Google Data Studio vs Qlik Sense
Google Data Studio and Qlik Sense are both BI & dashboards tools. Google Data Studio is aimed at small businesses and agencies, while Qlik Sense is aimed at enterprise and small businesses. Google Data Studio costs less, from $9/mo versus $300/mo for Qlik Sense. Only Google Data Studio has a free plan.
Free dashboards from Google data sources
Enterprise BI with an associative engine and AI answers on top
| Pricing | Freemium · $9 | Paid · $300 |
| Starting price | $9/mo | $300/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | — | 30 days |
| Built for | Small businesses, Agencies | Enterprise, Small businesses |
| Platforms | web | web, windows, ios, android |
| Country | US · 2016 | US · 1993 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Google Data Studio if
Marketers and agencies reporting on Google data.
- Free
- Seamless with Google marketing data
- Easy sharing like Google Docs
Look elsewhere if: Complex business intelligence across many systems (Power BI, Metabase).
Choose Qlik Sense if
Mid-size and large companies with complex, multi-source data that want governed self-service analytics for many users.
- Associative exploration surfaces gaps that query-based BI tools hide
- Capacity pricing means adding viewers on Standard costs nothing extra
- Strong data integration heritage, including SAP and Talend connectors
Look elsewhere if: Small teams on a tight budget or Microsoft-centric companies that only need standard reports (Power BI, Looker Studio, Metabase).
Google Data Studio vs Qlik Sense pricing
Google Data Studio
- Data Studio$0Self-service reports and dashboards, no charge
- Data Studio Pro$9/user/project/moTeam content management, Google Cloud support, CMEK
Qlik Sense
- Starter$300/moBilled annually; 10 users, fixed 10 GB of data for analysis
- Standard$825/moBilled annually; 25 GB data, no charge for extra users
- Premium$2,750/moBilled annually; 50 GB data, AutoML predictions, public access
- EnterpriseCustomFrom 250 GB of data, multi-region tenants, quote only
Google Data Studio · Key features
- Native Google connectors (GA4, Ads, GSC, BigQuery)
- Drag-and-drop report builder
- Filters, date ranges and interactive controls
- Data blending across sources
- Scheduled email delivery
- Templates gallery
Cons
- Slow on complex reports
- Limited data modeling
- Third-party connectors often paid
Qlik Sense · Key features
- Associative engine that shows related and unrelated values on every selection
- Qlik Answers chat over dashboards, data models and unstructured documents
- Discovery Agent that monitors key measures and surfaces anomalies
- MCP server so third-party assistants can query governed Qlik data
- Qlik Predict AutoML for forecasting and what-if analysis
- Load script and data manager for joining SAP, cloud warehouses and files
Cons
- Entry price of $300 per month billed annually is high for small teams
- Load scripting and data modeling take real training to master
- Visual customization is less flexible than Tableau
Google Data Studio vs Qlik Sense: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Google Data Studio or Qlik Sense?
Google Data Studio starts at $9/mo and Qlik Sense at $300/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Google Data Studio and Qlik Sense have a free plan?
Google Data Studio has a free plan. Qlik Sense has no free plan, a 30-day free trial.