RStudio vs Qlik Sense

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Our analysts compared RStudio vs Qlik Sense based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Business Intelligence Tools, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Qlik Sense Software Tool

Product Basics

RStudio is an integrated development environment suite for the R programming language, synthesizing coding tools into one software tool for easier advanced data processing. Using in-memory processing, it is capable of parsing big data through integrations and connections.

It is available in both open-source and commercial formats, with extra features available in the paid edition includes more sophisticated collaboration and security efforts. The free version is capable of end-to-end analytics, from API connectivity and data ingestion to visualization creation and distribution. It can be deployed standalone or on a web browser through connection to RStudio Server.
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Qlik Sense is a self-service analytics solution that supports enterprise decisions and strategy. Its value lies in interactive dashboards and reports for exploring data independently. Embedded analytics lets your users work freely with data within their applications and websites.

Like QlikView, Qlik Sense has an associative engine. It links data tables in memory, keeping the information ready for when your users build models. Plus, its cognitive engine uses natural language for data tasks.

The Enterprise subscription includes Talend Data Integration and Qlik Advanced Analytics in Qlik Cloud. You can also choose Qlik Data Integration. Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS includes 5000 automations and 100 reports. It might be a good fit if your data loads are predictable and don't change much. The vendor charges for the data you move or the volumes you analyze; you can choose between the two.

Qlik Sense deploys on Windows, Mac, Linux and any phone device. By contrast, Tableau runs on Windows, Mac and mobile, while Power BI is available only on Windows and Android devices.

Individual users can choose the desktop edition, though they’ll need a Qlik Cloud account to download it. A 30-day trial period is available, after which it'll cost $30 per user monthly.

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$4,975 Annually
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$30 Monthly, Quote-based
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Insights

  • Open-Source or Commercial: Create visualizations and reports from data analysis scripts with the open-source version. Access more advanced features, including deeper security and support with the paid version.
  • Streamlined R Programming: Execute code directly from the source editor by integrating the tools being used into one interface. Supports Git and Subversion for more advanced code writing needs.  
  • Advanced Data Analysis: Investigate trends on a big data scale via integrations for distributed processing, data modeling and predictive analysis. Develop deep analytical insights through R, the premier statistics coding language. 
  • Proprietary R Packages: Get sophisticated ready-to-install R packages comparable with machine learning frameworks to ingest, store, analyze and consume data.  
  • Data Visualization: Easily digest analyzed data through out-of-the-box and integrated visualizations and data consumption deployment vessels using Shiny and ggvis. Create interactive dashboards and charts with drill-down capabilities. 
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  • Gain AI Insights: Qlik Sense wins our award for augmented analytics with the Insight Advisor that enables automation and text searches with an AI chatbot. You can query unstructured data with Qlik Answers using an LLM and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
  • Combine Data: Qlik Sense earns our top honors for wide source connectivity. It ranks at par with Oracle Analytics and Tableau with a score of 80 on a scale of zero to 100. While ingesting data is half the battle won, combining related information gives you the complete picture. Qlik Sense passes with flying colors for intelligent data linking and retaining even unmatched data, such as records of customers who haven’t made a purchase recently.
  • Ensure Data Security: Our analysts awarded Qlik Sense for its ability to keep data secure with regular testing. Plus, it maintains records of CPU, RAM and file usage. You can set up gated entry by having users authenticate their identities and include Qlik Sense into SSO.
  • Perform Advanced Analytics: Qlik Sense scored a 91 in our rankings for supporting cluster, regression and what-if analysis. Plus, it can analyze text data for buyer sentiment with server-side processing. Offloading data to the R server enables analyzing much larger volumes.
  • IoT Analytics: Our analysts gave Qlik Sense a score of 82, the highest among its competitors for analyzing edge and streaming data. Qlik has a robust API set for computing data in edge devices. Plus, it can capture streaming data changes as they happen.
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  • Source Editor: Develop programs in a single console window by synthesizing and integrating all tools in use. Highlight syntax, define functions and complete code in the console.  
  • Web Applications: Publish applications, dashboards and documents to the web with the internally-developed Shiny Server R package. 
  • Flexdashboard: Develop interactive dashboards with JavaScript visualizations, with support for HTML widgets, with this R package. 
  • Launcher: Launch R and Python processes remotely or submit R scripts to compute clusters like SLURM or Kubernetes. 
  • REST API Creation: Develop web API connections with the plumber R package — with as little as a single line of code. 
  • Spark Integration: Integrate seamlessly with Apache Spark to achieve big data analytics through distributed processing and leverage its machine learning capabilities to run more advanced queries.  
  • RStudio Connect: Publish statistical data analyses in the form of visually impactful visualizations, synthesizing all the aforementioned publishing features into one interface.  
  • Data Modeling and Prediction: Powers predictive and prescriptive analytics via connectivity to TensorFlow. Improves the product’s own data modeling capabilities via Tidymodels R package. 
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  • AI Integration: Ask and answer questions in natural language and automate processes using OpenAI and H2O.ai. Feed massive datasets to the LLM and watch as it summarizes the insight for you. Move beyond traditional analysis by working with the IBM Watson API for natural language.
  • Qlik Sense Management Console: Develop apps, manage tasks and connections, and track performance. With QMC, create content and consume data insights.
  • Reporting Service: Keep partners and clients on the same page by sending reports to everyone involved, even non-Qlik users. Download reports, subscribe to charts and sheets, or automate report delivery with its Reporting Service, available with Qlik Sense Enterprise SaaS.
  • Apps: Create interactive dashboards and visualizations for separate tasks within Qlik Sense. An organization can use hundreds of Qlik Sense apps in its tech stack. 
  • Associative Recommendations: Save time defining how data tables relate with its intelligent suggestions, something Tableau and Power BI lack. Bubbles represent data tables and color-coded rings — green, orange and red — inside them indicate the possibility of links between the tables.
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Product Ranking

#20

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#5

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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Advanced Analytics Augmented Analytics Data Management Data Pre-processing Data Transformation Data Visualization Embedded Analytics Capabilities Geospatial Visualizations And Analysis Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Reporting 94 80 100 90 100 100 96 80 79 96 88 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 700 reviews
Great User Sentiment 3168 reviews
90%
of users recommend this product

RStudio has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 90% when considering 700 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

87%
of users recommend this product

Qlik Sense has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 87% when considering 3168 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (12)
4.8 (18)
4.5 (485)
4.5 (668)
4.6 (89)
4.5 (256)
4.4 (43)
4.5 (1233)
4.4 (71)
4.0 (993)

Awards

RStudio stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Data analysis: Around 96% of users who reviewed data analysis said that the platform had strong machine learning and data analysis capabilities.
Functionality: Approximately 86% of users who mentioned functionality said that the tool had a wide range of powerful features for efficient data visualization and analysis.
Ease of Use: The interface was user-friendly and easily navigable, according to 74% of users who reviewed this feature.
Cost: About 93% of users who mentioned pricing said that the open source version of the platform was a definite plus.
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Integrations: Approximately 86% of users reviewing data sources were satisfied with its wide connectivity.
Ease of Use: About 84% of users who cited usability praised the platform for self-service BI.
Functionality: Around 80% of the reviews that mentioned features praised it for ETL and data visualization.
Data Visualization: About 66% of the users discussing dashboards were satisfied with its interactive displays that allowed them to dig deep.
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Performance: The tool used up a lot of memory and slowed down when processing large amounts of data, around 88% of users who mentioned its performance said.
Steep Learning Curve: Approximately 73% of users said that it was challenging to work with the platform without previous knowledge of R and that the syntax was difficult to learn.
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Cost: About 87% of users who mentioned pricing found the tool expensive.
Performance: Around 86% of users citing speed said it lagged when processing large and complex datasets.
Training: Approximately 69% of users who discussed adoption said there was a significant learning curve.
Customization: Around 65% of users who mentioned the freedom to design dashboards said the tool offered limited options.
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RStudio is a powerful web- and cloud-based BI platform with excellent statistical analysis and data science capabilities. Integrating with cloud computing technologies, the platform has good machine learning capabilities to power data analysis by providing a wide range of features for data recovery, presentation and interpretation. It provides rich built-in visualization libraries with pre-set charts and functions that drastically reduce the need to code. Many users who reviewed its UI said that the interface was user-friendly and easy to navigate, though some users said that it looked dated and could do with an upgrade. Quite a few users who reviewed the platform for data analysis said that it was easy to run statistical and regression tests with minimal coding, and coupled with an open-source server, this platform served their data needs well. On the flip side, many users who reviewed the tool for performance said that it consumes a lot of memory and lags behind its competitors in speed. Quite a lot of users mentioned that the platform could be buggy at times and was prone to crashes, possibly because some libraries were not optimized for performance with large datasets. Many users found it confusing to access the open-source version, especially since separate versions of the platform work differently with some library packages. Some users complained that the code run, once started, could not be stopped and the stop button on the interface didn’t work. A majority of users who reviewed the learning curve as a feature said that the help section was difficult to understand and previous knowledge of R was required to leverage the tool to its fullest. In summary, RStudio is a versatile and extensible BI tool powered by machine learning and is capable of insightful statistical data analysis and forecasting capabilities.

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Qlik Sense focuses on independent data analysis for enterprises with advanced tools that include AI, natural language processing and automation. User reviews praise it for its associative engine, interactive visualizations and sophisticated analytics.Its dataset-linking functionality gets my vote as the most significant differentiator since it makes data modeling seamless and saves time. In comparison, manually linking tables in Tableau and Power BI feels like a huge task.It supports fewer features out of the box (69%) compared to Tableau (72%) and Power BI (74%), but this could be intentional. Qlik has ready-to-go modules for analytics, automation and printing, so keeping it lean is a smart vendor move. Users should be aware that additional modules will cost extra, though.Qlik Sense SaaS is multi-cloud, so unless the admin assigns separate workspaces, your users won’t be able to create personal dashboards — everything is shared otherwise. Some users said the platform slowed when processing large workloads, which is a common issue with many other platforms. Assess your need for speed before committing to a purchase.If upgrading from QlikView, you’ll need to create new objects initially, as both platforms have different architectures. However, the vendor assists in seamless migration with the Qlik Analytics Modernization program.Overall, Qlik Sense is an efficient platform that offers many analysis capabilities worth considering. We recommend checking it out if you’re looking for an alternative to Power BI, entrenched in Microsoft technology, or Tableau, with its emphasis on visualization.

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