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Looker

Looker

Overview

What is Looker?

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…

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Recent Reviews

Look no further!

10 out of 10
March 25, 2024
Incentivized
We use Looker as a business intelligence tools that translates our data into meaningful insights for consumption by internal and external …
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Great reporting tool

8 out of 10
March 15, 2024
Incentivized
We are using Looker Studio to create dashboards that’s can be shared with other departments. We can include information from different …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 21 features
  • Customizable dashboards (94)
    8.7
    87%
  • Report sharing and collaboration (96)
    8.5
    85%
  • Drill-down analysis (93)
    8.2
    82%
  • Formatting capabilities (94)
    7.4
    74%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is Looker?

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.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://cloud.google.com/resources/look…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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99 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

What is SAP Crystal?

SAP Crystal is an analytics and reporting software solution for SMBs. SAP Crystal comprises Crystal Reports for pixel-perfect reporting, and SAP Crystal Server for automated distribution and self-service access to reports, dashboards and data exploration.

What is SAP Lumira Discovery?

SAP Lumira Discovery is SAP’s data visualization and discovery application. It facilitates data discovery, visualization, and analysis by assisting users with creation of dashboards, infographics, presentations, data facets, tag clouds, and more.

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Product Demos

How To Use Looker as a Business User

YouTube
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Features

BI Standard Reporting

Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.

8.1
Avg 8.2

Ad-hoc Reporting

Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.

8
Avg 8.1

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

8.4
Avg 8.4

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.

6.7
Avg 8.1

Access Control and Security

Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.

8.5
Avg 8.6

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

5.8
Avg 8.0
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Product Details

What is Looker?

Looker is a business intelligence application with an analytics-oriented application server that sits on top of relational data stores. The Looker platform includes an end-user interface for exploring data, a reusable development paradigm for creating data discovery experiences and an extensible API set so the data can exist in other systems.

Looker vs. Looker Studio


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 and Looker Studio integrate with each other to support both types of analysis at businesses.

Looker Features

BI Platform Features

  • Supported: Administration via Web Interface
  • Supported: Live Connection to External Data
  • Supported: In-memory data model
  • Supported: Multi-Data Source Reporting (Blending)
  • Supported: Data warehouse / dictionary layer

Supported Data Sources Features

  • Supported: Oracle
  • Supported: MS SQL Server
  • Supported: IBM DB2
  • Supported: Postgres
  • Supported: MySQL
  • Supported: Cloudera Hadoop
  • Supported: Hortonworks Hadoop
  • Supported: EMC Greenplum
  • Supported: IBM Netezza
  • Supported: HP Vertica
  • Supported: ParAccel
  • Supported: SAP Hana
  • Supported: Teradata
  • Supported: Sage 500
  • Supported: SAP

BI Standard Reporting Features

  • Supported: Pixel Perfect reports
  • Supported: Customizable dashboards
  • Supported: Report Formatting Templates

Ad-hoc Reporting Features

  • Supported: Drill-down analysis
  • Supported: Formatting capabilities
  • Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
  • Supported: Report sharing and collaboration

Report Output and Scheduling Features

  • Supported: Publish to Web
  • Supported: Publish to PDF
  • Supported: Output Raw Supporting Data
  • Supported: Report Versioning
  • Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling

Data Discovery and Visualization Features

  • Supported: Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
  • Supported: Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
  • Supported: Support for Machine Learning models
  • Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages

Access Control and Security Features

  • Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
  • Supported: Role-Based Security Model
  • Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
  • Supported: Report-Level Access Control
  • Supported: Table-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
  • Supported: Field-Level Access Control (BI-layer)

Mobile Capabilities Features

  • Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
  • Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile

Looker Screenshots

Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.

Looker Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesUnited States, Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Domo, MicroStrategy Analytics, and Tableau Server are common alternatives for Looker.

Reviewers rate Multi-User Support (named login) highest, with a score of 8.8.

The most common users of Looker are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(381)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 51)
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Scott Schaen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Looker's great about sharing, but collaboration could use some work. Sharing reports is pretty easy. Collaboration does not work on "Looks", but it does work in "Dashboards" and LookML modeling. Access controls are good if your model is built around it, but otherwise Looker could use a little more flexibility with sharing "explores" with users as opposed to entire "models"
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I find it very easy to share reports with people (especially because of the temporary URL's when editing a query). The dashboards are a nice feature, especially since you can send them out automatically. This is beneficial for waterfalls and other notifications.
November 17, 2020

Solid performer

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
People can be configured to access other people's Space and use their reports. Sharing of a particular report can simply be done by sending the user with the report URL. People with the right permission can alter your report settings. Report scheduling is easy but it does not give you a lot of options.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Super easy to share looks and reports. Love the ability to schedule reports and dashboards to be delivered to me or other team members. Love that it updates them automatically and I don't have to go in and re-run them every single time I need them. Looks are easy to find and navigate and make private as well.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am only able to comment on the reports that I build or that others build and put them in shared folders for others to see. For that purpose, it works as well as I think anyone could expect. I don't do scheduling and sending of reports or anything more complicated than just viewing reports/dashboards between team members.
September 28, 2019

Complex but powerful

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The tool is pretty good about sharing. Each report has a unique web address that can be emailed. Users can copy the report and make changes without fear of altering the original master copy. Reports can easily be restricted to certain users. You can also schedule reports to be mailed out to users each day.
Maddie Morris | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I really enjoy being able to not only visualize, but also modify other team member's reports, and then either save those with my edited version or save their reports to my dashboard. It makes it really easy for everyone to be on the same page.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
You have the ability, out of the box, to share a view (they call it a Look) or a dashboard with any named user or to publish it to SFTP, email, the web, etc. We've used that functionality heavily, especially considering that the view is scoped to that user's access abilities.
Jasmeet S Babra | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Sharing is a robust feature of Looker. I like how we can share just bare links, and the other end-user just takes off from there to do their own version of the analysis. Scheduling reports and dashboards with a plethora of options like pdf, email, csv and html files is just a breeze.
Jacob Rasmussen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is simple to share dashboards and analytics with other users. It gets a little more complicated when you want other users to view a shared dashboard and have it automatically filtered for them.
Shelby Bowden | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Looker is definitely one of the top BI software for data sharing and collaboration. The ability for multiple users to access and manipulate data is great and one of the best aspects of this program. This is an especially useful tool for large businesses where easy sharing is of upmost importance.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
There are shared spaces where we have teams/departments build out there own content. And, individual users have their own personal (private) workspace as well. Any page can be shared via a unique URL available in the page settings, and there are many scheduling and export options (including webhook to send the data to other systems).
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Reports from Looker can be distributed across the organization. They can be generated in different formats and shared via email or other web portals. The tool can also be used by multiple users with access-based controls. This makes it very standardized and heavily dependable. This feature is particularly useful for larger teams.
Jennifer Lamas | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It has never been so easy to integrate data, combine and share them in a friendly and reliable way, you can generate reports in real time based on the data that is attached to Looker, which is usually very useful, allows us to have transparency in The use and performance of our product
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I can schedule reports to be sent to the teams but I can also keep certain data away from other teams as well. It is great to be transparent but other times some information just belongs to a certain department and it is great that the information can stay exclusive to our department.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We often use some of the sharing options to get data in the hands of clients, visualizations in front of users, etc. Doing these things are relatively simple for someone with basic tech understanding; but some of the terminology and ways data is shared could be confusing to some of our less experienced employees/clients.
Michael Schiff | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Using Github as the foundation for development is genius. It allows collaborators to work together in a robust, known, trusted team development environment. With that you get all the standard capabilities, like versioning, peer review, auditing, etc.
December 20, 2017

Look No Further

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Sharing is as simple as sending a URL to a Look or dashboard to another user. PDF dashboard delivery via email can be scheduled to any email address (non-users included).
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