Power BI vs Qlik Sense

Last Updated :

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Blog Author :

Jeevan A Y

Edited by :

Ashish Kumar Srivastav

Reviewed by :

Dheeraj Vaidya, CFA, FRM

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Difference Between Power BI and Qlik Sense

Power BI is a major business tool used for business analytics purposes. At the same time, Qlik Sense is somewhat of a self-service tool through which we design reports and dashboards. The major difference is that Qlik Sense is very user-friendly. Whereas for Power BI, the user must have hands-on knowledge of Microsoft tools.

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Power-BI-vs-Qlik-Sense

Power BI is the business analytics tool from Microsoft to visualize the data and prepare dashboards easily. Its Desktop app is very similar to MS Excel. Whereas, Qlik Sense is a self-service analytical tool from ā€œQlikā€ that helps us to create interactive dashboards and reports at will. This article discusses the key differences between Power BI and Qlik Sense.

Key Differences

The key differences between Power BI and Qlik Sense are as follows:

  1. Pricing: This is one of the major areas where Power BI leads the race without a doubt. One of the problems with Qlik Sense is that you need to get in touch with the marketing team to finalize the price.
  2. Ease of Use: Every Excel user loves Power BI and finds it difficult to work with Qlik Sense because Power BI looks and works like an advanced excel version.

Comparative Table

Below are some head-to-head comparisons between Power BI and Qlik Sense.

ItemPower BIQlik Sense
Basic VersionsThe Power BI Desktop version is free. You can download the software and install it on your device to start using it.Qlik Sense is not free software to start, so to even try it out, you need to pay for it upfront.
InstallationPower BI installation is very simple, like how we can install any other software on our computer or laptop.Qlik Sense installation is quite complex and time-consuming. Therefore, it would help if you had an expert in the field of getting started.
Storage CapacityWith the free version of Power BI, we can use up to 1 GB of storage, and with the Pro version of Power BI, we can extend the storage limit to 10 GB and anything more than requires cloud storage.Qlik Sense has no free storage, and its cloud version of storage can provide you with 500 GB of Storage which is mind-blowing.
Cloud CapabilitiesPower BI cloud data sources mainly support and are compatible with Microsoft Azure servers.Qlik Sense can access a SaaS-based cloud data source and requires programming to fetch the data.
User-FriendlyIf you ask any Excel user, they prefer Power BI over any other data visualization tool, thanks to its user-friendly nature and interface.Qlik Sense is not a known user interface like Power BI, so users find it tough to get started.
Analytics CapabilitiesPower BI supports modern programming languages like R and Python-based objects. On top of these, we can do clustering, forecasting, and decision-making trees. These operations are common within the frameworks of in-house and offshore power Bi development servicesQlik Sense does not support either R or Python programming languages. Still, we can do other features like regression and predictive analysis.  In addition, we can connect to third-party API via third-party apps.
PricingPower BI is the least expensive product among all the competitors, thanks to Microsoft. Power BI requires $10 per user per month.Qlik Sense pricing comes at a quoted price after contacting the Qlik marketing team. So not sure about the prices, but you can negotiate with the marketing team.
Drill Down & AroundThe Power BI Drill Down feature is very good, but the Drill Around feature is also good. But, when compared to Qlik Sense, it is not at a benchmark standard.Both drills down and around features are very advanced, and we could conclude that Qlik Sense leads the race in this category.
Mobile Device SupportPower BI can support mobile devices with good features and capabilities.Qlik Sense has better capabilities and features in mobile device support. It leads the race against Power BI.

Conclusion

Announcing the clear winner is tough because each product has unique features and capabilities. However, if you are a regular user of Excel, you should go for Power BI. On the other hand, if you are from a data science background, then ā€œQlik Senseā€ makes sense.