What users are saying about

Looker vs Sisense

Looker
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110 Ratings
Sisense
Top Rated
96 Ratings

Looker

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110 Ratings
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Score 8.4 out of 101

Based on 110 reviews and ratings

Sisense

Top Rated
96 Ratings
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Score 8.4 out of 101

Based on 96 reviews and ratings

Likelihood to Recommend

Looker

When focus is on understanding, playing, discovery and standard reporting needs, Looker is a very interesting tool to use. When done right, you can go up and down, back and forth in your data, link different "looks" or dashboards together and very interestingly, you can define what happens (i.e. is shown) when users drill down on a certain metric. With teams of analysts in place, a shared LookML, version controlled repository will help to keep data models right and in sync - no more 20 different versions of an Excel file or such.After all, the Looker UI is very simple to use, simpler than Excel, Tableau, Qlik etc. For the most fancy visualisations or complex reports I'd rather choose other software as of now. However, becoming data-driven and using data to generate the best insights possible is key here - this is definitely not mainly achieved by visualisations (partly also because it requires more time / resources to do it right than most companies have available). It's not entirely well suited for very small companies due to its pricing structure, but that applies to many others in the field as well, that also target mid sized to large companies.

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Christian Lubasch
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Sisense

Sisense is excellent for data modeling through ElastiCubes. It's easy to visualize the joins between objects, preview data, and identify data types.

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Andrew Goss
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Feature Rating Comparison

BI Standard Reporting

Looker
8.2
Sisense
8.4
Pixel Perfect reports
Looker
7.5
Sisense
7.9
Customizable dashboards
Looker
8.7
Sisense
9.0
Report Formatting Templates
Looker
8.4
Sisense
8.3

Ad-hoc Reporting

Looker
8.1
Sisense
8.3
Drill-down analysis
Looker
8.5
Sisense
8.6
Formatting capabilities
Looker
8.1
Sisense
8.5
Integration with R or other statistical packages
Looker
7.1
Sisense
8.8
Report sharing and collaboration
Looker
8.7
Sisense
7.3

Report Output and Scheduling

Looker
8.1
Sisense
8.6
Publish to Web
Looker
8.0
Sisense
8.7
Publish to PDF
Looker
8.4
Sisense
8.9
Report Versioning
Looker
7.6
Sisense
8.1
Report Delivery Scheduling
Looker
8.3
Sisense
8.6

Data Discovery and Visualization

Looker
6.9
Sisense
8.7
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
Looker
8.2
Sisense
9.0
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
Looker
7.9
Sisense
8.8
Predictive Analytics
Looker
4.6
Sisense
8.2

Access Control and Security

Looker
8.7
Sisense
8.4
Multi-User Support (named login)
Looker
9.1
Sisense
8.7
Role-Based Security Model
Looker
8.4
Sisense
8.7
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
Looker
8.7
Sisense
7.9

Mobile Capabilities

Looker
6.2
Sisense
8.0
Responsive Design for Web Access
Looker
7.5
Sisense
8.4
Dedicated iOS Application
Looker
5.0
Sisense
7.6
Dedicated Android Application
Looker
5.0
Sisense
8.1
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Looker
7.4
Sisense
7.8

Pros

Looker

  • Interesting approach to data modelling (LookML), that highly increases re-usability, is version controlled and much easier to understand for people that are not fluent in SQL.
  • Makes data discovery fun and easy.
  • Collaboration features

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Christian Lubasch
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Sisense

  • Customization - lots of supported and community plugins available. Users can also adjust the look and feel through JavaScript.
  • Innovation - Sisense is continuing to push the envelope by developing new features through Sisense Labs.
  • Customer support - the commitment to excellent customer service and ensuring organizations get the most out of their investment.

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Andrew Goss
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Cons

Looker

  • New user on-boarding requires some dedicated training. It's not an easy tool to pick up and use immediately.
  • Visualization customizations are still a bit cryptic. Most end users can't figure out how to change a data series' color, for example. It's not intuitive.
  • The ease of development actually makes for a potential nightmare down the road if too many people have developer privileges. There are a lot of potential issues over the longer term if you don't introduce adequate safeguards right at initial implementation.

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Adam Rhuberg
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Sisense

  • Permissions are a pain at times - only the owner of folders and dashboards can publish any changes.
  • Ease of use - there's a bit of a learning curve in using Sisense, but the same can be said of any BI tool.
  • Windows servers are required for Sisense installation, but a new and improved Linux architecture has been introduced (currently in beta).

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Andrew Goss
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Likelihood to Renew

Looker

Looker 9.0
Based on 4 answers
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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Verified User
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Sisense

Sisense 8.9
Based on 14 answers
I think the business and myself as a user has come to rely on SiSense as a dashboarding and quick ad-hoc reporting tool. I am hoping to integrate SiSense dashboards into more parts of the business in the future. We have reduced our report turn-around time for the most part from hours/days to minutes and in some cases almost the speed of thought. Reports are also easier on the eye and more easily distributed.I would also like to say that the support and professionalism from the SiSense team has been excellent.

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Verified User
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Usability

Looker

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Sisense

Sisense 7.3
Based on 4 answers
For at least 80% of our business requirements Sisense works perfectly.

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Holke Visser
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Reliability and Availability

Looker

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Sisense

Sisense 8.2
Based on 1 answer
There are very few situations when there is unexpected downtime. Mostly during development, new dashboard implementation and during upgrades. other then that there were very few crashes.

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Michał Becker
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Performance

Looker

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Sisense

Sisense 8.2
Based on 1 answer
SiSense is usually performing better then other solutions even if going for complex reports/dashboards(of course within reasonable frames). I haven't noticed any bad influence on other systems, usually if something happens it stays within SiSense.

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Michał Becker
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Support

Looker

Looker 10.0
Based on 2 answers
I can get responses to questions in minutes through their in-app chat feature. They have provided 6 months of LookML training to our analytics team, with weekly calls. They also provided in-office business user training for our entire organization

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Verified User
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Sisense

Sisense 10.0
Based on 5 answers
This team is one of the few companies where I can literally Skype them for help and they respond immediately. Most don't realize how rare that actually is in the industry. Expanding their presence to the eastern time zone of the United States has made them more accessible as a result

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Daniel Colussi
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In-Person Training

Looker

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Sisense

Sisense 7.3
Based on 1 answer
Easy and free training that allowed us quickly understand basics in SiSense and start using them. More advanced features requires some browsing through SiSense forums, but there is always support to help, and SiSense support is one of the best whith which I worked so far.

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Michał Becker
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Online Training

Looker

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Sisense

Sisense 8.2
Based on 1 answer
Many examples, videos and scenarios which you try on your own right away. This combined with in-person training gives you enough to utilize most of SiSense's power.

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Michał Becker
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Implementation

Looker

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Sisense

Sisense 7.1
Based on 3 answers
Remember to migrate the plugins. The documentation however is pretty straight forward.

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Holke Visser
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Alternatives Considered

Looker

Because Looker actually functions as a database querying tool, there's no need for building extensive ETL processes that require you to pre-configure every aggregation and dimensional cut you would ever want to do in your BI front-end, it avoids the long and expensive implementation process many of these other tools require. Another great benefit of this architecture is that the tool makes for rapid and flexible data exploration that doesn't require additional developer time - just because no one else has created a specific report before doesn't mean it can't be done quickly and easily by a business user with no knowledge of the underlying data structures. Looker is also a great value compared to some of these other tools.

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Adam Rhuberg
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Sisense

Sisense was chosen as our BI platform for a few key reasons. Excellent customer support is a key reason why. Additionally, continuing innovation in new product features and the ability to embed reports and do quite a bit in terms of customization.

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Andrew Goss
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Scalability

Looker

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Sisense

Sisense 8.2
Based on 1 answer
Product is quite easily scalable. The whole installation can be easily moved to stronger machine if needed.

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Michał Becker
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Return on Investment

Looker

No answers on this topic

Sisense

  • I don't have specific numbers back from the customer where we deployed the product. However, I know that they used it daily to track their product shipments and machine efficiencies. I would say it did the job we deployed it to do and did it effectively.

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Erik Luxhoj
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Pricing Details

Looker

General

Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
No

Looker Editions & Modules

—
Additional Pricing Details
—

Sisense

General

Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
No

Sisense Editions & Modules

Modules
SAP Connector1
  1. Per User per Month
Additional Pricing Details
—

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