Looker vs QlikView comparison

Google and Qlik are both solutions in the Embedded BI category. Google is ranked #9 with an average rating of 6.0, while Qlik is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4. Google holds a 6.4% mindshare in EBT, compared to Qlik’s 9.2% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Qlik users who would recommend it.

Looker

Read 19 Looker reviews

2,307 Views
807 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

QlikView

Read 163 QlikView reviews

3,555 Views
1,244 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Looker

QlikView

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

QlikView and Looker are prominent competitors in the business intelligence software category. Looker appears to have the upper hand in data modeling flexibility and SQL integration, while QlikView offers robust in-memory processing.

Features: QlikView's key features include AQL (Associative Query Logic) for flexible data handling, powerful in-memory processing for fast data exploration, and an intuitive user interface for self-service BI. Looker shines with its seamless integration with SQL databases, its proprietary LookML language for crafting business logic, and robust data modeling capabilities that facilitate data sharing and insights.

Room for Improvement: QlikView faces challenges with scalability due to RAM constraints, requires significant IT expertise for setup, and relies on additional ERP and CRM systems to deploy comprehensive BI features. Looker could improve with enhanced visualization capabilities, expanded data source integrations, and better real-time analysis tools. The potential high cost of Looker may also deter smaller enterprises, and it lacks Excel connectivity, which some users seek.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: QlikView is mostly deployed on-premises, which requires significant IT management. However, its community support and technical assistance are strong. Looker is cloud-based, offering flexibility in deployment and broad accessibility. Its customer service is typically praised for efficiency, with communication channels that enhance user experience.

Pricing and ROI: QlikView can be costly due to user licenses and necessary infrastructure, though it offers substantial ROI through efficiency gains. Looker, similarly seen as potentially pricey for small businesses, justifies its cost with features and integration capabilities, often delivering ROI through deeper analytical insights and a subscription-based model.

To learn more, read our detailed Looker vs. QlikView Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Looker vs. QlikView

December 2025

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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

Ranking in Embedded BI

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

QlikView

Ranking in Embedded BI

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

163

Ranking in other categories

Reporting (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Embedded BI category, the mindshare of Looker is 6.4%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of QlikView is 9.2%, up from 8.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Embedded BI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
QlikView	9.2%
Looker	6.4%
Other	84.4%

Embedded BI

Featured Reviews

Kishore Jhunjhunwala

Sr Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

A cloud solution for operational reporting but is expensive

Some basic feature that is available in other reporting tools is missing. Looker has the ability to show more than 5,000 rows for operational reporting. Some reporting tools allow users to scroll down to see more than 5,000 rows, but in Looker, you have to download the entire dataset. Looker should consider adding a scroll-down option to allow users to view large datasets on screen without downloading them. Looker has some options for granting users access as viewers. However, viewers cannot download the entire dataset. Only superusers can download the whole dataset on the Explore screen. This is a big limitation, as you cannot give any user viewer access. You can give access to superuser access, which is a cost to the company.

Read full review

Morne Ayres

Managing Director at Hurricnae

Rapid development and flexibility transform commercial decision-making processes

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, considering that you're losing a lot of customers to Power BI. Reducing costs is the main improvement needed, as this is the biggest burden currently faced in the South African market, with Microsoft converting QlikView customers due to the perceived cost reduction. I am aware of several big corporations, such as Sanofi and Aspen Pharmacare, which have left QlikView due to cost issues.

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

"We can centralize all our data models."

"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability."

"From a developer's perspective, the way the functionality's being handled is great."

"Looker allows you to generate the most optimal SQL queries in a DC through UI actions. We had signed a contract with Google Cloud to use BigQuery. That was the primary reason we adopted Looker. It works better with BigQuery than any other BI platform. We also like how this tool was developed. It was designed with an eye toward microservices architecture."

"It is a pretty stable solution because it is a cloud-based product."

"The product is easy to use."

"It's quite effortless to navigate through various applications and review their updated data in real-time."

"With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability."

More Looker pros

"The most valuable feature of QlikView is the integration with other third-party tools."

"QlikView is a scalable solution that multiple users can easily use."

"One of the good thing is that you can integrate different data source technologies. So you can model your environment without having any of our views running."

"Scripting as per a customer's need, which is a pretty cool feature and not available in other tools."

"Easy to analyze data by click-through."

"The solution is fast."

"The language support is very good."

"It is useful to use a tool like this to have a view of data at a point in time. You can extract and create little data sets that you can store, and then over time, you can have a view for tracking changes. Especially when you work with a relational database or a database that's a production database, the data is dynamic, but if you use QlikView, you can take a snapshot of different datasets. In your own time, you can then get insights and report, build, analyze, and draw whatever you need from the data, which is quite useful."

More QlikView pros

Cons

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"Looker doesn't connect to Excel, which is a huge disappointment because a lot of data is presented in Excel. Also, it can't consume data directly from REST APIs, which is necessary. Looker needs to expand its horizons when it comes to data sources. The inability to connect to different data sources is hampering our use cases. Currently, it only has an ODBC connection that connects to a database. It needs to connect to other data sources, such as Excel, APIs, and different platforms."

"The integration with different databases must be improved."

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"The product does not have documented material."

"Stability needs improvement."

"The main area of concern in Looker is probably related to blending the data from the different sources, including the data present internally in the company and on the cloud."

"Sometimes, dealing with complex reports requires more effort, which could be really improved."

"QlikView certainly lacks in its ability to share visualizations or create visualizations easily."

"I really wish the application was easier to use in the development phase."

"The solution is quite costly."

"Better source data connectors."

"The user interface is old."

"Sometimes the filters are disappearing, and I'm not sure why this is happening."

"It is really old. We are moving towards converting everything into a Power BI environment. We want to have a self-service type of BI environment where different levels of users in organizations can log onto a portal and retrieve the data they need or get the necessary insights for decision-making that's important for them or their business unit. They have built a new version of QlikView called QlikSense, which probably competes with newer BI tools, such as Power BI, but they are far behind. That's why we are moving towards a newer tool that's easier to use and has more visualizations to represent the data."

More QlikView cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Looker usually depends on the solution's provider, but it is usually cheaper than the other products in the market. Looker is offered at different prices for different companies."

"It is cheap."

"It's not cheap, but it's not expensive for big companies."

"Looker is expensive and could be made better by reducing it."

"I do not have to make any payments to use the solution."

"QlikView is more expensive than one of its competitors."

"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."

"I rate the product's pricing a three out of ten."

"Its licensing costs are moderate, but it can get expensive due to the numerous add-ons available like those for printing."

"It's reasonably priced and falls on the more affordable side."

"It is not very expensive. I think it it is on par with other similar products on the market."

"QlikView pricing and licensing is on the high side for a small sized company, but it's competitive among its peers."

"QlikView is a reasonably priced solution."

More QlikView 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

14%

Computer Software Company

Retailer

Media Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	73
Midsize Enterprise	36
Large Enterprise	76

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about QlikView?

If you correctly use the product for your use cases, it provides value for money.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for QlikView?

I would rate the pricing for QlikView as not cheap, but it is reasonable.

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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...

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Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker

Compared 14% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Looker

Compared 13% of the time

Databricks vs Looker

Compared 11% of the time

MicroStrategy vs Looker

Compared 9% of the time

ThoughtSpot vs Looker

Compared 5% of the time

More Looker Competitors

Tableau Enterprise vs QlikView

Compared 14% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs QlikView

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs QlikView

Compared 8% of the time

MicroStrategy vs QlikView

Compared 6% of the time

Sisense vs QlikView

Compared 3% of the time

More QlikView Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Looker

January 2026

Download Looker product report

Buyer's Guide

QlikView

January 2026

Download QlikView product report

Overview

Looker is a powerful data analytics platform that empowers businesses to explore and analyze their data in real time.

With its intuitive interface and robust features, Looker enables users to easily create and share interactive dashboards, reports, and visualizations.

The product's advanced data modeling capabilities and seamless integration with popular data sources make it a top choice for organizations looking to gain valuable insights from their data.

Google

QlikView is a Business Intelligence tool that allows you to keep tabs on all of your business-related information in a clean, clear, and easy to access database that is intuitive to build and simple to navigate. It is ideal for business owners who wish to improve overall output by creating the most productive system possible.

Qlik

Sample Customers

Yahoo!, Etsy, Kohler, Hipcamp, Hubspot, Kickstarter, Venmo, Dollar Shave Club, 600+ customer

Canon, Gatorade, Amcor, Panasonic, Fila, Cambridge University Hospitals, Global Retail Bank, North Yorkshire Police department, Lanoo Group Publishers, and AonGroep Nederland.

Buyer's Guide

Looker vs. QlikView

December 2025

Free Report: Looker vs. QlikView

Find out what your peers are saying about Looker vs. QlikView and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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