What is Tableau vs. Qlikview?

Businesses today look for visually interactive, appealing, and agile tools that can fit into the real-time requirements. No longer does anyone rely on static and single-dimensional charts and graphs; they are least preferred. The Tableau and QlikView are two such cutting edges in the data visualization tools that compete on another level in this domain and provide various features. With an increase in the need for these tools, there is a need for trained professionals, and hence there are various Tableau eLearning sources and Qlikview.

There exist similarities between these two tools; however, they are also considerably different in many ways. Here are a few fundamental differences:

1. Interface: Tableau has a simple drag-drop interface that is clean and easy to use and interactive. Qlikview has many tools, and a few of them are rarely used; however, it can be said that it provides a good range of different methods to showcase the data.
2. Performance: Tableau uses the cubing technique and hence gives results slower than Qlikview. Qlikview is a little faster, and it can combine all sizes of datasets effortlessly.
3. Capabilities: Tableau provides real-time visualization. Qlikview provides BI reporting with robust visualizations.
4. Tableau is suitable for rapid visualizations and dashboarding, whereas Qlikview is suitable for enterprise and departmental wise BI solutions.
5. Range of product: Tableau has various products that can be used for multiple reasons. QlikView has a single effect for all the BI solutions.
6. 3D graphs and Gauge charts: Tableau does not support them, whereas Qlikview has both of them to showcase the datasets.
7. The tableaus are weak for creating tables, whereas QlikView is very good at it.
8. The speed of both – Tableau and QlikView depends upon the RAM.
9. In Tableau, the graphical inputs become too easy due to drag and drop options. In Qlikview, one needs to write the logic for the parts where there is a need for graphical change.

Irrespective of their pros & cons and similarity & differences, Tableau, and Qlikview, are recognized in the “Leaders quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant” among BI tools. It must be exciting working on these tools; if it excites you or wishes to learn Tableau, you can check for Tableau eLearning to learn this tool in your comfort zone. There must be a few similar features shared by these two tools. Here’s the similarity they hold:

1. Both of them have a broad set of storytelling and visualization features.
2. Both of them provide high-end abilities in analytics.
3. Both of them are mobile compatible and support the same operating systems.
4. They both can be deployed in the cloud as well as on-premise.

Now that we have fundamental differences and similarities, let us drive straight into the prime differences between Tableau and Qlikview.

• Integration: Integrate Tableau with data sources like SQL databases, CSV, MS SQL Server, Google Analytics, Firebird, Cloudera Hadoop, BigQuery, Salesforce, HP Vertica, Hortonworks Hadoop, Teradata, etc. It also readily connects with R.

One can easily connect to the databases using Qlikview. It readily integrates with Amazon Vectorwise, EC2, Redshift, Cloudera Hadoop, Hortonworks Hadoop, Impala, IBM Netezza, HP Vertica, ParAccel, MicroStrategy, Teradata, Salesforce, My SQL, MS SQL Server, ODBC, and a lot more. Through API Integration, even Qlikview can connect with R.

• Speed: Tableau is a very efficient tool to create interactive reports and visualizations in a couple of times. The entire process can be made faster in Tableau as it allows sharing the reports offline and online. Qlikview enables decision making and delivers the results at a much faster speed as compared to the traditional approaches.

• Mobility: Tableau is available on any device which can be accessed over the internet. Use Tableau on the laptop, computer, smartphone, or tablet. You can also have access to Tableau eLearning if you have any of this device. Qlikview on similar lines does not depend upon the device; access it from any device at any time.

• Deployment: Tableau requires structured data, and hence it is easy to be deployed. While connecting with the datasets, there is no need for creating layers since Tableau doesn’t have its data warehouse.

Qlikview is also easy to configure and deploy. It produces special reports after minutes of installation. It has an additional scripting feature as Qlikview has its data warehouse – it adds more value to it. Deploy multiple labels of layers in QlikView.

• Insight Generation: Both Tableau and Qlikview provide a storytelling feature that helps create the presentation using the available data points. The QlikView specifically provides an associative technology that allows us to read the association between the variables easily, and also, this feature makes Qlikview a powerful tool. The features provided by QlikView helps the businesses to understand the hidden relationship between the different data points.

• Data Visualization: The businesses are ready to invest in data clustering, segmentation, and other powerful analytics functions. A leading data visualization tool, Tableau, provides a user-friendly interface. Since it is clean and easy to use, even a non-technical person can quickly understand and create a dashboard that can give useful insights into the ocean of business information.

On the other hand, Qlikview comes with standard visualization templates, report creation features, customizable views, and configurable graphs that provide interactive and real-time analysis as a report. All the relevant datasets are displayed as a quick reference when QlikView is used. This tool has an in-memory engine that can produce associative analytics and visualize patterns that cannot be achieved by the SQL alone.

Bottom Line:

To decide which of the two tools – Tableau and Qlikview is the better one, you should check the personal preference, depending upon the kind of work and expected output from this tool. If you are a newbie or a professional who wishes to learn using this tool, you can start with Tableau eLearning and get an excellent start to your career.