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Looker vs Sisense comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Looker
Ranking in Embedded BI
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sisense
Ranking in Embedded BI
9th
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (22nd), Cloud Analytics (4th), Reporting (17th), Data Visualization (16th)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
FernandoMorote - PeerSpot reviewer
Business intelligence solution that has improved automation and provided meaningful insights
This solution does not have tabs. In order to have tabs, you have to download an add-on to mimic the tabs. They should be integrated to improve the solution. We have also experienced bugs in the widget which has required us to delete the widget and recreate it. When one user adds filters to data, the next user sees the same results which can cause confusion. The next user can also make changes to the data.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"From a developer's perspective, the way the functionality's being handled is great."
"It's quite effortless to navigate through various applications and review their updated data in real-time."
"It is a pretty stable solution because it is a cloud-based product."
"We can centralize all our data models."
"With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability."
"The stability of Looker has been good since I have been using it. However, it depends on what components are being used."
"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability."
"The product is easy to use."
"There are many built-in connectors, which allow us to easily add new sources of data, often in minutes."
"It has allowed me to move my data to the cloud."
"This solution is easy to learn how to use."
"Whenever we have an issue or are unsure how to proceed, they manage to simplify the issue and help us execute it in a graceful and scalable way."
"Support is very responsive and clearly one of the strengths of Sisense. I have always received a fast response and the staff is very helpful."
"Ability to work with very large data sources without the limitations of Excel."
"​Allows users to build their own solutions without as much reliance on technology staff."
"The solution's technical support team is good."
 

Cons

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."
"Stability needs improvement."
"The visualization capability of the product is limited."
"The integration with different databases must be improved."
"It needs to be more user-friendly."
"The product does not have documented material."
"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."
"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."
"At present there are additional costs involved if we wish to share our data queues within this solution, which we would like to see removed."
"I would also like to be able to run a bursts of reports based on different field values with PDF output right in the tool, rather than filtering on each field value and generating each PDF manually."
"They should improve the filters to create downloaded data by moving them to the top of the dashboard."
"I would like Sisense to improve its performance, particularly when we are dealing with large-scale data."
"I would say that using Sisense on Linux's platform might not be advantageous for everyone."
"Larger datasets will sometimes give a "Accumulated logs" error when trying to make minor changes. T"
"The solution's setup process could be easier."
"The initial version we purchased only ran on Windows servers, which was less than ideal for our DevOps team. I believe that has been remedied in the latest release."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Looker is expensive and could be made better by reducing it."
"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."
"Compared to Power BI or Tableau, Sisense is much more expensive."
"This solution is more expensive than Tableau, Qlik and Dundas. It is an expensive tool. They charge $75,000 while Tableau is $45,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
36%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
6%
University
6%
 

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.
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...
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, ...
What do you like most about Sisense?
The solution's technical support team is good.
What needs improvement with Sisense?
I would say that using Sisense on Linux's platform might not be advantageous for everyone. I am more familiar with Windows than Linux. With Windows, the system performs very fast. Even if your data...
What is your primary use case for Sisense?
For the use case, the tool is mostly used from an analytic point of view. We are focused on huge data size because the last time we worked with the tool, it was very good.
 

Comparisons

 

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Yahoo!, Etsy, Kohler, Hipcamp, Hubspot, Kickstarter, Venmo, Dollar Shave Club, 600+ customer
Ebay, WIX, Wave Accounting, ESPN.com, Magellan Luxury Hotel, Paylogic, Sony, Merck, EDA, One Hour Translation, NASA, Plastic Jungle, Philips, Yahoo
Find out what your peers are saying about Looker vs. Sisense and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.