Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Looker
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Looker is a BI application with an analytics-oriented application server that sits on top of relational data stores. It includes an end-user interface for exploring data, a reusable development paradigm for data discovery, and an API for supporting data in other systems.N/A
Microsoft Power BI
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Power BI is a visualization and data discovery tool from Microsoft. It allows users to convert data into visuals and graphics, visually explore and analyze data, collaborate on interactive dashboards and reports, and scale across their organization with built-in governance and security.
$10
per month per user
Pricing
LookerMicrosoft Power BI
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
LookerMicrosoft Power BI
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
LookerMicrosoft Power BI
Considered Both Products
Looker
Chose Looker
Better in terms of data configuration with slight harder learning curve, available help material is not that much and we usually have to connect with Looker Help with chat for our data and analysis questions. While Looker offers a wide range of visualization options, there were …
Chose Looker
Technically, Power BI is much more complete and powerful, but it's like an ocean liner. I didn't need all that equipment. In my case, I needed to move more quickly, like on a speedboat, to build a page with several data sources in a single source of truth that could be easily …
Chose Looker
There are some specific use cases where other tools are not useful in our organization. Some software solutions are shared with other organizations inside the company and Looker is the only tool where we can collaborate good enough.
Chose Looker
Looker works and exists in the Google ecosystem. If you are a Google Cloud Platform user, Looker is a no brainer. There is also Looker Studio, the small (free) brother with less features which is basically a report only viewer/creator. The reason we choose Looker is because can …
Chose Looker
Looker is a great fit for our company because we have collaborative analytics workflows and complicated data ecosystems and because of its strengths in data modeling, integration, and collaboration.
Brand name and peer recommendations also helps us to select Looker against …
Chose Looker
Our organization is going all in on Google products so switching out of the Microsoft suite of tools is a no brainer. All the Google tools work incredibly well together and once you transition it’s incredibly hard to be half in half out between Google and Microsoft. If you’re a …
Chose Looker
We haven't had a proper benchmarking done. We might consider looking at other options, but this thing is deeply integrated into our platform, so not anytime soon.
Chose Looker
Actually, I use both power BI and Looker. Power BI has more data connectors and power query, one of the most important things that Looker does not have. You can customize the visuals in power bi in a higher level than Looker as well. Besides, Looker is much more advanced when …
Chose Looker
Legitimately, every other business solution is superior to Microsoft's product offerings. They are a business that doesn't listen to their customers because they know that they don't have to and that someone will always be a client. That being said, Looker does care about your …
Chose Looker
The easy which with data and reports can be customized in Looker for adhoch or individual needs is amazing - Very easy to filter and save views.
Chose Looker
Looker provides really excellent customer service in comparison to other similar products. The sharing aspect of Looker is also a big plus, which allows multiple users to access the data at the same time. We have also found it to stand out among competitors with its dashboard …
Microsoft Power BI
Chose Microsoft Power BI
I prefer Power BI because of its affordability and fewer complicated tools than Tableau. It's easy to use and compatible with other Microsoft products, which are mostly used in the IT industry. It's not limited to only one platform like Looker Studio, which is mostly used in …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
After several years using Google Looker Studio and BigQuery, Microsoft Power BI is a step-up in terms of visualizations. It is also much more powerful, leading to less errors and has a more intuitive interface. Looker Studio has a focus on Google Analytics whereas Microsoft …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
We tried, but they don't have a mature community for troubleshooting and training programs like Power BI. Also, Power BI does the job, so we just explored very little and couldn't give a chance to others. The community is strong, and the product is mature enough. Also, among …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Some of the strengths are 1. User-Friendliness 2. Self-Service BI (Caters to all levels of the employees 3. Cost-effective. 4. Easy integration with Microsoft Suits. 5. DAX Calculations 6. Familiar Interface like traditional Excel. 7. Easier Self-Service platform for …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI excels against its competition in being a great combination between feature set and scalability. Tableau is more integrated with Salesforce but it has a high starting price point whereas Microsoft Power BI can start out with a single license for less than $20 …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft PowerBI is easy to use, has leadership alignment, and is liked by everyone using it in the past and in the current setup. Thus, we decided to continue renewing Microsoft Power BI. We had also evaluated some competitors, but those platforms were not as easy to onboard. …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Overall Microsoft Power BI has more capabilities, it is more customizable and it also has it's own query language DAX which is really powerful for complex calculations and that's something you just don't get in their competitors, also when integrated with the other power apps, …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
It Improve business process agility.
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Due to microsoft user and all the data into excel it was found more feasible from the organization to get Microsoft Power BI. Also due to access of microsoft licence we don't need to survey other vendors and feasibility. Also price wise it was more competitive then Tableau.
Chose Microsoft Power BI
I selected Power BI because it is the best in all because of its ecosystem and its ability to connect with multiple data source like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SQL Server, web, analysis services etc. Moreover, its available on both Cloud and Desktop with some pro and cons …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Power BI from a price perspective is the lowest cost (probably even from a total cost of ownership perspective) of all the offerings I have ever evaluated. The piece that really stands out for Power BI is the data transformation layer called Power Query. This section allows you …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is the leader of this category, but it is a little expensive. It could use some more customization features, but other than that, it gives stellar returns for your investment.
Chose Microsoft Power BI
We selected Microsoft Power BI because it was the easiest to integrate with our primary systems, allowed us to embed reports for our partners, allowed us to host our data and some reports on premise. It also provided the shortest route to production deployment allowing us to …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft BI tool does a better job than most of the other software. The reason is excellent visualizations and its capability to connect with various other software and data sources. Tableau does a better job when it comes to tutorials and being more user-friendly. Also …
Chose Microsoft Power BI
We selected Power BI because it had more flexibility in modelling/measurement definition, excellent per-user pricing, easy self-implementation, integration with our other Office 365 tools, and easy distribution of content to others in the organization.
Chose Microsoft Power BI
Power BI performs quite well in comparison to it's competitor's products. We compared it mainly to GoodData and Tableau. Power BI has a great pricing. It's affordable and efficient with mid-sized datasets. Hence many companies go for it. Competitive products like Tableau are …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
LookerMicrosoft Power BI
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.0
117 Ratings
2% below category average
Microsoft Power BI
8.3
191 Ratings
2% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports7.495 Ratings8.2162 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.7116 Ratings8.8190 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.9100 Ratings7.9173 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.1
117 Ratings
1% above category average
Microsoft Power BI
7.9
189 Ratings
2% below category average
Drill-down analysis8.1113 Ratings8.2186 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.4115 Ratings7.6186 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.147 Ratings7.3138 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.7117 Ratings8.4184 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.5
113 Ratings
3% above category average
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
182 Ratings
4% below category average
Publish to Web8.295 Ratings8.2172 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.8101 Ratings8.1167 Ratings
Report Versioning8.276 Ratings7.6139 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.998 Ratings8.2142 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings7.8105 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Looker
6.7
114 Ratings
17% below category average
Microsoft Power BI
7.7
182 Ratings
3% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.9110 Ratings8.1176 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.597 Ratings8.0161 Ratings
Predictive Analytics4.66 Ratings7.3131 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.332 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.3
113 Ratings
2% below category average
Microsoft Power BI
8.5
173 Ratings
0% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.8106 Ratings8.8163 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.093 Ratings8.4141 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.2107 Ratings8.4153 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.145 Ratings8.342 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.7135 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Looker
5.8
84 Ratings
30% below category average
Microsoft Power BI
8.0
155 Ratings
2% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access6.781 Ratings7.7145 Ratings
Mobile Application5.01 Ratings7.6126 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.575 Ratings7.9148 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Looker
-
Ratings
Microsoft Power BI
7.7
111 Ratings
1% below category average
REST API00 Ratings8.199 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings7.580 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings8.055 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings6.765 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.486 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.444 Ratings
Best Alternatives
LookerMicrosoft Power BI
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
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User Ratings
LookerMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(118 ratings)
8.5
(193 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(7 ratings)
9.5
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.8
(12 ratings)
8.3
(109 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(14 ratings)
9.6
(52 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
LookerMicrosoft Power BI
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
As a Sales, it suited me to use such well-developed software with a nice dashboard that could navigate between my prospects, visualize the numbers of clients, and check my achievements for each quarter. That would help me understand my performance and record the data I needed for myself as a salesperson.
Read full review
Microsoft
Has significantly improved collation of data and visualisation especially with business across Europe. Has given me the ability to see the Site availability at the click of a button to see which Site is in the "money" and seize opportunities based on Market data
Read full review
Pros
Google
  • Show visited pages - sessions, pageviews - which programs are viewed the most.
  • Displays session source/medium views to see where users are coming from.
  • It shows the video titles, URLs, and event counts so we can monitor the performance of our videos.
  • It gives a graphic face to the numbers, such as using bar charts, pie graphs, and other charts to show user trends or which channels are driving engagement.
  • Our clients like to see the top pages visited for a month.
  • I like the drop-and-drag approach, and building charts is a little easier than it was before.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Options for data source connections are immense. Not just which sources, but your options for *how* the data is brought in.
  • Constant updates (this is both good and bad at times).
  • User friendliness. I can get the data connections set up and draft some quick visuals, then release to the target audience and let them expand on it how they want to.
Read full review
Cons
Google
  • I wish I could get more granular in the Google ad data, such as down to the campaign type, instead of having to see only all campaigns.
  • The setup can be time-consuming if you're not using the product regularly.
  • Editing the dashboard requires a few logins; I wish it was more seamless.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • It would be easier for users could Microsoft Power BI and Excel used the same programming languages.
  • Would like to see the online version of Microsoft Power BI be as powerful as the desktop version.
  • Publishing a Microsoft Power BI file online and then having to save the file is somewhat redundant.
  • Would like to export each page or chart as an image.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Google
We are very haooy with Looker, it provides us with all the funciomalities we need for both the day to day oerformance tracking and longer periods reporting. It is easy to use for account managers, configurable and customizable for soecialists and what is most imoortant, our clinets generally really love it
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft Power BI is an excellent and scalable tool. It has a learning curve, but once you get past that, the sky is the limit and you can build from the most simple to the most complex dashboards. I have built everything from simple reports with only a few data points to complex reports with many pages and advanced filtering.
Read full review
Usability
Google
Looker is relatively easy to use, even as it is set up. The customers for the front-end only have issues with the initial setup for looker ml creations. Other "looks" are relatively easy to set up, depending on the ETL and the data which is coming into Looker on a regular basis.
Read full review
Microsoft
Automating reporting has reduced manual data processing by 50-70%, freeing up analysts for higher-value tasks. A finance team that previously spent 20+ hours per week on Excel-based reports now does it in minutes with Microsoft Power BI's automated Real-time dashboards have shortened decision cycles by 30-40%, enabling leadership to react quickly to sales trends, operational bottlenecks, and customer behavior.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Google
No objections
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Performance
Google
Somehow resources heavy, both on server and client. I recommned at least 50Mbs data rate and high performance desktop comouter to be abke to run comolex tasks and configure larger amount of data. On the other hand, the client does not need to worry when viewing, the performance is usually ok
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Google
Never had to work with support for issues. Any questions we had, they would respond promptly and clearly. The one-time setup was easy, by reading documentation. If the feature is not supported, they will add a feature request. In this case, LDAP support was requested over OKTA. They are looking into it.
Read full review
Microsoft
It is a fantastic tool, you can do almost everything related with data and reports, it is a perfect substitutive of Power Point and Excel with a high evolution and flexibility, and also it is very friendly and easy to share. I think all companies should have Power BI (or other BI tool) in their software package and if they are in the MS Suite, for sure Power BI should be the one due to all the benefits of the MS ecosystem.
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Implementation Rating
Google
Very satisfied, easy to implement
Read full review
Microsoft
It was integrated with our erp easily and was accessible on cloud.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Google
Looker gives you options to integrate external APIs with great ease. Our data analytics team is able to easily use multiple data sources as input to the Looker dashboard, and everything is consolidated in one single Dashboard. You also have an option for Shared folders to be accessed by multiple people. The reporting system is perfect and has a wide range of options/reporting options that can be implemented.
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft Power BI is free. If I didn't want to create a custom platform (i.e. my organization insisted on an existing platform that I *had* to use), I'd use Microsoft Power BI. For any start-up or SMB, I'd just use Claude & Grok to build it quickly, also for free. Would not pay for Tableau or Sigma anymore. Not worth it at all.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Google
Perfect price to performance
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Google
  • Looker has a poignant impact on our business's ROI objectives. As an advertising exchange we have specific goals for daily requests and fill, and having premade Looks to monitor this is an integral piece of our operational capability
  • To facilitate an efficient monthly billing cycle in our organization, Looker is essential to track estimated revenue and impression delivery by publisher. Without the Looks we have set up, we would spend considerably more time and effort segmenting revenue by vertical.
  • Looker's unique value proposition is making analytical tools more digestible to people without conventional analytical experience. Other competing tools like Tableau require considerably more training and context to successfully use, and the ability to easily plot different visualizations is one of its greatest selling points.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Power BI usage reduced the effort of analytical reports creation by about 80%
  • Empowered all the level of employee to be more vigilant of the data and business insights, gained the profit of 8% overall.
  • AI-powered predictive analytics improved forecasting accuracy by 17%, that topped the overall sales.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Looker Screenshots

Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.

Microsoft Power BI Screenshots

Screenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Turns insights into impact for business usersScreenshot of Power BI integrates easily with Microsoft 365Screenshot of Microsoft Power BI - AI-Powered CapabilitiesScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Copilot can be used to create reportsScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Data HubScreenshot of Microsoft Power BI - Scales as organizational needs grow