Looker Studio vs Microsoft Power BI vs Qlik Sense comparison

The compared Google and Microsoft solutions aren't in the same category. Google is ranked #12 in RT , with an average rating of 7.6, and holds a 2.5% mindshare in the category. Microsoft is ranked #1 in BIT , with an average rating of 8.2, and holds a 8.1% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Looker Studio

Read 16 Looker Studio reviews

2,763 Views
1,575 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Microsoft Power BI

Read 331 Microsoft Power BI reviews

30,090 Views
12,337 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Qlik Sense

Read 125 Qlik Sense reviews

9,427 Views
4,996 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Looker Studio

Microsoft Power BI

Qlik Sense

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Looker Studio, Microsoft Power BI, and Qlik Sense based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, Domo and others in Reporting.

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

Buyer's Guide

Reporting

April 2026

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Helped 896,202 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

Reporting Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Looker Studio	2.5%
Tableau Enterprise	14.5%
Microsoft Power BI	14.1%
Other	68.9%

Reporting

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Power BI	8.1%
Tableau Enterprise	6.2%
Amazon QuickSight	3.3%
Other	82.4%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Data Visualization Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qlik Sense	5.2%
Tableau Enterprise	10.3%
Domo	4.2%
Other	80.3%

Data Visualization

Featured Reviews

Heron Ziegel

Project Engineer at Quartz Consulting Group

Has supported quick dashboard creation and data sharing but lacks tools for managing multiple reports efficiently

We integrated Looker Studio with other platforms in our data ecosystem; we tried integrating with Sheets, and that went okay, but it could have been better. It could have been better because it needed a very specific format to read the data, so we had to reformat the sheet file. Looker Studio was mostly just helpful in that it provided live updating charts for tracking performance indicators in the organization. Integrating with a database was very difficult because there wasn't a lot of feedback for what was going wrong with the connection. I don't remember if we reached out to support. I didn't personally reach out, but my boss may have. I didn't reach out to support, so I do not have experience with it to rate it. We worked with the free version of Looker Studio initially, and we upgraded at some point to the pro version; I don't remember if we actually paid for it or if it was just a free trial. The pricing was reasonable. I remember doing a price comparison, and it was pretty reasonable, but it did have fewer features than a lot of other software, which was okay for a comparable price but a little cheaper.

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Hemanthreddy Vakiti

Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Interactive dashboards have transformed restaurant data into faster daily business decisions

Microsoft Power BI has many features and there is not a lot to improve. However, the licensing can be confusing. When deciding between Pro and Premium, I find it difficult to distinguish what features are offered by Pro and what features are offered by Premium, including the particular differences to choose between both licensing models. Additionally, some features such as DAX, which I mentioned previously, involve DAX calculations and complex data modeling, which are somewhat advanced and not easily understandable. Prior knowledge is required or you need to go through the documentation. If the documentation is made comprehensive so that anyone with no knowledge on DAX can easily use it by going through the documentation, it would be really helpful. Additionally, if the integration with non-Microsoft tools is improved and performance is optimized, then Microsoft Power BI can become a top-ranked visualization tool. The user experience with Microsoft Power BI is quite good. The intuitive user interface makes it easy for both technical and non-technical users to create reports. However, only the advanced features are somewhat complex, and if the documentation is improved, it can be easily accessible.

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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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The fact that Looker Studio is free and has a free tier was probably the biggest benefit; it is very accessible and not too difficult to use."

"The ability to design complex data models and equations."

"I am impressed with the tool's scheduling mechanism, refresh mechanism, and different types of charts."

"The integration with Excel and Google Sheets is a valuable feature, making it easy to access and visualize data."

"The ability to integrate with a great variety of data sources."

"This has improved our organization by allowing people to see their data and develop visualizations themselves."

"This is a great tool if your organization leverages other sets of Google tools and needs some quick ideas that are a prettier and more interactive than Google Analytics."

"We previously used Microsoft Power BI, but Google is better."

More Looker Studio pros

"Microsoft BI is a complete tool, it has all the functions needed for its purpose."

"Power BI reduced time to develop and deployment projects."

"Helped identify bad data, enabling the corrections needed to the data for management."

"Power BI is a great tool for analytics; it is useful if you have a requirement to create a dashboard with self-service capability, along with KPIs, and you want to drill down to the data details."

"Microsoft BI is stable."

"The solution is easy to use."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft BI are its intuitiveness and ease to use."

"Over the last six years, Microsoft Power BI has evolved, matured, has brought in a lot of new features."

More Microsoft Power BI pros

"The most valuable features of Qlik Sense are its speed and seamless development of web technologies."

"Data collection, cleaning, transforming, and visualization become convenient, easy, and quick, consequently business users can make use of data by the fastest way and transform into better data-centric mindsets."

"The UI is very easy to use, with drag and drop self-service analytics."

"It uses an associative engine + an in-memory environment: I don't have to calculate hypercubes."

"The mapping capabilities within the GeoAnalytics extension have been a game changer."

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

"Faster time to delivery utilizing useful charts and graphs, which allows for on-demand generation of analytical data in tables, graphs, and charts."

"The most valuable feature is the mobile platform."

More Qlik Sense pros

Cons

"Other tools might be worth considering if you need more advanced features or support for a larger user base."

"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."

"From the perspective of infrastructure, I cannot provide a valuable opinion on the ease of use and customization options of Looker Studio."

"The tool should improve on live data integration for quicker data reflection."

"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."

"When you physically install a product on one machine instead of the cloud, you have a better visibility, best icon quality, etc.. It's more of an issue with how we are adapting to the transition."

"Panels are not as easy to use as other data extraction UIs."

"I would appreciate improvements in the data modeling features, as it's not straightforward, and it's not what people in analytics are used to."

More Looker Studio cons

"We would like it if they added more Python libraries in the Power BI service. For Power BI service right now, you can use Python, but it is limited to a few libraries or a few packages from Python."

"From an improvement perspective, I think if the Power BI developers of that platform would really focus on being more detailed and specific on the error messages, it would help a lot of developers troubleshoot and maintain the report ECT or the dashboard ECT."

"Because of performance issues and because we're unable to do all the aggregation, I rate this solution six out of 10."

"If I have to update data automatically, where I have to pin the gateway, it doesn't update. There is a scheduled refresh functionality so that it refreshes automatically, but I find it very hard to make it work."

"The solution could benefit by allowing deeper data analytics."

"Power BI could be improved by implementing more options for data integration. Nowadays, the cloud takes care of scalability and security."

"A few features available in Tableau are not available in Power BI. For example. Tableau has the ability to make up the physical layer and all other stuff at runtime. In Power BI, we have to develop a proper physical layer to connect it. The limitation that we normally face is related to the direct query mode. When it comes to the direct query mode, most of the functionality is not working, which is an issue for us. We have to use the direct query mode frequently because the client needs real-time data. They should work on this limitation. There are a lot of other technical things that need to be improved. I am also following the Power BI platform and Microsoft Support Center platform on the web where users have put their requirements. Microsoft is also working on improving this solution. In every update, they add new features to this solution."

"Microsoft BI can improve some of the visual level filters or visual functionality, that are available in other BI tools, such as Tableau or Qlik Sense."

More Microsoft Power BI cons

"Even though a huge set of learning material is available, anyone starting his/her journey on learning the software doesn't even know where to start it. The so-called Continous Classroom service is not cheap, but there are many free tutorials, they are not sorted or enlisted adequately though."

"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."

"It's going to take 20 to 30 minutes to refresh sometimes."

"Unless you pay a premium for Priority support the experience is not great."

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

"I would like to see more native features from QlikView integrated into Qlik Sense."

"The tools perform very well but there is the inconvenience of being bound to only use Qlik tools in order to read your data."

"The security rules should be made easier to use."

More Qlik Sense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is free but the Google Looker is expensive."

"I think the tool is cheap because you don't need to pay anything for using the tool. However, when connecting and analyzing other data sources, you should consider where to analyze this information because Google Data Studio doesn't handle much data well. You must also consider how you will connect this data to it. In this case, you might need to hire DevOps or a data team to help with these issues."

"The cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."

"The product is available for free."

"The tool is free."

"It depends upon the tier of your Office 365 subscription. On E5, which is a Microsoft Azure subscription, you get it for free. If you are on a lower tier, you can subscribe for $10 a month per user, which is really cheap."

"All in all, for the price, this is an excellent tool for helping your organization turn mounds of data into useful insights."

"I'm unsure about the exact cost, but the Pro license comes out to around $10 per user. There are also additional costs for custom visuals that you can pay for."

"There is a license for this solution and we purchase them annually."

"Microsoft BI requires licenses."

"Microsoft BI is not very cheap. A premium license costs roughly 5,000 euros a month."

"I would advise that Microsoft BI products are rightly priced and the licensing is easy to follow and to fulfill."

"It is part of our Office 365 license."

More Microsoft Power BI pricing and cost advice

"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."

"QlikSense offers a Hybrid environment architecture, which is very cost effective based on where the enterprise data resides."

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

"Currently, our ROI is clear and concise decision-making. This timely addition will easily add $15 million to our bottom line in 2017."

"You need to pay 5,000 Norwegian kroner per user. Microsoft Power BI is slightly more expensive than Qlik Sense."

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

"Licensing is quite good, easy, but slightly expensive."

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

More Qlik Sense pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user79932

Senior Manager - BI Head with 5,001-10,000 employees

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

19%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	136
Midsize Enterprise	59
Large Enterprise	171

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

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Google Data Studio?

I would appreciate improvements in the data modeling features, as it's not straightforward, and it's not what people ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Data Studio?

I used Looker Studio mainly for reporting, where I created multiple dashboards on it. I wouldn't say I made the most ...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Google Data Studio?

I confirm that we have a call regarding my experience with Zoho. Looker Studio is a good visualization tool, but I wo...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

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 ...

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

What needs improvement with Qlik Sense?

Everything depends on the use case, but I would prefer Power BI because of how mainstream it is. There is not much in...

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker Studio

Compared 14% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Looker Studio

Compared 10% of the time

RStudio Connect vs Looker Studio

Compared 7% of the time

Zendesk vs Looker Studio

Compared 6% of the time

QlikView vs Looker Studio

Compared 4% of the time

More Looker Studio Competitors

Amazon QuickSight vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 17% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 11% of the time

Domo vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 6% of the time

QlikView vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 2% of the time

SAS Visual Analytics vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 1% of the time

More Microsoft Power BI Competitors

Apache Superset vs Qlik Sense

Compared 7% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Qlik Sense

Compared 7% 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

Adaptive Insights vs Qlik Sense

Compared 3% of the time

More Qlik Sense Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio

May 2026

Download Looker Studio product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power BI

May 2026

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Buyer's Guide

Qlik Sense

May 2026

Download Qlik Sense product report

Also Known As

Data Studio

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI

QlikSense, Qlik Analytics Platform

Overview

Looker Studio offers seamless integration with Google products, supporting business visualization and collaboration through efficient data management and analytics, catering to teams aiming for quick analytics solutions.

Looker Studio combines diverse data source integration including SQL and MongoDB with powerful visualization and custom filter creation. Users find its visuals clean and its platform user-friendly, enhanced by collaboration features and pricing. It aids decision-making and is popular for tracking metrics and analyzing sales funnels. Despite its strengths, users seek faster report loading, simpler data modeling, and better interface usability. Advertising system limitations, delayed data reflections, and integration challenges affect performance. Security and stability improvements alongside a richer data modeling layer are desirable, with pricing impacting large organizations.

What are the most important features of Looker Studio?

Google Integration: Easily integrates with Google products for efficient workflow.
Diverse Data Sources: Connects to databases like SQL and MongoDB.
Custom Filters: Offers flexible filter options for tailored analyses.
Data Visualization: Enables powerful, clear visual data representation.
Collaboration: Supports team collaboration for shared insights.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Ease of Use: Accessibility and user-friendly operation for teams.
Decision-Making Support: Facilitates informed business decisions.
Flexibility: Adapts to different business analytics needs.
Cost-Effectiveness: Competitive pricing for budget-conscious teams.

Looker Studio supports business visualization for different industries, creating dashboards and reports for sales and marketing analysis. It's used to track metrics and sales funnels from sources like Google Sheets and BigQuery. Many companies integrate Looker Studio within web apps, providing data insights tailored to sectors such as e-commerce, finance, and more.

Google

Microsoft Power BI is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization. This tool stands out for its ability to merge and analyze data from various sources. Widely adopted across different industries and departments, Power BI is instrumental in creating visually appealing dashboards and generating insightful business intelligence reports. Its intuitive interface, robust visualization capabilities, and seamless integration with other Microsoft applications empower users to easily create interactive reports and gain valuable insights.

Microsoft

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

Genesys, Shueisha

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

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 Microsoft, Salesforce, Domo and others in Reporting. Updated: April 2026.

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