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Looker Studio vs Qlik Sense comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cognos
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (7th), Reporting (4th)
Looker Studio
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (13th)
Qlik Sense
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (2nd), Embedded BI (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Reporting
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

KARTHIKEYAN THANGARASU - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 6, 2022
A strong reporting tool with good dashboard functionality, but lacking a configurable UI
We use this solution to create and deploy security packages throughout the network, as well as system analysis reporting This solution has provided us with a single control tool, which allows us to easily provide reports for the different sections of our banking environment. The dashboarding…
JP
Aug 14, 2019
Easy to use and offers a plethora of query sources
We primarily use this solution for business reporting This has improved our organization by allowing people to see their data and develop visualizations themselves. The most valuable features of this solution are its ease of use and the plethora of query sources. There is a significant degree…
KB
Jan 12, 2024
User-friendly, ensures security and governance, and is accessible on multiple devices
I would like to see improvements in the Qlik Sense SaaS version, particularly in the front-end capabilities. Currently, the visualization options are limited, allowing only basic actions like adding dimensions and measures with restrictions on the number. Compared to older products like QlikView, there is room for development in enhancing the features available on the front end for widgets and visualizations. Enhancing the formatting options in the SaaS component and making it more visually appealing would be a nice enhancement. Additionally, expanding the library with more versatile widgets would be beneficial. While you can add components from a marketplace or develop your own, there is a need for Java front-end developers to handle this aspect of Qlik Sense.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"In terms of stability, I think that Cognos is more stable than Tableau and Power Bi because of its framework manager concept that allows us to import metadata and store it in the framework manager."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools."
"A positive feature is Report Studio, where we create beautiful, complex reports."
"The tool can join data from different sources, write back to databases, generate alerts, and be customized to our preferences. It's an enterprise BI tool that's more powerful than just visualization tools like Power BI or Tableau."
"The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools."
"If they want dashboarding, storytelling, and analyzing why KPIs are met or not, then Cognos is a better candidate than Qlik Sense."
"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."
"The most valuable features of IBM Cognos are governance and enterprise reporting."
"The ability to integrate with a great variety of data sources."
"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."
"The ability to design complex data models and equations."
"The product's initial setup phase is very simple."
"This has improved our organization by allowing people to see their data and develop visualizations themselves."
"I am impressed with the tool's scheduling mechanism, refresh mechanism, and different types of charts."
"I find it favorable regarding speed of development, ease of building, and flexibility."
"The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. We observed the progress of our portfolio from last week to the current week, allowing us to compare revenues."
"The most valuable feature is the mobile platform."
"The ETL component allows us to pull from many different sources, making pulling data in easy."
"It has improved our organization by providing data to decision-makers in a safe visual environment."
"From siloed reports, we went to a centralized knowledge hub, combining cross-functional data, and helping decision-makers see the data as a whole, therefore making more informed decisions."
"The UI is very easy to use, with drag and drop self-service analytics."
"The ability to access data from multiple sources in one application. This has been invaluable."
"Qlik Sense has given us visibility into our data to make informed decisions."
"The most valuable feature is flexibility."
 

Cons

"The tool needs to improve the connectivity since I see that, at times, there is a need to increase the memory in the database."
"I need improvements, particularly with the Framework Manager, which has an outdated user interface from older versions like IBM Cognos 10 or 8. Additionally, the Event Studio, which offered great flexibility in previous versions, is no longer available in IBM Cognos Analytics 12. These are areas that could be improved to enhance the product."
"The technical support team’s response time is slow and needs to be improved."
"Most of our company's customers want to be able to deploy IBM Cognos on a web application and use it as a desktop application, which is not possible currently."
"IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner."
"Need improvement towards Visualization."
"Data modeling needs to be improved. We use the ETL process, and when we get errors, we then need to identify which structural change is required. The error messaging should be better. They should be descriptive rather than semantic."
"The charts and graphics are weak."
"The challenges with Google Data Studio are associated with the security part, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The tool has a lot of room for improvement. It's not very professional and allows for only simple tasks like indicating KPIs or quick calculations. It lacks a good calculation-based language like Power BI's DAX, making it less suitable for professional use. Additionally, the variety of visualization tools is limited, and customization options are restricted."
"It's not yet a replacement for a complete BI tool."
"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."
"There are issues with integration and I encountered limits and warnings, especially with my pivot table size."
"When you physically install a product on one machine instead of the cloud, you have a better visibility, best icon quality, etc.. It's more of an issue with how we are adapting to the transition. We are still in the early moments of using this tool, and we need to go deeper to discover some improvements."
"Other tools might be worth considering if you need more advanced features or support for a larger user base."
"The tool should come up with data modeling layer features that are present in other products like Power BI."
"Error handling is an area that needs to be improved."
"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."
"It's going to take 20 to 30 minutes to refresh sometimes."
"The SaaS offering is being enriched quickly in order to attract new customers to that space and encouraging existing customers to make the switch. The Enterprise solution is therefore lagging behind SaaS in features."
"My advice to others is to make sure they have a good technical team. We have found that a lot of the consultants go in and out of the business and sometimes you are left alone without assistance."
"I would like to see more native features from QlikView integrated into Qlik Sense."
"A valuable improvement for this solution would be the enabling of us to host dashboards for our customers."
"In my opinion, collaborative development of the Qlik Apps is a bit tricky and difficult in the Qlik Sense Cloud."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is averagely priced."
"The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."
"The licensing costs are a little bit higher for IBM Cognos. I don't think there is any additional cost apart from the licensing charges."
"It is pretty expensive."
"IBM Cognos price is on the higher side of the spectrum. However, with the features that it brings, such as correlation analysis, it's worth the money. They should look at the pricing more clearly because it's a little on the higher side."
"The solution is affordable."
"IBM Cognos offers competitive pricing similar to other BI vendors in the market."
"On a scale from one to ten where one is low pricing and ten is high pricing, I would rate this solution at eight."
"The cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."
"The tool is free."
"The solution is free but the Google Looker is expensive."
"The product is available for free."
"I think the tool is cheap because you don't need to pay anything for using the tool. However, when connecting and analyzing other data sources, you should consider where to analyze this information because Google Data Studio doesn't handle much data well. You must also consider how you will connect this data to it. In this case, you might need to hire DevOps or a data team to help with these issues."
"The new licensing model is much better."
"The cost is not bad considering the flexibility and support you receive from Qlik. I believe it is worth the cost."
"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."
"QlikSense offers a Hybrid environment architecture, which is very cost effective based on where the enterprise data resides."
"Licensing can start to get expensive, but compared to other tools in this space it is about average."
"Qlik Sense pricing and licensing is like that of QlikView. It's on the high side for a small company, but it’s competitive among its peers. Use of licenses (referred to as tokens) is a bit confusing. There is a login access pass for infrequent or anonymous access."
"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."
"Qlik Sense and its pricing model can follow any scalability."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
59%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
Government
4%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
8%
Educational Organization
54%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What do you like most about IBM Cognos?
The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools.
What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?
I need improvements, particularly with the Framework Manager, which has an outdated user interface from older version...
What do you like most about Google Data Studio?
The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. W...
What needs improvement with Google Data Studio?
The tool has a lot of room for improvement. It's not very professional and allows for only simple tasks like indicati...
What is your primary use case for Google Data Studio?
The solution is a visualization tool that helps to make dashboards.
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 wou...
What do you like most about Qlik Sense?
The most valuable features of Qlik Sense are its speed and seamless development of web technologies.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qlik Sense?
The product is reasonably priced. You need to pay 5,000 Norwegian kroner per user. Microsoft Power BI is slightly mor...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
Data Studio
QlikSense
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

More than 23,000 leading organizations across multiple industries use Cognos. Some examples of Cognos customers include BMW Financial Services, Quinte Health Care, Troy Corporation, Michigan State University, and GKN Land System.
Genesys, Shueisha
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 Looker Studio vs. Qlik Sense and other solutions. Updated: March 2020.
801,394 professionals have used our research since 2012.