Overview
What is Looker Studio?
Looker Studio is a data visualization platform that transforms data into meaningful presentations and dashboards with customized reporting tools.
Best Analytical tool
Great platform to generate visually-appealing data reports!
A great Business Intelligence tool developed by Google
Numbers to Visualization ...
Your First step to data visualization
Marketing Agency Employee
Simple dashboards quick and easy
Google Data Studio is quite robust and worth a look
Great for not-so-complex analytics and dashboards
Solid software with interactive charts
Google Data Studio is fast and flexible, getting better with each release, and very stable / reliable. Good value and ROI.
Review Google Data Studio
Google Data Studio: Easy to pick up, and super powerful
Easy and Free to use
Awards
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Popular Features
- Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.) (49)9.393%
- Customizable dashboards (50)9.292%
- Report sharing and collaboration (50)6.565%
- Report Formatting Templates (49)5.151%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
What is Looker Studio?
Looker Studio is a data visualization platform that transforms data into meaningful presentations and dashboards with customized reporting tools.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?
47 people also want pricing
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Features
BI Standard Reporting
Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.
- 8.3Pixel Perfect reports(35) Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports are highly-formatted reports with graphics and ability to preview the report before printing.
- 9.2Customizable dashboards(50) Ratings
Customizable dashboards are dashboards providing the builder some degree of control over the look and feel and display options.
- 5.1Report Formatting Templates(49) Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.
- 7.4Drill-down analysis(42) Ratings
Drill down analysis is the ability to get to a further level of detail by going deeper into the hierarchy.
- 8.3Formatting capabilities(46) Ratings
Ability to format output e.g. conditional formatting, lines, headers, footers.
- 3Integration with R or other statistical packages(23) Ratings
Integration with the open-source R predictive modeling environment.
- 6.5Report sharing and collaboration(50) Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration is the ability to easily share reports with others.
Report Output and Scheduling
Ability to schedule and manager report output.
- 9.2Publish to Web(44) Ratings
- 7Publish to PDF(43) Ratings
- 8.1Report Versioning(31) Ratings
Report versioning is the assignment of version numbers to each version of a report to help in tracking.
- 4.7Report Delivery Scheduling(34) Ratings
Report Delivery Schedule is the ability to have reports delivered to a destination at a specific data and time.
- 8.7Delivery to Remote Servers(18) Ratings
Ability to deliver reports to remote servers
Data Discovery and Visualization
Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.
- 9.3Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)(49) Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats are canned visualization types that can be selected to visualize different kinds of data.
- 9.4Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization(46) Ratings
Location analytics is the visualization of geographical or spatial data.
- 8Predictive Analytics(24) Ratings
Predictive Analytics is the ability to build forecasting models based on existing data sets.
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Looker Studio?
Looker Studio vs. Looker
Looker Studio is a part of Google's Looker Suite for business intelligence. Looker Studio is a self-serve BI solution where less technical users can create charts and reports, while Looker is a complete, enterprise BI platform, where technical users can build complex models that consider every aspect of the business. Looker Studio offers both free and pro versions, while Looker is not available for free.
Looker Studio Technical Details
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
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Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(268)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 51)Looker Studio Pro. Dawn of a new era?
- Open Canvas
- Broad customizability
- Expansive connectors
- Drag and drop
- Pro tier is still in the early stages. Support is lacking and unclear, even with the new paid plan with the SLA.
- Needs better user management. IAM, SSO, etc for the embedded use case.
- Needs more features to support embedding.
Some of the biggest challenges with Looker Studio relate to user management/security, embedding options, and issue support. For a long time, every user needed to have a Gmail to invite them to view a dashboard via login, not sure if that has been improved yet. You can let any user view without logging in, but that is not always recommended due to security reasons. In terms of embedding, you can only iframe dashboards. More sophisticated BI tools let you embed elements via API or Javascript. Iframing dashboards also make drill downs and dashboard to dashboard navigation tricky/near impossible. There is also no ability to contact Google for support when bugs or outages happen. They point everyone to the Data Studio community. There is some ability to get in contact with Google if you have an enterprise-level contract with Google Cloud, but the path for support is very ad hoc and not always fruitful.
Best Analytical tool
- Visualization design of dashboards.
- Integration with data sources
- Smooth access of BigQuery
- Creating aggregate function can be more smooth.
- Data banding can be improve.
- 3rd party integration of other data sources can be smooth and reliable.
- Easy to learn interface
- Versatile - able to select various colours and fonts
- Various graph options for visualization
- Easily refresh data
- It can become laggy at times, especially when working on a larger data project for lengthier periods
- I can't build graphs from scratch and easily choose which metrics to include
- Blending different data sources is difficult
A great Business Intelligence tool developed by Google
- It is online service. You don't need to upload an application to use it and it's free.
- It has many visualization tools.
- You can use many data sources to connect your data with Data Studio. For example Google Analytics, Google Sheets are among most popular choices for users.
- It is not that easy to learn Data Studio without tutorials and as I know Google don't have video lessons for Data Studio.
- Sometimes Data Studio can't differentiate metrics from dimensions.
- Charts sometimes don't work properly. You need to reload them again to fix errors.
Numbers to Visualization ...
- Data management
- Calculations
- Data visualization
- Interactivity
- Few functionalities are very exclusive only for data studio.
- It's time taking to load data and at the same time only single Data source can be connected.
- When editing the reports you have to switch between Edit and View mode to see how does the change looks like.
Your First step to data visualization
- Data Visualization
- KPI Tracking
- Deccision Taking
- Proccessing Power
- Desing Tools
- More types of charts or Graphs
Marketing Agency Employee
- Google Data connectors are simple
- Visualisations
- Syncing with other apps
- Delayed updates in data
- No excel support
- No on-premise deployment
Simple dashboards quick and easy
- Simple data integration from files.
- Create calculated fields using data (for metrics).
- Plot charts and tables quickly.
- Organize everything in a dashboard.
- Easy sharing.
- Data preparation.
- Custom integrations.
- Combine sources with recurrent process.
Google Data Studio is quite robust and worth a look
- Charting
- Multiple data sources
- reporting
- Scheduled transmission of reports
- It's reporting and dash-boarding lacks the interactivity of Tableau.
- As a developer, I find the layout and formatting options somewhat limited.
- It is somewhat difficult to organization reports and dashboards into folders.
- There seems to be no integration with any external source control provider.
- Multiple data sources
- Custom SQL
- Visual interface for joining tables
- Ample variety of charts
Great for not-so-complex analytics and dashboards
- Ease of use
- User interface / look-and-feel of reports
- Pricing (has a free option)
- CSV file support minimizes barriers to entry
- First party connector support can be improved
- Complex visualizations / datasets may not be possible
- Cannot be used on-premise, which may cause issues with data compliance
Solid software with interactive charts
- I love that this tool is free.
- The reports and dashboards are very customizable.
- Pivot tables and combinations are easy.
- The platform can be slow at times.
- There can be bugs.
- Setting it up initially can be a little tough.
- Self-service
- Easy to use, point and click
- Little to no training required
- Easy to share internally and externally
- Rich visualizations
- Canned reports
- Easy to copy/paste/dupe existing reports
- Ability to join data sets
- Easy integration with various data sources
- Flexible data integrations, including lowest common denominator (CSV, XLS, G-Sheets)
- Wide range of APIs
- Secure / authentication via Google SSO
- Easy to share / re-assign ownership of reports and data sources
- Limited data joining / merge options
- Limited ETL
- Limited calculations / regex configs
- Limited data labels and presentation reporting settings vs. alternatives
- Can be slow to update (dreaded "GDS is not available, please try later")
-Cost
-Easy to use
-Self-service
-Flexible visualizations out of the box
-Data sources, plug & play
-Easy to share (internal and externally)
-Easy to export and import data
-Easy to clone, edit, manage dashboards
Cons:
-Can be slow / not reliable
-Date ranges and sorting defaults can sometimes get messy
-Data joins/mergers can be challenging
-Limited to joining 5 different data sources
-Some quirky limitations on UI, labels
-Getting help / support can be a challenge from Google, generally on your own
Review Google Data Studio
And live data connectivity provide you the feature where you can connect to real time data though this feature is slow and the refresh rate is slow but its there.
- This platform is free.
- Can connect to verity of databases easily.
- Live data connection is one of the most powerful feature which is not there in other BI tools.
- Data range filter settings are amazing.
- Excel can not be imported you have to convert it into csv file before use.
- On premise deployment facility is not available.
- Cannot handle complex relationships between datasets.
Google Data Studio: Easy to pick up, and super powerful
- Extremely customizable. From colors to font sizes to adding images, you can make your reports look like they were specifically created for your clients.
- Constantly innovating. In the year that I have been using GDS they have released lots of new features, and it seems like they really listen to the user feedback through the customer service portal.
- Data source flexibility. You can use Excel files, Google Sheets, CSV, etc.
- Ease of onboarding. If you are familiar with Microsoft Excel, it was really intuitive to pick up without a long period of onboarding/watching tutorials.
- Once data files start getting large, it can be finicky. We currently don't have a database solution set up to use, and have been trying to use Google Sheets as our data sources, but once the Google Sheet files get large, it can affect the quality of the Google Data Studio report
- This is still a relatively new product, so there are several little bugs you will find while using it. You just have to be patient and wait for the product team to fix the issues.
- Some of the visualizations are limited. Once you get used to the full power of a tool like Excel, you run into occasions where GDS is missing a specific visualization feature you are used to seeing in Excel.
Easy and Free to use
- Pull all the data I need from Google Analytics
- Visualize the information to create beautiful reports
- I can easily share reports with teammates
- I wish there were more templates to choose from
- I wish it was easier to pull information from other sources
- I wish there was more syncing with our ecommerce platform
Google Data Studio : Free, Convenient, Easy to Use
- Free.
- Easy to use, like the rest of Google Docs.
- Integrates with hundreds of data sources.
- Calculated fields are clumsy.
- No variables/data storage.
- Not a BI/computational tool, visualization only.
Google Data Studio is not a BI tool. It doesn't pretend to be one either, but that means you need to carefully think through what kinds of data you're going to be visualizing, and doing that pre-processing BEFORE your data gets to Google Data Studio.
Great for Tight Budgets or Simple Data Visualization
- Easy to design/brand
- Native data support for all Google products such as Adwords, Search Console, and Analytics
- Constantly improving and growing
- No native support for many outside sources like Facebook or Twitter (must build own or use third party software)
- Many features that are available in Tableau or other dataviz solutions aren't available yet
- Available templates aren't styled using default colors, so you have to update the color palette of each module by hand.
- Data Score boxes are very limited in what they can report
If you have to pull a lot of CRM data or outside connectors, you'll need to build the API yourself or purchase a connector from a third party. If doing so, you may want to seriously look at the all-in costs of the software stack; you may find that other (more supported) dataviz programs will be worth the cost. This is especially true if your pulling from 5 or more sources or if you need to query large amounts of data. But, if you're a SMB or a small agency creating a value-added report for your clients, then Data Studio is definitely a great place to start!
Serves its purpose well
- Ability to define reports.
- Report against a large amount of data quickly.
- Data visualizations.
- More difficult for non-technical people to use.
- It can be a little cumbersome to get everything setup and running.
- The documentation could be a lot better.
Disappointing
- Reliable connection to Google Analytics.
- Various ways to display data.
- Options for custom reports.
- Takes a long time to set up.
- Not user friendly.
- Not enough template reports that are helpful.
Google Data Studio made our reporting WAY easier!
- Easy to schedule automatic emails
- Completely customizable
- Can connect to almost anything to pull data
- Honestly Google Data Studio does really well. The improvements I would like to see have to do with connectors, not Google Data Studio itself.
Google Data Studio is 👌
- Dashboards that combine data sources.
- Customization with design and branding.
- Easy to use interface. Simple to get started with.
- This is an issue that our Dev team is dealing with, so I can't speak too much to it, but we have had issues integrating our database with GDS. Those issues have held us back from fully using GDS the way we wanted to.
- Missing data can be a hassle to make look good on a dashboard.
- Adoption has been slow across my team, they haven't seen the value the same way I do.
It has been a hassle with external data sources. I know it has those capabilities, but setting it up hasn't been easy.
Data Studio is a very useful tool for every digital marketer and company that wants to keep track on their online performance
- Reports on demand. My clients can log in at any moment and adjust parameters to see details on particular dates or periods of time.
- Templates can be created very easily and with a lot of detail.
- Connection to Google Ads is a very easy way to track campaign performance, by showing the most important metrics.
- The amount of information you can add to the reports is great, you can go into as much detail as you need in regards to website online performance.
- Connection to social media would be a great addition.
- New GA4 uses different kinds of metrics or names to the same metrics, so it has been an issue when trying to use the same template for new customers.
- Having a just view option for non-Gmail users would be very helpful so my clients can open the link and see the report even though they are not Gmail users.
One of the amazing reporting tools from Google
- Ease of use: All it takes to create a report is just drag and drop the features/tools and get the report instantly. One great advantage compared to other similar tools such as power bi or Tableau is sharing the report instantly.
- Sharing the Report: You can share the report within your organization and outside the organization with just an URL. You don't need to be a Google user to open the report.
- Embed the Report on a Sharepoint with just a code. Never thought it would be so easy.
- Seamless connectivity with Google Products.
- As this is a free tool, definitely you would miss some features when compared with other BI tools ( for example prediction capabilities etc).
If you are an beginner in reporting and looking for a less cost or free tool, this is the tool you should go for.
If you are a person with non technical background, but still want to create a BI report.
If your data is less (or not very huge) and create a report instantly.
If you are an avid Google user.
Less Appropriate:
If you are an avid user of Power BI and Tableau and want to report with the same functionality on Google Data Studio.
If your database has millions of records, this tool is for small to medium datasets.
A Good, Free Tool to Aggregate and Visualize Data for Client Reporting
- Combines data sources into one report.
- It's free.
- Filtering is easy.
- It's intuitive if you understand analytics and ads.
- Allows you to send automated reports from your own email rather than from Google.
Perfect Free visualization tool!
We connected the platform with Google Analytics, so we are able to create graphs and dashboards super easily, compared to exporting the data and creating graphs in PowerPoint as it was done before. It allows us to focus on the data, rather than fetching the information.
- General user friendliness of the platform.
- Straight forward integration with Google Analytics - no table manipulations needed.
- Easy to add filters on a page or graph level.
- Integration with Facebook ads and LinkedIn ads is not super easy. We need to go through a third party tool.
- Sometimes it takes time to load the data.
- Doesn't work super well on all browsers - although never had issues using Chrome.
I wouldn't say less appropriate, but maybe a bit harder to integrate with the ads platforms, we need to go through a third party.