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Qlik Sense vs SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs Tableau comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
6.3
Companies achieve quick and substantial ROI with Qlik Sense, citing cost savings, increased revenue, and enhanced decision-making efficiency.
Sentiment score
6.2
SAP BusinessObjects aids ROI through savings, insights, and integration, with fluctuating returns based on usage and data quality.
Sentiment score
7.1
Users see fast returns with Tableau, noting time savings and efficiency, though initial costs and adoption can be challenging.
In my organization, we moved from OBI to Qlik Sense due to limitations with OBI, resulting in very high ROI.
For most of my clients using the on-premises version of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, the return on investment is positive due to its affordability and ability to handle diverse reporting needs while automating information distribution.
I have seen a return on investment so far in the form of saved time and resources.
This saves a significant amount of time, particularly for reports that would have needed around fifty people.
The ROI of using Tableau extends to its seamless integration across various platforms, as it's from Salesforce and thus not limited to any specific cloud provider.
Tableau is saving me time, money, and resources, which I would rate as ten.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.3
Users appreciate Qlik Sense stability, community resources, and consulting services, despite mixed reviews on technical support response times.
Sentiment score
6.4
Customer service and technical support are inconsistent, with varying experiences in response times and issue resolution effectiveness.
Sentiment score
6.1
Tableau's customer service is generally rated positively, but response time and effectiveness can vary by region and support package.
While tech support is comprehensive, the stability of Qlik Sense means I generally do not need it.
Technical support requires improvement.
In Turkey, the consultant firms are very professional, and they support you.
I would rate their technical support as excellent.
I have experience with SAP technical support and have supported customers, including those in financial services.
Sometimes, they forward my ticket to the technical team, especially when my issue involves technical aspects that basis people may not be familiar with.
They provide quick email and phone responses and have Thai-speaking personnel.
There should be consistent standards for all users.
The technical support for Tableau is quite good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Qlik Sense efficiently scales with ease of adding RIM nodes, though licensing is costly, favored by large enterprises.
Sentiment score
7.7
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform excels in scalability and user support but may be complex for very high data volumes.
Sentiment score
6.7
Tableau is highly scalable, flexible, and integrates well but may face performance issues and license cost concerns.
It performs well in terms of performance and load compared to others.
Qlik Sense helps analyze data and can handle larger amounts of data compared to other BI tools.
It is easily scalable with Microsoft, with other services Azure and other tools they provide.
I rate the scalability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a nine due to performance issues related to optimizing parts.
Tableau is easy to use across various dimensions, whether on-premises or on the cloud.
The solution is fully scalable and performs well even with large datasets, provided there is proper supporting hardware.
Tableau is easy to scale.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Qlik Sense is highly stable with reliable performance, minor setup issues, but excellent support and consistent updates.
Sentiment score
6.9
SAP BusinessObjects stability varies; proper configuration ensures reliability, though some face issues with updates and integration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.3
Tableau is stable but may face issues with large data sets, updates, and network infrastructure, usually resolved by support.
The stability is very good.
When they tried upgrading from 4.2 to 4.3, they found it buggy in some reports, which was quite problematic.
The application hangs after continuous use due to the buildup of cache.
I rate the stability a five or six because Tableau updates very often with new versions or patches.
 

Room For Improvement

Qlik Sense needs enhanced statistical functions, data integration, ETL, customization, visualization, governance, efficiency, and user-friendly interfaces.
SAP BusinessObjects needs enhanced dashboards, integration, and flexibility, with improvements in performance, setup, support, and competitive self-service features.
Tableau struggles with cost, complexity, performance, and integration, needing better analytics, interoperability, and more user-friendly features.
Power BI has better visualizations and interactions with updates in 2023 that provide ease of use.
Providing an API feature to access data from the dashboard or QEDs could be beneficial.
There should be more comprehensive documentation and explanatory videos available to help clients understand and calculate capacity-based pricing, making it easier to predict costs before implementing Qlik Sense Cloud.
I've worked with other tools, for example, Microsoft Power BI, which is visualization-wise very strong.
SAP BusinessObjects is expected to be phased out by 2027 as reports are moving to SAP Analytics Cloud.
I would appreciate integration with Outlook as an additional feature in the future to make it closer to a perfect score.
We cannot send the entire Excel file reports via email within Tableau.
The product owner should enhance its benefits or clarify its role.
It sometimes requires extensive investigation to determine why the data does not appear correctly.
 

Setup Cost

Qlik Sense offers competitive pricing with flexible, scalable licensing, offsetting initial costs for enterprises considering its fast implementation.
SAP BusinessObjects offers robust features with flexible but costly licensing, less price-competitive compared to alternatives like Microsoft Power BI.
Enterprise buyers should weigh Tableau's pricing models and costs against its features, ROI, and competitors like Power BI.
It is just about how expensive it is to implement.
Compared to Power BI, it is definitely costly.
Among the BI tools and data analytics tools, Qlik is the most expensive.
The price is very competitive and reliable.
I rate the pricing for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a seven or eight.
Power BI as a much cheaper alternative.
A license for 150 users costs around $17,000 USD per year.
Looker is known to be quite expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Qlik Sense excels in user-friendly data visualization, rapid integration, and insightful analytics with advanced features like GeoAnalytics and AI.
SAP BusinessObjects offers robust features like ad-hoc reporting, multi-source connectivity, and self-service for enhanced data visualization and decision-making.
Tableau provides intuitive data visualization, seamless integration, and scalability, enabling easy report creation and insightful decision-making with minimal IT support.
From an end-user perspective, it's convenient and performance-oriented, providing something meaningful from all the organization's data.
It is a single product that I can use as an ETL database, BI, and more.
It has an interactive interface with Qlik graphs, pivot, and interactivity, which makes it easier to use than other tools.
For calculations, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform outperforms all other tools such as Power BI and Tableau, showing more accuracy, reliability, and flexibility compared to all other BI tools worldwide.
The best feature about it for me, and for them, is the fact that you have a universe that is well made.
The important features include a dashboard and reporting capabilities through SAP Analytics Cloud, which I consider to be a better version than the initial BusinessObjects platform.
A significant feature for me is the real-time connection to data sources because it effectively manages large data sets.
Tableau serves as a stable dashboarding tool for higher management, aiding in quick decision-making.
Building hyper extracts and visualization capabilities make Tableau a robust tool for data analysis.
 

Mindshare comparison

Data Visualization
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Vishal_Goyal - PeerSpot reviewer
In-memory data storage boosts performance
The advantages compared to other BI tools show architectural differences. The main feature is that it keeps all the data in memory. It doesn't retrieve the data from data sources when I need it on the dashboard; instead, it quickly provides the desired data, making it very fast compared to other BI tools. The ROI is very high using Qlik Sense. It offers many benefits of BI. It is flexible from a developer's point of view, allowing me to accomplish many tasks compared to other BI tools. From an end-user perspective, it's convenient and performance-oriented, providing something meaningful from all the organization's data.
Declan Dempsey - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides efficient data reporting while needing easier deployment and improved interface
Users tend to put everything into Excel, though I try to discourage this. The best feature about it for me, and for them, is the fact that you have a universe that is well made. This means you don't have those months that get assigned. You can just get to the point and get a report very quickly. Unfortunately, in some ways, it's a double-edged sword because it becomes more of a self-service ETL, even for the reporting team. If you have a decent universe and you just want to quickly get something together, it's very usable. Compared to Click, you can drop those reports very quickly.
Nattawat Choosuwan - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time data connection enhances workflow and decision-making process
An area for improvement in Tableau is the Explorer license type. It is not as useful, and the product owner should enhance its benefits or clarify its role. Additionally, the frequent updates with many versions available for download can be confusing and could affect stability. They should avoid providing access to older versions on their website.
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Comparison Review

it_user6330 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 2, 2013
MicroStrategy vs. Tableau
After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Educational Organization
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
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...
What do you like most about Qlik Sense?
The most valuable features of Qlik Sense are its speed and seamless development of web technologies.
Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?
Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have be...
What do you like most about SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?
What I like the most about SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform is that it has significantly improved our decision-making ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?
I rate the pricing for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a seven or eight.
Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?
Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use....
What do you like most about Tableau?
Tableau is a fantastic tool that provides impressive dashboards and customized reports.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tableau?
Regarding pricing, while I cannot comment on specific user licenses, Tableau is indeed more expensive than Power BI. ...
 

Also Known As

QlikSense
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform, SAP BusinessObjects, Business Objects
Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Abbvie, Airbus, Barclays, BT Openreach, BMW, Daimler AG, HSBC, IKEA, Nationwide Building Society, Royal Mail Group, Sanofi, Siemens, Wendy'', Vodafone, Volvo
SRAM, Kennametal, Fairfax Water, British American Tobacco, Velux, and FedEx.
Accenture, Adobe, Amazon.com, Bank of America, Charles Schwab Corp, Citigroup, Coca-Cola Company, Cornell University, Dell, Deloitte, Duke University, eBay, Exxon Mobil, Fannie Mae, Ferrari, French Red Cross, Goldman Sachs, Google, Government of Canada, HP, Intel, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Macy's, Merck, The New York Times, PayPal, Pfizer, US Army, US Air Force, Skype, and Walmart.
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce, Splunk, Qlik and others in Data Visualization. Updated: June 2025.
862,543 professionals have used our research since 2012.