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This comparison guide evaluates Embeddable and Qlik for SaaS teams assessing embedded analytics solutions.
Qlik is a long-established enterprise business intelligence platform best known for associative analytics, data exploration, and internal reporting across large organizations. While Qlik supports embedded analytics, its architecture and workflows are primarily optimized for internal BI teams and analyst-driven use cases.
Embeddable is a developer-first analytics toolkit built specifically for customer-facing SaaS products. It enables teams to embed analytics natively into their application UI, with full control over design, interactivity, performance, and multi-tenant security.
This guide compares both tools across architecture, developer experience, customization, performance, security, multi-tenancy, pricing, and long-term maintainability to help product and engineering teams choose the right approach.
TLDR;
Qlik
- Enterprise BI platform focused on internal analytics and data exploration
- Strong associative engine for analyst-led workflows
- Embedded analytics supported, typically via iframes or SDKs
- UI and interaction patterns remain BI-centric
- Better suited for internal or partner-facing dashboards
Embeddable
- Purpose-built for customer-facing SaaS analytics
- Native DOM embedding with no iframes
- Full UI and interaction control
- High performance via multi-tier caching
- SaaS-ready multi-tenant RLS
- Flat, predictable pricing with unlimited users
Quick Overview: Embeddable vs Qlik at a Glance
Embedding method
Embeddable
- Native DOM rendering via web components, React, and Vue
- No iframes
- Two-way interaction with application logic and UI state
Qlik
- Embedded dashboards via iframe or SDK wrappers
- Dashboards run inside a BI container
- Integration relies on APIs and embed configuration
Customization
Embeddable
- Fully customizable layouts and components
- Matches your design system exactly
- Supports custom charts and product-specific interactions
Qlik
- Limited customization through theming and configuration
- Dashboards retain Qlik UI patterns
- Difficult to achieve pixel-perfect product parity
Performance
Embeddable
- Multi-tier caching including in-memory caching and pre-aggregations
- Designed for high-concurrency customer-facing analytics
Qlik
- Strong backend analytics engine
- Embedded performance depends on server capacity and embed context
- iframe rendering can add UI latency
Multi-tenancy
Embeddable
- Server-issued security tokens
- Row-level, column-level, and tenant isolation built in
- No dashboard duplication per tenant
Qlik
- Supports security rules and access controls
- Multi-tenant SaaS setups often require careful configuration
- Operational complexity increases with scale
Setup time
Embeddable
- Fast setup with modern SDKs
- Designed for SaaS embedding from day one
Qlik
- Requires Qlik environment setup and data modeling
- Longer time to first embedded dashboard
Integration depth
Embeddable
- Dashboards render directly inside your DOM
- Tight integration with routing, UI logic, and application state
Qlik
- Dashboards embedded as BI artifacts
- Limited ability to deeply integrate with product UX flows
Pricing
Embeddable
- Flat, predictable pricing
- Unlimited users, viewers, and dashboards
Qlik
- Enterprise pricing model
- Costs scale with users, data volume, and deployment scope
Deployment options
Embeddable
- Cloud or self-hosted
Qlik
- Cloud and on-premise enterprise deployments
End-user experience
Embeddable
- Feels fully native to the application
- Analytics behave like part of the product
Qlik
- Feels like a BI tool embedded inside the product
- UX optimized for exploration rather than product interaction
What Is Qlik
Overview and core philosophy
Qlik is an enterprise BI and analytics platform built around associative analytics, enabling users to freely explore data and uncover insights. It is widely used by internal analytics teams for reporting, dashboards, and ad hoc analysis.
While Qlik supports embedded analytics, its primary design focus remains internal BI rather than analytics as a product feature inside SaaS applications.
Strengths of Qlik
- Powerful associative analytics engine
- Strong data exploration and discovery
- Enterprise-grade governance and security
- Flexible deployment options
Limitations for embedded SaaS use cases
- Embedding relies on BI-centric constructs
- UI customization is limited
- Analytics often feel external to the product
- Multi-tenant SaaS patterns require additional effort
- Higher operational and cost complexity at scale
What Is Embeddable
Overview and philosophy
Embeddable is a developer-first analytics toolkit designed for SaaS teams that treat analytics as part of the product experience, not an external BI layer.
Instead of embedding a BI interface, Embeddable enables teams to embed native analytics components directly into their application UI, retaining full control over UX, performance, and security.
Key strengths of Embeddable
- Native DOM embedding with no iframe boundaries
- Full UI and UX control
- High performance through multi-tier caching
- Powerful end-user self-serve dashboard builder
- Secure, scalable multi-tenant RLS
- Developer-friendly workflows with versioning and CI/CD
Feature Comparison Deep Dive
1. Developer experience
Qlik
- Analyst-driven workflows
- Data modeling and app configuration required
- Embedding layered on top of BI artifacts
Embeddable
- Code-first approach with optional no-code tools
- Native SDKs for JavaScript, React, and Vue
- Full control over events, variables, and interactions
What it implies
Qlik is optimized for BI and analytics teams.
Embeddable is optimized for product and engineering teams.
2. Performance and scalability
Qlik
- Strong backend analytics performance
- Embedded usage depends on infrastructure and concurrency limits
Embeddable
- In-memory caching for hot queries
- Pre-aggregations for large datasets
- Caching API for tenant-aware refresh strategies
What it implies
Qlik performs well for internal analytics.
Embeddable is built for high-traffic, customer-facing SaaS analytics.
3. UI customization and design fidelity
Qlik
- Limited control over layout and interactions
- Dashboards retain BI look and feel
Embeddable
- Complete control over styling and layout
- Supports custom components and charts
- Dashboards feel like a native product feature
4. Security and multi-tenancy
Qlik
- Role-based access and security rules
- Multi-tenant setups require careful planning
Embeddable
- Tenant-aware security tokens
- Row-, column-, and object-level policies
- No dashboard duplication required
5. Pricing and ROI
Qlik
- Enterprise pricing scales with usage and deployment
- Costs can grow as external usage increases
Embeddable
- Flat, predictable pricing
- Unlimited dashboards and users
When to Choose Qlik
Best for
- Internal analytics and BI teams
- Data exploration and discovery
- Enterprise reporting and governance
Where it falls short
- Deep product-level UX integration
- SaaS-scale multi-tenancy
- Predictable pricing for customer-facing analytics
When to Choose Embeddable
Best for
- SaaS products with customer-facing dashboards
- Teams that want full control over UX and interactions
- Multi-tenant environments at scale
- Developer-driven product organizations
Added value
- Native rendering without iframe limitations
- Predictable pricing as usage grows
- High performance for interactive dashboards
- Reduced engineering overhead
Closing perspective
Qlik is a powerful enterprise BI platform that excels at internal analytics, exploration, and governance. It is a strong choice when analytics are primarily consumed by internal teams and embedded dashboards are a secondary extension.
Embeddable is better suited for SaaS products where analytics are part of the core user experience. By focusing on native embedding, scalable performance, and full UI control, it enables teams to deliver customer-facing analytics that feel seamless, flexible, and maintainable as the product grows.
FAQs
Is Qlik good for customer-facing analytics in SaaS products?
Qlik can support customer-facing dashboards, but it is primarily designed for internal analytics and BI workflows. Its embedded analytics often feel more like an extension of internal BI than a native product feature.
Is Embeddable better suited for SaaS products than Qlik?
Embeddable is generally better suited for SaaS products where analytics are a core feature, because it supports native embedding, full UI control, and scalable multi-tenant performance.
What is the main difference between Embeddable and Qlik?
The main difference is focus. Qlik is an enterprise BI platform with embedding capabilities, while Embeddable is purpose-built for embedding analytics directly into SaaS products as a native feature.
How do Embeddable and Qlik compare on customization?
Qlik offers limited customization within its BI framework. Embeddable allows full customization of layout, styling, interactions, and components to match a product’s design system.
Which platform performs better at scale?
Embeddable is designed for high-concurrency, multi-tenant SaaS environments using multi-tier caching. Qlik performs well for enterprise BI but may require more operational effort for large-scale embedded usage.
How do Embeddable and Qlik handle multi-tenancy?
Embeddable uses tenant-aware security tokens with fine-grained access control. Qlik supports security rules and roles, but SaaS multi-tenancy often requires additional configuration.
When should a team choose Qlik over Embeddable?
Qlik is a good choice when analytics are primarily internal, analyst-driven, and focused on exploration and enterprise reporting.
When should a team choose Embeddable over Qlik?
Embeddable is a better choice when analytics need to be embedded natively into a SaaS product, support customer-facing use cases, and scale predictably across many tenants.
