Qlik®, a global leader in data integration, data quality, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI), has announced results from the inaugural BARC Benchmark, an independent study of business intelligence performance under typical cloud conditions.

In the first published head-to-head, BARC evaluated Qlik Cloud Analytics® and Microsoft Power BI and found that Qlik led on the two outcomes that govern day-to-day value, how quickly users complete tasks and how reliably the system sustains speed as data and concurrent users grow.

The findings show:

• User productivity: Qlik delivered around three times faster response times than Power BI, translating into approximately three times higher user productivity in the benchmark, with fewer clicks per task and quicker interactions so teams complete more work in the same time.
• Throughput at scale: With a 10 million row dataset and up to 50 simultaneous users on standard service tiers, Qlik completed roughly twice as many sessions per hour while keeping response times stable.
• Consistency under load: Qlik maintained predictable responses across the full window; Power BI exhibited greater variability as concurrency increased.
• How BARC reports scores: BARC publishes a normalised index for each round so readers can compare outcomes at a glance; in this initial publication Qlik set the top mark of 100 for both productivity and scalability, and Power BI measured 40 overall, including 31 for productivity and 48 for scalability.

“People stick with analytics that feels fast and stays fast as load grows,” said Brendan Grady, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Qlik's Analytics Business Unit, “and these independent results show teams get to answers faster with Qlik Cloud Analytics and keep that speed as usage rises, which is exactly what enterprises need as AI increases concurrency and data complexity.”

“Our benchmark focuses on measurable outcomes in typical cloud environments rather than feature checklists,” said Thomas Zeutschler, BARC Fellow, “and in this first publication we observed a clear separation on interaction speed and consistency under concurrent load; we will expand scale and scope so buyers can compare platforms with confidence.”