We wrote these comparisons.Check them anyway.
6 options weighed for chains of 2 to 49 locations, plus 2 guides for getting a shortlist down to them.
6 options · one question per column
The last column is where each one is the right answer, including where that answer is not us. Two of the options are not alternatives at all: marql reads them.
| the option | licence meters | model owner | when it is the right answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| instead of marql | |||
| Power BI | Per user, per monththeir price | Your data engineer, indefinitely | You employ someone who maintains a data model |
| Tableau | Per user, by roletheir price | Your analyst, plus a prep layer | Someone on the team already builds in Tableau |
| Looker Studio | Free tier, or Pro per projecttheir price | You, in Sheets or BigQuery | Your data already sits in BigQuery |
| Franchise KPI tools | Per location, or nothing at all | The franchisee, by hand | Partners already send what you need, on time |
| alongside marql — it reads these, so the question is whether their own reports are enough | |||
| Your POS reports | Already in your POS billiiko · Lightspeed · WizPOS · IncoPOS · SmartCash · Square · SumUp · Oracle Simphony | Nobody — there is no join | You run one location on one system |
| ERP | Per seat, plus implementationOdoo · Dynamics 365 Business Central · WinMentor · SAGA Software · ERP.NET · Microinvest | The implementation partner | Month-end cadence is enough, and your ERP already reports it |
Nothing shortlisted yet, or not sure which row is you? Start here: All five approaches · How to choose
no licence prices here · take each one from the vendor, linked above
Before you talk to anyone
Four decisions about you, and two of them end it.
None of these is a question for a vendor; those are the six below. Two of these four can end the search before a demo.
List every system that holds a sale or a cost
One location on one till is a different problem from six locations on three tills plus a web shop and two accounting systems. Write the list down: the join between the sale side and the cost side is the entire project, and its size is the length of that list.
Decide whether you have somebody to own the model
Not to build it — to still own it in March, when a POS changes its API, when location eleven opens, when the margin measure stops agreeing with the ledger. It is a standing job, and the honest answer is a name or nobody.
That name exists and is staying — buy Power BI or Tableau, they will take you further than we will
Split your own budget into licence and work
Whatever you end up buying, the per-seat figure is the line you can check in a minute and the line that decides least. Budget the connector build, the data model and the annual maintenance as three separate numbers before you hear anyone's price, so a quote cannot bundle them past you.
Name the one question the tool must answer alone
If it is reporting across finance, HR and marketing, that is a BI platform. If it is one ledger across legal entities, that is an ERP. If it is margin per location tomorrow morning, that is this category.
It is the ledger across entities, or procurement and statutory accounting — you need an ERP, and marql reads one rather than replacing it
What to put to any vendor, including us
Six questions that are awkward for the seller to answer.
The four above are yours to settle; these six are theirs to answer, and our own answer sits under each one.
Which of my systems do you read today?
Not 'we integrate with anything'. The named systems, whether each is live now or on a roadmap, and which are the vendor's own work.
168 systems across the EU and the UK, of which 48 are tills. We build and maintain 27 ourselves; the rest come through our integration partner Chift. Anything missing connects from a REST API or a scheduled CSV export.
Do you write anything back?
A tool that can change a price or a stock level needs a different approval than one that reads. Ask which, and ask for the scope in writing.
Read-only by default. marql changes no price, no stock level and no order in your POS or ledger.
Who maintains the integration after go-live?
The question nobody puts in an RFP and everybody pays for. A connector is not a delivery, it is a subscription to somebody's attention.
We maintain ours, and a POS that stops sending is named as not reporting rather than folded quietly into a total.
What happens where the data is missing?
Every chain has a product with no cost price somewhere. Ask what the margin column shows for that product.
It stays empty. We would rather show a gap than an estimate you find out about in week two.
What does it cost at eleven locations, and at thirty?
A price that only exists for your current size is a renegotiation with a date on it. Ask for the ladder.
Published in full: €200 per location, dropping at the tenth and again at the thirtieth, and quoted after a scope review from 50.
Show me the report a manager gets on Monday
Not the dashboard the founder demos. The artefact that reaches the person running one location, in the language they work in.
That is the daily operating brief, and it is what the rest of this site is about.
Who wrote this
What these pages will not do for you.
This is a vendor's comparison of its own competitors. That is a conflict of interest, not a disclaimer, so here is exactly where it bites and what we do about it.
- These are not independent. We sell one of the options. Every page is written to be checkable rather than neutral, which is a different and smaller promise.
- Two of our own figures were wrong for months. Power BI, Tableau and Looker Studio all repriced after these pages were written, and a Tableau licence figure sat here stale for roughly three months before anyone re-read it. That is why no competitor price appears on the site now.
- Where a page does give a cost of work, it is a range from projects of this shape, not a quote and not a vendor list price. It is labelled as a range wherever it appears.
- No page states how long marql takes to be useful. The product does not commit to a window, so nothing here implies one.
- Above 50 locations these pages stop being useful: the answer starts depending on things a page cannot know, and the network is scoped rather than priced from a ladder.
- English only. The Romanian and Bulgarian comparison articles are still filed in their blogs, and this hub does not pretend to cover them yet.
Frequently asked questions
About these comparisons
Because a figure you can check in one click is a bad place to be wrong, and every one of those prices has moved at least once. Each comparison links to the vendor's own pricing page for the licence, and spends its words on the part that does not expire: what the tool is built to do, and what a chain of this size still has to build on top of it. Ours is on /pricing, with the calculator.
Read it for the structure and check the claims. The structure is worth something even from an interested party: the same questions asked of every option, in the same order, so you can see which ones a vendor dodges. The claims are yours to verify, which is why each page names its sources and links out for anything priced. Two things we will not do, because they are what vendor comparisons usually get wrong: quote a competitor's price, or invent a timeline for ourselves.
If you have not shortlisted anything, start with the five-approaches overview: it sets spreadsheets, POS reports, BI tools, ERP and purpose-built platforms beside each other without arguing for one. If a specific tool is already on the table, go straight to its page.
Every page in this hub
All five approaches
Retail Analytics Software Comparison 2026 — 5 Approaches Compared
Power BI
marql vs Power BI for Retail Chains — Honest Comparison 2026
Tableau
marql vs Tableau for Restaurant Operations — 2026 Comparison
Looker Studio
Looker Studio for Restaurant Chains — What It Can and Can't Do
Your POS reports
Why POS Analytics Isn't Enough for Multi-Location Chains
ERP
Restaurant Management Software vs ERP — Which Is Right for Your Chain
Franchise KPI tools
Franchise KPI Tracking Software — Comparison Guide 2026
How to choose
Restaurant Chain Management Software — How to Choose
Talk to us
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