Power BI vs. QlikView vs. Tableau: Which Data Analytics Tool is Best for Your Business?

We are living in a fast-paced world where data driven decisions are of utmost importance and that is where there is a prominent increase in the usage of data analytics and visualization tools. There are many prominent visualization tools in the market like Power BI, Tableau, and QlikView to name a few. However, businesses are always unclear about which is the best tool they need to use for their requirements. As investing in a tool not only incurs the monetary cost but also results in a long-term non-monetary cost because once one tool is being used and implemented, the migration process itself is more tedious. So, in this blog post we are looking at the head-to-head comparison of three majorly used tools and analyzing them on major pointers. We are considering important functionality pointers like data integration, transformation and visualization capabilities. This may help you to decide the best tools you need based on your specific business requirements.

1. User Interfaces and Ease of use

Power BI: Power BI is designed to be intuitive with a clean interface. It is very familiar to users who are accustomed to other Microsoft tools. Power BI Desktop basically promotes a drag and drop approach though some advanced calculations and requirements need knowledge of M Code tool and DAX (Data Analysis Expression) language.

QlikView: QlikView has a script-based environment and that makes its interface less intuitive compared to Power BI and Tableau. It needs a more technical approach to data modelling and to do any customizations. However, there is user friendly version named Qlik Sense which is slowly increasing in its market.

Tableau: Tableau is renowned for its drag and drop functionality and makes it so easy for users that they don’t need any training at all. It is also known for its data storytelling capabilities although using the advanced features requires some level of training.

Winner: Tableau leads here with regards to user friendliness although Power BI is following it very closely.

2. Data Integration Capabilities:

Power BI: Power BI has over 120 in-built connectors that are cloud based or on-premises data sources. It also allows near live connections as well as data import mode depending on the data source and the requirement.

QlikView: QlikView also offers robust data integration capabilities with connectors to various commonly used data sources. But it requires little technical expertise to set up connections with those data sources.

Tableau: Tableau also has a lot of in-built connectors which allows seamless data integration. However, Tableau doesn’t provide connectors with some of the Microsoft products which could be a problem to business users who make use of the Microsoft ecosystem.

Winner: Power BI clearly leads this chart with its quick and seamless integration and the extensive list of connectors.

3. Data Transformation Capabilities:

Power BI: Power BI Desktop has an in-built tool called Power Query Editor which can perform robust data transformations without any bit of coding knowledge. It also helps with creating repeatable workflow for transformations to be applied, saving users’ time and effort.

QlikView: QlikView also enables powerful data transformations but using its scripting capabilities. Therefore, there is a steep learning curve for users to implement them.

Tableau: Tableau doesn’t provide much data transformation capability as it focuses highly on data visualization. Users can perform only basic data cleaning inside Tableau. However, there is a separate tool called Tableau Prep which is used for advanced data preparation that comes with an added cost.

Winner: Power BI clearly wins the race here as it provides amazing data transformation capabilities without any coding.

4. Visualization and Customizations

Power BI: Power BI has a wide range of native visualization and has the customized visualization available in its marketplace. Although some of the visualizations in the marketplace could be third-party visualizations, its storytelling abilities are not right with the ones that are offered by Tableau.

QlikView: Although QlikView also offers a variety of visualizations, customized visualizations require a fair idea in its scripting language. Unlike Power BI and Tableau, the focus of QlikView is not too much on visualizations but on Data Analysis.

Tableau: Tableau is highly regarded for its visualization capabilities more than anything else. Its storytelling capabilities are unmatched to any other major competitor tools. You can create complex customizations on visualizations with ease.

Winner: Tableau clearly wins this race with its great storytelling capabilities with Power BI is very close to it in the ranks.

When it comes to choosing the best tool for data analytics and visualization, Power BI is easily the winner with its ease of use, amazing data integration and transformation capabilities and the visualization it offers. QlikView could be viable choice for users who need to invest more in analyzing data in depth and has the luxury of managing its technical demands. Tableau reins when it comes to visualization and storytelling. So, if one’s focus is just on storytelling using data, they can go with Tableau as well. Overall, with regards to the criteria we have discussed in this blog we can easily conclude that Power BI is the winner due to its powerful low-code features and high data integration features. In the next blog post, we will also bring a few more operational criteria like pricing, scalability etc.

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