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Pentaho Business Analytics 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.9
Pentaho Business Analytics enhanced efficiency and output but faced ROI calculation challenges compared to alternatives like QlikView and Tableau.
Sentiment score
6.5
QlikView offers quick returns and valuable insights despite perceived costs, challenging ROI calculation but often realized within six months.
The biggest return on investment is the time saving for the customer.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Pentaho receives mixed feedback on support, with strong community engagement but varying customer service and documentation quality.
Sentiment score
6.1
QlikView's customer service is praised for responsiveness, community support, and efficiency, though experiences may vary by location.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Pentaho scales well and fits organizational needs but may require admin expertise for complex environments and large data.
Sentiment score
7.0
QlikView is scalable with proper hardware, though high user counts may require infrastructure enhancements and favor Qlik Sense.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Pentaho Business Analytics is generally stable but has occasional Java caching, RAM, and subprocess issues with large databases.
Sentiment score
7.7
QlikView is praised for stability and robustness, with some resource intensity issues during heavy data processing but overall reliable.
 

Room For Improvement

Pentaho needs user interface, reporting, and visualization enhancements, along with better debugging, metadata management, and cost-effective licensing.
QlikView's outdated interface, scalability issues, and high costs drive users towards modern tools like Tableau, Power BI, and Qlik Sense.
Pentaho Business Analytics is hard to learn and not suited for initial users as it requires knowledge of operating systems, Java, and other technical skills.
In QlikView, I believe the improvement that should be made is to bring the costs down, as you'll have to be competitive with Power BI, aiming for at least a 30% reduction to stop the hemorrhaging to Power BI.
 

Setup Cost

Pentaho's Community Edition is cost-free, while the Enterprise Edition, offering enhanced features, can cost up to $250,000 annually.
QlikView's pricing varies significantly, with high setup and user costs compared to Power BI and SAP Crystal Reports.
Pentaho Business Analytics is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView and Tableau.
The license cost per user or per year for QlikView is about 500 Euros annually.
 

Valuable Features

Pentaho Business Analytics offers powerful ETL, user-friendly interface, customizable dashboards, and cost-saving, open-source analytics and reporting features.
QlikView offers dynamic dashboards, self-service BI, and rapid data visualization with its Associative Query Logic and user-friendly interface.
It is a stable product, and it can handle large datasets.
The best features in QlikView are rapid development, the fact that I can do what I want in QlikView, and full control along with ease of use.
 

Categories and Ranking

Pentaho Business Analytics
Ranking in Reporting
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (20th), Cloud Operations Analytics (5th)
QlikView
Ranking in Reporting
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
162
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Pentaho Business Analytics is 1.1%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of QlikView is 3.5%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Excels in handling unstructured data, helping organizations navigate through different storage systems
Pentaho can help organizations by providing them an insight of their unstructured data using one platform(Pentaho Business Analytics). The features are almost identical to other BIS platforms but to me, customers can benefit as it has a community version with most of its Enterprise features. It also has a free limited-period trial version. The other feature that I would like to share here is, that users have access to a complete spectrum of data from different sources with the system’s adaptive big data layer, which takes the source of the data into account. The software is built on an open architecture and can be integrated with multiple systems. However, Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics has been acquired by HDS which offers an Enterprise edition for organizations that also need to meet product compliance.
Vishal_Goyal - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides ETL capability allowing the building of a complete data warehouse
I am working on Qlik Sense and previously worked on QlikView for data visualization and reporting purposes It provides a comprehensive data warehouse solution within Qlik Sense, eliminating dependency on external data sources and enhancing data visualization capabilities. QlikView is an…
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859,579 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
20%
Computer Software Company
10%
Educational Organization
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 Pentaho Business Analytics?
Pentaho Business Analytics is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView ( /products/qlikview-reviews ) and Tableau ( /products/tableau-reviews ). I usually use the community edition.
What needs improvement with Pentaho Business Analytics?
Pentaho Business Analytics ( /categories/bi-business-intelligence-tools ) is hard to learn and not suited for initial users as it requires knowledge of operating systems, Java, and other technical ...
What do you like most about QlikView?
If you correctly use the product for your use cases, it provides value for money.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for QlikView?
Qlik Sense's licensing metrics are flexible. They provide packages based on needs, like named licenses, developer licenses, or shared pool licenses. There is also a core-based license option for or...
What needs improvement with QlikView?
QlikView lacks self-service capabilities, which means users depend on the IT team to make changes. Qlik Sense offers a more modern approach with self-service features, allowing users to build dashb...
 

Also Known As

Pentaho, Kettle, Hitachi Pentaho Business Analytics
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cargo 2000 Lufthansa, Marketo, ModCloth, Cardiac Science, Telefonica, ExactTarget, Active Broadband Networks, and Brussels Airport.
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 Pentaho Business Analytics vs. QlikView and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
859,579 professionals have used our research since 2012.