Looker vs Tableau Enterprise comparison

Google and Salesforce are both solutions in the Embedded BI category. Google is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.0, while Salesforce is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Google holds a 8.0% mindshare in EBT, compared to Salesforce’s 26.6% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Looker

Read 19 Looker reviews

2,582 Views
878 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Tableau Enterprise

Read 307 Tableau Enterprise reviews

18,844 Views
2,827 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Looker

Tableau Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 4, 2025

Tableau Enterprise and Looker compete in the business intelligence and analytics category. Tableau Enterprise is favored for its robust visualization capabilities, while Looker shines in data modeling with its LookML language.

Features: Tableau Enterprise includes comprehensive dashboards, custom visualizations, seamless data source integration, drag-and-drop analytics, and storytelling features. Looker focuses on modern BI with LookML facilitating data modeling and community-driven insights creation, leveraging flexible data models that adapt to various use-cases.

Room for Improvement: Tableau Enterprise needs better performance with large datasets, enhanced handling of complex data integrations, and stronger enterprise features. Looker should improve its visualization capabilities, user interface, integration options, and ability to handle large datasets efficiently.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tableau Enterprise offers on-premises, public, and private cloud options, providing highly rated customer service and community support. Looker primarily focuses on public cloud deployment, supported by an active user community, though it requires more personalized technical support compared to Tableau’s broader deployment flexibility and user-friendliness in diverse environments.

Pricing and ROI: Tableau’s pricing is high, yet it provides a strong ROI with flexible licensing options like core-based and user-based licenses, suitable for larger businesses. Looker’s pricing is also considered expensive, especially for smaller enterprises, yet might offer faster ROI in large-scale implementations. Both tools streamline data processes, promising substantial returns on investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 872,655 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Looker

Ranking in Embedded BI

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Tableau Enterprise

Ranking in Embedded BI

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

307

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (2nd), Reporting (2nd), Data Visualization (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Embedded BI category, the mindshare of Looker is 8.0%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tableau Enterprise is 26.6%, down from 34.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Embedded BI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Tableau Enterprise	26.6%
Looker	8.0%
Other	65.4%

Embedded BI

Featured Reviews

Kishore Jhunjhunwala

Sr Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

A cloud solution for operational reporting but is expensive

Some basic feature that is available in other reporting tools is missing. Looker has the ability to show more than 5,000 rows for operational reporting. Some reporting tools allow users to scroll down to see more than 5,000 rows, but in Looker, you have to download the entire dataset. Looker should consider adding a scroll-down option to allow users to view large datasets on screen without downloading them. Looker has some options for granting users access as viewers. However, viewers cannot download the entire dataset. Only superusers can download the whole dataset on the Explore screen. This is a big limitation, as you cannot give any user viewer access. You can give access to superuser access, which is a cost to the company.

Read full review

Uzair Faruqi

Head Of Analytics at Mjunction Services

Ease of developing dashboards and receiving strong technical support have enabled efficient data visualization

Introducing custom features, such as NLP-based reports, is not very good in Tableau. My MD has been asking us for a way to write in natural language to request reports that the system should generate, but that isn't very effective with Tableau. As a developer, I can develop an on-demand report in Python quite easily, but exposing a REST API on the Tableau platform is not a very easy task. AI enablement is an area for improvement for Tableau, and that is something they might have to work upon. I have heard that ThoughtSpot is quite better in this regard, but the cost of ThoughtSpot is much higher. ThoughtSpot has lots of natural language-based report generation features that Tableau lacks.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Looker allows you to generate the most optimal SQL queries in a DC through UI actions. We had signed a contract with Google Cloud to use BigQuery. That was the primary reason we adopted Looker. It works better with BigQuery than any other BI platform. We also like how this tool was developed. It was designed with an eye toward microservices architecture."

"The product is easy to use."

"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability."

"With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability."

"We can centralize all our data models."

"From a developer's perspective, the way the functionality's being handled is great."

"It is a pretty stable solution because it is a cloud-based product."

"The stability of Looker has been good since I have been using it. However, it depends on what components are being used."

More Looker pros

"It is an excellent tool for data capture, processing, and visualization."

"The ability of filtering and segmentation of the data makes it very flexible compared to other tools."

"It gives us a new dimension to the way that we analyse our data."

"Its visualizations are good, and its features make the development process a little less time-consuming. It has an in-memory extract feature that allows us to extract data and keep it on the server, and then our users can use it quickly."

"The solution allows for the possibility for end-users to do their own reporting."

"Since Tableau is on the cloud, we haven't faced any challenges around scalability."

"The geospatial maps representation and the visualizations are nice."

"The best part about Tableau is the visualization."

More Tableau Enterprise pros

Cons

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"The product does not have documented material."

"The main area of concern in Looker is probably related to blending the data from the different sources, including the data present internally in the company and on the cloud."

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"Stability needs improvement."

"Looker doesn't connect to Excel, which is a huge disappointment because a lot of data is presented in Excel. Also, it can't consume data directly from REST APIs, which is necessary. Looker needs to expand its horizons when it comes to data sources. The inability to connect to different data sources is hampering our use cases. Currently, it only has an ODBC connection that connects to a database. It needs to connect to other data sources, such as Excel, APIs, and different platforms."

"The integration with different databases must be improved."

"Lacks customization in some areas."

"When it comes to visualizations, Tableau has a limitation as compared to Power BI. It has a limited set of visualizations. Power BI has the entire marketplace, so you can connect and import many visualizations and use them, whereas Tableau has only 10 or 15 visualizations. There should be more visualizations, and there should also be data integration with more cloud providers."

"I am not a frequent user of this solution, so I am not sure what they've been doing recently. The last time when I used it, I had to use other tools with it for data extraction and cleansing. Its price should also be improved. It is more expensive than Power BI. In terms of training, there is generally better online training for Power BI, but I am not sure of that. It would be helpful to know from where to access its training."

"There could be improvements on the mobile application, it is lacking features."

"I take a long time to process the hundreds of thousands or millions of records that must be processed every day."

"It will be good if the server, could be more stable, and I would like to have the technical service to be more reliable."

"Pricing is also a concern for me as it is expensive compared to TIBCO Spotfire Enterprise licensing and Microsoft Power Platform."

"An area needing improvement involves the complexity of the product should you need to alter a lot of parameters. If you have technical servers, much interface, different providers and more serious processes, that will be time consuming."

More Tableau Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Looker usually depends on the solution's provider, but it is usually cheaper than the other products in the market. Looker is offered at different prices for different companies."

"I do not have to make any payments to use the solution."

"It's not cheap, but it's not expensive for big companies."

"It is cheap."

"Looker is expensive and could be made better by reducing it."

"We are paying an annual licensing fee."

"For big business, Tableau could be expensive as having a lot of Tableau server users (entering with a browser to reports) could be a bit expensive."

"For our organization, the cost hasn't been an issue."

"Tableau is not as cost-effective as Microsoft BI."

"I like the payment model. For the people who need to create, they buy their licenses. Everyone else can use the free Tableau Viewer. This is much better than some of the competitor products, which require full licences for everything."

"I'm using Tableau Public, which is free."

"If they want to be competitive in the market, the price must be improved."

"The cost is high."

More Tableau Enterprise pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Embedded BI solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

872,655 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user6330

Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

May 2, 2013

MicroStrategy vs. Tableau

After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Retailer

Media Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	117
Midsize Enterprise	66
Large Enterprise	183

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Looker?

With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Looker?

I do not have to make any payments to use the solution. In the beginning, Looker may work fine for its users. If advanced users who have experience with BI tools use Looker, then they may find it t...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Looker?

The visualization capability of the product is limited. From an improvement perspective, the product should have more visualization capability. I can't clean data in Looker, and if I try to do it, ...

See all answers

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...

See all answers

Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?

Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?

Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker

Compared 14% of the time

Databricks vs Looker

Compared 13% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Looker

Compared 9% of the time

MicroStrategy vs Looker

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker

Compared 7% of the time

More Looker Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 19% of the time

Domo vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 11% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 5% of the time

Databricks vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 4% of the time

SAP Analytics Cloud vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 4% of the time

More Tableau Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Looker

October 2025

Download Looker product report

Buyer's Guide

Tableau Enterprise

October 2025

Download Tableau Enterprise product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online

Overview

Looker is a powerful data analytics platform that empowers businesses to explore and analyze their data in real time.

With its intuitive interface and robust features, Looker enables users to easily create and share interactive dashboards, reports, and visualizations.

The product's advanced data modeling capabilities and seamless integration with popular data sources make it a top choice for organizations looking to gain valuable insights from their data.

Google

Tableau Enterprise offers powerful features for creating interactive visualizations, dashboards, and maps, including drag-and-drop functionality and easy integration with multiple data sources, promoting real-time collaboration and self-service analysis.

Tableau Enterprise stands out with its ability to create user-friendly, interactive visualizations, making it pivotal for business intelligence applications. Users benefit from its seamless connectivity and advanced analytical functions, facilitating data blending and storytelling. Despite a complex learning curve and high licensing costs, its features like geospatial analysis and efficient content distribution drive its indispensable value for data-driven insights. Enhancements in predictive analytics and support integration with machine learning tools further its capabilities across industries.

What are the most valuable features?

Interactive Visualizations: Enables users to create engaging reports.
Drag-and-Drop Functionality: Simplifies data analysis processes.
Data Integration: Offers seamless connectivity with multiple sources.
Real-Time Collaboration: Supports synchronous data sharing.
Advanced Analytics: Provides predictive analytics and geospatial analysis.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Informed Decision-Making: Facilitates data-driven insights.
Efficiency in Reporting: Streamlines dashboard and reporting tasks.
Cost-Effectiveness: Despite high licensing, value in robust analytics tools.
Customizable Options: Tailors analytics to specific needs.

Tableau Enterprise is widely used for business intelligence, supporting industries like healthcare, telecommunications, and finance. Organizations utilize it to analyze performance indicators, operational insights, and financial analytics, enhancing decision-making through interactive reports and real-time data integration.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Yahoo!, Etsy, Kohler, Hipcamp, Hubspot, Kickstarter, Venmo, Dollar Shave Club, 600+ customer

Accenture, Adobe, Amazon.com, Bank of America, Charles Schwab Corp, Citigroup, Coca-Cola Company, Cornell University, Dell, Deloitte, Duke University, eBay, Exxon Mobil, Fannie Mae, Ferrari, French Red Cross, Goldman Sachs, Google, Government of Canada, HP, Intel, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Macy's, Merck, The New York Times, PayPal, Pfizer, US Army, US Air Force, Skype, and Walmart.

Buyer's Guide

Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise

September 2025

Free Report: Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise

Find out what your peers are saying about Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

872,655 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise report.

See our list of best Embedded BI vendors.

We monitor all Embedded BI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.