
About Looker
Looker, now part of Google Cloud, uses an intuitive approach to data exploration making the spread of a curiosity-driven culture both efficient and effective. An intuitive, web-based interface enables business users to tap into the genius of your data analytics team. They can build and share reports on the fly, so other functional groups can benefit from the questions they’re asking and the knowledge they’ve created. And since the whole Looker experience delivers such satisfying results, they start looking to the data to drive their business decisions and activities.
At the heart of Looker, data discovery is a new way to create these web-based experiences. Using a flexible easy-to-learn language called LookML, your data analysts can create mini-applications that add power and efficiencies to data exploration. The LookML syntax simplifies the development of robust models for any organization while enhancing the capabilities of SQL. There’s no need to expend time and resources coding queries on an ad hoc basis or setting up complex business intelligence (BI) software platforms. This language-based approach results in faster query execution, optimizing performance along the way.
Pricing starting from:
Not provided by vendor
- Free Version
- Free Trial
- Subscription
Top 5 alternatives to Looker
Key benefits of Looker
With Looker, it's not necessary to ETL or cube data. Because we operate 100% in-database, data is transformed at query time, so drill-paths are unlimited and infinite, leading to true data discovery.
Typical Customers
- Freelancers
- Small Businesses (2-50)
- Mid-size Companies (51-500)
- Large enterprises (500 and more)
Deployment
- Cloud-based
- On-premise
Markets
Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States
Supported Languages
English
Pricing starting from:
Not provided by vendor
- Free Version
- Free Trial
- Subscription
Top 5 alternatives to Looker
Images




Features
Total features of Looker: 109
Alternatives
Pentaho

Oracle Business Intelligence

Tableau

Microsoft Power BI

Reviews
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- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support Software
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
Data Models, Security, and Amazing Customer Support
Reviewed on 6/14/2019
Looker is quickly becoming our go-to for reporting and dashboarding for anything requiring more...
Looker is quickly becoming our go-to for reporting and dashboarding for anything requiring more than one data source (and some that are based on just one). Paired with a kick-ass centralized data warehouse (we use Snowflake), Looker lets us roll things out very quickly (provided our data infrastructure is in good shape). It did take a while to get going with Looker because it lays on top of the existing data infrastructure. Now that we have quite a bit of strong infrastructure in place in our centralized data warehouse, we are able to produce data products in Looker quite quickly.
Pros
Provisioning security allows us to control the user experience (and only show users things they would actually care about). This makes a dashboard or data product rollout far smoother. Additionally, the customer support (especially through the chat interface) is absolutely fantastic. Because Looker creates a custom URL for each explore you're working on, you can share with Customer Support your exact problem and work together to find a solution.
Cons
Looker Sales told us beforehand that it "writes the most performant SQL possible." I have not found this to be the case, as it often casts and does a few other things (I suspect to make it runnable no matter how you've set up your data). There are some limitations on the visualizations, etc., but Looker Customer Service has been super responsive when those come up.

- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
-
Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support Software
- Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10
I work as the lead BI developer and Administrator of Looker at my company.
Reviewed on 10/5/2017
Pros
For your developers, the customer service is superior. They also do a great job reaching out to your primary users. With respect to frontend users, those using it for simpler data retrieval/review, their interface is rather easy to use and logical to work through. They do a lot to make the system as simple as possible. Only your BI developers and/or data engineering team can clutter the space.
Cons
If you decide to purchase the non-customized version, the color palette Looker uses is rather bland (More noticeable to executives and heavy users-most users will be fine with it though). The company's integrations are rather limited, but supposed to improve with Looker 5 (via the Action Hub). However, it seems that most integrations will require purchasing from third parties, instead of being a Looker hosted and "controlled" solution you purchase through them. That complicates the process.
- Industry: Financial Services Software
- Company size: 5,001–10,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Overall rating
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 2.0 /10
Looker Review
Reviewed on 12/6/2022
Displeased and frustrated.
Displeased and frustrated.
Pros
The option to pull a lot of data in an organized fashion.
Cons
This software RARELY works, it's completely glitchy. I use it, well, I attempt to use it, daily. But I continuously receive the No Date to Report message. It completely hinders my job as I need the data from the reporting. Seriously, it is glitchy every single day.
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
-
Review Source
Overall rating
- Ease of Use
- Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10
A cheap, easy and robust tool for data visualization and reporting.
Reviewed on 11/23/2022
Pros
Looker is currently the best data visualization tool out there for those that are on a budget. That is because Looker is free to use.
Cons
While Looker is relatively easy to use for those who have a data analytics background. I do think that Looker could be easier and more intuitive to set up. Especially setting up data sources can be tricky.

- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
-
Review Source
Overall rating
- Value for Money
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support Software
- Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10
Effective Marketing Data Analytics System.
Reviewed on 8/27/2022
Looker is a powerful marketing and project data management software with a very flexible and useful...
Looker is a powerful marketing and project data management software with a very flexible and useful real time data analytics generation.
Pros
Looker has a very professional and easy interface to access and the ability to manage multiple marketing channels through Looker functions is excellent.
This platform reporting capability is on top and incredible leads management software and very easy to integrate to other platforms.
Cons
I have nothing to underline as a problem from the Looker functionalities, and the training when new to the tool is effective.
Looker FAQs
Below are some frequently asked questions for Looker.Q. What type of pricing plans does Looker offer?
Looker offers the following pricing plans:
- Starting from:
- Pricing model: Subscription
- Free Trial: Available
Contact Google directly for pricing information.
Q. Who are the typical users of Looker?
Looker has the following typical customers:
2–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, 1,001–5,000
Q. What languages does Looker support?
Looker supports the following languages:
English
Q. Does Looker support mobile devices?
Looker supports the following devices:
Android (Mobile), iPhone (Mobile)
Q. What other apps does Looker integrate with?
Looker integrates with the following applications:
Google Ads, Google Analytics 360, Google Workspace, HubSpot CRM, HubSpot Marketing Hub, LinkedIn for Business, Mailchimp, Marketo Engage, Meta for Business, Microsoft Excel, Optimizely, QuickBooks Online Advanced, Quickbooks Online, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Slack, Stripe, Twitter, Xero, Xplenty Data Integration Service, Zendesk Suite
Q. What level of support does Looker offer?
Looker offers the following support options:
Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base Software, Chat
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