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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

    Tableau Cloud

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/ATableau Cloud (formerly Tableau Online) is a self-service analytics platform that is fully hosted in the cloud. Tableau Cloud enables users to publish dashboards and invite colleagues to explore hidden opportunities with interactive visualizations and accurate data, from any browser or mobile device.

    $15

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Looker StudioTableau Cloud
    Editions & Modules
    Looker Studio Pro
    $9
    per month per user per project
    Looker Studio
    No charge
    Tableau Viewer
    $15
    per month billed annually per user
    Enterprise Viewer
    $35
    per month billed annually per user
    Tableau Explorer
    $42
    per month billed annually per user
    Enterprise Explorer
    $70
    per month billed annually per user
    Tableau Creator
    $75
    per month billed annually per user
    Enterprise Creator
    $115
    per month billed annually per user
    Tableau+
    Contact Sales
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Looker StudioTableau Cloud
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Looker StudioTableau Cloud
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    Chose Looker Studio
    Looker Studio is great for free, simple Google-centric dashboards, while Power BI offers strong Microsoft integration, AI, and deep data prep (Power Query/DAX) for corporate users. Tableau excels in advanced visual exploration for complex data, though often much pricier. Fullst…
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    We have evaluated Power BI, Looker Studio, and Tableau for a short period. Looker Studio is easy to deploy and helpful for creating quick reports. However, for better performance, scale, and deeper analysis, we found Power BI.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Easy availability and accessible with Google suits. Sharing is smooth.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Google Data Studio provides a great feature set considering its price point, especially when compared to commercial options from Microsoft and Tableau. While it may not be as versatile when it comes to working with and developing complex datasets, there is enough charm in its …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Google Data Studio is free, easily integrates with the Google Marketing Platform, and is simple to use. It's a better choice for most basic marketing reporting. Tableau is better for more BI and exploratory data analysis.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Obviously, Google Data Studio is an improvement over Google Charts, which I believe powers the chart modules used in Data Studio. I think of Data Studio as a convenient way to combine multiple Google Charts in one, easy-to-read report.

    In many ways it is similar to SmartDraw's …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    -Easy to use
    -Self-service
    -Point and click
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Google Data Studio is simpler than Tableau. If you need advanced data visualization, Tableau is probably a better option. Infogram offers a lot more visualization built into the system but is otherwise comparable.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    I selected Google Data Studio because it was free. In general it compares favorably against BIME but less against PowerBI and Tableau. I was looking for a free tool to help surface metrics company-wide and this tool was perfect for me. PowerBI and Tableau have much more data …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Google Data Studio offers the best bang for your buck because it is free to use and works well as a baseline tool/offering. It'll provide you an easy to use data visualization tool that can crank out dashboards that are client ready with support from the Google community.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Google Data Studio provides basic functionalities for visualizing data and creating simple reports, but it certainly does not provide the advanced visualizations and features that Tableau and Power BI offer.
    Moreover, Tableau offers built-in advanced functions and data …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Google Data Studio is widely available and accessible, can be shared easily, and it only takes 20-30 min to build a rudimentary dashboard. It has very little setup and does not rely on internal data architecture and development. For later development purposes, Tableau, Power …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker Studio
    Tableau and Domo are MUCH more robust tools than Google Data Studio. We did try to use Tableau before using GDS and we ended up not using Tableau to its full potential since we didn't know what we didn't know.

    After using GDS for almost 2 years, we now have a solid …
    Incentivized
    Tableau
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    It seems more robust then the other platforms. There is a lot you can do from merging many different data sets together by joining them at like points, to creating visualizations of the data, or by showcasing some important data to any number of people within your organization. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau Online has a much larger breadth of functionality and is more flexible in that it allows more data connections and imports.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    27 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    38 Answers
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    22 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    40 Answers
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    25 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
    14 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    33 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    Features
    Looker StudioTableau Cloud
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Looker Studio and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    7.0
    62 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.6
    74 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports6.643 Ratings7.656 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards7.361 Ratings8.774 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.259 Ratings6.663 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Looker Studio and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    7.7
    61 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.6
    74 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Drill-down analysis6.851 Ratings8.574 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities7.057 Ratings7.371 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.129 Ratings6.147 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration9.759 Ratings8.672 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Looker Studio and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    8.1
    60 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.8
    72 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Publish to Web8.453 Ratings8.668 Ratings
    Publish to PDF8.753 Ratings7.567 Ratings
    Report Versioning8.139 Ratings7.655 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling7.942 Ratings8.559 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers7.524 Ratings6.738 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Looker Studio and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    6.6
    60 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.9
    70 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.160 Ratings8.267 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.757 Ratings8.366 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics5.330 Ratings7.857 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining6.36 Ratings7.26 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Looker Studio and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Cloud
    8.4
    69 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings8.363 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings7.756 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.659 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.87 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.754 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Looker Studio and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Cloud
    7.5
    59 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings7.457 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings7.744 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.851 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Looker Studio and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker Studio
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Cloud
    7.0
    41 Ratings
    10% below category average
    REST API00 Ratings8.136 Ratings
    Javascript API00 Ratings7.534 Ratings
    iFrames00 Ratings6.833 Ratings
    Java API00 Ratings5.729 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings6.735 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings7.232 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Looker StudioTableau Cloud
    Small Businesses
    Chartio (discontinued)
    Score7.5 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Jet Reports
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Kibana
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Sisense
    Score6.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Looker StudioTableau Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (63 ratings)
    8.9
    (76 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.4
    (14 ratings)
    8.6
    (29 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.7
    (10 ratings)
    8.7
    (20 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (49 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.3
    (49 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Looker StudioTableau Cloud
    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
    Tableau
    If you're using Tableau as the primary BI tool, then Tableau Cloud is well suited to publish and share the results with a wide(r) audience. It is well suited for various degrees of self-service proficiency, from pure consumers of analytical work to more advanced users who can use web editing for smaller or larger adjustments, and even for desktop power users who will publish their work to Tableau Cloud. It has many good ways to organize the content and make it easily accessible via search, favorites, folders, collections ("playlists for your data"), or history ("recents"). It might not be ideally suited if there are many on-prem sources to be used (even though there are options to connect them) or if you have very special requirements regarding custom server setup, which is limited in a shared cloud environment like Tableau Cloud.
    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
    Tableau
    • Tableau Online is completely cloud based and that's why the reports and dashboards are accessible even on the go. One doesn't always need to access the office laptop to access the reports.
    • The visualizations are interactive and one can quickly change the level at which they want to view the information. For example, one person might be more interested in looking at the country level performances rather than client level. This is intuitive and one doesn't need to create multiple reports for the same.
    • The feature to ask questions in plain vanilla English language is great and helpful. For quick adhoc fact checks one can simply type what they are looking for and the Natural Language Programming algorithms under the hood parse the query, interpret it and then fetch the results accordingly in a visual form.
    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
    Tableau
    • Can be a steep learning curve for new users
    • Modeling and building algorithms aren't always intuitive and take some testing/retesting to ensure it's working as it should
    • Inability to integrate easily with our HRIS platform. Reports are pulled from HRIS at various intervals and uploaded into Tableau
    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
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Tableau
    Based on comments from our clients, I awarded it this grade. Non-technical customers frequently compliment us on the ease with which they can utilize Tableau Online. Usability is rarely a source of contention amongst our customers. Few complaints have come from me as a user of our internal products.
    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
    Tableau
    I have not had any issues that require customer support from Tableau at this time, which speaks well to Tableau. I have taken an online course with Tableau and it was very professional and well done, so based on that I would assume a similar level of quality for their customer service.
    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
    Tableau
    In determining whether to go with Tableau Online versus Alteryx, two important factors stood out in determining our go-to solution. First, while Alteryx is an impressive tool for data cleansing, it did not stack up in terms of data visualization capabilities. Tableau, on the other hand, provided us everything we needed in terms of visualizing our data and analytics. The second factor is cost. Well neither solution would be considered cheap, Tableau was the more cost effective solution for our needs.
    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
    Tableau
    • When we release new products, we are now able to quickly see data and toggle between current periods and previous to see performance
    • Generating new reports requires less IT time to build
    • Data can be shared across many different device types
    • We now have integration where our customers can extract data from our software more easily-this was a big ask from our customers
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots