Dashboard Software

Qlik’s “associative” data engine gives users the ability to freely analyze all their data. Qlik also helps you know where to explore next with the help of its cognitive engine, which uses machine learning to refine results over time.

Tableau uses a SQL database, which means users can only follow predefined paths within a small slice of data. As a result, only part of your data is analyzed, leaving many insights undiscovered.

Power BI users are also restricted to a linear, predetermined path, as its BI dashboard software uses a SQL database.

Qlik provides the full range of interactive visualizations and makes them uniquely powerful by compressing large data sets. Qlik’s AI assistance also helps with chart creation, recommended associations, revealing the shape of your data and even data preparation.

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.

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

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.

Tableau offers two options for integrating data: Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep. Each addresses different issues, and it’s difficult to know which tool to use for which problem.

Power BI has several disconnected data integration offerings. That means you’ll have to invest more in the Microsoft stack for additional products to get the answers you need.

Qlik ingests large amounts of data quickly and gathers from multiple sources, giving you complete and immediate answers. You can also keep your data updated in smaller builds by editing, adding or removing records.

Large amounts of disconnected data are hard for Tableau to process, and complex analytics degrades performance even more. The software also doesn’t allow you to increment data to keep it updated in small builds.

Power BI data limits are extremely low, at 1GB per data set. To scale, you’ll have to pay more to upgrade to Premium or use live query, which is slow.

Qlik provides a full enterprise SaaS solution and on-premise or private cloud options. Plus, Qlik is independent, offering you total freedom and control of your data.

Tableau is now part of Salesforce, which could leave you wondering where your data might end up, or worrying about data lock-in.

Power BI only runs on one cloud solution: Microsoft Azure. What’s more, cloud and on-premise experiences aren’t consistent.

Qlik centralizes and unifies your data, creating governed data models with robust data security. All content creation on Qlik happens in the cloud, where it’s governed and controlled. Plus, governed libraries provide reuse and standardization for analytics.

Tableau allows for multiple copies of content with only minor iterations. You’ll have to invest time and money to manage these different copies.

With Power BI, data is decentralized, spreading it across both the cloud and user desktops. This makes data management and validation difficult.

Use natural language to ask a question in Qlik and get answers to guide your exploration. Qlik gives suggestions along the way, giving you new and different ways to analyze your data.

To get value from insights, you need to connect to business logic built into workbooks. Tableau users can’t do this, as its Ask Data feature can only connect to data sources.

Quick Insights and Q&A are two features in Power BI that use AI. With Q&A, you can analyze with natural language. Quick Insights lets you explore using shortcuts.

With Qlik, you can use APIs to integrate technologies like edge devices, workflows, products and portals. This allows you to embed a fully functional dashboard into your mobile app, including individual values.

Tableau’s API offerings are quite limited. For instance, rather than embedding individual values, you can only embed a full dashboard.

While you can embed dashboards and objects in PowerBI, it doesn’t provide strong API functionality, and their SDKs provide limited capabilities.

Qlik Sense is built for mobility. The full-native mobile app provides all the functionality users need, thanks to responsive design and touch, which are native to the platform.

Tableau limits mobile users to simple features like downloading one workbook sheet. It also limits what users can do. Rather than filtering, users have to highlight a value and manually find it in the displayed charts.

Power BI users can only get the most from their data using a desktop and multiple software programs. You can use the cloud to upload reports, but with limited capabilities to perform edits.

Qlik’s self-service tool gives users the confidence they need to easily discover insights, including the ability to drag-and-drop to create their own reports. Qlik also provides data literacy as a service, which brings together training, technology and processes.

Tableau only supports data literacy for authors. That means if you’re any other type of user, you’ll be left behind.

Only authors can access Power BI’s self-service option, with limited options for other users to shape their data. If business users want something more, they’ll have to ask the author for help.

Qlik provides total transparency and lower TCO than Power BI or Tableau, with no additional compute or data costs.

With Tableau, you’ll need to create multiple reports to get the same results from one Qlik app. Not only is this wasteful, but you could end up paying more to refresh that content.

Only authors can access Power BI’s self-service option, with limited options for other users to shape their data. If business users want something more, they’ll have to ask the author for help.