Looker vs Looker Studio comparison

The compared Looker and Looker Studio solutions aren't in the same category. Looker is ranked #5 in EBT , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 26.9% mindshare in the category. Looker Studio is ranked #12 in RT , with an average rating of 7.3, and holds a 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Looker users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Looker Studio users who would recommend it.

Looker

Read 19 Looker reviews

1,940 Views
1,579 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Looker Studio

Read 11 Looker Studio reviews

1,250 Views
1,388 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Looker

Looker Studio

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Looker and Looker Studio based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce, Qlik, MicroStrategy and others in Embedded BI.

To learn more, read our detailed Embedded BI Report (Updated: November 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Embedded BI

November 2024

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Helped 823,875 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Looker

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Embedded BI (5th)

Looker Studio

Average Rating

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Reporting (12th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. Looker is designed for Embedded BI and holds a mindshare of 26.9%, up 24.7% compared to last year.
Looker Studio, on the other hand, focuses on Reporting, holds 2.3% mindshare, down 2.8% since last year.

Embedded BI

Reporting

Featured Reviews

Subramani R

Software Data Engineer at PayPal

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.

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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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a pretty stable solution because it is a cloud-based product."

"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability."

"It's quite effortless to navigate through various applications and review their updated data in real-time."

"The stability of Looker has been good since I have been using it. However, it depends on what components are being used."

"We can centralize all our data models."

"The product is easy to use."

"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."

"With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability."

More Looker pros

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

"This has improved our organization by allowing people to see their data and develop visualizations themselves."

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

"The ability to integrate with a great variety of data sources."

"The solution is free so that is a good feature."

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

"Data Studio integrates seamlessly with other Google products, and we can use it with other APIs if we like."

"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."

More Looker Studio pros

Cons

"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."

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"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."

"Stability needs improvement."

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"The integration with different databases must be improved."

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

"Stability and scalability an be improved for a full ten."

"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."

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

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

"It's not yet a replacement for a complete BI tool."

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

"Insisting on forums, blogs and community outreach in communications, and posting videos on an established calendar would be useful."

More Looker Studio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not cheap, but it's not expensive for big companies."

"It is cheap."

"I do not have to make any payments to use the solution."

"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."

"Looker is expensive and could be made better by reducing it."

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

"The tool is free."

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

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

37%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Looker?

With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.

See all answers

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 advanced users who have experience with BI tools use Looker, then they may find it t...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Looker?

The visualization capability of the product is limited. From an improvement perspective, the product should have more visualization capability. I can't clean data in Looker, and if I try to do it, ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Data Studio?

The performance of Looker needs improvement, particularly the report loading time, which is critical for business users. The initial report loading takes time and affects user's perception of the t...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Data Studio?

We are using Looker primarily for visualization to analyze e-commerce industry's analytic reports. We use it to track orders per ZIP code and sales based on quantity, stocks, and revenue. The tool ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker

Compared 23% of the time

Databricks vs Looker

Compared 14% of the time

Tableau vs Looker

Compared 12% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs Looker

Compared 8% of the time

QlikView vs Looker

Compared 2% of the time

More Looker Competitors

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker Studio

Compared 45% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker Studio

Compared 23% of the time

Tableau vs Looker Studio

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker Studio

Compared 5% of the time

RStudio Connect vs Looker Studio

Compared 3% of the time

More Looker Studio Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Looker

December 2024

Download Looker product report

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio

December 2024

Download Looker Studio product report

Also Known As

No data available

Data Studio

Learn More

Google

Overview

Looker is a powerful data analytics platform that empowers businesses to explore and analyze their data in real time.

With its intuitive interface and robust features, Looker enables users to easily create and share interactive dashboards, reports, and visualizations.

The product's advanced data modeling capabilities and seamless integration with popular data sources make it a top choice for organizations looking to gain valuable insights from their data.

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.

Sample Customers

Yahoo!, Etsy, Kohler, Hipcamp, Hubspot, Kickstarter, Venmo, Dollar Shave Club, 600+ customer

Genesys, Shueisha

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