Looker is a business intelligence (BI) solution that allows users to make actionable decisions with real-time insights. Users can drill down into their data, as well as create stories with dashboards and visualizations. Looker integrates with many third-party applications (e.g., Slack, Marketo Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud), and developers can also embed Looker within their company’s current software.
Looker has self-service functionality that doesn’t require SQL knowledge. It also doesn’t require users to be experienced data analysts. However, it does have a slight learning curve for someone who’s never used a BI solution before. Also, it provides custom quotes based on a client’s needs, so pricing isn’t available up front.
If you’re looking for transparent pricing or want to compare Looker with other BI software solutions, we’ve come up with these five alternatives.
Best Looker Alternatives
About Looker
Google’s Looker Data Platform is a data-discovery solution that helps companies make better business decisions through real-time access to data.
Data, no matter the size, can be analyzed within Looker’s 100% in-database and 100% browser-based platform. Looker is intended for all company sizes and different industries, such as health care, media, marketing/advertising, ecommerce and retail.
Pros
SQL knowledge not required, LookML proprietary data modeling language, implementation done in hours rather than days or weeks.
Cons
Doesn’t support OLAP functionality, a learning curve for new users, limited customization of visualizations.
Bottom Line
Looker’s web-based platform allows users to explore data in a timely manner to help them make better business decisions.
Pricing
Looker customizes its pricing based on a client’s specific needs, such as the number of users and scale of deployment. Therefore, pricing isn’t publicly available, so prospects will need to contact the vendor directly for a quote.
Looker Alternative #1: Tableau
Tableau provides all types of users with intuitive BI tools to enhance data discovery and understanding. With simple drag-and-drop features, a user is able to easily access and analyze key data, create innovative reports and visualizations, and share critical insights across the company.
Tableau has several products, including Tableau Prep, a solution that uses smart algorithms to combine repetitive tasks (e.g., common misspelling of names) into a one-click operation.
Pros
Robust drill-down and visualization tools make data understandable for all types of users.
Cons
Customers have mentioned a steep learning curve for executives, and the system tends to be slow at times when dealing with large datasets.
Bottom Line
Tableau provides users with intuitive BI tools to enhance data discovery and understanding.
Pricing
Rather than offering pricing for each of its available products, Tableau’s subscription pricing strategy focuses on individual users and their data needs. Each subscription (billed annually) includes maintenance, product upgrades and support.
There are three main tiers:
Tableau Creator – Tableau Creator, designed for individual analysts and power users, costs $70 per user, per month. It includes access to Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep, Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud. Note that the Creator price is the same, regardless if Tableau is deployed in the cloud or on-premise.
Tableau Explorer – Tableau Explorer, aimed at self-service users, costs $35 per user, per month (on-premise) and $42 per user, per month (cloud). The on-premise and cloud subscriptions cover one license of Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud, respectively.
Tableau Viewer – Tableau Viewer, targeted to users who need read-only access to dashboards and visualizations, costs $12 per user, per month (on-premise) and $15 per user, per month (cloud). The on-premise and cloud versions include one Viewer license to Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud, respectively. Note that Tableau requires a minimum of 100 viewers for this tier.
Tableau also offers an Embedded Analytics platform. Pricing isn’t publicly available, so you’ll want to contact the vendor directly for a quote.
Looker Alternative #2: Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is a cloud-based business intelligence and analytics service that provides a full overview of your most critical data. Connecting to all of your data sources, Power BI simplifies data evaluation and sharing with scalable dashboards, interactive reports, embedded visuals and more.
There are several products, such as Desktop (on-premise solution), Mobile, Pro (users share insights with collaborators), Premium (reports available to internal and external users without a Power BI license), Embedded and Report Server (on-premise reports).
Pros
Familiar, easy-to-use interface similar to Excel with the ability for users to create and import simple visuals.
Cons
Interface isn’t always user friendly, challenging for new users to learn at first.
Bottom Line
Cloud-based BI software that’s simple to use, correlates disparate data and gives full visibility of business performance.
Pricing
Power BI comes in three levels – Desktop, Pro, and Premium. The Desktop level is free for individual users.
Pro – The Pro plan costs $9.99 per user, per month and includes a mobile app, the ability to publish and share reports, a 1 GB model size limit, eight data refreshes daily, the ability to connect to over 100 data sources, embedded application program interfaces (APIs) and controls, AI visuals, data security and encryption, metrics for content creation and publishing, and up to 10 GB per user maximum storage. Pro is available for free for companies that have the Microsoft 365 E5 solution.
Premium (per user) – Microsoft’s Premium plan costs $20 per user, per month. It includes all of the features of the Pro plan, plus paginated reports, a 100 GB model size limit, 48 data refreshes daily, advanced AI features, XMLA endpoint read/write connectivity, data flows, the ability to analyze data stored in Azure Data Lake Storage, application lifecycle management and up to 100 TB of maximum storage.
Premium (per capacity) – This plan starts at $4,995 per month, per dedicated cloud compute and storage resource. It includes all of the features of the Premium per user plan, plus on-premise reporting, a 400 GB model limit, multi-location deployment management, Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) and autoscale add-on.
Looker Alternative #3: Sisense
Sisense isn’t your traditional analytics tool. It’s designed to handle all sorts of data, from small data sets to big data.
Also, Sisense is scalable – it allows companies to accumulate more data as they go without the worries of crashing servers or slow computer memory. Its in-chip technology uses parallel processing and an in-memory columnar database so it can crunch up terabytes of data on a single server and still serve multiple users.
Pros
Fast implementation and time to insight, innovative in-chip technology processes volumes of data from many data sources, provides top-notch customer experience and premier rankings in customer satisfaction.
Cons
Visualizations don’t include 3D graphics.
Bottom Line
BI solution that delivers radically innovative technology with machine learning and AI, instant insights and value, and top-notch customer support.
Pricing
Sisense uses an annual licensing model that’s based on a company’s specific needs. It doesn’t publicly release pricing information, so contact the vendor directly for a quote.
Looker Alternative #4: Domo
Domo is designed to be available for all business users, regardless of technical expertise, to help them make better business decisions. Its Business Cloud is the world’s first open self-service platform to run an entire organization.
The Business Cloud brings together the data, the people and the insights business users need to find answers to critical business questions and make faster, better-informed decisions to improve business performance.
Pros
Connect data with hundreds of connectors, access information and report from a single platform, customized solutions.
Cons
Expensive for a small business, difficulty with extracting data, on-premise deployment isn’t offered.
Bottom Line
Business management platform that empowers all users to make better business decisions.
Pricing
Domo offers pricing based on a client’s usage of the platform, such as the number of users and data refresh rates. It has subscription-based pricing with the following capabilities:
- 1,000+ data connectors
- The ability to support up to 250 million rows of data
- 150+ interactive chart types
- Sub-second data queries at scale
- Drag-and-drop data merging
- AI-driven alerts
- The ability to share prefiltered dashboards to external users
- Multifactor authentication and SAML-based Single Sign-on
- Apps and developer tools
- Domo help center and live chat
Domo no longer publicly displays its pricing, so contact the vendor directly for a quote.
Looker Alternative #5: Qlik Sense
Qlik Sense is a dynamic self-service analytics and visualization tool that simplifies data exploration for a full spectrum of users (from the non-tech savvy to the data expert).
With intuitive data prep, drag-and-drop abilities and drill-down features, organizations can easily spot and share data relationships and key insights quickly and efficiently.
Pros
Robust drill-down features, self-service with drag-and-drop capabilities, augmented analytics functionality.
Cons
Advanced customization options may require integration with a third-party application.
Bottom Line
A flexible and scalable data analysis and visualization tool for a full spectrum of users.
Pricing
Qlik Sense has two main editions. First, there’s the Qlik Sense Business edition that costs $30 per user, per month (billed annually). It includes many of Qlik Sense’s features, including up to five shared spaces and a 1.25 GB in-memory app size limit.
Then, there’s Qlik Sense Enterprise, a multi-cloud edition that includes unlimited shared spaces and in-memory app size limit starting at 5 GB. Pricing is no longer available for Qlik Sense Enterprise, so contact the vendor directly for a quote.
Conclusion
Looker and its five alternative software solutions all offer self-serve functionality for users, but there could be a slight learning curve with each one.
Also, Looker doesn’t publicly display its pricing. If you prefer transparent pricing instead of just a customized quote, Tableau, Power BI and Qlik Sense provide information about prices on their sites.
Choosing a BI vendor is all about finding the right fit. Our exclusive report will walk you through the process and help you select the perfect solution.