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Looker Studio vs QlikView comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 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

Looker Studio
Ranking in Reporting
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
QlikView
Ranking in Reporting
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
163
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Looker Studio is 2.5%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of QlikView is 4.0%, up from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
QlikView4.0%
Looker Studio2.5%
Other93.5%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Heron Ziegel - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
SG
Financial Controller with task of Business Intelligence Implementation at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Daily invoice analytics has become streamlined and complex data modeling is now simplified
We are not using analytics features and possibly predictive analytics and forecasting features in QlikView, although they are available. QlikView is very flexible, but we are currently using only tabular presentation of data because that is what we need. Presenting a large volume of data in QlikView with graphics can be overwhelming for the majority of people who want to see a lot of information in one picture. It would be beneficial to have AI or ML features in QlikView. However, I think they will decommission QlikView, and AI features are already available in Qlik Sense, so you would need to migrate to that platform.

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."
"Looker's ability to perform aggregation before visualization allows for effective data slicing and dicing."
"The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. We observed the progress of our portfolio from last week to the current week, allowing us to compare revenues."
"We previously used Microsoft Power BI, but Google is better."
"The ability to design complex data models and equations."
"The integration with Excel and Google Sheets is a valuable feature, making it easy to access and visualize data."
"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."
"The integration with Excel and Google Sheets is a valuable feature, making it easy to access and visualize data."
"The product’s most valuable feature is its ability to view the entire data available for analysis."
"The solution is fast."
"Data transforming with scripting, and the associative model that lets users browse data in an easy way, are the most valuable features."
"QlikView is an excellent tool, though expensive compared to other BI tools, it provides ETL capability allowing the building of a complete data warehouse within Qlik Sense."
"QlikView is flexible and allows users to create their own reports in a relatively short time."
"Uniformization of KPIs across all departments brings efficacy and effectiveness to coworkers in problem solving."
"Use QlikView for business, and Qlik Sense for BI developers."
"Customer service is outstanding."
 

Cons

"Panels are not as easy to use as other data extraction UIs."
"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."
"The tool has a lot of room for improvement. It's not very professional and allows for only simple tasks like indicating KPIs or quick calculations. It lacks a good calculation-based language like Power BI's DAX, making it less suitable for professional use. Additionally, the variety of visualization tools is limited, and customization options are restricted."
"Insisting on forums, blogs and community outreach in communications, and posting videos on an established calendar would be useful."
"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."
"Insisting on forums, blogs and community outreach in communications, and posting videos on an established calendar would be useful."
"The challenges with Google Data Studio are associated with the security part, making it an area where improvements are required."
"There are issues with integration and I encountered limits and warnings, especially with my pivot table size."
"I don’t know how much time has been lost or efforts duplicated because of a lack of all this."
"Licensing costs"
"They are coming up with a lot of improvements. However, the version control is not one of them, and it's not straightforward."
"It's difficult to manage big and complex data models, but the reason is that there isn't a semantic layer in QlikView, but not having a semantic layer is a good point in other aspects, like agile development."
"The system needs some technical expertise to set up and can be expensive, but once set up, it works well."
"Once your user base or applications get large you do need a powerful server with lots of RAM."
"Scalability really depends on the size of your data and QlikView server architecture. For the biggest data sets, it could become an issue at some point."
"QlikView has little success by itself, so we have to go with ERP, CRM, or some planning and estimation solutions, which means other costs besides the costs of implementing QlikView."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 product is available for free."
"The tool is free."
"The solution is free but the Google Looker is expensive."
"The cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."
"The setup costs for QlikView are fair as are the yearly maintenance fees. The licensing becomes a bit more expensive and requires some planning for onboarding."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one being low price and ten being high price, I rate pricing a four."
"Qlik is fairly high in terms of pricing."
"The pricing is too high compared to the other solutions on the market."
"Its licensing costs are moderate, but it can get expensive due to the numerous add-ons available like those for printing."
"My firm got the product at a cheap price, but in general, I believe that the product is a bit costly."
"It is expensive for small companies."
"The platform's pricing is considered quite expensive, particularly given the dollar-based pricing."
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business73
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise76
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Data Studio?
The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. We observed the progress of our portfolio from last week to the current week, all...
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 in analytics are used to. Specifically, most people using this visualization too...
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 of the usage of the connections because all the connections were based on flat f...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for QlikView?
I would rate the pricing for QlikView as not cheap, but it is reasonable.
What needs improvement with QlikView?
We are not using analytics features and possibly predictive analytics and forecasting features in QlikView, although they are available. QlikView is very flexible, but we are currently using only t...
What is your primary use case for QlikView?
The primary use case involves analyzing data on a daily invoice level with QlikView. Building metrics using simple language, similar to what you have in Excel, is what I have found most valuable in...
 

Also Known As

Data Studio
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Genesys, Shueisha
Canon, Gatorade, Amcor, Panasonic, Fila, Cambridge University Hospitals, Global Retail Bank, North Yorkshire Police department, Lanoo Group Publishers, and AonGroep Nederland.
Find out what your peers are saying about Looker Studio vs. QlikView and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.