Metabase vs Qlik Sense: What are the differences?

Introduction

Metabase and Qlik Sense are both popular business intelligence tools used for data visualization and reporting. While they serve the same purpose, there are key differences between the two platforms that make them unique in their own ways.

1. User Interface: Metabase is known for its sleek and user-friendly interface that focuses on simplicity and ease of use, making it suitable for beginners and non-technical users. In contrast, Qlik Sense offers a more sophisticated and feature-rich user interface with powerful customization options, catering to advanced users and data analysts who require more flexibility in their data analysis.

2. Open Source vs. Proprietary Software: Metabase is an open-source BI tool, which means it is free to use and allows users to modify and customize the code according to their needs. On the other hand, Qlik Sense is proprietary software with licensing fees, offering dedicated support and regular updates from the vendor.

3. Data Connectivity: Qlik Sense provides a wide range of data connectivity options, allowing users to connect to various data sources seamlessly. In comparison, Metabase has limited data connectivity options out of the box, but users can extend its functionality through plugins and custom configurations.

4. Collaboration and Sharing: Qlik Sense offers robust collaboration features, enabling multiple users to work on the same dashboard concurrently, share insights, and comment on data visualizations in real-time. Metabase, while allowing sharing of dashboards and reports, lacks advanced collaboration tools and real-time interaction capabilities.

5. Ad Hoc Querying: Qlik Sense excels in ad hoc querying and exploration, allowing users to dynamically analyze and visualize data on the fly without predefined reports or dashboards. Metabase, while providing some ad hoc querying capabilities, may not be as intuitive or powerful as Qlik Sense in this aspect.

6. Deployment Options: Qlik Sense offers both on-premises and cloud-based deployment options, giving users flexibility in choosing the deployment model that suits their requirements. Metabase primarily focuses on self-hosted deployments, although there are third-party cloud hosting options available.

In Summary, Metabase and Qlik Sense differ in terms of user interface, open-source vs. proprietary software, data connectivity, collaboration and sharing capabilities, ad hoc querying features, and deployment options.