Looker vs Tableau comparison

Google and Salesforce are both solutions in the Embedded BI category. Google is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.0, while Salesforce is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Google holds a 8.9% mindshare in EBT, compared to Salesforce’s 30.9% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Looker

Read 19 Looker reviews

3,424 Views
1,130 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Tableau

Read 306 Tableau reviews

22,130 Views
3,320 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Looker

Tableau

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Tableau and Looker are leading competitors in the data analytics and visualization category. Tableau is preferred for its data visualization capabilities, while Looker excels in analytics due to its data modeling capabilities.

Features:Tableau offers intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces, flexible data integration, and interactive dashboards. Its visualization capabilities turn complex data into aesthetically pleasing presentations. Looker uses LookML for data modeling, providing centralized data control and consistency across reports, but it has fewer graphical options compared to Tableau.

Room for Improvement:Tableau could improve by reducing costs and refining its ability to handle large datasets efficiently. Its reliance on external tools for advanced data manipulation can be a limitation. Looker needs to enhance its visualization options and user interface to compete more effectively with Tableau. Improvements in data source integration and user intuitiveness would benefit Looker.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:Tableau supports multiple deployment options including on-premises and cloud environments, offering flexibility for different organizations. It is noted for its responsive customer support and strong community. Looker, mainly cloud-based, provides excellent customer support with prompt response times, though some users find its documentation lacking in breadth.

Pricing and ROI:Tableau is perceived as expensive, especially for smaller companies, yet it is valued for its comprehensive functionality. The quick ROI achieved through improved decision-making processes justifies its cost for many large enterprises. Looker has competitive pricing for larger organizations, though it may be cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses. The ROI for both tools relies on effective deployment and organizational adoption.

To learn more, read our detailed Looker vs. Tableau Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Looker vs. Tableau

June 2025

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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

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Tableau

Ranking in Embedded BI

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

306

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (2nd), Reporting (2nd), Data Visualization (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Embedded BI category, the mindshare of Looker is 8.9%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tableau is 30.9%, down from 34.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Embedded BI

Featured Reviews

Kishore Jhunjhunwala

Sr Analytics Consultant at a tech vendor 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.

Read full review

Nattawat Choosuwan

Senior Data Consultant at a government with 11-50 employees

Real-time data connection enhances workflow and decision-making process

An area for improvement in Tableau is the Explorer license type. It is not as useful, and the product owner should enhance its benefits or clarify its role. Additionally, the frequent updates with many versions available for download can be confusing and could affect stability. They should avoid providing access to older versions on their website.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"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."

"The product is easy to use."

"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."

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

More Looker pros

"It provides business users with a tool, so they are not dependent on IT."

"The maps and colors and interface are all fantastic."

"The initial setup is simple."

"I consider Tableau to be the best analytical tool available. It's really handy to use and can be used by non-technical people."

"The most valuable feature is the interface, which is user-friendly and intuitive."

"The ability to present data is very effective, providing great impact and good online information."

"The initial setup is quick and easy and you don't need special outside assistance to set everything up."

"Easy for beginners to use"

More Tableau pros

Cons

"The integration with different databases must be improved."

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"The product does not have documented material."

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"Stability needs improvement."

"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."

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"It will be good if the server, could be more stable, and I would like to have the technical service to be more reliable."

"Requires a lot of user training."

"Its price should be improved. Its price is much higher than Power BI and QlikView. Programming is not easy on Tableau. For programming, you have to have a separate model. They should include programming directly on the web portion of the Tableau desktop so that people can write Python or JavaScript code for customizations instead of using a different model. Currently, Tableau Data Prep is a separate application that you have to purchase. It would be helpful if they can include Tableau Data Prep and programming languages such as R, Python in the next version. Tableau Public, which is a community version, doesn't allow you to save your work on your desktop. They should allow it. Currently, you can only upload it in the community."

"If they could add global filters in the stories, more chart types, and default colours, it would help."

"I don't have the ability in Tableau to create a tooltip and see the picture of a piece of jewelry or watch that is a best seller."

"To be the best in the market, Tableau has to improve its user interface and also look into developing implementing the best machine learning algorithms."

"Lacks machine learning algorithms that you can implement using R, SPSS Modeler, and Python."

"The forecasting feature in Tableau in my view is too limited because it must have dates but I should be able to predict the outcome of an event without having a date as part of the input."

More Tableau cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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'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."

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

"Its licensing cost should be improved."

"Tableau is a little cheaper as compared to Power BI and other technologies that we have used in the past. However, if the business users in our organization want to make presentations, Tableau has been asking us to purchase a Tableau Creator license, and $35 per month is expensive for business users. Power BI is giving a free desktop version for business users to connect to any data source and build their own dashboards. That's why we have proposed to use Power BI for most of the business users in our organization."

"For big business, Tableau could be expensive as having a lot of Tableau server users (entering with a browser to reports) could be a bit expensive."

"The solution is very expensive. If you have many users then it is going to cost your company a lot of money."

"The solution is expensive but it depends on the customer's needs which will determine the cost of the licensing."

"The cost is high."

"Tableau's prices are relatively high for our market. I am from Serbia, so many companies in this market don't have the ability to pay for expensive software. My clients are quite satisfied with a lot of Tableau's qualities except for the prices."

"Pricing could be better. I believe they should offer better pricing for deployment in small to mid-sized companies."

More Tableau 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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

21%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

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

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...

See all answers

Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?

Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?

Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Databricks vs Looker

Compared 19% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker

Compared 8% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs Looker

Compared 8% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Looker

Compared 7% of the time

More Looker Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Tableau

Compared 19% of the time

Domo vs Tableau

Compared 11% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Tableau

Compared 6% of the time

Databricks vs Tableau

Compared 5% of the time

SAP Analytics Cloud vs Tableau

Compared 4% of the time

More Tableau Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Looker

July 2025

Download Looker product report

Buyer's Guide

Tableau

June 2025

Download Tableau product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online

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

Tableau is a tool for data visualization and business intelligence that allows businesses to report insights through easy-to-use, customizable visualizations and dashboards. Tableau makes it exceedingly simple for its customers to organize, manage, visualize, and comprehend data. It enables users to dig deep into the data so that they can see patterns and gain meaningful insights.

Make data-driven decisions with confidence thanks to Tableau’s assistance in providing faster answers to queries, solving harder problems more easily, and offering new insights more frequently. Tableau integrates directly to hundreds of data sources, both in the cloud and on premises, making it simpler to begin research. People of various skill levels can quickly find actionable information using Tableau’s natural language queries, interactive dashboards, and drag-and-drop capabilities. By quickly creating strong calculations, adding trend lines to examine statistical summaries, or clustering data to identify relationships, users can ask more in-depth inquiries.

Tableau has many valuable key features:

Tableau dashboards provide a complete view of your data through visualizations, visual objects, text, and more.
Tableau provides convenient, real-time options to collaborate with other users and instantly share data in the form of visualizations, sheets, and dashboards.
Tableau ensures connectivity to both live data sources and data extraction from external data sources as in-memory data. This gives users the flexibility to use data from more than one source without any restrictions.
Tableau gives many data source option, ranging from spreadsheets, big data, on-premise files, relational databases, non-relational databases, data warehouses, and big data, to on-cloud data.
Tableau has a lot of pre-installed information on maps, such as cities, postal codes, and administrative boundaries.
Tableau has a foolproof security system based on authentication and permission systems for data connections and user access. Tableau also gives you the freedom to integrate with other security protocols.

Tableau stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Some of these include its fast data access, easy creation of visualizations, and its stability. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

Romil S., Deputy General Manager of IT at Nayara Energy, notes, "Its visualizations are good, and its features make the development process a little less time-consuming. It has an in-memory extract feature that allows us to extract data and keep it on the server, and then our users can use it quickly.

Ariful M., Consulting Practice Partner of Data, Analytics & AI at FH, writes, “Tableau is very flexible and easy to learn. It has drag-and-drop function analytics, and its design is very good.”

Salesforce

Sample Customers

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

Accenture, Adobe, Amazon.com, Bank of America, Charles Schwab Corp, Citigroup, Coca-Cola Company, Cornell University, Dell, Deloitte, Duke University, eBay, Exxon Mobil, Fannie Mae, Ferrari, French Red Cross, Goldman Sachs, Google, Government of Canada, HP, Intel, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Macy's, Merck, The New York Times, PayPal, Pfizer, US Army, US Air Force, Skype, and Walmart.

Buyer's Guide

Looker vs. Tableau

June 2025

Free Report: Looker vs. Tableau

Find out what your peers are saying about Looker vs. Tableau and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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