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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Looker

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/ALooker 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

    Planful

    Score8.4 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Planful is a cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) suite. It includes financial applications for modeling, planning, consolidation, reporting and analytics.N/A
    Pricing
    LookerPlanful
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    LookerPlanful
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredRequired
    Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing.Pricing is highly dependent on the complexity and scope of the implementation.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    LookerPlanful
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Planful
    Chose Planful
    EPM tools are all pretty close in general functionality in that they are tables of your data with a finance focused UI stacked on top. The last 5% is what the difference. Planful has a very modern UI and does a great job of updating the system over time, including things like …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    85 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    101 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    75 Answers
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    90 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    87 Answers
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    102 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    60 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    69 Answers
    84%
    Implementation went as expected
    67 Answers
    Features
    LookerPlanful
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    7.4
    134 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Planful
    6.1
    64 Ratings
    21% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports6.5110 Ratings6.933 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.2133 Ratings5.057 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.5115 Ratings6.555 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    6.8
    132 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Planful
    7.5
    104 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Drill-down analysis6.3128 Ratings8.4103 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities6.6130 Ratings7.0104 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages5.655 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.8131 Ratings7.197 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    7.9
    128 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Planful
    7.4
    86 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Publish to Web7.7105 Ratings8.433 Ratings
    Publish to PDF7.8113 Ratings6.477 Ratings
    Report Versioning7.984 Ratings6.555 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.2110 Ratings8.566 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    6.6
    128 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Planful
    6.1
    51 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.7124 Ratings5.040 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.5110 Ratings6.42 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics4.66 Ratings6.044 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.33 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    7.3
    128 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Planful
    8.9
    103 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)7.5120 Ratings8.496 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model7.2105 Ratings8.894 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.2122 Ratings8.595 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control7.360 Ratings8.855 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings9.778 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    5.2
    95 Ratings
    39% below category average
    Planful
    2.3
    42 Ratings
    105% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access4.991 Ratings2.540 Ratings
    Mobile Application5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile5.885 Ratings2.230 Ratings
    Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
    Comparison of Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Planful
    8.7
    156 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Long-term financial planning00 Ratings8.7139 Ratings
    Financial budgeting00 Ratings9.0155 Ratings
    Forecasting00 Ratings9.0146 Ratings
    Scenario modeling00 Ratings7.8131 Ratings
    Management reporting00 Ratings9.0149 Ratings
    Consolidation and Close
    Comparison of Consolidation and Close features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Planful
    8.0
    118 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Financial data consolidation00 Ratings9.3107 Ratings
    Journal entries and reports00 Ratings7.886 Ratings
    Multi-currency management00 Ratings7.470 Ratings
    Intercompany Eliminations00 Ratings7.673 Ratings
    Minority Ownership00 Ratings6.939 Ratings
    Local and consolidated reporting00 Ratings7.789 Ratings
    Detailed Audit Trails00 Ratings9.187 Ratings
    Financial Reporting and Compliance
    Comparison of Financial Reporting and Compliance features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Planful
    7.6
    152 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Financial Statement Reporting00 Ratings8.8133 Ratings
    Management Reporting00 Ratings8.8143 Ratings
    Excel-based Reporting00 Ratings7.0141 Ratings
    Automated board and financial reporting00 Ratings6.5114 Ratings
    XBRL support for regulatory filing00 Ratings7.13 Ratings
    Analytics and Reporting
    Comparison of Analytics and Reporting features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Planful
    5.9
    104 Ratings
    24% below category average
    Personalized dashboards00 Ratings5.191 Ratings
    Color-coded scorecards00 Ratings2.555 Ratings
    KPIs00 Ratings7.476 Ratings
    Cost and profitability analysis00 Ratings6.975 Ratings
    Key Performance Indicator setting00 Ratings6.963 Ratings
    Benchmarking with external data00 Ratings6.410 Ratings
    Integration
    Comparison of Integration features of Looker and Planful
    Feature
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Planful
    8.9
    140 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Flat file integration00 Ratings9.5105 Ratings
    Excel data integration00 Ratings7.8130 Ratings
    Direct links to 3rd-party data sources00 Ratings9.596 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    LookerPlanful
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    IBM Planning Analytics
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Sisense
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
    Score7.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    LookerPlanful
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (134 ratings)
    8.8
    (164 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.2
    (8 ratings)
    8.7
    (23 ratings)
    Usability
    8.8
    (12 ratings)
    8.2
    (21 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.8
    (14 ratings)
    9.0
    (22 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (9 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    CPA Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.5
    (51 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sources
    7.3
    (51 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    5.3
    (4 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Professional Services
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.4
    (4 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    LookerPlanful
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Google
    When data drives potential for new orders, Looker earns its place in our tech stack. If, on the other hand, we are hoping for pipeline generation, Looker is useful if you are willing to repeatedly go check customer utilizations .... it is not appropriate if you are hoping to automate data analysis for this purpose.
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    Planful is initially easy to setup and if a company is already using a mid layer to transform and standardise GL data, management reports can be set up in days, not weeks or months. Budgeting template setup does get some getting used to but the training provided by Planful is sufficient to get going and learn along the way. Building custom reports is straightforward and the interface is user-friendly, therefore the accounting team can get going without the need for technical specialists getting involved. Budget and forecasting is flexible and drivers of revenue and cost can be created in Planful and customised by Unit or Geography.
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    • It aggregates data from different sources well, allowing me to report on a wide variety of metrics that interrelate.
    • I can build detailed reports so that my monthly and weekly reporting is done more efficiently
    • I like the tools that I am using to create dedicated models for forecasting and budgeting purposes
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Google
    • Documentation is scarce, and very difficult to find when you need it.
    • Pricing is unclear, particularly as you look to scale your reports across the business.
    • Data from other sources is not represented in the system as well as first party Google services.
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    • Dashboarding could be more flexible and easier to use.
    • Dynamic Reporting has room for flexibility with nesting, dimension names showing up instead of “All,” and overall flexibility.
    • Make Analyze view in Spotlight more intuitive.
    • A high-level onboarding guide to understanding the different components of Planful, data flows, and tips & tricks.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Google
    I give it this rating because it deems as effective, I am able to complete majority of my tasks using this app. It is very helpful when analyzing the data provided and shown in the app and it's just overall a great app for Operational use, despite the small hiccups it has (live data).
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    Our new Comptroller understands the value of Planful, and we plan to utilize it further in the organization to enhance external reporting. Strangely enough, Planful had not previously been embraced by the former CFO, who argued that we were running two sets of books (of course, we were not). Fortunately, the before mentioned reconciliation of EBITDA to Net Income demonstrated that to the banks.
    Incentivized
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    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.
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    The tool is extremely adaptable, and it enables very quick querying to give us opportunity to gain live insights into the business. Given its adaptability, we are also able to create scenario analyses very quickly in rapidly changing environments. The formatting also enables us to provide this information in a very consumable manner.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Google
    No objections
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    I only give a 9 rating rather than a 10 rating because it seems that every day around 2pm we see a slowdown in the use of Planful. I have requested our internal IT department verify that it is not an internal issue and have been assured it is the tool. We have not yet reached out to Planful to do extensive research to solve this issue.
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    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
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    Again, the system is very reliable and, for the most part, runs very quick and smooth. When running larger queries, it does take some time, and during budgeting season our users experienced slower loading times, but nothing that raises concerns outside of normal network issues. Occasionally, as with any software we use, it will crash and you have to restart, but that does not happen very often.
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    Sometimes we get great help when using Planful's support team and other times we don't. In particular, there is one person that often responds to our support tickets who is less than helpful, hence the reason for the 5 out of 10 rating. As a result, most of the time we reach out to our Planful consulting group as they provide faster and better support
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    In-Person Training
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Planful
    My team has attended training offered several times before/during the Planful Perform conference. This training has been extremely useful and we always learn something we didn't know prior to the training. The trainers are always very knowledgeable and more than willing to help each and every user after the training with specific questions regarding their environment. Planful also offers training and certifications on their training hub. I have completed a couple of the certifications. The courses are easy to follow along with and very informative. Additionally, Planful schedules webinars pretty regularly. They'll email their customers and allow you to register to participate live. They also record these sessions so you can refer back to them at a later date or if you are unable to attend at the time the webinar is offered, you can register anyway and get access to the recording. Their training has improved year over year!
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Planful
    Planful provides a lot of online training support. There's so many options for training. Admin Learning Courses, User Learning Courses. Plus they have several webinars devoted to the tool and the new features they release. New Releases can be practiced in a Sandbox Environment prior to going live in Production
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Google
    Very satisfied, easy to implement
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    After going through the initial implementation with Host Analytics and a re-implementation with Cervello (due to an ERP change, not due to a poor initial implementation), I've learned that you really must rely on your internal staff to bear most of the implementation burden. Use the vendor or partners for ideas and best-practice suggestions, and some of the easy-but-time-consuming work. Since you will ultimately be using and maintaining the application, you should be able to do most of it yourself.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Google
    Looker Studio, you can easily report on data from various sources without programming. Looker Studio is available at no charge for creators and report viewers. Enterprise customers who upgrade to Looker Studio Pro will receive support and expanded administrative features, including team content management. So it's good.
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    Prior to joining the company, we tried to implement Vena but were unsuccessful. There we're a few reasons it didn't work out, but a lot of it related to the implementation team they provided. In just the first week with Planful, we achieved more progress than we did in several months with Vena.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Google
    Perfect price to performance
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Planful
    From our experience, Planful is only used in 2 overhead departments in our organization. We easily added another overhead department, but they decided against using Planful for their workforce and financial planning. Removing them from our environment was extremely easy.
    Incentivized
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    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.
    Incentivized
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    Planful
    • Has allowed users to view a real-time P&L in a way they weren't able to do with Qlik.
    • Budget to Actual analysis has become much more streamlined and actionable
    • Long-range plan process has been significantly streamlined and a lot of time has been cut out of the process.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Looker Screenshots

    Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.

    Planful Screenshots

    Screenshot of the Planful Planform DashboardScreenshot of Planful for FinanceScreenshot of Planful for MarketingScreenshot of ReportsScreenshot of a Capacity Planning TemplateScreenshot of Integrations