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paul_scotchford
Specialist
Specialist

QlikSense Desktop (free) discontinues in June 2020

Today I read that QlikSense desktop will no longer available for download and use (as well as existing installations) from June 2020. 

Rumour or fact ?

Why do this ? Besides profiteering ? Surely there are other ways to encourage early adopters ? Forcing people to Qlik SaaS offering is not a great option as it does not support much in the way of extensions and of course locks out 3rd party extension provides such as VizLib which I use when prototyping before migrating to a server.

 

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rwunderlich
Partner Ambassador/MVP
Partner Ambassador/MVP

54 Replies
rwunderlich
Partner Ambassador/MVP
Partner Ambassador/MVP

paul_scotchford
Specialist
Specialist
Author

Thanks Rob, I saw that after posting here.

Looks like I will procure a minimum enterprise licence soon.

mwallman
Creator III
Creator III

Utterly ridiculous decision by Qlik.

I really hope the community lobbies against this, it is so so useful in expanding the product in an organisation.

piotr-bratek
Contributor III
Contributor III

UPDATE!

Hi,

I've prepared a newer version of the short summary for all who cannot accept that sad fact 🙂

qsdesktop-freemium3.jpg

Full article on my blog: https://www.dataminers.io/en/no-longer-freedom/

cheers
Piotr

 

 

ex-Training Manager at Qlik Central-Eastern Europe
paul_scotchford
Specialist
Specialist
Author

Just reading the updated comments at https://community.qlik.com/t5/Qlik-Support-Updates-Blog/Changes-to-Qlik-Sense-Desktop-in-2020/ba-p/1...

Paragraph ... 

Ability to keep data offline while trying (and using) Qlik Sense:
  • We have prioritized enabling Qlik Sense Desktop to authenticate via Qlik Cloud Services which would enable Qlik Sense Business users to also use Qlik Sense Desktop. This will enable paid and trial users to keep their data local if they choose.

I would definitely buy the Cloud subscription, Qlik! when will know about this option ? And will it apply to all tiers ? 

itibook
Partner - Contributor III
Partner - Contributor III

This is really a poor decision and even more poorly communicated... a simple blog post, no direct message to the QDS users.

I have been using Qlik product for more than 10 years and I love them (hence why I am so vocal about this). I am all in favour of Qlik trying to earn more money especially if that helps speed up development , but this is like pulling the carpet under the users/customers feet. Furthermore without any rational explanation.

In most products like QlikSense you always have one size of the platform subsidizing the other. Viewing PDFs is free, but you pay for the PDF creator. Tableau Desktop is paid, but you get a free Tableau Viewer. None of this "free" option has prevented these companies from being successful, quite the contrary it's part of the platform strategy to solve the chicken-egg problem.

Qlik had made a very clear decision: free to create, paid to share on a server. Absolutely sound decision as the ratio of developers vs viewers is largely in favour of the viewers.

By making the QDS paid, this will limit the amount of people creating apps, and if you reduce the amount of people creating apps, where is the demand for buying viewers licenses going to come from? 

Now that QSD is maturing, I don't have any problem to see more friction, but not like this. They could limit the amount of free apps (e.g. max of 5) on QSD and then push harder to upgrade etc etc, but removing the free option altogether is a major blow to users and a major mistake.

I have always been able to drive Qlik adoption by training more Qlik developers and having them create apps which in turn would generate demand from viewers.

From the outside, this move looks more like a financial driven decision and certainly not product driven one. And when finance takes decision for products, it normally doesn't end well.

 

 

paulcalvet
Partner - Specialist
Partner - Specialist

Yes it's a very bad news. 

It's strange, comments are disabled on Qlik's post... 🤔

itibook
Partner - Contributor III
Partner - Contributor III

well spotted... looks like this is only blog post where comments are disabled...

so much for openness and listening to the community. This is so old school it's embarassing

paul_scotchford
Specialist
Specialist
Author

I've just discovered Tableau public which looks pretty good especially as it provides significant functionality for those that cannot/will not pay for Visualisation development early on in their evaluation.

There is no time limit with Tableau Public and users can share their Visualisations with others as well ; also a max space of 10gb is offered for free.

Only downside is it cannot be connected to a Database Source such as SQL Server,Oracle etc but will connect to Excel , JSON data sources, text (csv) , Odata etc which probably is enough to get going with the product.

My point ? Why didn't Qlik follow a similar route rather than cutting people off at the knees with QlikSense ? 

I think I am swaying into Tableau dev territory now.