When searching for a solution to your organization's business intelligence needs, time-saving elements, such as embeddability, may be high on your list of priorities. What about mobile business intelligence and geospatial analytics? When comparing current BI tools, it might seem like you're trying to find your way through a labyrinth; the more you dive into their features, the more confused you get.
Therefore, this article works as a comprehensive guide to analyze the comparison between three of the most prominent BI tools: Power BI, Tableau, and Qlik Sense in terms of their respective features.
This comparison of Power BI, Tableau, and QlikView will assist you in determining which of the three is the best alternative for you.
QlikView
QlikView is Qlik's first business intelligence (BI) product, and it assisted businesses in transitioning from massive, IT-driven, SQL-centric systems toward agile insight discovery. The primary benefit of QlikView is its Google-like search capability, which helps users find relevant data quickly.
This system operates by associating data with one another and generating results for your particular query and other relevant data. It's kind of like how Google provides a "People Also Ask" feature when you conduct a search.
This additional data is generated by QlikView once a related search is performed. For instance, after searching a company's area of expertise, you can also get the address of the company.
It simplifies the data evaluation process by combining the collected data from its many sources into a single, consolidated platform. In addition to this, QlikView provides a colour-coded visualization that can be customized to emphasize the most relevant data and connections.
Power BI
Power BI is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product that was first introduced by Microsoft as an add-on feature to Excel. It has evolved into a reporting and analytics tool that can be used independently by businesses of any size. Due to the fact that it is part of the Microsoft family, it can integrate with other products offered by Microsoft, including Office 365 without any problems.
Because it is easy to integrate, you can conduct a seamless analysis of your company's assets directly from within business apps. Through its several modules, including "Power Pivot," "Power Query," and "Power View," it facilitates effective modeling and visualization.
Tableau
A product of Salesforce, the success of Tableau might be attributed to the fact that users can see and download free infographics from the website. It gives you total control over your data, along with a high level of customization and a variety of security solutions that may be tailored to your specific needs.
The seamless drag-and-drop features and straightforward user interface make adoption simple and uncomplicated. Tableau Desktop is the core product that the vendor offers, but when you purchase it, you also get a license for Tableau Online or Tableau Server.
QlikView vs Power BI vs Tableau: Pros
QlikView
- Flexible Business Intelligence Ecosystem: Offers dynamic visualization solutions.
- Easy Interpretation of Data: Dynamic dashboards and applications help in data interpretation in an efficient manner.
- Real-time Data Exchange: Allows teams to work together and make crucial decisions based on data.
- Self-Service Tool: Allows users to work proficiently without It support.
- Low Maintenance: Simple to install and low maintenance.
- Data Protection: Provides strict security provisions to keep all the crucial corporate data safe.
Power BI
- Increases Productivity: Maintains the data of the whole company, regardless of department.
- User-friendly: Takes a few clicks to get access to details. Also allows for the adjustment of findings to their requirements and role-related characteristics.
- Easy to Operate: Easy agile inquiry and evaluation without any specialized technical references.
- Simple and Efficient: DAX scripting and in-memory evaluation technology provide stability along with simplicity and performance.
- Easy to Access: Great choice for remote teams or organizations with multiple locations. Allows access to the data over the phone.
- Reliable Support: Powered by Microsoft support.
- Attractive Visuals: Facilitates restructuring employer statistics into enhanced visuals.
- Advanced-Data Offering: Allows for the integration of the data seamlessly with cloud offerings such as Cortana, or Bot framework.
Tableau
- Fantastic Visualizations: Allows you to manage a large amount of unorganized data and create various representations.
- User-friendly Approach: Allows everyone, with or without a technical background, to use the platform with ease.
- In-depth Insights: Allows businesses to analyze data without any set objectives in mind.
- Compatible with Various Data Sources: Making it suitable for almost every business.
- Seamless Datasets Integration: Add new data to Tableau sheets with ease.
- Switching Between Visualizations: Allows switching between visualizations to better understand the data and explore it at a deeper level.
Product Suite
All three tools come with several product suites, each with a distinct feature.
QlikView
QlikView contains the following product suites:
- Qlik Insight Bot
- Qlik NPrinting
- Qlik Alerting
- Qlik Sense Mobile
- Qlik GeoAnalytics
- Qlik DataMarket
Power BI
Power BI contains the following product suites:
- Power BI Desktop
- Power BI Service
- Power BI Report Server
- Power BI Mobile
- Power Query
- Power Pivot
- Power View
- Power Map
- Power Q&A
Tableau
Tableau contains the following product suites:
- Tableau Server
- Tableau Online
- Tableau Public server
- Tableau Desktop
- Tableau Public Desktop
- Tableau Reader
- Tableau Mobile
- Tableau Prep Builder
Write Back Features
QlikView
This feature cannot be easily implemented in QlikView. Also, there are a few drawbacks to writing back to DBs like MSAccess and attainable with very few extensions. In order to implement the feature of writing back to the Database, users need to employ customized codes.
Power BI
Transaction services are not a built-in or standard feature of PowerBI. There are various methods for connecting and writing back to the database using DAX Studio and Power Apps such as Power Query.
The write-back feature is implemented by transforming a Power BI report into a canvas app in Power Apps. With this app, we can take information from a Power BI report and organize it into a gallery, and we can also utilize the same data source that powers Power BI to record the information we've gathered.
Tableau
The Tableau tool also does not have a direct user writeback feature. Instead, you can use APIs and extensions (like Xpand-it) to re-enter data into the database. By using the Write-Back Free add-on, you can choose data from Tableau sheets, make changes, and then save the changes to a Google Sheet. This sheet may then be used as a source of data, mixed with the original data, completing the data presentation cycle.
Other Key Features
Here is a tabular comparison of other noteworthy features of all three tools.
| | QlikView | Power BI | Tableau |
| Row Level Security |
QlikView’s RLS can either be built into the QlikView document script or can be set up with QlikView Publisher. |
You can use Power BI RLS to restrict data access for given users. You can use customized filters to restrict access to data rows. |
Tableau's user filter allows you to control which data "rows" a particular user logged into the server is allowed to access, allowing for the implementation of row-level security. |
| Automation |
QlikView includes the NPrinting platform for managing subscriptions and reports, as well as extensions and scripts for automating business processes. |
Power BI uses APIs and Power Automate to automate workflow. |
Tableau Server lets users automate and dynamically manage workbooks, data sources, and users using various APIs such as DocumentAPI, Webhooks, etc. |
| Natural language processing (NLP) |
Qlik Insight bot also helps make data-driven choices using natural language along with providing user search benefits. |
Power BI supports text and speech data analytics with Q&A in English. It integrates with Cortana for voice-based search engine results. |
Tableau only supports text-based natural language search with Ask Data. |
| Alerts |
The QlikAlerting web application helps manage all alerts. |
Power BI alerts you when dashboard data exceeds restrictions using flexible alert settings and Power Bi mobile app. |
Tableau server makes it easy to set alerts and automatically email important contacts, and also create, modify, receive, and manage alerts. |
| Machine Learning |
Since November 2018, Qlik has added machine learning functionality with each version. QlikView supports various plugins and extensions to improve ML. |
Power BI's Automated Machine Learning features streamlines machine learning activities including data imputation, feature engineering, model selection, training, testing, and visualization. |
Tableau's has Python Machine Learning features to simplify the statistical analysis of data. |
| Sentiment Analysis |
Qlik's Sentiment Analysis Connector uses Python's text blob library to analyze strings. |
Power BI uses Microsoft Azure's Text Analytics Cognitive Service for sentiment analysis. |
Tableau uses its python server, TabPy API, to access python libraries and scripts in table calculations indicating positive, negative or neutral emotion. |
| Multi-Pass SQL |
QlikView supports scripting and stored procedures but not multi-pass SQL. |
Power BI does not support multi-pass SQL. |
Tableau provides limited support for multi-pass SQL by facilitating the generation of multipass SQL via the use of a wide range of tools including but not limited to SQL, data blends, table calculations, etc. |
| Geospatial Functions and Calculations |
QlikView's comprehensive support for geospatial functions follows GeoJSON requirements and provides a variety of aggregation and non-aggregation functions tailored to Geospatial calculations. |
Power BI supports geospatial functions through Power Query or DAX methods. |
Tableau's geographic functions like MakeLine, MakePoint, Distance, and others allow users to perform extensive spatial analysis and combine spatial data with text and spreadsheet data. |
| Internet of Things(IoT) Analytics |
Qlik can mix sensor data with any external or internal data source and integrates advanced analytics for IoT applications including predictive maintenance for proactive analytics. |
Power BI integrates Azure Stream Analytics to evaluate real IoT telemetry streams using additional modules. |
All data from IoT devices is fully supported and can be seen and analyzed in Tableau. This IoT data is used to create dashboards and identify irregularities. |
Pricing
QlikView
There are various license models available for QlikView, including server, user, document, and application-based options.
In addition, the vendor provides an Enterprise Edition that is tailored to the needs of more substantial businesses.
Because QlikView does not make its price information publicly available, you will need to get in touch with the vendor directly in order to get more information. Usually, their subscriptions start from $1350. If you get the personal edition, you get free unlimited access to the features. On the other hand, if you want to get the Enterprise edition, you will have to contact the vendor for licensing options.
Power BI
There are three primary subscription tiers for Power BI:
- Desktop - The Desktop Plan is available free of cost to people. This plan is not suggested for use in a big company that has a huge workforce, but it is effective for a single proprietorship or a small start-up firm.
- Pro - The monthly charge for the Pro plan is $9.99 for each user. It included features for content packaging and dissemination and data management. This tier has a free trial period of 60 days.
- Premium:Power BI's top tier, Premium, charges either by the user or by the capacity. Pricing for individual users is $20 per month, while specialized cloud computing and storage plans begin at $4995 per month.
Tableau
Tableau offers three separate plans: Tableau Creator, Tableau Explorer, and Tableau Viewer.
- Tableau Creator:This is the most comprehensive Tableau tier, and it grants access to all of Tableau's features, including some that are only available as paid add-ons in other packages.
- Tableau Explorer:The monthly fee for Tableau Explorer is $45 with Tableau Online and $35 with Tableau Server ($420/user/Annually). It's a great option for people who don't need to utilize Tableau's extensive features but still want to work with data.
- Tableau Viewer:Tableau Viewer is available for a monthly fee of $15 with Tableau Online and $12 with Tableau Server ($144/user/Annually). Tableau Viewer is the most basic and cheapest Tableau plan. It is best for people who are only interested in viewing the data.
Conclusion
When managing sensitive business data, one of the most important considerations is which data visualization tool will work best.
Tableau, Power BI, and QlikView are all very effective business intelligence solutions. Each one is outstanding in a different set of metrics. Besides, constant updates are made to each of these, taking into account user feedback and the offerings of the competition. Each tool has its own USP that retains and grows its core user base and draws in new customers with similar interests.
