IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs Qlik Compose comparison

IBM and Qlik are both solutions in the Data Integration category. IBM is ranked #26 with an average rating of 7.0, while Qlik is ranked #38 with an average rating of 7.0. IBM holds a 1.8% mindshare in DI, compared to Qlik’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of Qlik users who would recommend it.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Read 13 IBM Cloud Pak for Data reviews

2,186 Views
2,055 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Qlik Compose

Read 12 Qlik Compose reviews

1,345 Views
1,157 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Qlik Compose

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Qlik Compose and IBM Cloud Pak for Data offer competing solutions in data management and analytics. Qlik Compose is favorable for its cost-effective pricing and integration capabilities, whereas IBM Cloud Pak for Data stands out due to its comprehensive feature set and extensive analytics tools.

Features: Qlik Compose offers seamless data integration, automation of data warehouse creation, and robust ETL functions. IBM Cloud Pak for Data provides extensive analytics functionality, AI capabilities, and the ability to manage both structured and unstructured data.

Room for Improvement: Qlik Compose can enhance its analytics capabilities, expand its AI integration, and provide more comprehensive data governance tools. IBM Cloud Pak for Data could improve its ease of deployment, simplify its user interface, and offer more cost-effective pricing options for small to medium enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qlik Compose is recognized for its straightforward deployment and strong customer support. IBM Cloud Pak for Data, while more complex to deploy, benefits from scalable architecture suitable for enterprise-wide solutions.

Pricing and ROI: Qlik Compose is noted for competitive pricing and fast ROI, focusing on data integration capabilities. IBM Cloud Pak for Data, with higher initial setup costs, offers considerable ROI potential through its expansive features, appealing to those seeking a complete platform.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. Qlik Compose Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. Qlik Compose

September 2025

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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

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Ranking in Data Integration

26th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Virtualization (3rd)

Qlik Compose

Ranking in Data Integration

38th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qlik Compose is 1.0%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	1.8%
Qlik Compose	1.0%
Other	97.2%

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Michelle Leslie

Data asset management engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Starts strong with data management capabilities but needs a demo database

What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated. There are so many components to data management, and more often than not, people understand one thing really well. They may understand DataStage and how to move data around, but they do not see the impact of moving data incorrectly. They also do not see the impact of everyone understanding a piece of data in the same way. I would love Cloud Pak to come with a demo database that illustrates the different components of data management in a logical way, so I can see the whole picture instead of just the area I'm specializing in. It would be great if Cloud Pak, from a data modeling point of view, allowed us to import our PDMs, for example. It would be ideal to import and create business terms in Cloud Pak. The PEA would be great to create the technical data. The association between the business and the technical metadata could then be automated by pulling it through from your ACE models. The data modeling component is available in Cloud Pak. Additionally, when it comes to Cloud Pak, even though it has the NextGen DataStage built into it, there is Cloud Pak for data integration as well. Currently, I do not think we have a full enough understanding of how CP4D and CP4I can enhance each other.

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Sahil Taneja

Principal Consultant/Manager at Tenzing

Easy matching and reconciliation of data

The initial setup was easy for the data warehousing concept. But for a person who is new to ETL and warehousing concepts, it may take some time. If someone is familiar with these concepts, they could understand and learn the tool quickly. However, compared to other tools, the UI is complex. It would be helpful to have a better UI and documentation for new users. As of now, there is a challenge in learning the Compose tool for new users altogether. Qlik Compose was deployed on-premises. But the servers, like the SQL servers were maintained on the cloud—the managed instances.

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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

"The most valuable features of IBM Cloud Pak for Data are the Watson Studio, where we can initiate more groups and write code. Additionally, Watson Machine Learning is available with many other services, such as APIs which you can plug the machine learning models."

"One of Cloud Pak's best features is the Watson Knowledge Catalog, which helps you implement data governance."

"What I found most helpful in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is containerization, which means it's easy to shift and leave in terms of moving to other clouds. That's an advantage of IBM Cloud Pak for Data."

"IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines are the most valuable features of the solution."

"Its data preparation capabilities are highly valuable."

"DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is the Modeler flows. The ability to develop models using a graphical approach and the capability to connect to various sources, as well as the data virtualization capabilities, allow me to easily access and utilize data that is dispersed across different sources."

"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

"It can scale."

"I like modeling and code generation. It has become a pretty handy tool because of its short ideation to delivery time. From the time you decide you are modeling a data warehouse, and once you finish the modeling, it generates all the code, generates all the tables. All you have to do is tick a few things, and you can produce a fully functional warehouse. I also like that they have added all the features I have asked for over four years."

"One of the most valuable features was the ability to integrate multiple source systems that mainly used structured IDBMS versions."

"It's a stable solution."

"I have found it to be a very good, stable, and strong product."

"As long as you pick the solution that best fits with your requirements, you won't find that performance is a problem. It's good."

"There were many valuable features, such as extracting any data to put in the cloud. For example, Qlik was able to gather data from SAP and extract SAP data from the platforms."

"The technical support is very good. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."

More Qlik Compose pros

Cons

"The tool depends on the control plane, an OpenShift container platform utilized as an orchestration layer...So, we have communicated this issue to IBM and asked if it is feasible to adapt the solution to work on a Kubernetes platform that we support."

"The product is trying to be more maturity in terms of connectors. That, I believe, is an area where Cloud Pak can improve."

"The solution could have more connectors."

"One thing that bugs me is how much infrastructure Cloud Pak requires for the initial deployment. It doesn't allow you to start small. The smallest permitted deployment is too big. It's a huge problem that prevents us from implementing the solution in many scenarios."

"The technical support could be a little better."

"One challenge I'm facing with IBM Cloud Pak for Data is native features have been decommissioned, such as XML input and output. Too many changes have been made, and my company has around one hundred thousand mappings, so my team has been putting more effort into alternative ways to do things. Another area for improvement in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is that it's more complicated to shift from on-premise to the cloud. Other vendors provide secure agents that easily connect with your existing setup. Still, with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, you have to perform connection migration steps, upgrade to the latest version, etc., which makes it more complicated, especially as my company has XML-based mappings. Still, the XML input and output capabilities of IBM Cloud Pak for Data have been discontinued, so I'd like IBM to bring that back."

"There is a solution that is part of IBM Cloud Pak for Data called Watson OpenScale. It is used to monitor the deployed models for the quality and fairness of the results. This is one area that needs a lot of improvement."

"The setup cost is very expensive. The cost depends on the pieces of the solution I'm using, how much data I have, and whether it's on the cloud or on-prem."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

"I believe that visual data flow management and the transformation function should be improved."

"There should be proper documentation available for the implementation process."

"I'd like to have access to more developer training materials."

"When processing data from certain tables with a large volume of data, we encounter significant delays. For instance, when dealing with around one million records, it typically takes three to four hours. To address this, I aim to implement performance improvements across all tables, ensuring swift processing similar to those that are currently complete within seconds. The performance issue primarily arises when we analyze the inserts and updates from the source, subsequently dropping the table. While new insertions are handled promptly, updates are processed slowly, leading to performance issues. Despite consulting our Qlik vendors, they were unable to pinpoint the exact cause of this occurrence. Consequently, I am seeking ways to optimize performance within Qlik Compose, specifically concerning updates."

"It could enhance its capabilities in the realm of self-service options as currently, it is more suited for individuals with technical proficiency who can create pages using it."

"There is some scope for improvement around the documentation, and a better UI would definitely help."

"There could be more customization options."

"It would be better if the first level of technical support were a bit more technically knowledgeable to solve the problem. I think they could also improve the injection of custom scripts. It is pretty difficult to add additional scripts. If the modeling doesn't give you what you want, and you want to change the script generated by the modeling, it is a bit more challenging than in most other products. It is very good with standard form type systems, but if you get a more complicated data paradigm, it tends to struggle with transforming that into a model."

More Qlik Compose cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For the licensing of the solution, there is a yearly payment that needs to be made. Also, since it is expensive, cost-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten."

"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."

"It's quite expensive."

"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."

"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."

"The solution is expensive."

"IBM Cloud Pak for Data is expensive. If we include the training time and the machine learning, it's expensive. The cost of the execution is more reasonable."

"I don't have the exact licensing cost for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, as my company is still finalizing requirements, including monthly, yearly, and three-year licensing fees. Still, on a scale of one to five, I'd rate it a three because, compared to other vendors, it's more complicated."

"While they outperform Tableau, there's room for improvement in Qlik's pricing structures, especially for corporate clients like us."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is very expensive, I rate the solution a six."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

28%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

16%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

The setup cost is very expensive. The cost depends on the pieces of the solution I'm using, how much data I have, and whether it's on the cloud or on-prem.

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What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

My primary use case for Cloud Pak is that I am the reference Data steward for the Africa regions in the banks where I work. My main objective is to capture the reference data in Caltech or Data and...

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Which ETL tool would you recommend to populate data from OLTP to OLAP?

There are two products I know about * TimeXtender : Microsoft based, Transformation logic is quiet good and can easily be extended with T-SQL , Has a semantic layer that generates metat data for cu...

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What do you like most about Qlik Compose?

The most valuable is its excellence as a graphical data representation tool and the versatility it offers, especially with drill-down capabilities.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qlik Compose?

While they outperform Tableau, there's room for improvement in Qlik's pricing structures, especially for corporate clients like us.

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 44% of the time

Denodo vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 13% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 11% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 9% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data Competitors

Qlik Replicate vs Qlik Compose

Compared 34% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs Qlik Compose

Compared 14% of the time

Talend Open Studio vs Qlik Compose

Compared 13% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Qlik Compose

Compared 10% of the time

Denodo vs Qlik Compose

Compared 6% of the time

More Qlik Compose Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

September 2025

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Buyer's Guide

Qlik Compose

September 2025

Download Qlik Compose product report

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data

Compose, Attunity Compose

Overview

IBM Cloud Pak® for Data is a fully-integrated data and AI platform that modernizes how businesses collect, organize and analyze data to infuse AI throughout their organizations. Cloud-native by design, the platform unifies market-leading services spanning the entire analytics lifecycle. From data management, DataOps, governance, business analytics and automated AI, IBM Cloud Pak for Data helps eliminate the need for costly, and often competing, point solutions while providing the information architecture you need to implement AI successfully.

Building on the streamlined hybrid-cloud foundation of Red Hat® OpenShift®, IBM Cloud Pak for Data takes advantage of the underlying resource and infrastructure optimization and management. The solution fully supports multicloud environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud™ and private cloud deployments. Find out how IBM Cloud Pak for Data can lower your total cost of ownership and accelerate innovation.

IBM

Qlik Sense is a powerful business intelligence tool that offers a range of features to help organizations make faster and more informed decisions. Its primary use cases include operational and financial dashboards, self-service reporting, and centralized access to cross-functional reports. The solution is praised for its mobile platform, ease of use, data-sharing capabilities, and extensibility.

Qlik Sense has helped organizations improve data literacy, reduce time consumed in complex reports, and provide widely available MI to senior stakeholders. It also enables self-service analytics, improves data quality and governance, enhances collaboration, and reduces costs.

Qlik

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

Poly-Wood

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. Qlik Compose

September 2025

Free Report: IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. Qlik Compose

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