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Databricks vs Looker comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM SPSS Statistics
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Data Mining (3rd), Data Science Platforms (9th)
Databricks
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Data Science Platforms (1st), Streaming Analytics (1st)
Looker
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Data Science Platforms
Embedded BI
 

Featured Reviews

Md Masudul Hassan - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive data analysis capabilities with a user-friendly interface, providing an efficient and reliable platform for researchers and analysts
I believe that offering short-term SPSS licenses, perhaps when customer sourcing is available, could make it more affordable. These licenses shouldn't include features tailored for universities or large sales organizations. Instead, they could offer discounts or additional facilities for smaller entities to access the software. In developing countries, it would be beneficial to provide certain features to users at no cost initially, while also customizing pricing options. For example, offering basic features to the first hundred users can help them become familiar with the software and its capabilities. This approach encourages users to upgrade to higher tiers as they become more experienced and require additional functionality.
Dunstan Matekenya - PeerSpot reviewer
Process large-scale data sets and integrates with Apache Spark with notebook environment
Databricks integrates natively with Apache Spark, which I use as a processing engine for large-scale datasets. This native integration is one of its strengths. Another strength is that the platform makes it very easy to manage resources. For example, setting up a cluster of five or fifteen nodes is straightforward with Databricks. The notebook environment is also excellent, making it easy to perform various tasks.
Subramani R - PeerSpot reviewer
The APIs are exposed at every level, so it's highly modular
Looker doesn't connect to Excel, which is a huge disappointment because a lot of data is presented in Excel. Also, it can't consume data directly from REST APIs, which is necessary. Looker needs to expand its horizons when it comes to data sources. The inability to connect to different data sources is hampering our use cases. Currently, it only has an ODBC connection that connects to a database. It needs to connect to other data sources, such as Excel, APIs and different platforms. You can't create very attractive visuals with the built-in features, but I think they're providing some extensions to develop different visualizations. Looker can't create multiple sheets. You can only create one dashboard. It's not that you're able to toggle through different sheets to navigate different visuals. It's just one and people have to scroll through the dashboard. So scrolling is not something that people generally like to do, rather than segregating them in multiple tabs of sheets.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"You can quickly build models because it does the work for you."
"One feature I found very valuable was the analysis of variance (ANOVA)."
"It is perfectly adequate if all you need are the results and not the trail of evidence."
"The learning curve to using this product is not steep. The program is appropriate for those who do not have a lot of background in programming, yet have to perform basic statistical analysis."
"The best part is that they have an algorithm handbook, so you can open it up and understand how it works, and if it is useful, this is very important."
"Custom tables and macros: They allow us to create useful reports quickly for a broad audience."
"Some of the most valuable features that we are using with some business models are machine learning algorithms, statistical models given to us by the business, and getting data from the database or text files."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the Bayesian statistics and descriptive statistics."
"The integration with Python and the notebooks really helps."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the hardware and the resources it quickly provides without much hassle."
"There are good features for turning off clusters."
"I like that Databricks is a unified platform that lets you do streaming and batch processing in the same place. You can do analytics, too. They have added something called Databricks SQL Analytics, allowing users to connect to the data lake to perform analytics. Databricks also will enable you to share your data securely. It integrates with your reporting system as well."
"The tool helps with data processing and analytics with large-scale data or big data since it is associated with managing data at a large scale."
"The most valuable feature of Databricks is the integration with Microsoft Azure."
"We can scale the product."
"Its lightweight and fast processing are valuable."
"The product is easy to use."
"The stability of Looker has been good since I have been using it. However, it depends on what components are being used."
"With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability."
"We can centralize all our data models."
"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability."
"Looker allows you to generate the most optimal SQL queries in a DC through UI actions. We had signed a contract with Google Cloud to use BigQuery. That was the primary reason we adopted Looker. It works better with BigQuery than any other BI platform. We also like how this tool was developed. It was designed with an eye toward microservices architecture."
"It's quite effortless to navigate through various applications and review their updated data in real-time."
"From a developer's perspective, the way the functionality's being handled is great."
 

Cons

"The technical support should be improved."
"The solution needs to improve forecasting using time series analysis."
"There is a learning curve; it's not very steep, but there is one."
"The solution could improve by providing a visual network for predictions and a self-organizing map for clustering."
"Technical support needs some improvement, as they do not respond as quickly as we would like."
"SPSS is a tool that's been around since the late 60s, and it's the universal worldwide standard for quantitative social science data analysis. That said, it does seem a bit strange to me that the graphical output functions are so clunky after all these years. The output of charts and graphs that SPSS produces is hideous."
"Needs more statistical modelling functions."
"Perhaps in terms of visualization. It's not really easy to do some data visualization, just simple, descriptive analysis in SPSS. I think that could be an area for improvement."
"There is room for improvement in visualization."
"Costs can quickly add up if you don't plan for it."
"Performance could be improved."
"The integration features could be more interesting, more involved."
"Pricing is one of the things that could be improved."
"Would be helpful to have additional licensing options."
"There is room for improvement in the documentation of processes and how it works."
"The product could be improved regarding the delay when switching to higher-performing virtual machines compared to other platforms."
"The main area of concern in Looker is probably related to blending the data from the different sources, including the data present internally in the company and on the cloud."
"It needs to be more user-friendly."
"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."
"Looker doesn't connect to Excel, which is a huge disappointment because a lot of data is presented in Excel. Also, it can't consume data directly from REST APIs, which is necessary. Looker needs to expand its horizons when it comes to data sources. The inability to connect to different data sources is hampering our use cases. Currently, it only has an ODBC connection that connects to a database. It needs to connect to other data sources, such as Excel, APIs, and different platforms."
"The product does not have documented material."
"The visualization capability of the product is limited."
"Stability needs improvement."
"The integration with different databases must be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of IBM SPSS Statistics could improve."
"Our licence is on a yearly renewal basis. While pricing is not the primary concern in our evaluation, as products are assessed by whether they can meet our user needs and expertise, the cost can be a limiting factor in the number of licences we procure."
"The price of this solution is a little bit high, which was a problem for my company."
"SPSS is an expensive piece of software because it's incredibly complex and has been refined over decades, but I would say it's fairly priced."
"If it requires lot of data processing, maybe switching to IBM SPSS Clementine would be better for the buyer."
"It's quite expensive, but they do a special deal for universities."
"More affordable training for new staff members."
"While the pricing of the product may be higher, the accompanying service and features justify the investment."
"Whenever we want to find the actual costing, we have to send an email to Databricks, so having the information available on the internet would be helpful."
"The billing of Databricks can be difficult and should improve."
"The licensing costs of Databricks is a tiered licensing regime, so it is flexible."
"I'm not involved in the financing, but I can say that the solution seemed reasonably priced compared to the competitors. Similar products are usually in the same price range. With five being affordable and one being expensive, I would rate Databricks a four out of five."
"The licensing costs of Databricks depend on how many licenses we need, depending on which Databricks provides a lot of discounts."
"I rate the price of Databricks as eight out of ten."
"The solution is affordable."
"The cost is around $600,000 for 50 users."
"The price of Looker usually depends on the solution's provider, but it is usually cheaper than the other products in the market. Looker is offered at different prices for different companies."
"I do not have to make any payments to use the solution."
"Looker is expensive and could be made better by reducing it."
"It is cheap."
"It's not cheap, but it's not expensive for big companies."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Educational Organization
37%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM SPSS Statistics?
The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM SPSS Statistics?
The cost of IBM SPSS Statistics is managed by organizations, not individual researchers. It is a very expensive produ...
What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Statistics?
IBM SPSS Statistics does not keep you close to your data like KNIME. In KNIME, at every stage, you can see the result...
Which do you prefer - Databricks or Azure Machine Learning Studio?
Databricks gives you the option of working with several different languages, such as SQL, R, Scala, Apache Spark, or ...
How would you compare Databricks vs Amazon SageMaker?
We researched AWS SageMaker, but in the end, we chose Databricks. Databricks is a Unified Analytics Platform designe...
Which would you choose - Databricks or Azure Stream Analytics?
Databricks is an easy-to-set-up and versatile tool for data management, analysis, and business analytics. For analyti...
What do you like most about Looker?
With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Looker?
I do not have to make any payments to use the solution. In the beginning, Looker may work fine for its users. If adva...
What needs improvement with Looker?
The visualization capability of the product is limited. From an improvement perspective, the product should have more...
 

Also Known As

SPSS Statistics
Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash
No data available
 

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

LDB Group, RightShip, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Capgemini Consulting, TEAC Corporation, Ironside, nViso SA, Razorsight, Si.mobil, University Hospitals of Leicester, CROOZ Inc., GFS Fundraising Solutions, Nedbank Ltd., IDS-TILDA
Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware
Yahoo!, Etsy, Kohler, Hipcamp, Hubspot, Kickstarter, Venmo, Dollar Shave Club, 600+ customer
Find out what your peers are saying about Databricks, Knime, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in Data Science Platforms. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.