Choosing the right tool for business intelligence tasks is crucial for data-driven decision-making. Qlik Sense and Excel are two prominent solutions, each with its own strengths and use cases.
Qlik Sense offers advanced data visualization and analytics capabilities, while Excel is a widely-used spreadsheet tool with strong data manipulation features.
In this comparison, we'll look at their functionalities, ease of use, and how they fit into various business scenarios. Additionally, we'll explore how Sourcetable provides a modernized, spreadsheet-like interface that syncs with your data, presenting an alternative for reporting and data analytics.
Qlik Sense is a robust data analytics tool designed to enable users to analyze data and extract actionable insights efficiently. Leveraging artificial intelligence, it excels in processing large datasets rapidly, providing users with a competitive edge in decision-making.
Qlik Sense is a robust data analytics tool designed to enable users to analyze data and extract actionable insights efficiently. Leveraging artificial intelligence, it excels in processing large datasets rapidly, providing users with a competitive edge in decision-making.
Qlik Sense is accessible from anywhere, on any device, and can be seamlessly embedded into other applications. It features a comprehensive set of APIs to support customization and integration, ensuring flexibility for users.
With a customer base of over 40,000, Qlik Sense is a trusted platform in the realm of data analytics, known for its data prep and connectivity capabilities.
Excel is a spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office product group, designed to format, organize, and calculate data. Excel's compatibility with other Office suite applications enhances its utility across diverse platforms including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.
Excel is a spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office product group, designed to format, organize, and calculate data. Excel's compatibility with other Office suite applications enhances its utility across diverse platforms including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.
Excel is integral in business analysis, human resource management, operations management, and performance reporting. It serves as a tool for collecting, verifying, and managing business data. Additionally, Excel supports data entry and storage functions critical to business operations.
With Excel, users can perform data analysis and create detailed performance reports. It is also suited for strategic analysis, accounting, budgeting, and various forms of management including administrative, managerial, and account management.
Excel's capabilities extend to project management and office administration, streamlining processes and improving efficiency in managing tasks and resources.
Associative Analytics Engine |
The associative analytics engine enables deep data exploration, uncovering insights through instant calculations and user selections in any direction. |
Augmented Analytics |
Augmented by AI and ML, Qlik Sense provides automated insight generation, predictive analytics, and AI-assisted creation, enhancing data preparation and decision-making. |
Interactive Visualizations and Dashboards |
Highly interactive visualizations and dashboards facilitate self-service data analysis, allowing users to present and explore large and small data sets effectively. |
Data Integration and Preparation |
Qlik Sense offers comprehensive data integration and preparation capabilities, supporting a seamless flow from data sources to insights. |
AI-Powered Insights and Predictions |
With AI-powered insights and AutoML, Qlik Sense delivers advanced predictive analytics for actionable intelligence. |
Alerting and Automation |
Data-driven alerting technology and event-driven actions automate processes, ensuring timely responses to data changes. |
Collaboration and Sharing |
Robust collaboration tools, including notes and discussion threads, enable sharing and contextualizing data narratives across teams. |
Customization and Extensibility |
Qlik Sense is fully customizable with a complete set of open APIs, allowing for the creation of custom apps, visualizations, and embedded analytics. |
Scalability and Performance |
Designed for high performance and scalability, Qlik Sense supports a multitude of data sources and provides powerful data integration with centralized management. |
Accessibility and Mobility |
Accessible on mobile devices and through cloud or on-premises deployment, Qlik Sense ensures data analytics is available anytime, anywhere. |
Function Categories and Access |
Excel offers a vast array of functions, exceeding 10,000 variants across 7 categories. Users can access these functions by browsing categories or using the Ctrl+F shortcut to search by keywords or initial letters. |
Specific Functions and Calculations |
Excel includes specialized functions for financial, statistical, engineering, and date/time calculations. Functions such as ACCRINT and FV handle financial computations, while FORECAST.ETS facilitates advanced time series forecasting. |
Math and Trigonometry |
Excel provides numerous math and trigonometry functions, with capabilities ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematical operations. |
Statistical Analysis |
Excel's statistical functions allow users to perform a variety of statistical calculations, including forecasting and internal rate of return computations. |
Text Manipulation and Web Functions |
Excel's text functions like CONCAT and CLEAN enable data cleaning and concatenation. However, web functions and user-defined functions are not available in Excel for the web. |
Compatibility Across Platforms |
Functions may yield different results on various platforms, highlighting the importance of consistency checks when sharing across systems. |
Qlik Sense provides self-service visualization solutions, enabling users to create custom analytics without extensive technical knowledge. This enhances data literacy across organizations.
With a pricing model of $30 per user per month, Qlik Sense is an affordable option for businesses seeking powerful data analytics tools.
Qlik Sense's compatibility with a wide range of devices and its mobility feature allow for access to business intelligence anytime, anywhere, fostering a responsive design suited for on-the-go analysis.
Qlik Sense offers a comprehensive security feature, ensuring data protection while its centralized hub facilitates easy collaboration and information sharing among users.
The availability of open APIs allows for extensive customization of analytics solutions. Users can develop custom apps and new visualizations tailored to specific business needs.
As a user-friendly and AI-powered tool, Qlik Sense simplifies the complexity of data analytics, making advanced data processing accessible to users without specialized training.
Qlik Sense's flexibility is evident in its ability to adapt to various business requirements, supporting a wide array of analytical tasks from reporting to complex data analysis.
Qlik Sense may experience performance degradation when processing large data sets. This slowdown can affect productivity and efficiency in data analytics tasks.
The expense of Qlik Sense can be prohibitive for larger teams, potentially limiting its accessibility and scalability within an organization.
There are restrictions with exporting information to Excel, which can impede seamless data manipulation and reporting outside of Qlik Sense.
Add-ons and plugins that enhance Qlik Sense functionality incur extra charges, leading to increased total cost of ownership.
You can pay for training with a credit card, Training Card, or invoice.
You can take training recommendations to find which courses to take for your role.
You can check your registration status on the My Training page.
You can use a Training Card to pay for most Qlik training products, but they cannot be used to pay for certifications.
You have 12 months from the purchase date to use the Training Card.
Improving efficiency, customer service, and sales
Creating a company-wide portal for analytics
Enhancing operational success
Reducing the cost and effort to convert loan prospects
Excel excels in managing and analyzing data, crucial for business intelligence. It supports diverse data tasks, enabling businesses to organize and manipulate large datasets effectively.
With its robust data handling capabilities, Excel aids in informed decision-making. Users can perform complex calculations and automate repetitive tasks to derive insights quickly.
Excel's functionality for creating charts, graphs, and spreadsheets enhances data visualization, making reporting more accessible and comprehensible for stakeholders.
Excel facilitates collaboration and data sharing, which is essential for business intelligence efforts that often involve multiple stakeholders.
Excel's inability to efficiently manage large datasets can be a significant hurdle in business intelligence. Analyzing extensive data requires robust processing power, which Excel lacks, leading to performance issues.
The limited collaboration capabilities of Excel impede real-time data sharing and teamwork, which are essential for dynamic business intelligence and decision-making processes.
Without integrated project management tools, Excel complicates the organization of business intelligence tasks, resulting in a disjointed workflow and potential oversight.
Vulnerability to human error in Excel can compromise data integrity. Manual data entry and formula setting are prone to mistakes, affecting the accuracy of business intelligence outcomes.
Excel's limited visual project tracking tools restrict the representation of data analytics, making it challenging to convey complex information clearly and effectively.
The lack of automation features in Excel leads to repetitive manual tasks, reducing efficiency and increasing the potential for errors in business intelligence activities.
Excel's weak security measures for sensitive information make it a less suitable option for business intelligence that involves confidential or proprietary data.
Limited integration with other tools constrains Excel's ability to seamlessly connect with different software, hindering a unified business intelligence strategy.
Excel's limited scalability presents a challenge to growing businesses. As data volume and complexity increase, Excel's capabilities may not suffice, necessitating a transition to more scalable solutions.
Yes, Excel offers live coaching to help you learn formulas, tips, and more.
Excel has templates that you can use to streamline your work.
Excel has a feature that allows you to ask questions about your data without writing formulas.
Support for Excel 2013 has ended.
You should upgrade to Microsoft 365.
Creating advanced spreadsheets for data analysis
Developing financial models and budgets
Generating sales and marketing reports
Performing trend analysis
Managing and tracking inventory
Sourcetable offers a streamlined approach to reporting and data analytics. Unlike Qlik Sense's extensive feature set, which may overwhelm users who require simpler solutions, Sourcetable provides an accessible spreadsheet-like interface that is intuitive for those familiar with Excel.
Businesses using Sourcetable benefit from the automatic synchronization of data across multiple services. This feature minimizes the need for manual data integration, a process that can be complex in Qlik Sense and Excel.
With its spreadsheet-like environment, Sourcetable facilitates better collaboration compared to Qlik Sense. Teams can manage and analyze data in a familiar format, avoiding the steep learning curve associated with specialized BI tools.
Sourcetable is designed to cater to users of all skill levels. It eliminates the need for advanced training required for Qlik Sense's AI and ML tools, making BI tasks more approachable for a wider audience.
For businesses looking to manage costs without sacrificing functionality, Sourcetable serves as a cost-effective alternative to Qlik Sense and Excel. It provides essential BI capabilities without the complexity and expense of comprehensive analytics platforms.
The simplified interface of Sourcetable is optimized for quick adoption and usability. It contrasts with Qlik Sense's array of features which, while powerful, may not be necessary for straightforward BI requirements.
Both Qlik Sense and Excel are tools used for data analytics and visualization. They provide users with capabilities to create dashboards and visual representations of data.
Qlik Sense and Excel enable self-service data analysis, allowing users of various skill levels to explore and manipulate data without extensive technical expertise.
Both platforms can integrate with multiple data sources, although the extent and ease of integration may vary.
Qlik Sense and Excel offer reporting features, with functionality to generate reports and present data findings in a structured format.
Qlik Sense and Excel allow for interactive exploration of data, giving users the ability to delve into details and refine their analysis.
Both Qlik Sense and Excel facilitate collaboration among users, offering features that support sharing and co-authoring of analytics content.
Qlik Sense is a modern analytics platform with advanced AI and ML capabilities, including associative analytics and augmented analytics. It allows users to gain insights through automated insight generation, predictive analytics, and natural language interaction. It integrates with hundreds of data sources and is designed for active analytics.
Excel, while a powerful spreadsheet tool, primarily offers traditional data organization, basic statistical analysis, and charting features. It lacks the advanced AI-driven analytics and predictive capabilities found in Qlik Sense.
Qlik Sense features a highly interactive associative analytics engine, allowing users to explore data from any direction and make discoveries with data. Its dashboards are dynamic and responsive, enabling self-service visualization and exploration without coding.
Excel offers interactivity to a degree through pivot tables and filters, but it is limited to query-based exploration, which can be less dynamic and intuitive compared to Qlik Sense's associative model.
Qlik Sense provides flexibility in deployment, offering both cloud-based SaaS and on-premises solutions. Its cloud-native platform, Qlik Cloud Analytics, caters to a wide range of industries, including highly regulated ones.
Excel is available as a desktop application within the Microsoft Office suite or online via Office 365, but it does not offer the same level of cloud-native analytics capabilities as Qlik Sense.
Qlik Sense is designed for high performance and scalability, handling large volumes of data and complex analytics with speed. It is equipped with a real-time data pipeline for in-the-moment insights.
Excel can handle large datasets but may encounter performance issues as data volume and complexity grow, which can impact analysis speed and user experience.
Qlik Sense emphasizes collaboration with features like shared analytics, notes, and event-driven actions. Its reporting capabilities are comprehensive, allowing for scheduling and distribution in various formats.
Excel supports collaboration through shared workbooks and basic reporting features. However, it does not have the same level of automated alerting and action capabilities as Qlik Sense.
Qlik Sense is trusted by over 40,000 customers globally, indicating its wide adoption across different industries for complex data analytics needs.
Excel has a vast user base primarily for spreadsheet management and traditional data analysis tasks, but it may not be the primary choice for advanced analytics solutions.
Qlik Sense is a comprehensive data analytics platform with AI-enhanced capabilities such as AI-powered insights, predictive analytics, and AutoML. It supports associative analytics and augmented analytics, enabling advanced data discovery. Its automated insight generation and AI-assisted creation streamline data preparation. Qlik Sense integrates data from hundreds of sources and offers a well-governed data catalog. It provides search and conversational analytics, application automation, and data collaboration features. Qlik Sense's customizable solutions and open APIs facilitate custom app development. Serving over 40,000 customers, it's a robust tool for businesses needing extensive data integration and advanced analytics.
Microsoft Excel is a widely-used spreadsheet tool known for its data manipulation and visualization capabilities. It offers basic data analytics features, pivot tables, and functions for calculations. Excel's strength lies in its familiarity and ease of use for simple data tasks. It lacks the AI-driven analytics and predictive capabilities of Qlik Sense. Excel is suitable for individual users or small data sets but may not scale effectively for larger, more complex data analytics needs. It does not offer associative analytics or augmented analytics and has limited data integration when compared to Qlik Sense.
Sourcetable is a spreadsheet tool designed for data analysis, combining features from traditional spreadsheets like Excel with more advanced data integration and analytics capabilities. It aims to simplify data workflows and provide insight without the complexity of enterprise platforms like Qlik Sense. Sourcetable focuses on combining data from various sources for analysis in a spreadsheet environment. While it offers improvements over Excel for handling data from multiple sources, it may not have the same level of AI-driven analytics, automated insights, or predictive analytics as Qlik Sense. Sourcetable is beneficial for users needing more than Excel but not requiring the full power of Qlik Sense.
Sourcetable is a spreadsheet application that replaces workflows typically done in Excel, Google Sheets, and Business Intelligence tools. It is commonly used by growth teams and business operations teams to centralize, analyze, and model data that updates over time.
No, Sourcetable does not require coding. Users can query data, build live models, and start creating reports within minutes without needing any coding knowledge.
Sourcetable syncs data from over 100 applications and most databases. Data integrations update every 15 minutes on the regular plan and every 5 minutes on the pro plan.
Sourcetable costs $50 per month on the starter plan and $250 per month on the pro plan. All plans include a 14-day free trial, and additional seats can be added for $20 per month per user.
Users can start creating reports with Sourcetable within minutes of setting it up.
Qlik Cloud Analytics Plans require an annual billing cycle.
The Premium plan is available starting at $2,700 per month.
Excel is a spreadsheet software that supports compatibility across various operating systems, including Windows 11, Windows 10, and macOS. This compatibility ensures a broad user base can access and utilize the software for their data organization and analysis needs.
Excel is a spreadsheet software that supports compatibility across various operating systems, including Windows 11, Windows 10, and macOS. This compatibility ensures a broad user base can access and utilize the software for their data organization and analysis needs.
The ability to share spreadsheets and collaborate in real-time is a key feature of Excel, enhancing productivity and teamwork. However, to utilize this functionality, users must have OneDrive, as it is required for sharing spreadsheets. This prerequisite may influence the overall cost of using Excel, considering the potential need for OneDrive storage plans.
Microsoft Excel boasts a high overall rating of 4.8 out of 5, based on the feedback from 18.9K reviewers.
Users rate Excel 4.8 out of 5 in terms of value for money, indicating strong satisfaction with the cost-to-benefit ratio of the software.
Excel's ease of use is rated at 4.8 out of 5, reflecting its user-friendly interface and functionality.
Features provided by Excel receive a 4.8 out of 5 rating, suggesting that users are very satisfied with the capabilities of the software.
Customer support for Excel is also rated highly, with a 4.8 out of 5 rating, showing a strong approval of the support provided to users.
The likelihood of users recommending Excel is scored at 9.13 out of 10, demonstrating high user endorsement.
All ratings and reviews are extracted from user feedback and are not from any specific review website or publication.
Qlik Sense offers robust data visualization and interactive dashboards, whereas Excel excels at detailed data analysis and familiar spreadsheet functions.
Both tools have their strengths for business intelligence tasks, with Qlik Sense providing advanced analytics and Excel offering widespread familiarity and ease of use.
Sourcetable streamlines business intelligence by merging real-time data syncing across services with a user-friendly spreadsheet interface, simplifying the BI process.