QlikView vs. Qlik Sense
Two of the most interesting products in Qlik's platform are still the age old king of QlikView and the new prince Qlik Sense. Although these two products share some fundamental similarities with their ability to visualise data, they provide quite a different approach to data analysis.
There are 3 main differences I cover when explaining the two tools.
1) Structured Guided Analytics vs Self Service Discovery
For me, this is the fundamental difference between the two products.
The words ‘structured, guided’ vs ‘self-service’ sum this up perfectly. QlikView is focused around dashboard creation and analysis delivered to the end user in a structure, guided manner. The user is able to open an application, view a dashboard and analyse the data in accordance with how the app has been structured. All the time being guided through the process by the use of design and layout. Qlik Sense is focused on the end user driving their own analysis through the data in more of a self-service model. Working off a governed data set with defined master dimensions and measures. Qlik Sense allows end users to create their own visualisations, charts, and objects, allowing them to drive their own discovery through the data.
2) Data Preparation Wizard vs Scripting
Both tools are built on the same powerful hybrid SQL scripting engine which allows users to perform a huge range of transformation and manipulation of data. The key difference being the incredibly simple to use graphical wizards to assist in ETL that is built into the Qlik Sense platform. QlikView does contain a few helpful wizards but still relies on the developer writing the bulk of the script to perform any transformation steps.
3) Visualisations and UI
Both tools contain the same powerful interactive visualisations prompting data discovery but linking back to the fundamental difference, structured guided analysis vs self-service discovery, these are delivered differently. QlikView focuses on a developer building dashboards and deploying these to end users. Users then analysis the data by interacting with the visualisations, drilling, slicing and dicing through the data. Qlik Sense allows users to build their own visualisations on the fly. Designing their own views by dragging objects and configuring their properties best suited to the analysis they are focused on. Not relying on a developer to design a dashboard which will incorporate all of their requirements up front.
The bottom line is that both QlikView and Qlik Sense provide a rich experience for data discovery and analysis. They deliver this however in different ways, each appealing to different use cases and best suited to different scenarios.