Looker Studio vs Qlik Sense comparison

Why PeerSpot?

The compared Google and Qlik solutions aren't in the same category. Google is ranked #9 in RT , with an average rating of 7.8, and holds a 2.5% mindshare in the category. Qlik is ranked #6 in DV , with an average rating of 7.8, and holds a 4.7% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Qlik users who would recommend it.

Looker Studio

Read 16 Looker Studio reviews

4,184 Views
2,720 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Qlik Sense

Read 126 Qlik Sense reviews

13,682 Views
7,662 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Looker Studio

Qlik Sense

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

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

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Reporting

October 2026

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Helped 917,433 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:

Categories and Ranking

Looker Studio

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Reporting (9th)

Qlik Sense

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

126

Ranking in other categories

Data Visualization (6th), Embedded BI (4th), AI Data Analysis (15th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. Looker Studio is designed for Reporting and holds a mindshare of 2.5%, down 3.1% compared to last year.
Qlik Sense, on the other hand, focuses on Data Visualization, holds 4.7% mindshare, down 8.2% since last year.

Reporting Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Looker Studio	2.5%
Tableau Enterprise	13.5%
Microsoft Power BI	12.6%
Other	71.4%

Reporting

Data Visualization Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qlik Sense	4.7%
Tableau Enterprise	9.5%
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence	4.0%
Other	81.8%

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.

Read full review

Saranya Deepthi

Project Engineer at Wipro

Improved AI-driven dashboards have accelerated decisions but still need better visuals and faster refresh

Absolutely, nothing is entirely positive, and everything has both advantages and disadvantages. When I worked with Qlik Sense, circular charts were not available, which meant I had to look for alternative solutions that would be reliable or make the functionality work. There are some features that need to be added. Additionally, there is a limit to the number of fields that can be added in Qlik Sense, and I believe it would be beneficial if they increased the count for fields and columns. There might be requirements where an Excel file contains many columns that need to be displayed as visual representations to clients, and in those situations, it becomes very difficult and I have to use alternative approaches. When this problem arose, I used HTML code to write a solution and make it work. Qlik Sense should avoid these types of limitations in future updates. Another issue is page resolution. If a client wants to view the dashboard on a single page without scrolling, bar charts appear small and the values in KPIs, bar charts, scatter plots, and line graphs cannot be seen very clearly. Adding more extensions to make the job easier would also be beneficial. Improvements to reporting would be helpful as well, because working with large datasets makes reporting very difficult. Additionally, when data is refreshed, it cannot be completed in a short timeframe. Refreshing very large datasets can take one, two, or even three hours, so reducing the refresh time would be very useful for customers.

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

"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."

"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."

"Data Studio integrates seamlessly with other Google products, and we can use it with other APIs if we like."

"What I appreciate about Looker Studio is mostly the clean visuals, which is good, as I prefer a dashboard with a clean aesthetic rather than feeling sort of an old Windows type of dashboard."

"The solution is free so that is a good feature."

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

"Looker's ability to perform aggregation before visualization allows for effective data slicing and dicing."

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

More Looker Studio pros

"Qlik Sense has given us the ability to load large log files and provide analytics."

"Qlik Sense helps us increase our organization's customer relationships and brings in more projects."

"QlikView is highly manipulable, so you can build on top of the environment they already have to create your own solution for the problems you have."

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

"The most valuable feature of QlikSense is that you can capture the data without modifying it and then perform the ETL (extract, transform, and load) process."

"Now, their reporting can be done in a more ad hoc fashion with almost instantaneous results."

"Reporting is a valuable feature of the solution."

"Fast implementation, easy to use and allows users to make their own analysis in a very simple way."

More Qlik Sense pros

Cons

"Stability and scalability an be improved for a full ten."

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

"Looker Studio did not fit our needs for scalability."

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

"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."

"The performance of Looker needs improvement, particularly the report loading time, which is critical for business users."

"The challenges with Google Data Studio are associated with the security part, making it an area where improvements are required."

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

More Looker Studio cons

"Error handling is an area that needs to be improved."

"The communication with the solution's sales managers in Europe is very bad, making it an area that requires improvement. My company usually gets no response from the tool's sales managers."

"Qlik has a fast learning curve due to great online training resources (Qlik continuous classroom), but those are lacking the advance features like building extensions and using the API."

"The QMC needs more work. Some of the features should be available directly from the hub. Too many duplicates/publish. Intelli-sense when loading a stored qvd would help so much with remembering column names. The pop-up windows are too small when working in the QMC."

"Qlik application automation needs additional work and features."

"Qlik dashboards are not friendly with end-users, but they have been enhancing this shorted in some recent releases and next releases hopefully."

"The current visualization features feel incomplete compared to what's available with scripting tools."

"More focus needs to be on data streaming/real-time data reporting. This is currently too slow to use outside of very small data sets."

More Qlik Sense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The product is available for free."

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

"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 tool is free."

"I believe pricing is similar to other products in the same category, if you have it on-premise."

"We have 20 licenses for Qlik Sense, and it is a special license that allows people in the whole company to use it over time. You buy this license and there are some minutes that can be used. For example, for the users that used only a few minutes in a month, we use this license. All the people have the ability to work with Qlik Sense. However, the number of licenses is not the number of users. The number of users that uses Qlik Sense is approximately 35 people."

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

"Ultimately, the cost is low, and it implements fast. The limiting factor is how quickly your staff can keep up."

"Licensing can start to get expensive, but compared to other tools in this space it is about average."

"Qlik Sense and its pricing model can follow any scalability."

"The new licensing model is much better."

"Start small with tokens. You can always buy more."

More Qlik Sense pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Construction Company

Outsourcing 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	34
Midsize Enterprise	40
Large Enterprise	89

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 in analytics are used to. Specifically, most people using this visualization too...

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 of the usage of the connections because all the connections were based on flat f...

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 wouldn't say there's a specific feature that stands out in terms of tracking metri...

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 Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...

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 would recommend as follows: 1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle - look for SAP...

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

Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker Studio

Compared 12% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Looker Studio

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker Studio

Compared 8% of the time

RStudio Connect vs Looker Studio

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker Studio

Compared 3% of the time

More Looker Studio Competitors

Tableau Enterprise vs Qlik Sense

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Qlik Sense

Compared 4% of the time

Apache Superset vs Qlik Sense

Compared 4% of the time

OpenText Intelligence vs Qlik Sense

Compared 4% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence vs Qlik Sense

Compared 3% of the time

More Qlik Sense Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio

October 2026

Download Looker Studio product report

Buyer's Guide

Qlik Sense

October 2026

Download Qlik Sense product report

Also Known As

Data Studio

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

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

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, Plotly and others in Reporting. Updated: October 2026.

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