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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
19th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (16th)
Qlik Sense
Ranking in Data Visualization
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Visualization category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Datalab is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qlik Sense is 7.0%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

Nilesh Gode - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to setup, stable and easy to design data pipelines
The scalability is average. We have not faced any issues with scalability. There are more than 500 end users using this solution in our company. It is an integral part of the daily operations. The usage pattern is not a one-time thing; employees regularly access and utilize the application. We use it at a global level with a scattered user base. This means that users don't all use the application at the same time. So, around 300 out of 500 employees use the solution, and this usage is spread out throughout the day.
Vishal_Goyal - PeerSpot reviewer
In-memory data storage boosts performance
The advantages compared to other BI tools show architectural differences. The main feature is that it keeps all the data in memory. It doesn't retrieve the data from data sources when I need it on the dashboard; instead, it quickly provides the desired data, making it very fast compared to other BI tools. The ROI is very high using Qlik Sense. It offers many benefits of BI. It is flexible from a developer's point of view, allowing me to accomplish many tasks compared to other BI tools. From an end-user perspective, it's convenient and performance-oriented, providing something meaningful from all the organization's data.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The APIs are valuable."
"In MLOps, when we are designing the data pipeline, the designing of the data pipeline is easy in Google Cloud."
"The infrastructure is highly reliable and efficient, contributing to a positive experience."
"Google Cloud Datalab is very customizable."
"For me, it has been a stable product."
"All of the features of this product are quite good."
"The most valuable feature is the drag-and-drop reporting."
"We can easily and quickly deploy new dashboards that reach a wide audience and any changes get reflected almost instantaneously for the users."
"Qlik Sense makes it very easy to build interactive presentations for meetings."
"All the visualizations have been so valuable."
"Qlik Sense provides features to manage and govern data, ensuring data security, accuracy, and regulation compliance."
"It allows you to create a new column using split on a current column, which we find very useful."
"Leveraging and reusability of already existing QlikView assets and knowledge."
"The extensibility of the Platform with either internally created extensions or the use of third-party provided items really opens the platform up."
 

Cons

"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."
"The interface should be more user-friendly."
"The product must be made more user-friendly."
"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."
"Reload failure alerts on the application within the Qlik Management Console without any use of extensions. QlikView is able to handle these alerts directly through the QlikView Management Console. We would appreciate a similar solution that is easy to set up and use. Simple formatting options in the pivot and straight tables such as adjusting line thickness and font selection and size."
"Areas for improvement include user-friendliness, self-service, and some of the visualization options for generating reports."
"More focus needs to be on data streaming/real-time data reporting."
"Some of the charts are still a bit basic and screen rendering on different sized monitors can be an issue."
"Technical support requires improvement. I would rate it around three out of ten. Basically, I think they lack in the support system."
"Mostly when it comes to the loading of the data and reload times of the reports, it could be better."
"I would like to see improvements in the Qlik Sense SaaS version, particularly in the front-end capabilities."
"It needs continued improvement on its visualizations and content customization."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is affordable for us because we have a limited number of users."
"The product is cheap."
"The pricing is quite reasonable, and I would give it a rating of four out of ten."
"Currently, our ROI is clear and concise decision-making. This timely addition will easily add $15 million to our bottom line in 2017."
"You will spend more time on educating your staff than licensing the product."
"The costs can initially become quite high. Make sure you have a clear understanding of who will truly use the product as opposed to someone that will simply receive the end report."
"Licensing: Review the named model and move towards a usage model (e.g., cores, memory, computers, API calls, etc.)."
"The new licensing model is much better."
"The product is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"Costs are a little high on the license/token side. However, if you look at the TCO, it is not too bad, particularly against Power BI."
"Licensing can start to get expensive, but compared to other tools in this space it is about average."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
17%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Cloud Datalab?
Google Cloud Datalab is very customizable.
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 ...
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 do you like most about Qlik Sense?
The most valuable features of Qlik Sense are its speed and seamless development of web technologies.
 

Also Known As

No data available
QlikSense
 

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: July 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.