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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

    Sigma

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/ASigma Computing headquartered in San Francisco provides a suite of data services such as code free data modeling, data search and explorating, and related BI and data visualization services.N/A
    Pricing
    LookerSigma
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    LookerSigma
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredOptional
    Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing.Contact us for pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    LookerSigma
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Sigma Computing
    Chose Sigma
    I am not an expert in any of these, though from my brief exposure to Looker it felt like a steeper learning curve, more appropriate to companies with dedicated and skilled BI engineers, whereas Sigma (and Tableau, and Looker Studio) offer a quicker and more intuitive interface …
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    I'd rate Sigma to be extremely similar to Sisense except it looks not as nice. I would say that as a tool, Sigma is more user-friendly than Tableau, Power BI, Trevor, and Metabase.

    I do feel that Looker is far more powerful and looks great, but I also recognize that Looker does …
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    With Looker, to be effective, a substantial amount of coding & modeling needs to happen in LookML. Being another language to learn, users have to context switch again from at a minimum either SQL or Python into LookML. The concept of being able to source control, code review, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Sigma is easier to work with and faster than Looker Studio.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Much more customizable than Looker Studio
    Some features are way better than Cluvio. But Cluvio search bar was better.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    I was not involved in the decision-making process, and we stopped using chartio because it was discontinued. Chartio was great for looking under the hood at individual queries. Sigma is superior in the visualization aspects - it looks more professional and clean-cut. I've …
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Chartio was discontinued, and Looker + Sisense were too expensive.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    We considered Looker when purchasing a BI tool, Looker seemed like it was less user friendly and support wouldn't be as responsive as Sigma.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    I prefer Google Sheets, Looker, and Tableau over Sigma Computing. I was not involved in the purchasing decision but if it were up to me, we would use a different tool.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Sigma has the capabilities of the other BI tools. I think it's pretty user friendly and easy to learn. Many of our stakeholders are used to using Excel so it's nice that it is a smooth onboarding process for them. We haven't looked into much of the visualization capabilities so …
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    2 biggest reasons for Sigma were easy of use for power users, and cost of having a large amount of viewers of the data.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    flexibility, works really well with Snowflake, export capability, level of support, the fact that Sigma Computing is a start up and improving so quickly. Web based software
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Sigma service is superior. In terms of feature set it does not fall behind.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Pro: More user-friendly. Con: not as nice looking
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Sigma offered a novel approach to data analysis with its Excel-like functionality.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Data Studio was used in the past but Sigma Computing is far more powerful, customizable, and sharable across teams.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Easy entry tool that can grow with you as the data expertise and literacy grows within the org. Start up effort and cost is too high in the tools that are built for large corporate solutions.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Google Data Studio is free, intuitive and easy to use but the analytics are limited. In-table calculations can't be done easily and it lacks a native connector for Snowflake. Moreover, table columns cannot be arranged in any order--they must be dimension first, and metrics …
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    It doesn't have its own language (like lookML) this is positive. Web dashboards, you don't need to send attached spreadsheets by e-mail
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Sigma was chosen for three reasons. 1. Excel-like workflow. Many of our researchers have a background in excel, and the excel-like workflow Sigma offers enabled them to get up and running quickly. 2. Embeds. We can easily embed dashboards into our SAS platform 3. Price. Sigma …
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Sigma has a good balance of affordability, self-service ability for technical teams, and ease of use. We chose it over the others basically based on ROI.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Sigma Computing was the best bang for the buck and employed modern cloud-based computing while providing an easy-to-use Excel-like UI.
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Sigma Computing was our top choice due to the ease of use of the platform for end users doing self-exploration of data. The structure of the platform for how datasets are created and access provisioned was much better than other products we considered. Sigma Computing may not …
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Sigma is my least favorite BI tool I have used. Its unintuitive, takes longer to develop on, and has very limited functionality to re-use work (ie scripting, copying to a new project).
    Incentivized
    Chose Sigma
    Sigma's combination of key features from each of these with native dB access under a UI that makes collaboration easy has made it an easy choice for us.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    85 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    118 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    75 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    77 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    87 Answers
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    116 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    68 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    69 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    77 Answers
    Features
    LookerSigma
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Looker and Sigma Computing
    Feature
    Looker
    7.4
    134 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Sigma Computing
    7.5
    163 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports6.5110 Ratings5.4104 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.2133 Ratings9.3161 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.5115 Ratings7.7133 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Looker and Sigma Computing
    Feature
    Looker
    6.8
    132 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Sigma Computing
    7.5
    166 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Drill-down analysis6.3128 Ratings8.0155 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities6.6130 Ratings7.0163 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages5.655 Ratings7.35 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.8131 Ratings7.7162 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Looker and Sigma Computing
    Feature
    Looker
    7.9
    128 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Sigma Computing
    7.5
    156 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Publish to Web7.7105 Ratings7.3103 Ratings
    Publish to PDF7.8113 Ratings7.7130 Ratings
    Report Versioning7.984 Ratings7.0120 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.3110 Ratings7.6132 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings7.968 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Looker and Sigma Computing
    Feature
    Looker
    6.6
    128 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Sigma Computing
    6.8
    149 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.7124 Ratings8.6147 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.5110 Ratings5.626 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics4.66 Ratings6.218 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Looker and Sigma Computing
    Feature
    Looker
    7.3
    128 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Sigma Computing
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-User Support (named login)7.6120 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model7.2105 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.2122 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control7.360 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Looker and Sigma Computing
    Feature
    Looker
    5.2
    95 Ratings
    39% below category average
    Sigma Computing
    -
    Ratings
    Responsive Design for Web Access4.991 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Application5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile5.885 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    LookerSigma
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    LookerSigma
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (134 ratings)
    8.2
    (170 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.2
    (8 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    8.8
    (12 ratings)
    7.6
    (48 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.8
    (14 ratings)
    10.0
    (47 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 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)
    9.1
    (1 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)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    LookerSigma
    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
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    We were able to set up client-facing embedded reports with ease and security. The interface is not difficult to learn, although we may not be aware of or lack the necessary expertise to utilize more advanced features that would likely benefit us.
    Incentivized
    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
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    • Allows end users to easily dive into the data without having direct access to the table in our database management software.
    • Can easily turnaround dashboards that are detailed and visually pleasing.
    • Sigma is intuitive and as new features are rolled out it is easy to adopt and incorporate them into new and existing dashboards.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    • Sigma Computing does not allow custom ordering of pivot fields in pivot tables easily
    • Sigma Computing lacks functionality for creating tables or sections that dynamically adjust to the browser window's height while maintaining a fixed height textbox at the bottom
    • Sigma Computing does not provide straightforward options for formatting totals in tables, such as renaming 'Total' to 'Average', 'Team Total', etc
    • Sigma Computing does not support searching by individual tab names within a workbook
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    Sigma has helped us a lot and has become an integral part of our daily workflow. It would be difficult to switch to another platform and have to rebuild the numerous metrics and performance reports that we have already established
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    It has a clean and modern interface. However, it is not completely intuitive. I think it would be better and easier to navigate with more Windows style drop down menus and/or tabls. There is a significant learning curve, but that may be due in part to the technical nature of this type of software tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Google
    No objections
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    Yes, as long as you don’t conduct user error sigma is always up and running and waiting for you to complete your dashboards
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    It depends, it loads quickly for smaller dashboards but when loading larger amounts of data it takes more time to do so
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    They are very friendly and informative. They are quick in resolving our queries and help us understand very minute things as well. They are quick in creating feature tickets based on our custom requirements, and they would also create a bug ticket if there is any discrepancy and get that checked on time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Google
    Very satisfied, easy to implement
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    Was not involved in implementation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    With Looker, to be effective, a substantial amount of coding & modeling needs to happen in LookML. Being another language to learn, users have to context switch again from at a minimum either SQL or Python into LookML. The concept of being able to source control, code review, and deploy your models is a plus though.
    Tableau is the gold standard for data visualization, no question. Power users will be able to create dazzling content that Sigma won't necessarily be able to easily match. However, since development usually happens via an extract, helping other users troubleshoot is an arduous process. Trying to re-do or un-do all the transformations and calculations that cause a certain number is very difficult.
    With Sigma, all the queries happen directly against Snowflake and you can see the query logs. The data modeling happens right in a tabular, spreadsheet-like manner, so within only a few minutes, substantial transformations can happen, with visualizations just a few more clicks away.
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Google
    Perfect price to performance
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Sigma Computing
    It is a cloud service offering that is able to expand based on your usage
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Sigma Computing
    • Monitoring health of cloud platform has allowed the company to anticipate issues before they affect customers – Sigma prompted us building a canary monitoring process that provides customer container health.
    • Customer success has used an activity report to discover customers running runaway processes that they were unaware of, creating an alert to contact the customer and prevent an embarrassing situation.
    • Customer success uses the activity report to prompt conversations regarding increases or declines in behavior that led to increasing contract limits or addressing churn concerns.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Looker Screenshots

    Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.