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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Lightning Tools Data Viewer

    Score9.1 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    The Data Viewer provides data visualization in the form of reports or charts that can be created and customized to suit a business's needs. Silos of data exist in most organizations and yet contain valuable insights into how well the organization is performing and where action is needed. Those silos often include Microsoft Excel workbooks, Microsoft SQL Azure databases, On-Premises data sources accessible through OData or Business Connectivity Services and even SharePoint Lists. These data…

    $2,200

    per year per installation

    Looker Studio

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/ALooker Studio is a data visualization platform that transforms data into meaningful presentations and dashboards with customized reporting tools.

    $9

    per month per user per project

    Pricing
    Lightning Tools Data ViewerLooker Studio
    Editions & Modules
    Data Viewer OnPrem
    $1,000
    per year Per installation, 1 x WFE
    Data Viewer Online
    $2,200
    per year per installation
    Data Viewer OnPrem Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year Per installation, 4+ WFE
    Data Viewer Online Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year per installation
    Looker Studio Pro
    $9
    per month per user per project
    Looker Studio
    No charge
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightning Tools Data ViewerLooker Studio
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPrices stated are minimum per installation for "stock" products. $2.20 per user / year on top of base price. Enterprise editions can be amended to suit business needs if deemed necessary, additional costs incurred and TBD. All packages include free technical support. Free upgrades available to latest versions of tool as they are released. (online version)—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lightning Tools Data ViewerLooker Studio
    Considered Both Products
    Lightning Tools
    No answer on this topic
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    38 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    40 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    33 Answers
    Features
    Lightning Tools Data ViewerLooker Studio
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Lightning Tools Data Viewer and Looker Studio
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Data Viewer
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Looker Studio
    7.0
    62 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Customizable dashboards9.11 Ratings7.361 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates9.11 Ratings7.259 Ratings
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings6.643 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Lightning Tools Data Viewer and Looker Studio
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Data Viewer
    8.2
    1 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Looker Studio
    7.7
    61 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Drill-down analysis6.41 Ratings6.851 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities9.11 Ratings7.057 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration9.11 Ratings9.759 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.129 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Lightning Tools Data Viewer and Looker Studio
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Data Viewer
    3.6
    1 Ratings
    73% below category average
    Looker Studio
    6.6
    60 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)3.61 Ratings7.160 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings7.757 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings5.330 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings6.36 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Lightning Tools Data Viewer and Looker Studio
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Data Viewer
    -
    Ratings
    Looker Studio
    8.1
    60 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings8.453 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.753 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings8.139 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings7.942 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings7.524 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Lightning Tools Data ViewerLooker Studio
    Small Businesses
    Chartio (discontinued)
    Score7.5 out of 10
    Chartio (discontinued)
    Score7.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Jet Reports
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Jet Reports
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Kibana
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Kibana
    Score8.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightning Tools Data ViewerLooker Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    8.3
    (63 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (14 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.7
    (10 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightning Tools Data ViewerLooker Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Lightning Tools
    Lightning Tools Data Viewer is well suited for re-surfacing data and customizing its look and feel.
    Read full review
    Google
    Visualizing cross-channel campaign performance can blend data from a few different sources to compare performance metrics like spend, clicks, and conversions side-by-side in a single view, which helps in quick budget reallocation decisions. When dealing with massive volumes of data (millions of rows) or highly complex queries, Looker Studio dashboards can become slow, laggy, or even crash. Performance issues are a frequent complaint when working with large datasets, making it unsuitable for enterprise-level companies
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightning Tools
    • Shows Lists created on different sites to be seen and controlled on another site in a Tenant
    • Allows selection of layouts and coloring way beyond what other programs do.
    • Easy to learn and very functional.
    Read full review
    Google
    • Breath of data - the number of ways to interrogate the data is endless, and the options to view metrics alongside each other make for comprehensive datasets.
    • Data visualisation and customisation - the options for presenting data and separating out across pages allow for clean visuals and segmented information.
    • Easy shareability/usability - a quick and simple tool to introduce colleagues to, and easy to grant access for them to be able to view the data, without having to understand the setup itself.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Lightning Tools
    • Data Viewer has a graph feature that is old school flat design. We loved the In House real 3D graph Lightning Tools program.
    Read full review
    Google
    • It needs better handling of complex logic. We often need workarounds to perform complex custom calculations, and it can be really unpleasant at times.
    • Felt it got slow with a larger data set, and in one minor report, we had to set up time filters so that calculations during spikes could be traced more quickly.
    • Compare to competition they need to improve with notification things.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    It is the simplest and least expensive way for us to automate our reporting at this time. I like the ability to customize literally everything about each report, and the ability to send out reports automatically in emails. The only issue we have been having recently is a technical glitch in the automatic email report. Sadly, there is almost no support for this tool from Google, but is also free, so that is important to take into consideration
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    Looker Studio is easy to use, and it offers a sufficient variety of predefined visualizations to choose from. It's easy for us, and anyone can set up basic reporting without extensive data visualization skills. The interface layout is easy to understand, and it doesn't take long to get used to.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    I give it a lower support rating because it seems like our Dev team hasn't gotten the support they need to set up our database to connect. Seems like we hit a roadblock and the project got put on pause for dev. That sucks for me because it is harder to get the dev team to focus on it if they don't get the help they need to set it up.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightning Tools
    Lightning Tools Data Viewer is much easier and more powerful than Infowise similar viewer in their lineup. In this case, we use Data Viewer over the one offered by Infowise.
    Read full review
    Google
    Looker Studio is far easier to implement, stand up, and learn. The interface is simpler and user-friendly for various levels of data visualization/analysis knowledge and experience. The biggest benefit of Looker Studio, however, is its ease of connection to GA data and speed. Furthermore, since it is an online program/tool, it requires less CPU/battery/storage on the user's device.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Lightning Tools
    • It allows us to do things that would take a great deal more time to duplicate in SharePoint
    • It cuts down on ugly looking built in SP list layouts
    • Users find it easy to access, thus this product is more productive
    Read full review
    Google
    • Free, so the only investment is time
    • Because it doesn't have native support of non-Google sources, it can cost more money than Tableau
    • The time spent formatting the templates or building connectors can have a negative impact on ROI
    • As a agency, charging for the reporting service is profitable after the first month or two after building the dashboard.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Lightning Tools Data Viewer Screenshots

    Screenshot of DISPLAYING EXTERNAL DATA WITHIN SHAREPOINT OR MICROSOFT TEAMS
The Data Viewer Client Side Web Part can be configured by Business Users within a few minutes to display Line of Business Data from Data Sources such as Excel,  SQL Azure, Business Connectivity Services, OData and SharePoint Lists.  Connections to an organizations data such as Customer Relationship Management Systems, Accounting Systems, or Custom Databases can be connected, giving business users a live up-to-date view of business information within the context of their SharePoint Team Sites or Microsoft Teams Tabs.Screenshot of HIGHLIGHTING KEY BUSINESS DATA (NO CODE)
Conditional formatting can be used to highlight key business data. Overdue Tasks, Low Stock, Currency Exchange Rates, Sales Revenue are examples of data to highlight visually allowing for a quick reaction time. Key Financial Indicators and Key Performance Indicators can be configured with a simple dialog and no need to write any code. Choose colours, icons or data bars to highlight key data.Screenshot of SELECTING AND STYLING ICONS
Icons can be chosen as part of the conditional formatting to make data stand out. The Office 365 Fabric icons can be selected and styled and applied to cell values. Pepper pots, Smileys, Envelopes and more icons are available. There are hundreds of options to choose from to highlight data that needs to be acted upon.Screenshot of DATA VIEWER CAN BE A GRID OF DATA OR A CHART IN SHAREPOINT OR MICROSOFT TEAMS
The Data Viewer can be used within Microsoft SharePoint Modern Sites or Microsoft Teams Tabs as a Grid of Data with styling or as a Chart which can be configured. The Charting Feature allows for Pie, Donut, Column, Line, Area, and Scatter Charts which can all be configured and displayed in 2D or 3D.Screenshot of TREEMAPS
summary information can be displayed within a TreeMap next to the detail. Users will be able to see trends, and how the business is performing  using the TreeMap view of data.Screenshot of CHARTS AND GAUGES
The Data Viewer is used to represent data in multiple ways using Gauges, TreeMaps, Multiple Series Charts, and Pie Charts.