Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Looker
Score 8.1 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
Mode
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Mode, or Mode Analytics, from ThoughtSpot since the June 2023 acquisition, is a business intelligence platform that unifies company analytics by bringing data teams and business teams together, so analysts can provide rapid answers to strategic, ad hoc questions. And, business stakeholder can access relevant data to answer their own questions which can often detract more impactful work.N/A
Pricing
LookerMode Analytics
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
LookerMode
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
LookerMode Analytics
Considered Both Products
Looker

No answer on this topic

Mode
Chose Mode Analytics
  • Tableau is a huge pain to edit or create dashboards, by comparison. It can make better looking visualizations, but in practice, letting users drill down and change dimensions slows the end user experience so much that it's often not worth it.
  • Looker is amazing for data modeling, …
Chose Mode Analytics
We used both Qlik and Mode at our organization. The mode was used a quick analysis SQL tool while Qlik was our enterprise BI solution.
Chose Mode Analytics
Mode Analytics is better for us than most -- because of its white-label feature, its security-first posture, and the fact that you can go directly to SQL.
Chose Mode Analytics
In my opinion Mode Analytics has an edge on much of the competition due to the intuitive and powerful custom dashboard creation interface. I can create dashboards for stakeholders that are self explanatory and easy to make conclusions from. In other respects, it's very much at …
Chose Mode Analytics
Mode is the best for the advanced user with advanced use cases. Even creating a simple report will require an SQL query. No drag-and-drop interface for querying data. But it is best for the advanced user already familiar with Python or R and SQL. The other products are more …
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
LookerMode Analytics
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.1
95 Ratings
1% below category average
Mode Analytics
8.5
9 Ratings
4% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports7.680 Ratings9.34 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.794 Ratings8.49 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.979 Ratings7.86 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.0
96 Ratings
1% below category average
Mode Analytics
7.6
9 Ratings
6% below category average
Drill-down analysis8.293 Ratings7.18 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.494 Ratings6.89 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.038 Ratings7.59 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.596 Ratings8.88 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.4
92 Ratings
1% above category average
Mode Analytics
7.9
8 Ratings
6% below category average
Publish to Web8.376 Ratings8.15 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.682 Ratings6.18 Ratings
Report Versioning8.162 Ratings7.74 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.782 Ratings9.38 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.34 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Looker
6.7
93 Ratings
19% below category average
Mode Analytics
6.5
9 Ratings
22% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.091 Ratings7.79 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.679 Ratings5.56 Ratings
Predictive Analytics4.66 Ratings6.46 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.5
92 Ratings
1% below category average
Mode Analytics
9.4
2 Ratings
9% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.887 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.280 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.587 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.427 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings9.72 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Looker
5.8
67 Ratings
31% below category average
Mode Analytics
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access6.764 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.559 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Looker
-
Ratings
Mode Analytics
9.0
1 Ratings
13% above category average
REST API00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
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LookerMode Analytics
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Enterprises
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User Ratings
LookerMode Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(96 ratings)
8.2
(9 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.8
(12 ratings)
8.2
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(14 ratings)
7.3
(5 ratings)
User Testimonials
LookerMode Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
Quick dashboards from Google Sheets - Easier to do the graphs than in Google Sheets - Operational dashboards to be used in the day-to-day work - It is good both for retrospective data and to do a pulse check of the current status - Better for not giant amounts of data and not multiple data sources. - If you need a lot of graphs to be displayed on the same page, it can be a bit glitchy during configuration (then the use works fine).
Read full review
ThoughtSpot
Mode is a clear category winner for how it easy it is to go from interactive analysis to professional quality reporting. You can easily do all your SQL and quite a bit of R/Python. If you want to quickly go from your database to simple charts, this is your pick. If you need to do heavier data modeling, scheduling jobs, or ML, you'll need something else, like Databricks. In my opinion, the quality of visualizations and some developer/analyst features make Databricks an unacceptable substitute.
Read full review
Pros
Google
  • Filtering - you can filter across different dimensions and metrics to get a more specific "cut" of data
  • Refreshing - data automatically ingests into Looker which allows reports to be updated and backfilled in real time
  • Conditional Reporting - you can leverage Looker's reporting features to flag when a given metric or KPI falls below or above a specified threshold. For example, if you had a daily sales benchmark in a SAAS organization, you could use Looker to flag whenever daily sales falls above or below the benchmark
Read full review
ThoughtSpot
  • It allows me to undertake data visualization tasks by creating really insightful charts and dashboards
  • It allows for easy sharing and work collaboration on data analysis tasks
  • Mode has an easier to use SQL editor as well
  • I love how it organizes all our SQL data tables into easy-to-view data we can draw insights on
Read full review
Cons
Google
  • Looker is less graphical or pictorial which makes it less attractive
  • Consumes a lot of memory when there are multiple rows and columns, impacts performance too
  • At times when we download huge chunks of raw data from Looker dashbords, the time taken to prepare the file is enormous - The user fails to understand if Looker has frozen or if the data is getting prepared in the background for downloading. In turn, user ends up triggering multiple downloads
Read full review
ThoughtSpot
  • Date ranges aren't always the most intuitive to set, strangely
  • Faster refresh rates would be ideal
  • Would love more dynamic mobile device integration (alerts, etc)
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Google
We've been very happy with Looker so far, and all teams in the organization are starting to see its value, and use it on a frequent basis. It has quickly become our accessible "source of truth" for all data/metrics.
Read full review
ThoughtSpot
No answers on this topic
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.
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ThoughtSpot
For the advanced user already familiar with Python. It is just the same tool, already managed and connected to the data.
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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
ThoughtSpot
Mode has dedicated agents who are online in a chatroom, ready to take on any questions and provide helpful feedback.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Google
Looker is an off-the-shelf, free tool for Google business users. Other than the internal cost of time to build, we had no costs to set up what we needed to do. Knowledge sharing internally and using templates greatly reduced this cost, making the overall cost very low.
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ThoughtSpot
We used both Qlik and Mode at our organization. The mode was used a quick analysis SQL tool while Qlik was our enterprise BI solution.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Google
  • Allowing others to self-serve their own analytics and connect it to Looker simply and easily has helped unblock the central data team so they can instead focus on validated dashboards whilst stakeholders manage their day-to-day analysis themselves. Countless engineering hours have been freed up by not having to manage every user permission for each BI tool; we have a BYOBI approach; Bring Your Own BI
  • Creation and management of a semantic layer (LookML =Looker Modeling Language ) allows peoples sandboxes and production databases to become clutter free. Minor adjustments, conditional fields, and even some modelling can all be done in LookML which doesn't need oversight or governance from the central data team.
  • LookML, specifying drilldown fields and their sub-queries, as well as generally creating dynamic parameters with Liquid are all great features, but can have a steep learning curve. it may take some time to understand how to create this middle layer correctly, or even pose a risk of inheriting complex code from another source which can be unmaintainable if it becomes too big. Some level of governance is recommended if Looker is used by a large number of editors.
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ThoughtSpot
  • Extremely positive. It's a key feature in our application.
  • Were it not for the account management bit, Mode would be hands-down our recommendation for anyone looking for cloud BI.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Looker Screenshots

Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.