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Google Cloud Datalab vs Qlik Sense comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud Datalab
Ranking in Data Visualization
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (18th)
Qlik Sense
Ranking in Data Visualization
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (3rd), AI Data Analysis (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Data Visualization category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Datalab is 1.2%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qlik Sense is 4.8%, down from 8.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Visualization Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qlik Sense4.8%
Google Cloud Datalab1.2%
Other94.0%
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

LJ
System Architect at UST Global España
dashboards are good and data visualization is more meaningful for the end-user
Access is always via URL, and unless your network is fast, it would be a little tough in India. In India, if we had a faster network, it would be easier. In a big data environment, like when forcing your database with over a billion records, it can be tough for the end-user to manage the data. You need to have a single entity system in each environment. It's not because of GCP, but it would be great to have options like MongoDB or other similar tools in GCP. Then, we wouldn't always need to connect to the cloud and execute SQL queries. Even if your application is always connected to its database, the processing can be cumbersome. It shouldn't be so complicated. Once the data is collected, it should be easily sorted.
PawanSingh3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Data visualization has become faster and flexible and now enables quick multi-source reporting
Qlik Sense is very easy to use, but sometimes integration is a bit challenging. In our case, we wanted to integrate the cloud version of Qlik Sense, and Qlik Sense is not supporting the on-premises version, so we moved to the cloud version. We had a lot of challenges when integrating Qlik Sense SSO with the reports that we wanted to show on our web app or mobile app. There were a lot of challenges along with that, but eventually, we overcame those challenges, and things are working fine now. The integration part is one point for improvement; it could be more simple because I found some complexities with it. The single sign-on part is a little tricky and is not straightforward. We have done multiple rounds with their technical team, and although it got resolved later on, I think that it could have been better.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"In MLOps, when we are designing the data pipeline, the designing of the data pipeline is easy in Google Cloud."
"All of the features of this product are quite good."
"The APIs are valuable."
"For me, it has been a stable product."
"The infrastructure is highly reliable and efficient, contributing to a positive experience."
"Google Cloud Datalab is very customizable."
"Qlik was the first company to implement an in-memory associative analytics engine. This basically means that all data is loaded into memory, but it also means that instead of joining data together, the data is associated together. From the front end, from the UI point of view, data can be joined or included or excluded on the fly. It can be drilled down and drilled through and users can slice and dice it and that type of thing can be done from anywhere in the data to any other place in the data. It doesn't have to be predefined. It doesn't have to have hierarchies or anything like that."
"It uses an associative engine + an in-memory environment: I don't have to calculate hypercubes."
"The drag and drop UI has been the most useful to me."
"Qlik Sense is essentially a web-based tool even though it's on-prem – you're working off an HTML page – so it's pretty quick. Your processing speed does not matter because you're using a lot of stuff through the web. That's great because it brings down the cost in regards to hardware."
"The most valuable feature is flexibility."
"Among Tableau, QlikView, and Qlik Sense, I prefer QlikView, due to its higher customization capabilities, its associative nature, and its ETL features."
"Dashboards we built on Qlik Sense have helped with new client wins, client retention, negotiating with insurers, providing time efficiencies, and providing consistency in presentations."
"The time it takes to deliver a dashboard is real quick."
 

Cons

"We have also encountered challenges during our transition period in terms of data control and segmentation. The management of each channel and data structure as it has its own unique characteristics requires very detailed and precise control. The allocation should be appropriate and the complexity increases due to the different time zones and geographic locations of our clients. The process usually involves migrating the existing database sets to gcp and ensure data integrity is maintained. This is the only challenge that we faced while navigating the integers of the solution and honestly it was an interesting and unique experience."
"The interface should be more user-friendly."
"The product must be made more user-friendly."
"There is room for improvement in the graphical user interface. So that the initial user would use it properly, that would be a good option."
"Connectivity challenges for end-users, particularly when loading data, environments, and libraries, need to be addressed for an enhanced user experience."
"Even if your application is always connected to its database, the processing can be cumbersome. It shouldn't be so complicated."
"Ad-hoc reporting capabilities would be ideal."
"From my point of view, the possibility for end-users to make their own reports in Qlik Sense is limited to very advanced users who have deep knowledge of the application."
"I would like for it to be more of a plug and play with all of the tools and sources. It would make it much easier to use."
"Mostly when it comes to the loading of the data and reload times of the reports, it could be better."
"As we are a very process-oriented company, we would like to see more extensions maintained from Qlik, because it's a huge budget problem to choose the right one."
"More options for the layout."
"Data modelling automation needs improvement."
"Qlik Sense is working very well on going to low code and development. They are trying to make their environment more user-friendly. However, the training is not free. When you want to learn more about the tool, sometimes you need to pay for the training. This does not make sense to me because training should be free because the more you learn about the tool the more you use it and the more you are loyal to the company and want to continue usage."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is quite reasonable, and I would give it a rating of four out of ten."
"It is affordable for us because we have a limited number of users."
"The product is cheap."
"It is the most expensive tool."
"Start small with tokens. You can always buy more."
"Licensing could be cheaper."
"Qlik Sense and its pricing model can follow any scalability."
"I would rate Qlik's pricing four out of five."
"Qlik Sense is pretty good in terms of price."
"QlikSense offers a Hybrid environment architecture, which is very cost effective based on where the enterprise data resides."
"You will spend more time on educating your staff than licensing the product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Construction Company
18%
University
7%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise88
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Cloud Datalab?
Access is always via URL, and unless your network is fast, it would be a little tough in India. In India, if we had a faster network, it would be easier. In a big data environment, like when forcin...
What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Datalab?
It's for our daily data processing, and there's a batch job that executes it. The process involves more than ten servers or systems. Some of them use a mobile network, some are ONTAP networks, and ...
What advice do you have for others considering Google Cloud Datalab?
Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten. Google Cloud is very good. Once you go through the features of Google Cloud, it's a good idea to get a GCP certification so you have an idea of how it ca...
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows: 1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle - look for SAP...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qlik Sense?
It is not about performance. It is just about how expensive it is to implement.
 

Also Known As

No data available
QlikSense, Qlik Analytics Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Abbvie, Airbus, Barclays, BT Openreach, BMW, Daimler AG, HSBC, IKEA, Nationwide Building Society, Royal Mail Group, Sanofi, Siemens, Wendy'', Vodafone, Volvo
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud Datalab vs. Qlik Sense and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,125 professionals have used our research since 2012.