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Apache Superset 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

Apache Superset
Ranking in Data Visualization
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Qlik Sense
Ranking in Data Visualization
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (2nd), AI Data Analysis (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Data Visualization category, the mindshare of Apache Superset is 4.5%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qlik Sense is 5.1%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Visualization Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Apache Superset4.5%
Qlik Sense5.1%
Other90.4%
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

MP
Founder & CEO at Lanzar
Have saved significant operational costs and streamlined alert-driven analytics with customizable dashboards
I definitely see some disadvantages in Apache Superset, particularly in the tagging feature which is not up to the mark, creating a little bit of mess for the administrators. We work with a Role-Based Access Control feature in the product. I assess this feature as good; they have permissions which are in more plain English, but there is a little bit of convenience missed out because if I have to create a super user apart from admin, I need to add all the permissions manually.
SW
Solution Architect at Predoole Analytics
Unlocks actionable insights through user-friendly analysis features
The self-service capabilities that Qlik Sense offers are significant. They offer natural language processing, allowing users to ask questions in layman language, and Qlik Sense will create charts and narratives automatically. Users can access any dashboard developed in Qlik Sense from familiar portals such as Okta or other company portals through embedding features. The integration with chatbots, particularly Microsoft Teams, allows users to access dashboards and ask questions directly within Teams. The collaboration feature enables users to share analysis by taking snapshots and tagging team members within the Qlik Sense interface, eliminating the need for lengthy emails or screenshots. The storytelling feature allows users to create presentations directly in Qlik Sense using dashboard analysis, making it easier to answer questions during meetings. The subscription feature enables users to receive charts and sheets via email instead of navigating to the dashboard, facilitating monitoring purposes. Qlik Sense offers alerting capabilities where users can set thresholds for KPIs and receive notifications when these thresholds are reached. The platform also includes AI/ML features for predictive modeling through a no-code component, allowing business users to create and deploy AutoML models without depending on data scientists. The Qlik Answers component, featuring generative AI capability, enables users to get answers from unstructured data including Excel, HTML documents, or Microsoft Word documents by creating a knowledge base. The user-friendly interface operates on a drag-and-drop approach, with Qlik Sense suggesting appropriate charts based on selected dimensions and measures. The associative engine capabilities allow data association between tables, implementing selections across related tables. The platform uses a color-coding system (white, gray, and dark gray) to show related, excluded, and unrelated data selections, providing insights beyond traditional BI tools.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The main benefit I have seen from working with Apache Superset so far is the speed from discovery and SQL to making charts and dashboards, along with its customizability."
"The benefits I have seen from using Apache Superset for the business team are that they have been able to look at the numbers easily, log into the portal, and look at different dashboards, which are at different granularities."
"The solution supports a rich set of charts and enables users to create their own dashboards."
"Apache Superset is a lightweight reporting tool with a lot of functions and flexibility, where you can build the dataset, build charts, and dashboards from the user interface."
"Apache Superset allows us to set up alerts; for instance, if the failure rate exceeds 1.5%, we receive an alert to address the issue with our integration partners."
"What I appreciate most about Apache Superset is its text search feature, including searching with small and capital letters."
"The no-code interface is the most valuable as it allows us to operate without constant support from the data engineering team, fostering a self-service environment."
"What I appreciate the most about Apache Superset is that it's free and easy to set up."
"The drag-and-drop dashboard builder is an intuitive interface for building dashboards from source reports."
"Qlik Sense helps us increase our organization's customer relationships and brings in more projects."
"All the visualizations have been so valuable."
"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."
"It has improved our organization by providing data to decision-makers in a safe visual environment."
"It is a great platform for third party extensions, has an open API, and there are no black boxes."
"We integrate Qlik as an EU-wide BI tool, and acceptance was never an issue due to the ease of use and user interface."
"The extensibility of the Platform with either internally created extensions or the use of third-party provided items really opens the platform up."
 

Cons

"One potential area for improvement in Apache Superset is that it must be installed in a dedicated Docker image, which could be a limitation since the goal is to embed Apache Superset in a product offering."
"Dark mode would be the main thing I would like; it does not really work because the chart text cannot be white in a dark mode setup, so it is not feasible."
"I definitely see some disadvantages in Apache Superset, particularly in the tagging feature which is not up to the mark, creating a little bit of mess for the administrators."
"I definitely see some disadvantages in Apache Superset, particularly in the tagging feature which is not up to the mark, creating a little bit of mess for the administrators."
"Building a full-fledged product or software as a service might be cumbersome due to performance limitations."
"The platform's reporting feature needs enhancement."
"Apache Superset could be improved by enhancing its interactivity and engagement capabilities."
"When comparing Apache Superset with Elasticsearch and Solar Search, it lacks some features that come with Elasticsearch, such as Kibana."
"There is no downside."
"Dates. My goodness, working with dates in set analysis can be a nightmare! Much room for improvement."
"It needs continued improvement on its visualizations and content customization."
"Appearance could be enhanced, especially when compared to Tableau or Power BI."
"Being able to share and modifying on the fly can be improved."
"Visually, Qlik Sense has some bugs that prevents the user from being able to customize fonts and certain layouts."
"I wish the product had the ability for slightly more customization."
"I am not really a fan of the set analysis. It's its own language that doesn't quite make a whole lot of sense to me at this point. I wish it were more intuitive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Apache Superset is open-source and free."
"Apache Superset has a three-year licensing model."
"Apache Superset is an open-source solution."
"The price of Apache Superset is less than some of its competitors."
"I would rate Qlik's pricing four out of five."
"Start small with tokens. You can always buy more."
"Licensing: Review the named model and move towards a usage model (e.g., cores, memory, computers, API calls, etc.)."
"The cost is not bad considering the flexibility and support you receive from Qlik. I believe it is worth the cost."
"Licensing is quite good, easy, but slightly expensive."
"The license mechanism of Qlik is quite complicated and not exchangeable. Such as 2016, they charge licenses by token, 1500$ for a token / 1 user. 2018: they change to 2 kinds of licenses: professional 1500$ / user, analyzer 800$ / user. 2019: they support subscription with 70$ Monthly for professional, 40$ monthly for analyzers, but for those you’re using perpetual licenses, they don't support acquiring more subscription licenses. The maintenance fee yearly are also high, 20% of the perpetual license."
"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."
"We have 20 licenses for Qlik Sense, and it is a special license that allows people in the whole company to use it over time. You buy this license and there are some minutes that can be used. For example, for the users that used only a few minutes in a month, we use this license. All the people have the ability to work with Qlik Sense. However, the number of licenses is not the number of users. The number of users that uses Qlik Sense is approximately 35 people."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise88
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Apache Superset?
I definitely see some disadvantages in Apache Superset, particularly in the tagging feature which is not up to the mark, creating a little bit of mess for the administrators. We work with a Role-Ba...
What is your primary use case for Apache Superset?
My major use case for Apache Superset is anything related to analytical dashboards.
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 Apache Superset vs. Qlik Sense and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.