Google Data Studio is fast and flexible, getting better with each release, and very stable / reliable. Good value and ROI.
Updated May 14, 2021

Google Data Studio is fast and flexible, getting better with each release, and very stable / reliable. Good value and ROI.

Kevin McGuire | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Google Data Studio

Google Data Studio is used across departments at our company. We have daily active users within Operations, AdOps, Product, Engineering, IT, and various Business teams. Self-service GDS dashboards are used extensively for reporting and analysis of various KPIs. We also utilize GDS for email reports. Dashboards are also shared externally with partners. GDS is easy to use for standard and ad-hoc reporting and BI insights and analysis to understand trends and performance.

Pros

  • 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

Cons

  • 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")
  • It's democratized KPI and biz dashboards
  • Easy to share internally and externally
  • Fast and flexible to build, add, move, change dashboards
  • Self-service, easy to use, don't have to generally ask for help
  • High ROI
-Easy to use
-Self-service
-Point and click
-Easy to share
-Easy to copy/clone
-Easy to build ad hoc reports
-Easy to integrate data sources
-Easy to join data sources
-Easy to customize and configure dashboards
-Easy to change the design / UI and presentation layer of GDS dashboards
-Easy to access anywhere / anytime (web vs. desktop/client).

Do you think Looker Studio delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Looker Studio's feature set?

Yes

Did Looker Studio live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Looker Studio go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Looker Studio again?

Yes

Google Analytics, Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), Slack, Zoom, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365)
Pros:
-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


Looker Studio Feature Ratings

6.3
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
8
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
8
Predictive Analytics
3
8.0
Customizable dashboards
9
Report Formatting Templates
9
Pixel Perfect reports
6
7.0
Drill-down analysis
8
Formatting capabilities
8
Integration with R or other statistical packages
2
Report sharing and collaboration
10
9.0
Publish to Web
10
Publish to PDF
9
Report Versioning
8
Report Delivery Scheduling
9
Delivery to Remote Servers
9

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