Looker vs MicroStrategy comparison

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Looker

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

MicroStrategy and Looker compete in the business intelligence category. MicroStrategy appears to have the upper hand in handling complex data requirements and enterprise scalability, while Looker excels in its ease of use and ability to democratize data.

Features: MicroStrategy is known for its strong data integration options, a powerful SQL engine, advanced mobile solutions, and enterprise scalability, making it suitable for large-scale data processing. It also offers robust metadata management and advanced report customization. Looker shines with its intuitive data modeling language, LookML, which simplifies data modeling for business users. It also provides effective data democratization and seamless integration with cloud platforms, offering a modern approach to business intelligence.

Room for Improvement: MicroStrategy users mention challenges with report performance and complex licensing, often desiring more user-driven customization and quicker feature rollouts. On the other hand, Looker users want more customization options, improved visualization variety, and greater interactivity in reports and dashboards.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MicroStrategy offers both on-premises and hybrid cloud solutions, with customer support quality varying by location. Looker, primarily a cloud-based solution, benefits from a strong community but has limited direct support, with some users finding its issue resolution process complicated.

Pricing and ROI: MicroStrategy is noted for its significant upfront costs but is considered cost-effective long-term for enterprises due to strong feature sets and scalability. It requires careful licensing assessment to manage expenses effectively. Looker offers a flexible pricing model perceived as lower-cost and higher-value, especially suitable for large operations.

To learn more, read our detailed Looker vs. MicroStrategy Report (Updated: February 2026).

Looker vs. MicroStrategy

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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

Ranking in Embedded BI

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

MicroStrategy

Ranking in Embedded BI

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

162

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Embedded BI category, the mindshare of Looker is 6.4%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MicroStrategy is 7.8%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Embedded BI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
MicroStrategy	7.8%
Looker	6.4%
Other	85.8%

Embedded BI

Featured Reviews

Kishore Jhunjhunwala

Sr Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

A cloud solution for operational reporting but is expensive

Some basic feature that is available in other reporting tools is missing. Looker has the ability to show more than 5,000 rows for operational reporting. Some reporting tools allow users to scroll down to see more than 5,000 rows, but in Looker, you have to download the entire dataset. Looker should consider adding a scroll-down option to allow users to view large datasets on screen without downloading them. Looker has some options for granting users access as viewers. However, viewers cannot download the entire dataset. Only superusers can download the whole dataset on the Explore screen. This is a big limitation, as you cannot give any user viewer access. You can give access to superuser access, which is a cost to the company.

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AnkushSingh

Lead Software Engineer at Momentus

Provides strong data visualization and security while easing deployment across multiple sectors

The most effective features of MicroStrategy for data analysis in my experience are the security, the metadata management, and the administration, along with the options of different workarounds available to accommodate different types of requirements. MicroStrategy's data visualization capabilities are great, and I would rate them nine out of 10.

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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

"The product is easy to use."

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

"We can centralize all our data models."

"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."

"From a developer's perspective, the way the functionality's being handled is great."

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

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

More Looker pros

"In terms of functionality, MicroStrategy is alright. It's a solid BI tool and can handle most tasks you'd expect."

"We have been using it mostly for grid reports and its exporting features."

"Cube performance and easy integration with third-party tools/products, are valuable features."

"The ability to create aesthetically pleasing information by providing dashboards."

"MicroStrategy's data visualization capabilities are great, and I would rate them nine out of 10."

"The scalability is great. It was one of the selling points for us on MicroStrategy."

"The drill-down functionality is also very good."

"The most valuable features are the Visual Insights and the visualizations."

More MicroStrategy pros

Cons

"The integration with different databases must be improved."

"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."

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"Stability needs improvement."

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"The product does not have documented material."

"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."

"MicroStrategy should become more user friendly. It should behave more like Tableau."

"We have seen some stability issues with MicroStrategy on cloud. We have a few unhappy customers."

"Data preparation-wise, it was not so straightforward with respect to getting different sources. Preparing or transforming the data inside and then bringing it onto the dashboard was a bit difficult, and the experience could have been better."

"Needs more visual essence and connectors for the ecosystems, which would be easy to use."

"It is actually pretty complicated to use. It is complicated enough that user adaptation is sometimes difficult. We developed more experts rather than people using it."

"Enterprise Manager should be a little bit less quirky when you build out-of-the-box customization reports for it."

"When we come to them with a problem, they might know more of a generalized solution, but not one targeted to our industry."

"Needs more visualizations out-of-the-box."

More MicroStrategy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"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."

"It is cheap."

"We have one of the best pricing available, but we can't disclose that information."

"They can improve its licensing. It is a bit expensive as compared to Microsoft and other tools."

"While initial cost of MicroStrategy is still on the higher side, the long-term benefits brings down overall cost of ownership significantly as compared to other tools like Tableau/Cognos."

"We actually researched some of the other solutions. For options, price, and customer acceptance, this product has worked well for us."

"The licensing is a bit high per user."

"The pricing is fair."

"It would be nice if there was a sticker price that says, "This software costs this amount of money." But I think that's just indicative of all software vendors. A lot of people are in it to make money, commissions, so it's just the nature of the business. But I would like to see more transparency, more equality, on pricing. Some people get better deals than others, I think."

"The solution’s licensing cost is expensive."

More MicroStrategy pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user6330

Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

May 2, 2013

MicroStrategy vs. Tableau

After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Retailer

Computer Software Company

Media Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Marketing Services Firm

10%

Retailer

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	37
Midsize Enterprise	26
Large Enterprise	100

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about MicroStrategy?

The stability of the product is good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MicroStrategy?

My company has many licenses for MicroStrategy because we can build reports in this tool. I don't know what the cost is for these licenses.

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What needs improvement with MicroStrategy?

I don't have any issues with MicroStrategy and would not suggest how it can be improved. I would not change anything because it's a great tool to build reports. I would appreciate improvements in M...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker

Compared 12% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Looker

Compared 6% of the time

ThoughtSpot vs Looker

Compared 6% of the time

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Microsoft Power BI vs MicroStrategy

Compared 12% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs MicroStrategy

Compared 11% of the time

QlikView vs MicroStrategy

Compared 7% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs MicroStrategy

Compared 6% of the time

Qlik Sense vs MicroStrategy

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Looker

Download Looker product report

Download MicroStrategy product report

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.

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Company: Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is a leading worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms. With direct operations in 26 countries worldwide and approximately 2,000 employees, our mission is to provide enterprise analytics, mobility, and security platforms that are flexible, powerful, scalable and user-friendly. To learn more, visit MicroStrategy online, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Product portfoilio:

MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise™ empowers leading organizations to analyze vast amounts of data and distribute actionable business insight throughout an enterprise through two distinct offerings: MicroStrategy Analytics™ and MicroStrategy Desktop™. MicroStrategy Analytics delivers reports and dashboards, and enables users to conduct ad hoc analysis and share insights anywhere, anytime, via mobile devices or the Web. It also combines the agility and productivity of self-service visual data discovery with the security, scalability, and governance features of enterprise-grade business intelligence. MicroStrategy Desktop is a standalone, on-premise visual data discovery tool designed to enable business users to analyze and understand their data. MicroStrategy Mobile™ enables organizations to rapidly build custom business applications that deliver analytics combined with transactions, multimedia, and custom workflows to mobile devices. MicroStrategy Secure Cloud™ combines all of the enterprise analytics, mobile, and security features in MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise with powerful and scalable data integration, validation, and warehousing services — all delivered in an environment where organizations can deploy transformational analytics applications in minutes.

Usher, MicroStrategy’s breakthrough security solution, is a powerful mobile security platform designed to dematerialize traditional forms of identity verification (such as passwords, tokens, and physical badges) and replace them with a single mobile identity badge that is cryptographically linked to its owner’s smartphone and dynamically linked to an enterprise’s existing identity repositories. Usher works on standard Android and iOS smartphones, and also boasts an Apple Watch™ integration.

Sample Customers

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

Allstate Insurance, Barneys New York, Boston Children's Hospital, Buenos Aires Department of the Treasury, Campbell Soup Company, DHL, eBay, eHarmony, Facebook, Four Seasons Hotels Inc., Godiva, Hard Rock International, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pfizer, SECO (Swiss Government Unemployment Agency), Starbucks, Texas A&M University, Thomson Reuters Markets, US House of Representatives, and the US Postal Service.

Looker vs. MicroStrategy