Looker Studio vs. SAP Crystal

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Looker Studio
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Looker 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
SAP Crystal
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
SAP Crystal is an analytics and reporting software solution for SMBs. SAP Crystal comprises Crystal Reports for pixel-perfect reporting, and SAP Crystal Server for automated distribution and self-service access to reports, dashboards and data exploration.
$295
per single user license
Pricing
Looker StudioSAP Crystal
Editions & Modules
Looker Studio Pro
$9
per month per user per project
Looker Studio
No charge
Upgrade Version to SAP Crystal Reports 2020
$295
per single user license
SAP Crystal Reports 2020 64-Bit
$495
per single user license
SAP Crystal Reports 2016 32-Bit
$495
per single user license
SAP Crystal Server 2020 1 NUL
$869
per user license + first year maintenance to be added
SAP Crystal Server 2020 5 CAL
$8,744
5 concurrent users + first year maintenance to be added
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Looker StudioSAP Crystal
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details* SAP Crystal Reports 2020 Viewer allows you to view static data within a SAP Crystal Reports file. * SAP Crystal Reports 2020 - Full version allows you to create powerful, richly formatted, and dynamic reports from virtually any data source, delivered in dozens of formats, in up to 28 languages. If you already have an older version of Crystal Reports, buy a license for SAP Crystal Reports 2020 - Upgrade at a discounted, upgrade price. * SAP Crystal Server 2020, 1 NUL includes 1 license of: SAP Crystal Reports 2020 - SAP Crystal Server 2020. * As an add-on to SAP Crystal Server 2020 1 NUL, SAP Crystal Server 2020 5 CAL allows you to support a wider, intermittent audience of end users, up to five logged on at the same time.
More Pricing Information
Features
Looker StudioSAP Crystal
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Looker Studio
7.8
53 Ratings
7% below category average
SAP Crystal
9.3
121 Ratings
13% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports7.337 Ratings8.0110 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.952 Ratings10.097 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.151 Ratings10.0114 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Looker Studio
7.1
52 Ratings
12% below category average
SAP Crystal
9.6
133 Ratings
18% above category average
Drill-down analysis9.544 Ratings10.0114 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.248 Ratings10.0132 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages3.224 Ratings8.662 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration7.451 Ratings10.0117 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Looker Studio
8.0
52 Ratings
5% below category average
SAP Crystal
9.4
133 Ratings
13% above category average
Publish to Web8.146 Ratings9.288 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.645 Ratings10.0130 Ratings
Report Versioning8.033 Ratings9.092 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling6.436 Ratings9.095 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.818 Ratings10.052 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Looker Studio
7.2
51 Ratings
12% below category average
SAP Crystal
8.0
87 Ratings
1% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.651 Ratings7.650 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization9.248 Ratings8.574 Ratings
Predictive Analytics5.026 Ratings7.841 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining5.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Looker Studio
-
Ratings
SAP Crystal
8.6
86 Ratings
1% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings7.879 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings7.778 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.478 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings9.038 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Looker Studio
-
Ratings
SAP Crystal
8.4
62 Ratings
7% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings8.760 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings7.643 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings9.057 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Looker Studio
-
Ratings
SAP Crystal
6.9
43 Ratings
12% below category average
REST API00 Ratings7.48 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings6.035 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings7.18 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings6.035 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings8.337 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings7.031 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Looker StudioSAP Crystal
Small Businesses
Supermetrics
Supermetrics
Score 9.3 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Mathematica
Mathematica
Score 8.2 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Sigma
Sigma
Score 9.2 out of 10
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Looker StudioSAP Crystal
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(54 ratings)
10.0
(155 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(19 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(5 ratings)
9.5
(28 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
6.7
(10 ratings)
8.6
(21 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(14 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Looker StudioSAP Crystal
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
Looker Studio is well-suited for those wanting to analyze web/site data and performance quickly. It is simple enough to learn/use for quick report-building or drilling into data. Looker Studio is easier to use/understand than the GA4 console and thus has a better UI/UX. It is an efficient tool for fast, simple data needs—especially for team members with limited analytical capabilities and knowledge.
Read full review
SAP
Generation of templated reports is the strong suit of SAP Crystal. Allows users to change formats in templates bases on requirement with minimal effort. Automated report delivery requires the user to be aware of sql which cannot be expected from all users. Should support more document export formats and improve the UI for SAP B1 Users
Read full review
Pros
Google
  • Self-service
  • Easy to use, point and click
  • Little to no training required
  • Easy to share internally and externally
  • Rich visualizations
  • Canned reports
  • Easy to copy/paste/dupe existing reports
  • Ability to join data sets
  • Easy integration with various data sources
  • Flexible data integrations, including lowest common denominator (CSV, XLS, G-Sheets)
  • Wide range of APIs
  • Secure / authentication via Google SSO
  • Easy to share / re-assign ownership of reports and data sources
Read full review
SAP
  • Crystal Reports allows us to create a consistent template for all of our reports.
  • Crystal Reports and Server allows us to house a repository for all of our reports to make them easy to find and update when necessary.
  • Crystal Reports can connect to a wide variety of data sources.
  • Crystal Reports can be a little daunting when first implementing. There are a lot of nuances in learning how to truly master this software and it can be frustrating at times.
Read full review
Cons
Google
  • Few functionalities are very exclusive only for data studio.
  • It's time taking to load data and at the same time only single Data source can be connected.
  • When editing the reports you have to switch between Edit and View mode to see how does the change looks like.
Read full review
SAP
  • The export of reports to Excel is very cumbersome and the results are difficult to format.
  • The design of reports and the graphical features (e.g. charts) feel quite rigid.
  • The learning curve for a non-programmer is incredibly steep, making Crystal a specialty tool.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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
Read full review
SAP
We have been using this product for so many years and it has truly become a cornerstone to our business processes when it comes to developing and distributing information via reports. We currently have over 500 reports developed to date over about 30 systems and that will continue to grow as user needs change.
Read full review
Usability
Google
Google Data Studio has a clean interface that follows a lot of UX best practices. It is fairly easy to pick up the first time you use it, and there is a lot of documentation on line to help troubleshoot, if needed
Read full review
SAP
Crystal is very robust, but not always easy to use. It create wonderful looking reports, and so deserves a high rating. However, I have to take a couple of points off for the simple fact that I cannot hand it to a user and expect them to be able to do development with it.
Read full review
Support Rating
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.
Read full review
SAP
The support community can be difficult to navigate. I've also run into issues with my login. The SAP system has a bizarre mechanism for validating users that requires users to have what is called an S-ID. A basic ID may not give you access to all the features in the portal. The limitation may include not being able to perform a simple task like downloading patches and updates. This isn't a big deal for single user license but for teams it can be a pain.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Google
No answers on this topic
SAP
Trainer was patient and thorough in going through the basics and willing to answer questions by email after the initial training
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Google
No answers on this topic
SAP
Just like any other implementation: When designing the differing reports, get end users' input, make sure to design the reports so that they display the information that the company requires, in the best and clearest way possible.
Test, test, test, revise when needed, and, particularly, do sufficient training so users are comfortable using Crystal Reports!
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Google
The free version of Looker Studio is still better than the leading enterprise-embedded BI tools, despite its weaknesses. The leading embedded BI platforms have terrible visualizations that can be spotted a mile away. They are also primarily locked to a grid, making it very hard to fully customize. The price point is also a major deterrent, since users end up paying for lots of features they might never use. Looker Studio has weaknesses on the blending and modeling side, but we've been able to get by via connection to GBQ and transformation done in dbt.
Read full review
SAP
Crystal reports is useful in case we want to import data from data base . We can write queries in it but Google Charts require to be implemented in our application using code so crystal reports is better than Google Charts.
Read full review
Return on Investment
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.
Read full review
SAP
  • It is a decent buy for specific departments in terms of reporting capabilities but updates and cost (frequent) demands are higher with the benefits offered.
  • So long as the requirements are not ever changing, with scheduling functionality, it's a handsome tool.
Read full review
ScreenShots

SAP Crystal Screenshots

Screenshot of Pixel-perfect reporting solutionScreenshot of Refresh with a clickScreenshot of Build pixel-perfect documentsScreenshot of Connect to all data sourcesScreenshot of Use drag and dropScreenshot of Build interactive reports