In today’s data-driven economy, analytics platforms aren’t just about dashboards — they’re about enabling smarter, faster decisions that fuel real business growth with ROI. Choosing between Qlik Sense (on-premise) and Qlik Cloud (cloud-native) isn’t simply a technical debate — it’s about how your organization can maximize ROI from data.
At Arc Analytics, we help businesses navigate these decisions daily. This guide breaks down the strengths of both Qlik options, showcases where Qlik Cloud creates new opportunities, and explains how a hybrid approach might unlock the best of both worlds.
The Core Difference: On-Premise Control vs. Cloud Agility
- Qlik Sense (On-Premise):
Best suited for organizations with strict security, compliance, or legacy systems. You retain full control over infrastructure while enjoying Qlik’s powerful associative data engine. - Qlik Cloud (Cloud-Native):
A flexible, continuously evolving platform that delivers scalability, accessibility, and advanced analytics. Updates roll out automatically, reducing IT overhead and giving teams instant access to new features.
This core choice — control vs agility — frames today’s analytics strategies.
Why Businesses are Moving to Qlik Cloud
Qlik Cloud isn’t just Qlik Sense in the cloud. It’s a next-generation platform designed to enhance ROI and reduce friction in just about every phase of analytics.
🚨 Proactive Insights with Qlik Alerting
Set real-time, data-driven alerts to act the moment thresholds are crossed or anomalies appear.
📊 Advanced Qlik Reporting Suite
Automated, polished, and customizable reports that ensure insights are delivered to the right people, exactly when they need them.
🔄 Drag-and-Drop Data Flows
Reduce IT bottlenecks with visual data preparation for analysts and business users — no heavy scripting required.
👥 Seamless Collaboration
Enable true real-time co-authoring and dashboard sharing across teams, locations, and devices.
📈 Elastic Scalability
Scale instantly to meet spikes in data volume or user demand. No more waiting on hardware expansions.
🔒 Enterprise-Grade Security
Far from being a risk, Qlik Cloud meets rigorous security standards, often exceeding what smaller enterprise IT setups can provide.
🤖 AI + Machine Learning Insights
Go beyond dashboards with AI-powered predictions and ML-driven insights.
🌍 Broad Data Connectivity
Unify cloud and on-premise sources into one analytics environment.
Unlocking ROI with Automation, Qlik Answers, and Qlik Predict
One of the most transformative ROI drivers in Qlik Cloud is the ability to automate and modernize how users interact with data:
- Qlik Automation connects processes, apps, and triggers, removing manual tasks from your team’s workload.
- Qlik Answers lets users ask questions in natural language and get instant, contextual insights — expanding analytics adoption to the entire workforce.
- Qlik Predict leverages machine learning to forecast trends and give businesses predictive power, not just reactive dashboards.
These SaaS-native tools go far beyond cost savings — they unlock entirely new value streams, driving adoption, speeding decisions, and creating competitive differentiation.
Internal Linking: Our Specialized Migration Services
Migrating from Qlik Sense to Qlik Cloud can be daunting without the right expertise. This is where Arc Analytics’ Qlik Migration Services give you a competitive edge.
We specialize in:
- Ensuring zero downtime migration.
- Rebuilding complex Qlik apps in the cloud for performance gains.
- Training teams for success in Qlik Cloud environments.
Notably, Qlik itself recently launched the Qlik Sense to Qlik Cloud Migration Tool (May 2025), giving organizations an official, streamlined path to migrate apps, data connections, and user roles. We combine this tool with our strategic approach for the smoothest possible transition.
Hybrid Approaches: Best of Both Worlds
For many enterprises, the smartest path isn’t choosing one — it’s choosing both.
- Keep sensitive workloads in Qlik Sense on-premise for compliance.
- Use Qlik Cloud for innovation, new projects, or global accessibility.
- Minimize costs with licensing options that allow a hybrid setup at only ~30% additional cost.
This approach unlocks incremental ROI without forcing a “rip-and-replace” investment.
High-Level Licensing & ROI Comparison
| Feature/Model | Qlik Sense (On-Premise) | Qlik Cloud (SaaS) |
| Licensing Model | Core-based (per CPU/core) | Capacity-based (data volume & users) |
| Infrastructure Costs | Requires hardware, maintenance, IT resources | Included in subscription (no infrastructure overhead) |
| Scalability | Limited to available cores & hardware | Elastic, scales on-demand |
| Updates & Upgrades | Manual patching & downtime | Continuous updates built-in |
| Security & Compliance | Controlled on-prem, internal governance | Enterprise-grade, built-in compliance frameworks |
| Total Cost of Ownership | High upfront + ongoing infra costs | Predictable subscription, pay for usage |
| ROI Focus | Infrastructure investment heavy | Data-driven outcomes & business agility |
Takeaway: With Qlik Sense, ROI is partly consumed by infrastructure cost and IT overhead. With Qlik Cloud, that same investment is redirected toward automation, innovation, and user adoption — where business ROI is truly measured.
The ROI Equation
Migrating to Qlik Cloud doesn’t replace your past Qlik investment — it amplifies it.
By combining proactive alerts, advanced reporting, Qlik Automation workflows, Qlik Answers for natural language analysis, and Qlik Predict for machine learning insights, companies can:
- Improve decision-making speed.
- Reduce IT overhead and manual reporting.
- Empower every department with data-driven culture.
- Stay future-ready as Qlik continues innovating.
Ready to Maximize Your Qlik ROI?
Whether full migration or hybrid, Arc Analytics is your partner in unlocking more value from Qlik.
✅ Explore our Qlik Cloud Consulting Services
✅ Learn about our Data Analytics Strategy Offerings
✅ Schedule a migration readiness assessment with our expert team.
Your data is powerful — Qlik Cloud makes it unstoppable.