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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

    Tableau Cloud

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/ATableau Cloud (formerly Tableau Online) is a self-service analytics platform that is fully hosted in the cloud. Tableau Cloud enables users to publish dashboards and invite colleagues to explore hidden opportunities with interactive visualizations and accurate data, from any browser or mobile device.

    $15

    per month per user

    Pricing
    LookerTableau Cloud
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Tableau Viewer
    $15
    per month billed annually per user
    Enterprise Viewer
    $35
    per month billed annually per user
    Tableau Explorer
    $42
    per month billed annually per user
    Enterprise Explorer
    $70
    per month billed annually per user
    Tableau Creator
    $75
    per month billed annually per user
    Enterprise Creator
    $115
    per month billed annually per user
    Tableau+
    Contact Sales
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    LookerTableau Cloud
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    LookerTableau Cloud
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    Chose Looker
    The learning curve for Tableau Cloud was too steep for our team. After watching a couple of YouTube videos, anyone can begin connecting data sources and creating reports with Looker. Looker is also free with Google Workspace, making the decision between Looker and Tableau a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Looker was the most customizable option for our business and cost wise made the most sense. They do have a free tier option that some of the other weren't offering to us at the time. Looker has a great- mobile app solution while Tableau is a desktop-based platform. Tableau also …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Tableau provides additional visual functionality and is great for more in-depth visuals or further data exploration, but it is costly and an extremely robust solution for simple data reporting. Looker can't be beat when it comes to integrating with other G-Suite tools. All in …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    If you company is using Google suite products, Looker is a no-brainer. Tableau is probably the most flexibly but as a result it has the least governance capabilities. Power BI is kind of old-school in terms of how it feels to use it. I think in general, Looker brings a lot of …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Looker Studio is not as robust as Tableau or Microsoft BI. So it does not provide quite as much insight or depth and it has more limitations overall then the other major reporting products. However, it is also free and connects perfectly with other Google products. Plus, all of …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    I don't remember much about Tableau, but it was chaotic and poorly set up for our company.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Looker is a great fit for our company because we have collaborative analytics workflows and complicated data ecosystems and because of its strengths in data modeling, integration, and collaboration.
    Brand name and peer recommendations also helps us to select Looker against …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    I choose Looker when I need quick charts. It is easier to start and configure, browser-based, and easy to connect with Google Sheets. This gives it a good competitive advantage when comparing pricing—other similar tools have expensive licenses. In a corporate Google …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    We use both Looker and Tableau. It depends on the specific team. However, there is a clear correlation that we use Tableau more often when there are more data sources, including financial data.
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Looker is considerably easier to learn than any of the other tools listed above. For example, Tableau does offer a robust selection of visualizations, however setting them up and plotting the data correctly is considerably harder than in Looker. Another major advantage of …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Looker was easier to use, better integration with non-standard datastores, such as Prestodb, and Snowflake, and BigTable. Ease of manageability. Creation of reports faster and easier compared to QlikView. Tableau has better heat maps, however, Looker has better drill down in …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Looker is cheaper, by far. Easier to manage. In the end, Looker was a better choice for us, even with its maintenance warts and the headaches with the APIs. Tableau licensing is difficult to manage, at the very least, whereas Looker is not. User management is much easier to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Looker is a lot easier to connect with our data pipelines and for users to create their own scalable Explores. Before, analysts would have to create separate Tableau dashboards for each ask, but now with Lookers Explores, some teams are able to self serve and create their own …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Looker empowers users to create their own views/dashboards from its web application. The last time I used Tableau (in 2015), only certain license holders could create content from the desktop application. Everyone else was a view only user. On that theme, we found Looker to be …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Looker stacks up very well against the other tools we have evaluated and used. All the tools have their own pros and cons. Looker had a better edge in terms of visualizations when we chose to use it. After several updates, other tools began to have newer features. Looker still …
    Incentivized
    Chose Looker
    Tableau is also a great BI tool, but it felt a lot less flexible to me in terms of customization of data. As a visual platform, Tabluea is incredible; it can produce unbelievably rich visualizations and dashboards. It's also easier to get set up on Tableau too, but ultimately …
    Incentivized
    Tableau
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    It seems more robust then the other platforms. There is a lot you can do from merging many different data sets together by joining them at like points, to creating visualizations of the data, or by showcasing some important data to any number of people within your organization. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Looker ended up as the winning product due to its easy to use and flexibility. It's easy for nontechnical stakeholders to learn how to create their Explores. But Tableau gives us more flexibility in creating highly customized visualizations so analysts still rely on it.
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    I like Looker's interface a little more and it updates quicker.
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    I would say that Tableau Online has the most sophisticated capabilities, but not the most straightforward UI or path to learn and operate within it quickly. It felt more technical than the other products I used and did not look as good, but I also found that it could answer a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau has a wider adoption than the competition. Tableau Online can support interfaces built on Tableau.
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau Online is much faster to get data sets integrated and being used, accordingly. From almost day one, we were able to integrate our data warehouse and pull data directly into Tableau Online. This made us aware of some of the data details that we had been missing and were …
    Incentivized
    Chose Tableau Cloud
    Tableau does a great job compared to all of these mentioned tools. Other tools also have a great shape-up of dashboards but obviously all have their advantages and disadvantages. The reason Tableau has an edge over all the other tools is because of its excellent visual design …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    85 Answers
    96%
    Would buy again
    27 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    75 Answers
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    22 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    87 Answers
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    25 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    69 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    Features
    LookerTableau Cloud
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Looker and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker
    7.4
    134 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.6
    74 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports6.4110 Ratings7.556 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.2133 Ratings8.774 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.5115 Ratings6.763 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Looker and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker
    6.8
    132 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.6
    74 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Drill-down analysis6.3128 Ratings8.474 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities6.6130 Ratings7.471 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages5.555 Ratings6.147 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.8131 Ratings8.672 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Looker and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker
    7.9
    128 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.8
    72 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Publish to Web7.7105 Ratings8.668 Ratings
    Publish to PDF7.8113 Ratings7.567 Ratings
    Report Versioning8.084 Ratings7.655 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.2110 Ratings8.559 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings6.738 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Looker and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker
    6.6
    128 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.9
    70 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.7124 Ratings8.267 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.5110 Ratings8.366 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics4.66 Ratings7.957 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.26 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Looker and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker
    7.3
    128 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Tableau Cloud
    8.4
    69 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)7.5120 Ratings8.263 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model7.2105 Ratings7.756 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.2122 Ratings8.659 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control7.360 Ratings8.87 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.754 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Looker and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker
    5.2
    95 Ratings
    40% below category average
    Tableau Cloud
    7.5
    59 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access4.891 Ratings7.357 Ratings
    Mobile Application5.01 Ratings7.744 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile5.885 Ratings7.751 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Looker and Tableau Cloud
    Feature
    Looker
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Cloud
    7.0
    41 Ratings
    10% below category average
    REST API00 Ratings8.136 Ratings
    Javascript API00 Ratings7.534 Ratings
    iFrames00 Ratings6.833 Ratings
    Java API00 Ratings5.929 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings6.735 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings7.232 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    LookerTableau Cloud
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Sisense
    Score6.7 out of 10
    Sisense
    Score6.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    LookerTableau Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (134 ratings)
    8.9
    (76 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.8
    (12 ratings)
    8.5
    (29 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.8
    (14 ratings)
    8.7
    (20 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.5
    (51 ratings)
    8.0
    (49 ratings)
    Data Sources
    7.3
    (51 ratings)
    8.3
    (49 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    LookerTableau Cloud
    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
    Tableau
    If you're using Tableau as the primary BI tool, then Tableau Cloud is well suited to publish and share the results with a wide(r) audience. It is well suited for various degrees of self-service proficiency, from pure consumers of analytical work to more advanced users who can use web editing for smaller or larger adjustments, and even for desktop power users who will publish their work to Tableau Cloud. It has many good ways to organize the content and make it easily accessible via search, favorites, folders, collections ("playlists for your data"), or history ("recents"). It might not be ideally suited if there are many on-prem sources to be used (even though there are options to connect them) or if you have very special requirements regarding custom server setup, which is limited in a shared cloud environment like Tableau Cloud.
    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
    Tableau
    • Tableau Online is completely cloud based and that's why the reports and dashboards are accessible even on the go. One doesn't always need to access the office laptop to access the reports.
    • The visualizations are interactive and one can quickly change the level at which they want to view the information. For example, one person might be more interested in looking at the country level performances rather than client level. This is intuitive and one doesn't need to create multiple reports for the same.
    • The feature to ask questions in plain vanilla English language is great and helpful. For quick adhoc fact checks one can simply type what they are looking for and the Natural Language Programming algorithms under the hood parse the query, interpret it and then fetch the results accordingly in a visual form.
    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
    Tableau
    • Can be a steep learning curve for new users
    • Modeling and building algorithms aren't always intuitive and take some testing/retesting to ensure it's working as it should
    • Inability to integrate easily with our HRIS platform. Reports are pulled from HRIS at various intervals and uploaded into Tableau
    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
    Read full review
    Tableau
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Tableau
    Based on comments from our clients, I awarded it this grade. Non-technical customers frequently compliment us on the ease with which they can utilize Tableau Online. Usability is rarely a source of contention amongst our customers. Few complaints have come from me as a user of our internal products.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Google
    No objections
    Incentivized
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    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    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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    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    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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    Tableau
    I have not had any issues that require customer support from Tableau at this time, which speaks well to Tableau. I have taken an online course with Tableau and it was very professional and well done, so based on that I would assume a similar level of quality for their customer service.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Google
    Very satisfied, easy to implement
    Incentivized
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    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    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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    Tableau
    In determining whether to go with Tableau Online versus Alteryx, two important factors stood out in determining our go-to solution. First, while Alteryx is an impressive tool for data cleansing, it did not stack up in terms of data visualization capabilities. Tableau, on the other hand, provided us everything we needed in terms of visualizing our data and analytics. The second factor is cost. Well neither solution would be considered cheap, Tableau was the more cost effective solution for our needs.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Google
    Perfect price to performance
    Incentivized
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    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    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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    Tableau
    • When we release new products, we are now able to quickly see data and toggle between current periods and previous to see performance
    • Generating new reports requires less IT time to build
    • Data can be shared across many different device types
    • We now have integration where our customers can extract data from our software more easily-this was a big ask from our customers
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Looker Screenshots

    Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.