dashboarding, Qlik Sense tends to perform better among the BI tools.

Tableau, on the other hand, is better in data drills, insights and data discovery. Tableau has contributed various enterprise capabilities and a data engine named Hyper – which is believed to integrate with IoT analytics. Learn more about IoT here. On top of that, Tableau also offer good data connection such as connecting to live data sources (SAP HANA, Teradata)

Features

Let us have a look at available features of the both BI tools: –  

Qlik Sense	Tableau
Drag-and-drop visualizations	Patented technology from Stanford University
Smart search	Toggle view and drag-and-drop
Reliable connections to multiple data sources	Native data connectors
Access to real-time analytics from anywhere in the world	Highlight and filter data
Data storytelling functionality	Shared, mobile-ready, and embed dashboards within
Powerful open and standard APIs	Dashboard commenting & interactive dashboards
Self-service simplicity	Data notifications
Shared object library	Tableau Reader for data viewing
Managed data connections	“No code” data queries
Enterprise-level security	Translate queries to visualizations
Scalability	Import all ranges and sizes of data
	Server reset API
	Automatic updates
	Security permission feature

Usalibility

According to users’ review, Tableau has got better usability as compared to Qlik Sense. Tableau is faster in setup, data connections, creating dashboards, sharing files and so on. However, Qlik Sense is expected to improve in time, with newer versions to come.

Dashboards

In comparison to Qlik Sense, Tableau has better and swifter response dashboards. It is also reviewed that Tableau dashboards possess a higher quality and more intricate details to its interface. Qlik Sense also has a very attractive and user-friendly interface, but however in terms of usability, Tableau is regarded to have a better scorecard.

Reporting

Qlik Sense and Tableau, both stand on par when it comes to BI reporting functionality. Qlik Sense, however, is believed to perform better in Ad hoc reporting, data transformation, report output, report design, and scheduling than Tableau. Tableau, on the other hand, is better in predefined reports.

Pricing

In terms of pricing, Qlik Sense has a quote-based pricing model where users have to pay a perpetual license fee to get the token or a valid license for Qlik Sense access. The price quoted is based on the number of Qlik Sense users. The price includes services for on-premise and cloud-based deployments, and free versions of Qlik Sense Cloud and Desktop.

For Tableau, it offers a choice of monthly, annual or quote-based payment choices. It also has a free trial version for Tableau Desktop. The paid scheme ranges from $35 to $70 per month. However, the annual subscription fee for the personal edition is $999 per user and for professional/enterprise edition is $1,999 per user.

Access Control and Security

It is reviewed that the access control and overall security capabilities are better in Qlik Sense compared to Tableau.

Implementation

When implementing and deploying Qlik Sense, it is better to seek help and hire Qlik consultants. Conversely for Tableau, users have to be specific about the services that you require as the corresponding Tableau server needs to be configured for the particular function. 

Clients

Just for reference, some prominent clients of Qlik Sense are Canon, Fila, McAfee and so on. On the other hand, Tableau has also a celebrated partnership with Pandora, Deloitte and Citrix. 

Supported Device

Both Qlik Sense and Tableau provide a comprehensive coverage of device support such as Windows, Android, Mac, iPad/iPhone and other web-based platforms.

Self-service

When it comes to the aspect of self-service, Qlik Sense is good in functionalities like data discovery and searching. On the contrary, Tableau is known to perform better in auto modelling, calculated fields, data column filtering, collaboration and workflow.

Advanced Analytics

It is known that Tableau is better than Qlik Sense when it comes to advanced analytics capabilities like predictive analysis, data visualization and big data services. 

Platform

The overall platform performance of Qlik Sense in terms of customization, mobile user support, user roles, access management, sandbox/test environments, and reliability is better than Tableau. While Tableau is better in internalization.

APIs and Embedding

It is said that Qlik Sense provides a better environment for API integration and embedding than that in Tableau.

Customer Support

When it comes to customer support, Qlik Sense provides support channels through email, call, training, live support and ticket system. However, in Tableau, the customer support comes via email, phone call and in form of training. 

Scalability

Overall, Qlik Sense is more scalable than Tableau. This is because Qlik Sense applications can be easily scaled when dealing with big data, compared to Tableau. 

Company Size

Essentially, Qlik Sense and Tableau operate in medium and large scale companies. Nonetheless, in some cases, both of them are also used in smaller scale companies.

Summary

In a nutshell, it can only be said that both Qlik Sense and Tableau put up a good fight as compatible BI tools. Although both differ by some capabilities and features, both hold a lot of potential as effective applications. Nonetheless, according to customer review, Tableau does have a cut above Qlik Sense for its ease of use and attractive user interface.

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