Looker Studio vs Plotly comparison

Google and Plotly are both solutions in the Reporting category. Google is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.6, while Plotly is ranked #18 with an average rating of 7.7. Google holds a 2.5% mindshare in RT, compared to Plotly’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Plotly users who would recommend it.

Looker Studio

Read 12 Looker Studio reviews

1,051 Views
1,158 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Plotly

Read 3 Plotly reviews

661 Views
576 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Looker Studio

Plotly

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Plotly and Looker Studio are competitive tools in the data visualization arena. Plotly seems to have the upper hand with its versatility in generating interactive visualizations, whereas Looker Studio's strength lies in its robust data integration capabilities, making it ideal for comprehensive business intelligence.

Features: Plotly offers versatility in interactive visualizations, strong customization options, and detailed control over visual outputs. Looker Studio provides powerful data integration, collaboration tools, and is suitable for team-oriented projects.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Plotly features an accessible deployment model focused on standalone use, simplifying implementation. Its customer service is responsive. Looker Studio offers a cloud-based architecture supporting complex deployments with a broader support ecosystem for enterprises, providing comprehensive options for large organizations.

Pricing and ROI: Plotly is cost-effective with lower initial costs, appealing to small teams. Looker Studio requires a higher initial investment, justified by robust long-term ROI through its extensive feature set. Businesses seeking immediate savings may prefer Plotly, while those wanting strategic ROI and a feature-rich platform might choose Looker Studio.

To learn more, read our detailed Looker Studio vs. Plotly Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio vs. Plotly

March 2025

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Helped 846,617 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Looker Studio

Ranking in Reporting

11th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Plotly

Ranking in Reporting

18th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Looker Studio is 2.5%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Plotly is 1.2%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Reporting

Featured Reviews

Srini-Dhanaraj

Founder & CEO at imfine.club

Available for free and can help businesses resolve their data migration problems

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. Google Data Studio is a cloud-based tool. With cloud-based tools, there can be two challenges, the first one being associated with the bandwidth of your data strength. If I run a report from my home because of the wi-fi connection, it may give an excellent response. When I run the reports, Google Data Studio develops reports from my home, and because of wi-fi, it works in an excellent manner. When I am on the road or at the wheel, if I use the internet data from my mobile to browse my reports, the performance may not be good, and this issue is not because of the product but because of the bandwidth. The second issue arises when you connect Google Data Studio to a source system to extract the data to do the visualization. If the source system is not responding as quickly as expected, it could be the reason why the report may be printed slowly. Considering the aforementioned aspects, the problem may not be because of Google Data Studio but because of the source system.

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Hassan Kamkar

Data Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

An interactive and easy-to-use solution that can be used to create dashboards

The solution cannot be deployed on the website and shared with others through its own platform. We need a third-party platform to share the application that we develop. In Tableau and Power BI, we can simply share the website with others as long as we use the paid version. However, for Plotly, we need to deploy our app on a cloud-based service like AWS or other third-party websites to share with others.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I am impressed with the tool's scheduling mechanism, refresh mechanism, and different types of charts."

"The best thing about the tool is that it allows you to share information easily and dashboards with colleagues and teammates because it's all online. No matter where you are, as long as you have the Internet, you can connect and use these dashboards. Google made good documentation for this tool. There are many examples of how to use and create dashboards and videos on YouTube. So, I think it's easy to learn."

"The integration with Excel and Google Sheets is a valuable feature, making it easy to access and visualize data."

"Looker's ability to perform aggregation before visualization allows for effective data slicing and dicing."

"The ability to design complex data models and equations."

"The product's initial setup phase is very simple."

"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."

"I find it favorable regarding speed of development, ease of building, and flexibility."

More Looker Studio pros

"When reviewing and interpreting data, I typically examine it in a tabular form to understand its structure. However, when explaining or presenting the findings to others, I often use visualization tools such as Plotly. These tools allow me to create visual representations of datasets."

"It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine to ten out of ten."

"The level of interactivity that the product provides is valuable to me."

Cons

"The challenges with Google Data Studio are associated with the security part, making it an area where improvements are required."

"The tool has a lot of room for improvement. It's not very professional and allows for only simple tasks like indicating KPIs or quick calculations. It lacks a good calculation-based language like Power BI's DAX, making it less suitable for professional use. Additionally, the variety of visualization tools is limited, and customization options are restricted."

"The tool should improve on live data integration for quicker data reflection."

"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."

"The tool should come up with data modeling layer features that are present in other products like Power BI."

"There are issues with integration and I encountered limits and warnings, especially with my pivot table size."

"Panels are not as easy to use as other data extraction UIs."

"Other tools might be worth considering if you need more advanced features or support for a larger user base."

More Looker Studio cons

"I believe that the prices of the tool's paid services could be on the premium side, so the pricing model can be considered for improvement."

"The tool needs to improve its pie charts. Regarding Plotly, I find the online documentation somewhat challenging to navigate, especially when dealing with many parameters. Searching through thousands of parameters can be a tedious and less straightforward process. While the documentation is available online and serves its purpose, I often encounter difficulties in finding the information."

"The solution cannot be deployed on the website and shared with others through its own platform."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."

"The product is available for free."

"I think the tool is cheap because you don't need to pay anything for using the tool. However, when connecting and analyzing other data sources, you should consider where to analyze this information because Google Data Studio doesn't handle much data well. You must also consider how you will connect this data to it. In this case, you might need to hire DevOps or a data team to help with these issues."

"The tool is free."

"The solution is free but the Google Looker is expensive."

"It is an open-source tool. My company hasn't explored Plotly's premium services yet, but I believe the prices could be on the premium side."

"I only use the free tier of the product."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

12%

University

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Data Studio?

The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. We observed the progress of our portfolio from last week to the current week, all...

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What needs improvement with Google Data Studio?

The tool should improve on live data integration for quicker data reflection. Currently, changes in Google Sheets take about three to five minutes to reflect in Looker Studio. Overall, the interfac...

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What is your primary use case for Google Data Studio?

I use Looker Studio primarily for dashboard creation and data analytics. I have integrated it with Google Sheets, and I use it for project plan maintenance and data tracking.

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What do you like most about Plotly?

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine to ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Plotly?

It is an open-source tool. My company hasn't explored Plotly's premium services yet, but I believe the prices are on the premium side. I rate the product price as five or six on a scale of one to t...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Plotly?

I believe that the price of the tool's paid services is on the premium side, so the pricing model can be considered for improvement.

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker Studio

Compared 45% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker Studio

Compared 20% of the time

Tableau vs Looker Studio

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker Studio

Compared 6% of the time

More Looker Studio Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Plotly

Compared 42% of the time

Tableau vs Plotly

Compared 36% of the time

TIBCO Spotfire vs Plotly

Compared 14% of the time

More Plotly Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio

April 2025

Download Looker Studio product report

Buyer's Guide

Reporting

April 2025

Download Plotly product report

Also Known As

Data Studio

No data available

Overview

Google Looker Studio is a free tool designed to help users create visually appealing reports and dashboards, making data easier to understand. It allows you to connect to various data sources such as Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and spreadsheets. With Looker Studio, you can create charts and graphs to showcase trends and comparisons, build comprehensive dashboards that provide an overview of your data, and customize reports to match your brand or preferences. Additionally, you can share your reports online or export them as PDFs for wider distribution.

Google

Plotly creates leading open source tools for composing, editing, and sharing interactive data visualization via the Web.

Our collaboration servers (available in cloud or on premises) allow data scientists to showcase their work, make graphs without coding, and collaborate with business analysts, designers, executives, and clients.

Plotly

Sample Customers

Genesys, Shueisha

Google, Goji, VIT, Smpl Bio, U.S. Air Force, C12 Energy, New York University

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio vs. Plotly

March 2025

Free Report: Looker Studio vs. Plotly

Find out what your peers are saying about Looker Studio vs. Plotly and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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