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As @Jesscia Booker said, there is not a right or wrong answer as this will be highly dependent on one's circumstances; moreover, I definitely do not think the choice is a 'decisive' one, in that there are plenty of people who succeed with both approaches. That said, if I were in this position, the following would be the central factors in my decision-making:

1. How easily can you self-finance? Would parents or family be able (and willing) to cover it, or would you need to take any debt? If the latter, this would be a huge minus. However, even if you can self-fund, if this will make a significant dent into your/your family's savings, this is also a factor to consider.
2. What does your applications history look like? Have you gave it your all (making lots and lots of high quality applications, have through research on each firm, went to firm events, kept up with commercial awareness etc) consistently and still not succeeded? If so, perhaps it is a good idea to do the SQE to boost your candidate profile - since there would not that much you can do independently of such a boost to significantly improve success chances. If however your application cycle efforts have not quite been up to the (quite high) standard I was describing above, perhaps it is worth another shot; particularly as if you do not do the SQE you would have a lot more time to invest to ensure you do everything right and maximize your chances to score well in every assessment criterion.
3. Would there be anything else I can and want to do besides applications if I do not self-fund the SQE, or would this just be a 'gap year'? Of course, another job/do a postgrad would clash with the idea of not doing the SQE to have all the time in the world for applications. However, if you could take on a part-time role or enroll in a course that is not very demanding (at least during the main application cycle months), this could serve the SQE's function to boost your candidate profile.
4. What firms are you targeting? Apparently, different firms care to a different extent whether you have already completed the SQE. While the cost-saving involved would likely be a benefit in the eyes of any firm, the level to which this will increase your chances will vary. Anecdotally, US firms in particular but MC firms as well tend to care less about it; whereas more mid-market firms tend to care more. The reason would be that the former category simply have a significantly stronger financial position, and as such, the savings involved in not having to sponsor your SQE would be more of a drop in a bucket than for the latter.