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Birst vs Qlik Sense comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

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
8.3
Birst offers substantial returns by providing visualization tools that impact the organization through enhanced sales and data access capabilities.
Sentiment score
6.2
Qlik Sense delivers high ROI through faster decision-making, cost savings, and enhanced insights, boosting operations and revenue growth.
In my organization, we moved from OBI to Qlik Sense due to limitations with OBI, resulting in very high ROI.
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.0
Birst's technical support is mixed; praised for responsiveness and customer service but faces challenges with time zones and reliance on forums.
Sentiment score
5.4
Qlik Sense's customer service is praised for technical support, though response times vary, with community forums and partners being essential.
While tech support is comprehensive, the stability of Qlik Sense means I generally do not need it.
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate technical support from Qlik as a nine on a scale from one to ten.
Director at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
In Turkey, the consultant firms are very professional, and they support you.
Business Intelligence Architect at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
Birst's scalability receives mixed reviews; some praise it, while others face challenges, costs, and complexity, yet cloud solutions impress.
Sentiment score
7.7
Qlik Sense is praised for scalability, efficiently handling large data sets and users, but requires careful licensing and server management.
It is easily scalable with Microsoft, with other services Azure and other tools they provide.
student at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Scalability and availability are very important for any company when we talk about the scalability architecture of Qlik Sense.
Director at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
It performs well in terms of performance and load compared to others.
Associate Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.3
Birst users experience varying stability, with issues during upgrades and large datasets, though some report smooth performance improvements.
Sentiment score
7.6
Qlik Sense is highly stable, with users praising its reliability, effective support, smooth upgrades, and robust functionality.
The stability is very good.
Associate Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Birst struggles with performance, customization, UI, visualization features, inefficiencies, and support, requiring enhancements and modernization in various areas.
Qlik Sense users seek better customization, real-time features, data handling, visualization, ease of use, cost efficiency, and improved support.
There should be more comprehensive documentation and explanatory videos available to help clients understand and calculate capacity-based pricing, making it easier to predict costs before implementing Qlik Sense Cloud.
Solution Architect at Predoole Analytics
Providing an API feature to access data from the dashboard or QEDs could be beneficial.
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Power BI has better visualizations and interactions with updates in 2023 that provide ease of use.
Business Intelligence Architect at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Birst offers market-standard pricing with a subscription model, providing comprehensive solutions and flexibility despite high entry costs.
Qlik Sense offers flexible, albeit pricier, licensing options praised for easy setup and quick ROI, but requires careful cost analysis.
It is just about how expensive it is to implement.
student at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Core-based licensing operates on a subscription mode, allowing unlimited users.
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Compared to Power BI, it is definitely costly.
Associate Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Birst provides scalable data visualization, cloud-based architecture, and integrates ETL, reporting, and dashboards for efficient data-driven decisions.
Qlik Sense provides intuitive dashboard creation, seamless integration, and robust data handling with powerful analytics and flexible development capabilities.
The true power is in the ability to connect with any database, get the data, and work with the data.
Director at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
From an end-user perspective, it's convenient and performance-oriented, providing something meaningful from all the organization's data.
Director Software Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
It has an interactive interface with Qlik graphs, pivot, and interactivity, which makes it easier to use than other tools.
Business Intelligence Architect at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Birst
Ranking in Embedded BI
19th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (31st)
Qlik Sense
Ranking in Embedded BI
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (4th), AI Data Analysis (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Embedded BI category, the mindshare of Birst is 1.3%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qlik Sense is 9.2%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded BI Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Qlik Sense9.2%
Birst1.3%
Other89.5%
Embedded BI
 

Featured Reviews

SK
Principal Engineering Manager I at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Offers dashboards and self-service reports. The report performance is very slow.
Dashboards and self-service reports. These are widely used by customers in the EPM domain Most of our customers are interested in dashboards and self-service reports. We are able to offer them these features with this solution. Customer support takes lot of time to get a solution The report…
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.
report
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882,594 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Marketing Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Performing Arts
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise87
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
QlikSense, Qlik Analytics Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Citrix Systems, Jive Software, SunnyD, Toshiba Medical Systems, Cisco OpenDNS, RB, Sunny D, Vertafore
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 Birst vs. Qlik Sense and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
882,594 professionals have used our research since 2012.