Microsoft Power BI vs Qlik Sense
Microsoft Power BI and Qlik Sense are both BI & dashboards tools aimed at enterprise and small businesses. Microsoft Power BI costs less, from $14/mo versus $300/mo for Qlik Sense. Only Microsoft Power BI has a free plan.
Enterprise BI in the Microsoft ecosystem
Enterprise BI with an associative engine and AI answers on top
| Pricing | Freemium · $14 | Paid · $300 |
| Starting price | $14/mo | $300/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | 60 days | 30 days |
| Built for | Enterprise, Small businesses | Enterprise, Small businesses |
| Platforms | web, windows, ios, android | web, windows, ios, android |
| Country | US · 2015 | US · 1993 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Microsoft Power BI if
Organizations on Microsoft 365 that want affordable, scalable BI.
- Low price per user
- Deep Microsoft integration
- Powerful modeling with DAX
Look elsewhere if: Mac-only teams or startups preferring lightweight tools (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).
Microsoft Power BI vs Qlik Sense pricing
Microsoft Power BI
- Free$0Fabric free account, personal authoring
- Pro$14/user/moPaid yearly; publish and share reports
- Premium Per User$24/user/moPaid yearly; larger models, more refreshes
- Fabric capacityCustomVariable capacity pricing
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
Microsoft Power BI · Key features
- Power Query data preparation
- DAX data modeling and measures
- Interactive reports and dashboards
- Copilot for report and DAX generation
- Teams and SharePoint integration
- Microsoft Fabric for end-to-end data
Cons
- Desktop authoring is Windows-only
- DAX learning curve
- Licensing complexity with Fabric
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
Microsoft Power BI vs Qlik Sense: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Microsoft Power BI or Qlik Sense?
Microsoft Power BI starts at $14/mo and Qlik Sense at $300/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Microsoft Power BI and Qlik Sense have a free plan?
Microsoft Power BI has a free plan. Qlik Sense has no free plan, a 30-day free trial.