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Looker Studio vs. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

    Score5.6 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) enables deep visibility into database performance and expert advice for performance optimization and tuning. What can you monitor with DPA? Oracle Oracle Exadata Oracle EBS Microsoft SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Database Managed Instance MySQL DB2 SAP ASE Aurora MariaDB DPA monitors physical, virtual,…N/A
    Pricing
    Looker StudioSolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    Editions & Modules
    Looker Studio Pro
    $9
    per month per user per project
    Looker Studio
    No charge
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Looker StudioSolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Looker StudioSolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    13 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    38 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    40 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    13 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    31 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    33 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    Features
    Looker StudioSolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Looker Studio and SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    7.0
    62 Ratings
    14% below category average
    SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    -
    Ratings
    Pixel Perfect reports6.643 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards7.361 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.259 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Looker Studio and SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    7.7
    61 Ratings
    2% below category average
    SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    -
    Ratings
    Drill-down analysis6.851 Ratings00 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities7.057 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.129 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration9.759 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Looker Studio and SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    8.1
    60 Ratings
    1% below category average
    SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    -
    Ratings
    Publish to Web8.453 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publish to PDF8.753 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Versioning8.139 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling7.942 Ratings00 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers7.524 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Looker Studio and SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    6.6
    60 Ratings
    16% below category average
    SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    -
    Ratings
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.160 Ratings00 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.757 Ratings00 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics5.330 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining6.36 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Looker StudioSolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    Small Businesses
    Chartio (discontinued)
    Score7.5 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Jet Reports
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Redgate Monitor
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Kibana
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Foglight
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Looker StudioSolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (63 ratings)
    9.1
    (114 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    8.4
    (14 ratings)
    8.2
    (7 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.7
    (10 ratings)
    9.3
    (6 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Looker StudioSolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    SolarWinds
    This is an easy 10 because I actually have recommended this product to multiple clients and colleagues! Any shop that writes its own SQL queries will benefit from the insight provided by SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, so they know which of their queries is causing a bottleneck. Small shops or databases with only a few tables likely will see far fewer opportunities for optimization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    SolarWinds
    • Maintains historical SQL execution data, enabling forensic analysis
    • Has the ability to slice and dice the data so that you can drill down to the execution of a single SQL statement being executed by a stored procedure
    • Alerts to when the consumption pattern changes
    • Shows historical average run times against the current, illustrating problems when they arise
    • Provides tuning advice based on best practices
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    SolarWinds
    • Alerts seem to be lacking in DPA compared to competitor's tools. They can be setup but are not quite as easy or as helpful as some other tools I have used.
    • Grooming/pruning the repository database isn't very easy. We don't manage a lot of instances but our repo DB has grown pretty significantly.
    • At times when I am drilled-down to a chart, it can be difficult to navigate around from that point to another time range/query/metric.
    Incentivized
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We have relied on this product for a very long time and it continues to exceed expectations. The product is a vital part of our organization at this point, it would not be very ideal for us to abandon it. We use it almost every day and depend on its alerts for critical parts of our business
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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
    SolarWinds
    I don't want to think about managing clusters of SQL servers in the future without this tool. We have demoed other tools and SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is the gold standard for usability and insight into what your servers are doing. The UI is a bit dated, but everything is laid out in a logical manner and drilling down into queries or timeslices is extremely intuitive.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    I have had to use their support on a few occasions, for reasons that I am not clear about until recently I have always had problems upgrading the software (although the last 2 updates have gone without issue which I am very pleased to say). On those unfortunate occasions, the support has been brilliant with either excellently documented guides on how to resolve the issue by myself or have been hands-on with calls and screen sharing to remotely fix the issue. Every time the problem was sorted and more importantly, nothing was lost (apart from a bit of time). And as I stated above whatever the problem was that was causing my upgrade issues appears to have been resolved in the last 2 updates.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Follow the guidelines for the capacity of the servers. We found that the DPA databases were getting rather large and also that there are ways to reduce their size built into some of the options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    SolarWinds
    At the time, we found SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer to be easier to setup and to have a richer feature set than Redgate SQL Monitor, plus, from what I remember, the DPA pricing worked better for us over the course of a year. We're very happy with all the features DPA has to offer.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • It has allowed us to progress as an organization with much less reliance on a direct DBA than would traditionally be required
    • Allowed us to be much more proactive in our performance monitoring and responding to issues that would affect users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Screenshots

    Screenshot of DashboardScreenshot of Alerts and reportsScreenshot of Application-centric view of DPAScreenshot of Blocking deadlock analysisScreenshot of Collaboration across teamsScreenshot of Intuitive performance monitoring