Looker vs. SAS Visual Analytics

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
SAS Visual Analytics
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
SAS Visual Analytics provides a complete platform for analytics visualization, enabling users to identify patterns and relationships in data that weren't initially evident. Interactive, self-service BI and reporting capabilities are combined with out-of-the-box advanced analytics so everyone can discover insights from any size and type of data, including text.
$0
Annual By Users: 5, 10, 20
Pricing
LookerSAS Visual Analytics
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
SAS Visual Analytics for SAS Cloud
Annual By Users: 5, 10, 20
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
LookerSAS Visual Analytics
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing.SAS Visual Statistics and SAS Office Analytics are also available as add-ons.
More Pricing Information
Features
LookerSAS Visual 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
SAS Visual Analytics
8.3
12 Ratings
1% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports7.680 Ratings8.012 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.794 Ratings8.012 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.979 Ratings9.011 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
SAS Visual Analytics
8.8
13 Ratings
8% above category average
Drill-down analysis8.293 Ratings9.013 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.494 Ratings8.013 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.038 Ratings8.011 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.596 Ratings10.012 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
SAS Visual Analytics
9.2
13 Ratings
10% above category average
Publish to Web8.376 Ratings9.012 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.682 Ratings9.013 Ratings
Report Versioning8.162 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.782 Ratings10.012 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings9.07 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
SAS Visual Analytics
9.7
11 Ratings
18% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.091 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.679 Ratings10.011 Ratings
Predictive Analytics4.66 Ratings9.010 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
SAS Visual Analytics
8.3
12 Ratings
4% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.887 Ratings9.012 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.280 Ratings8.011 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.587 Ratings8.012 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.427 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.08 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Looker
5.8
67 Ratings
32% below category average
SAS Visual Analytics
8.3
10 Ratings
4% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access6.764 Ratings10.010 Ratings
Mobile Application5.01 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.559 Ratings9.09 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Looker
-
Ratings
SAS Visual Analytics
9.2
6 Ratings
15% above category average
REST API00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Best Alternatives
LookerSAS Visual Analytics
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
LookerSAS Visual Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(96 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(4 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.8
(12 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(14 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
LookerSAS Visual 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).
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SAS
I was in a meeting with the client and there I have to show them some analytic data to them. But I was confused about how I will manage to show big data to clients with accuracy. But then the SAS Visual Analytics software helps me in presenting accurate data at the moment and it was very presentable and through that, I got the deal for that business.
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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
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SAS
  • Provides the flexibility to the end user to slice and dice the data.
  • Anyone can make predictive models with the help of in-built algorithms without the need to write a single line of code or knowledge of what's under the hood of algorithms.
  • The feature to simply ask a question related to data and getting a response in form of text, chart or graph is amazing.
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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
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SAS
  • SAS is relatively expensive when compared to other BI tools and requires a large amount of upfront fee which becomes an issue for smaller organizations.
  • UI for the dashboards looks a little date in comparison to competitors like Tableau and Microstrategy.
  • Integration with other open source software like Python needs to be built in.
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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.
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SAS
SAS really is the cutting edge in Business Intelligence. That is all they do! They are constantly coming out with new products, product upgrades, and their tech support is second to none. In addition, their support of Education has made our ability to acquire their product possible.
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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.
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SAS
SAS BI is good for creating reports and dashboards and then sharing it with the users. It also has ability to manage access to the reports and dashboards but somehow with most of the world moving to open source languages R, Python and Julia, SAS BI feels to be archaic in terms of feature set and integrations it allow[s]. Also, comparing it with other Business Intelligence tools like Tableau and Microsoft BI, the functionality of SAS BI is very limited and doesn't justify the pricing.
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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.
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SAS
When you call tech support, you are immediately routed to a person who can answer your question. Often they can answer on the spot. However, if they cannot, you are given a track number and then followed up with. There have been times when I have had multiple track numbers open and they will actually TRACK YOU DOWN to ensure that your problem has been resolved. Issues do not fall into black holes with SAS. They are also willing to do a WebEx with you to diagnose the problem by seeing your environment, which is always helpful.
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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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SAS
SAS Business Intelligence is not the cream of the crop for business intelligence applications, but it is not far behind. The software is generally easier to apply than most other business intelligence software. Additionally, SAS Business Intelligence runs smoothly in the background when making real-time updates. With that said, the software is not as efficient of many of the other business intelligence software applications that have been on the market for longer than this one.
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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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SAS
  • SAS Visual Analytics licensing cost should be reduced to enable users to use it in mass scale.
  • More statistical and mathematical equations and theories should be converted into SAS functions for reusing.
  • Because of enriched ETL and reporting capabilities SAS Visual Analytics is most preferred by business users.
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ScreenShots

Looker Screenshots

Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.

SAS Visual Analytics Screenshots

Screenshot of Explore your data using analytics and interactive data visualizations.