Product Comparison
Atheon Analytics advises clients on how to use visual analytics tools and techniques to address business opportunities and problems. Our analytics techniques have evolved in line with our experience, expertise and capability in a select range of visualisation software applications which enable the creation and deployment of a wide range of solutions.
Many people have asked us to provide a comparison of the three interactive visualisation tools we use - Omniscope, QlikView and Tableau; this is best served through discussion with you so that we can understand your specific needs, but the table below provides a very high-level comparison. Please bear in mind that in order to make a comparison we have had to simplify the specific capabilities of each tool; each approaches the data visualisation problem from a different angle, so each vendor could argue that our simplistic answers are unfair.
In short, if you are contemplating one of these tools in your organisation, please contact us so that we can talk you through the pros and cons relevant to your needs.
| Area | Feature | Omniscope | Tableau | QlikView |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Access | Local data files (text, spreadsheet etc.) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Relational databases (SQL Server, Oracle etc.) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| OLAP cubes (MSAS, Essbase etc.) | Limited | Yes | No | |
| Online data sources | Yes | Limited | Yes | |
| Multi-source access | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Multi-table access | Limited | Yes | Yes | |
| Extracted data storage | Proprietary | Optional (proprietary) | Proprietary | |
| Maximum capacity | Millions of rows | Unlimited | Billions of rows | |
| In-memory engine | Desktop | Desktop or Server | Desktop or Server | |
| Development approach | Data access model | Menu-based | Menu-based | Scripting (with wizards) |
| Extract, Transform, Load features | Yes1 | No | Scripting | |
| Calculations | IDE | IDE | Scripting | |
| Data aggregation control | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Table calculations | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Data subsetting | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Applications built by | Analyst | Analyst | Developer | |
| User Interface design | Drag-and-drop | Partial | Partial | Yes |
| Free-form filter placement | No | Limited | Yes | |
| Standard visualisations (table, bar, line, plot, crosstab) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Advanced visualisations | Tile (treeview), network, Venn, dial | Bullet | Dial, sparkline, radar | |
| Statistical analysis | Light | Medium | Medium | |
| Embed images and text | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Geographic mapping | Yes | Yes | Limited | |
| Embed web browser | Yes2 | Yes | Yes | |
| Usage | Ad hoc analysis | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Custom applications | Limited | Limited | Yes | |
| Recurrent reporting | Limited | Yes | Yes | |
| Dashboards | Limited | Yes | Yes | |
| Paper-based reporting | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Operation | Run from desktop | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automated desktop build from server | Limited | Yes | Yes | |
| Run from server | No | Yes | Yes | |
| User/Group security | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Automated publish to users | Limited | Yes | Yes | |
| Automated publish to static format (PDF etc.) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Publish to Flash | Yes | No | No | |
| Free viewer | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Platform apps | No | iPhone/iPad | iPhone/iPad, Android | |
| Zero-footprint browser version | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Licensing | Licence basis | Annual | Perpetual | Perpetual |
| Technical support and upgrades | Included in annual licence fee | 20% per year | 20% per year | |
| Single-user desktop edition | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Named-user server licensing | n/a | Yes | Yes | |
| Session/document server licensing | n/a | Yes | Yes | |
| Server publishing licence | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 In Data Manager edition
2 In 32-bit version, but not 64-bit
Once again, this is an over-simplistic summary of three very powerful and flexible tools, but we hope it answers a few of the more common questions that we receive.
