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Microsoft Power BI vs Pentaho Business Analytics vs QlikView comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Power BI is cost-effective, user-friendly, and efficient, enhancing BI capabilities and saving time and money.
Sentiment score
5.9
Pentaho Business Analytics enhanced efficiency and output but faced ROI calculation challenges compared to alternatives like QlikView and Tableau.
Sentiment score
6.4
Measuring QlikView's ROI is difficult; users note efficiency and insights, yet licensing expenses and quantification challenges persist.
In a world surrounded by data, tools that allow navigation of large data volumes ensure decisions are data-driven.
Power BI is easy to deploy within an hour, providing robust security against data leaks.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Power BI customer service is responsive and effective, but users frequently rely on forums for quicker solutions.
Sentiment score
6.8
Pentaho receives mixed feedback on support, with strong community engagement but varying customer service and documentation quality.
Sentiment score
7.7
QlikView customer service is praised for its responsiveness and efficiency, aided by an active community and technical support.
We have a partnership with Microsoft, involving multiple weekly calls with dedicated personnel to ensure our satisfaction.
The significant drawback I notice is that Microsoft's size makes it hard to get specific change requests addressed unless they involve a bug.
The support is good because there is also a community available.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Power BI is scalable, integrates well with Azure, but faces challenges with large datasets and concurrent users.
Sentiment score
7.2
Pentaho scales well and fits organizational needs but may require admin expertise for complex environments and large data.
Sentiment score
6.9
QlikView efficiently handles large data sets and scales well, though it requires substantial resources for medium to enterprise-level deployments.
With increasing AI capabilities, architectural developments within Microsoft, and tools like Fabric, I expect Power BI to scale accordingly.
You expect only a small percentage of users concurrently, but beyond a thousand concurrent users, it becomes difficult to manage.
As more data is processed, performance issues may arise.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Power BI is stable and reliable, excelling with smaller datasets but may need resources for larger ones.
Sentiment score
6.6
Pentaho Business Analytics is generally stable but has occasional Java caching, RAM, and subprocess issues with large databases.
Sentiment score
7.6
QlikView is stable and reliable, with minor issues arising mainly from hardware limitations and intensive data operations.
In terms of stability, there's no data loss or leakage, and precautions are well-managed by Microsoft.
It is very stable for small data, but with big data, there are performance challenges.
We typically do not have problems with end-user tools like Excel and Power BI.
It can handle large datasets.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Power BI faces criticism for Windows dependency, interface complexity, limited features, and challenges in integration and pricing.
Pentaho needs user interface, reporting, and visualization enhancements, along with better debugging, metadata management, and cost-effective licensing.
QlikView needs better scalability, visualization, user interface, self-service flexibility, mapping, predictive analytics, mobile responsiveness, and easier data modeling.
This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today.
Access was more logical in how it distinguished between data and its formatting.
Microsoft updates Power BI monthly based on user community feedback.
Pentaho Business Analytics is hard to learn and not suited for initial users as it requires knowledge of operating systems, Java, and other technical skills.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Power BI provides cost-effective pricing options, with plans ranging from free to $4,995 monthly, competing with Tableau and Cognos.
Pentaho's Community Edition is cost-free, while the Enterprise Edition, offering enhanced features, can cost up to $250,000 annually.
QlikView pricing includes server setup and user licenses, with costs varying by license type; careful planning can optimize investment.
I found the setup cost to be expensive
Power BI isn't very cheap, however, it is economical compared to other solutions available.
The pricing for Microsoft Power BI is low, which is a good selling point.
Pentaho Business Analytics is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView and Tableau.
 

Valuable Features

Power BI offers seamless Microsoft integration, data visualization, and self-service tools, enhancing data-driven decisions with flexibility and affordability.
Pentaho Business Analytics offers powerful ETL, user-friendly interface, customizable dashboards, and cost-saving, open-source analytics and reporting features.
QlikView offers dynamic dashboards and scalable self-service reporting with fast data integration for real-time analysis and visualization.
In today's data-driven environment, these tools are of substantial value, particularly for large enterprises with numerous processes that require extensive data analysis.
Within the organization, Microsoft Power BI is used to create dashboards and gain insights into data, enhancing data-driven decision-making.
The solution makes it easy for me to develop reports and publish them.
It is a stable product, and it can handle large datasets.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Microsoft Power BI is 26.4%, up from 25.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pentaho Business Analytics is 1.1%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of QlikView is 3.5%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Shoury Priyanshu - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates seamless data aggregation with some outdated visual elements hindering user appeal
Real-time data integration is an area for improvement. Although I've worked on several solutions involving real-time integration, it's not very user-friendly and often lags, especially with over a million data rows. This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today. There are challenges with scalability, requiring multiple pages in dashboards to manage these issues. Visualization could be improved as it appears outdated. Users, especially newcomers, find it unappealing and not user-friendly.
Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Excels in handling unstructured data, helping organizations navigate through different storage systems
Pentaho can help organizations by providing them an insight of their unstructured data using one platform(Pentaho Business Analytics). The features are almost identical to other BIS platforms but to me, customers can benefit as it has a community version with most of its Enterprise features. It also has a free limited-period trial version. The other feature that I would like to share here is, that users have access to a complete spectrum of data from different sources with the system’s adaptive big data layer, which takes the source of the data into account. The software is built on an open architecture and can be integrated with multiple systems. However, Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics has been acquired by HDS which offers an Enterprise edition for organizations that also need to meet product compliance.
Vishal_Goyal - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides ETL capability allowing the building of a complete data warehouse
I am working on Qlik Sense and previously worked on QlikView for data visualization and reporting purposes It provides a comprehensive data warehouse solution within Qlik Sense, eliminating dependency on external data sources and enhancing data visualization capabilities. QlikView is an…
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 4, 2015
Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho
1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
24%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
12%
Educational Organization
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
Is Power BI a complete platform or only a visualization tool?
Power BI is an advanced visualization tool oriented to big data with a very complete set of widgets to visualize info...
How does Oracle OBIEE compare with Microsoft BI?
Oracle OBIEE is great in allowing design and creativity per the individual needs of the organization. Dashboards are ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pentaho Business Analytics?
Pentaho Business Analytics is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView ( /products/qlikview-reviews ) a...
What needs improvement with Pentaho Business Analytics?
Pentaho Business Analytics ( /categories/bi-business-intelligence-tools ) is hard to learn and not suited for initial...
What is your primary use case for Pentaho Business Analytics?
I primarily use Pentaho Business Analytics ( /products/pentaho-business-analytics-reviews ) for data warehouses, and ...
What do you like most about QlikView?
If you correctly use the product for your use cases, it provides value for money.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for QlikView?
Qlik Sense's licensing metrics are flexible. They provide packages based on needs, like named licenses, developer lic...
What needs improvement with QlikView?
QlikView lacks self-service capabilities, which means users depend on the IT team to make changes. Qlik Sense offers ...
 

Also Known As

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI
Pentaho, Kettle, Hitachi Pentaho Business Analytics
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Accenture Adidas Aetna AIG Airbus Alibaba Allstate Amazon American Express Aon AT&T Audi Bank of America BASF Bayer Berkshire Hathaway Boeing Coca-Cola Comcast Cisco Coca-Cola Dell Disney Emirates Equinix FedEx Ford GE Google H&M Home Depot Honda IBM Intel JPMorgan Chase Kellogg's Kroger L'Oréal McDonald's Merck MetLife Microsoft Nike Oracle P&G PepsiCo Procter & Gamble Prudential Financial SAP Siemens Snapchat Spotify Starbucks Target Toyota T-Mobile Unilever Visa Walmart WeWork World Bank Xerox
Cargo 2000 Lufthansa, Marketo, ModCloth, Cardiac Science, Telefonica, ExactTarget, Active Broadband Networks, and Brussels Airport.
Canon, Gatorade, Amcor, Panasonic, Fila, Cambridge University Hospitals, Global Retail Bank, North Yorkshire Police department, Lanoo Group Publishers, and AonGroep Nederland.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, IBM and others in Reporting. Updated: June 2025.
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