How Qlik Sense is better than Looker

[rohitk1609]

Hi Techies,

Can anyone tell me in detail with facts how Qlik Sense is better than Looker BI tool ?

Thanks,

Rohit

[mr_novice]

Since I work with both tools I see the strength in different use cases.  I dont agree with @rohitk1609. My comments to your comments 😄

1 - Looker is SQL first. So, yes, there are different SQL dialects, but still its SQL it depends on the database you're using. On the other hand you can do LookML which is a way of simplifying SQL. 

2 - "Typical DB languages which people used to work years ago"  - you are talking about SQL 🙂 still the world standard when working with databases. 

3 - Looker does only work with a database. So, yes, it doesnt store any data which by the way is not always beneficial. Why would you like to store big amounts of data in your drive? Let the database store it.

4 - Looker caches the results you want (just schedule it) so you dont query the database each time. Also, vendors like snowflake and bigquery, cache the results too so if you query the same data you use the cache = no cost. Looker is not developed to work best with Bigquery. It works with many databases such as Snowflake, Redshift and many more.

5 - This is nonsense. Metrics are aggregated in different ways. You can create derived tables or let Looker create aggregated tables in the background. Its important to remember that Looker doesnt do any aggregation - its the database you're using that do the heavy lifting - Looker just tells your database of choice how to do the aggregation.

Qlik have set analysis and functions that lets you do magic. Looker gives you a nice semantic layer with metrics that you can reuse in many dashboards and you may also use the semantic layer through the API. I would say that Looker is more than just BI.

My comments from 2019 are still valid 🙂 and I still say that it depends on what the customer/organization wants to achieve. What use cases do they have? 

[rohitk1609]

@mr_novice ,

I am glad you have put the Looker side on my comments so let me add Qlik inputs on your comments and please accept it on positive note, I hope it will not offend anyone 

#Basic LookML gets generated automatically but you can create basic use cases only. Lets pick one example Looker with BQ. How much time you need to learn SQL on Big query? isn't easy to learn Qlik once and use it with any database?

1# Qlik connects, use standard SQL and transform the data. How powerful set analysis is and especially how logical. How about Looker table calculation?

#2 World has developed tool like Qlik, Tableau and powerBI, so people don't need to deal with basic, typical and lengthy SQL codes. If you write basic SQL so what is the purpose of A BI tool. If Looker is not only BI then what else it does?

#3, I didn't say big amount of data to be stored, meta data, temp data or mapping data people need to do transformations. 

Other way, API, Do looker connect with API, NO, whatif it connects? API stores data for limited time period for example 24 hours. Qlik extract limited time available data and save it in QVD but where does Looker save it?

4. For hourly or each minute data, which data updates frequently, Looker run query every time because data is updated and costs very high.

#5 How easy to create derived tables and how easy to manage them as compare to AGGR function? please let us know?

Two topics can define which tool is best:

Period over period analysis: How many lines of code you need to write in Qlik and Looker?

Incremental load: where you extract only such data which was never extracted and append it to already extracted data, which tool can do it better?

Looker save dashboard or looks query in cache but in real world who don't change the dashboard filters for 24 hours? User change filter, new query will be fired again you have to pay money.

Point here is, there are hundred of tools, which can create bar, line charts etc.. but how easy to do it that, how flexible it is and which tool can solve difficult use cases that matter.

At last, Qlik world: Qlik script language  +DB

Looker world: Looker Language+ DB language+ DB.

And once you change the DB, start learning new DB from scratch,

Thanks,

Rohit

[mr_novice]

@rohitk1609 we are talking about things here. I don't get offended 🙂  Im just open to use other tools too and I don't see Qlik ( or any other tool ) as a holy grail. I use Qlik and Looker on a daily basis (I have also used other tools like power bi, data studio and metabase but too little to have an opinion) and I don't have any problems solving analytical problems with any of the tools mentioned. Im not saying that Looker is better or that Qlik is better. Im trying to give readers an objective opinion about the tool. I'm not in any way representing Looker or Qlik as an employee or anything like that. Im just an independent consultant working with analytics.

With all that said, instead of answering every comment of yours - I have a feeling I wont convince you anyway - Im content knowing that you're wrong with all your points above except one: "Period over period analysis". This is actually one thing where Qlik shines over Looker. Even though I have solved a lot of these problems in Looker too.

Have a great week!

Best,

Chris