ELK Kibana vs Qlik Sense comparison

Elastic and Qlik are both solutions in the Data Visualization category. Additionally, 60% of Elastic users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Qlik users who would recommend it.

ELK Kibana

Read 4 ELK Kibana reviews

60% willing to recommend

Qlik Sense

Read 125 Qlik Sense reviews

9,427 Views
4,996 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

ELK Kibana

Qlik Sense

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ELK Kibana and Qlik Sense based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce, Splunk, Apache and others in Data Visualization.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Visualization Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Data Visualization

April 2026

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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

ELK Kibana

Average Rating

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Qlik Sense

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

125

Ranking in other categories

Data Visualization (4th), Embedded BI (2nd), AI Data Analysis (13th)

Featured Reviews

KentJones

Engineer at Raytheon Technologies

Visualization tools are optimized providing us with increased flexibility

One area that could be improved is security. Being an open source product, if you want to add security, if you want to add authentication, you've got to use a third party plugin that may or may not cost you, or alternatively upgrade to their subscription service, which is a downside as well. I think the types of visualizations are nice, but I think there's room to add more without having to go to third party plugins to do that. Just comparing the total number of visualizations that it provides compared to Grafana, you can see that it's lacking. The UI experience isn't as rich as it is with Grafana or certain other tools. I would like to see better authentication options, typical authentication options, like active directory and LDAP as well, just a richer UI with more graph type options.

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Shraddha Waghulde

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Some visualization tools are optimized for time series like Kibana, which allows you to do both, and we like the flexibility of being able to analyze different types of data."

"The automatic update of the graphs from a dashboard is very convenient."

"The optimization and flexibility of visualization tools."

"Having a tool where you can find logs that were generated months ago, and being able to search over a long period of time, is great."

"The stability of this solution is fantastic, as it has not failed us for months and we use it extensively."

"The user interface is very good, and the data visualization is simple and user-friendly."

"The automatic update of the graphs from a dashboard is very convenient."

"I am very happy with Qlik and the solutions they offer, as it allows for great flexibility and ease of use."

"The data is incredibly easy to share with colleagues."

"We can generate various graphs, various reports and we can mainly use it for dashboard related things, where we can create a dashboard with live data and make decisions based on this information."

"You can build a very nice dashboard and/or report very quickly (simple reports can be ready in a matter of minutes!) even if your data is scattered between different files or even platform (excels, DB, etc.)."

"Data-driven decisions are now easier."

"The reports are better looking than in QlikView."

"We began to see how our processes and other team's processes were negatively affecting the bottom line. We were able to provide tips to other teams to help improve their processes."

"It has cut the production time of creating reports from hours to minutes."

More Qlik Sense pros

Cons

"Populating data sometimes is also difficult for the user."

"This solution should allow the user to combine two indices into one graph and it should provide a unique count."

"Having a kind of wizard that would help you when you are typing your search would make it easier and quicker to refine your search, and ultimately find what you are looking for."

"This solution should allow the user to combine two indices into one graph."

"One area that could be improved is security. Being an open source product, if you want to add security, if you want to add authentication, you've got to use a third party plugin that may or may not cost you, or alternatively upgrade to their subscription service, which is a downside as well."

"Security could be improved thereby avoiding the necessity of a third party plugin."

"Mostly when it comes to the loading of the data and reload times of the reports, it could be better."

"This tool is difficult for novices."

"Dates. My goodness, working with dates in set analysis can be a nightmare! Much room for improvement."

"Qlik dashboards are not friendly with end-users, but they have been enhancing this shorted in some recent releases and next releases hopefully."

"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."

"If a team wants to keep track of source code changes, there is not an out-of-the-box solution for it."

"The user experience needs to be improved."

"There is an inability to effectively manage (pre)caching (scheduling, assigning for respective user groups, etc), especially without community extensions or uour own development."

More Qlik Sense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"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 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."

"It is a little expensive for the Italian market. Normally, Qlik Sense has two types and costs. The medium cost is around 700 euros per year."

"The cost is not bad considering the flexibility and support you receive from Qlik. I believe it is worth the cost."

"For on-premise enterprise users, a number of additional features come at a premium cost."

"Know your needs when going into the purchasing decision."

"Licensing can start to get expensive, but compared to other tools in this space it is about average."

"The product is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

More Qlik Sense pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	34
Midsize Enterprise	40
Large Enterprise	88

Questions from the Community

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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...

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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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

Splunk Enterprise Security vs ELK Kibana

Compared 37% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs ELK Kibana

Compared 23% of the time

Oracle Analytics Cloud vs ELK Kibana

Compared 13% of the time

GoodData vs ELK Kibana

Compared 12% of the time

More ELK Kibana Competitors

Apache Superset vs Qlik Sense

Compared 7% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Qlik Sense

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Qlik Sense

Compared 5% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Qlik Sense

Compared 3% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs Qlik Sense

Compared 3% of the time

More Qlik Sense Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Data Visualization

April 2026

Download ELK Kibana product report

Buyer's Guide

Qlik Sense

April 2026

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Also Known As

No data available

QlikSense, Qlik Analytics Platform

Overview

Kibana lets you visualize your Elasticsearch data and navigate the Elastic Stack, so you can do anything from learning why you're getting paged at 2:00 a.m. to understanding the impact rain might have on your quarterly numbers.

Elastic

Qlik Sense offers drag-and-drop dashboard creation, multi-data source integration, and self-service analytics. Users benefit from associative data modeling and real-time insights. The platform enhances quick deployment across any device with its flexibility and ease of use.

Qlik Sense provides rapid dashboard creation and seamless multi-data source integration, supporting real-time analytics and high-speed ETL capabilities. Users enjoy advanced visualizations and natural language processing within an intuitive interface. The solution's in-memory engine ensures fast data processing while offering flexibility and quick deployment on all devices. Its open API facilitates extensive customization and integration with chatbots and third-party extensions.

What are the key features of Qlik Sense?

Rapid Dashboard Creation: Enables quick creation of insightful dashboards using a drag-and-drop interface.
Multi-Data Source Integration: Supports seamless integration across various data sources for comprehensive analysis.
Self-Service Analytics: Empowers users with intuitive tools for independent data exploration and insights generation.
Associative Data Modeling: Enhances understanding of complex datasets and relationships.
Advanced Visualizations: Offers sophisticated visual options to present data clearly and engagingly.
Real-Time Insights: Provides up-to-the-minute data analysis capabilities.
Open API Integration: Allows extensive customization and integration with third-party tools.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Fast Deployment: Enjoys rapid setup and integration across devices, facilitating immediate data access.
Enhanced Flexibility: Customization options allow tailored solutions that meet specific user needs.
Comprehensive Integration: Capable of integrating multiple data sources, improving analytical scope.
Improved Data Accessibility: Offers easy access and understanding of complex data.
Automation Efficiency: Streamlines reporting and analytics tasks, boosting productivity.

In industries such as finance and sales, Qlik Sense enables interactive data analyses and dashboard creation across departments. It supports business intelligence for financial reporting, sales analysis, and decision-making. By automating reporting and combining data from multiple sources, it facilitates users in generating insights and enhancing data accessibility for informed business decisions.

Qlik

Sample Customers

Sprint, Grab, Volkswagen, Autopilot, Voyages-SNCF.com, Just Eat, Accenture, Dell, Verizon Wireless, Kaidee, Green Man Gaming, Compare Group, Tango, Quizlet

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 Salesforce, Splunk, Apache and others in Data Visualization. Updated: April 2026.

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