Adaptive Insights vs Looker Studio comparison

Workday and Google are both solutions in the Reporting category. Workday is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.0, while Google is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.8. Workday holds a 0.8% mindshare in RT, compared to Google’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Workday users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of Google users who would recommend it.

Adaptive Insights

Read 18 Adaptive Insights reviews

1,484 Views
312 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Looker Studio

Read 14 Looker Studio reviews

1,842 Views
829 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

Adaptive Insights

Looker Studio

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Adaptive Insights and Looker Studio provide solutions in data analysis and business intelligence with distinctive focal areas. Adaptive Insights is ahead in the realm of financial planning, while Looker Studio excels in data visualization.

Features: Adaptive Insights offers advanced financial modeling, seamless departmental collaboration, and precise forecasting tools. Looker Studio provides dynamic dashboards, robust data exploration capabilities, and supports multiple data sources for comprehensive analysis.

Room for Improvement: Adaptive Insights could enhance user interface intuitiveness, expand integration capabilities with non-financial tools, and improve reporting customization. Looker Studio may benefit from better handling of complex data sets, improved technical support, and more efficient data processing features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Adaptive Insights features a straightforward cloud-based deployment model appreciated for ease of integration with financial systems, coupled with responsive customer support. Looker Studio's cloud-first approach allows broad deployment flexibility and effective customer support, although complex implementations may require technical expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Adaptive Insights involves higher initial setup costs which are offset by significant ROI for finance-focused organizations. Looker Studio presents a more cost-effective solution with lower upfront costs, providing substantial value through its broad analytical and integration capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Adaptive Insights vs. Looker Studio Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Adaptive Insights vs. Looker Studio

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 869,566 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

Adaptive Insights

Ranking in Reporting

18th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Performance Management (9th), Financial Performance and Strategy Management (3rd), Data Visualization (15th), ESG Reporting Software (6th)

Looker Studio

Ranking in Reporting

10th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Adaptive Insights is 0.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Looker Studio is 3.1%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Reporting Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Looker Studio	3.1%
Adaptive Insights	0.8%
Other	96.1%

Reporting

Featured Reviews

Andrew Rosenberg

Adaptive Planning Manager at Alight

Adaptive scales well, simple to create new budget versions and models

For the organization I used to work at, it streamlined the process of creating budgets. It's very simple to create a new version and do some more modeling based on your need for planning things like headcount, other expenses, and revenue, everything is configurable within Workday. So that made it easy. Reporting was pretty easy to set up as well. It streamlined the amount of time it took to do the budget as well as kind of making it simple to implement a rolling forecast process. So, it really was more just a productivity increase and time shortening for the budgeting and forecasting process.

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Vijay Subramanyam

Delivery Head at cblsolutions

The ability to perform aggregation before visualization allows for effective data slicing and dicing

Looker's ability to perform aggregation before visualization allows for effective data slicing and dicing. The seamless integration with Excel and Google Sheets and custom filter creation features facilitate detailed trend reports and analysis. Looker has significantly improved productivity by reducing the time spent on creating summary reports from weeks to a day.

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

"Forecasting changes that instantly flow through all financial statements."

"Reports are allowed to be edited for aesthetic purposes, which is lacking in a lot of other dashboard tools."

"Changes to corporate structure, account codes are updated in all versions including prior years, hence "one-version of truth" as claimed."

"It's very stable."

"It's very simple to create a new version and do some more modeling based on your need for planning things like headcount, other expenses, and revenue, everything is configurable within Workday."

"The biggest feature is the source of truth for all of our budget and forecast versions."

"It helps develop a more unified work format throughout the company."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its dashboard."

More Adaptive Insights pros

"The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. We observed the progress of our portfolio from last week to the current week, allowing us to compare revenues."

"The ability to design complex data models and equations."

"Looker's ability to perform aggregation before visualization allows for effective data slicing and dicing."

"The best thing about the tool is that it allows you to share information easily and dashboards with colleagues and teammates because it's all online. No matter where you are, as long as you have the Internet, you can connect and use these dashboards. Google made good documentation for this tool. There are many examples of how to use and create dashboards and videos on YouTube. So, I think it's easy to learn."

"The integration with Excel and Google Sheets is a valuable feature, making it easy to access and visualize data."

"I find it favorable regarding speed of development, ease of building, and flexibility."

"This has improved our organization by allowing people to see their data and develop visualizations themselves."

"The solution is free so that is a good feature."

More Looker Studio pros

Cons

"Better user interface (UI)."

"The integrations could be simpler. It takes quite a bit of internal and IT know-how to set up."

"Adaptive Insights could improve the data designer interface to make integrations easier to set up."

"It's a Workday product; they could do a little bit better to integrate a pure-play integration with Workday, which really doesn't do that."

"Being able to drill down when using OfficeConnect needs work."

"Discovery (the data visualization module): Needs to catch up with BI leaders, such as MS and Tableau. E.g., sorting by amounts in column charts and page slicers to control all visuals."

"Their customer support team is slow to respond and not extremely confident."

"Users continue to become more advanced and are looking for more advanced solutions."

More Adaptive Insights cons

"There are issues with integration and I encountered limits and warnings, especially with my pivot table size."

"It's not yet a replacement for a complete BI tool."

"From the perspective of infrastructure, I cannot provide a valuable opinion on the ease of use and customization options of Looker Studio."

"Insisting on forums, blogs and community outreach in communications, and posting videos on an established calendar would be useful."

"The tool has a lot of room for improvement. It's not very professional and allows for only simple tasks like indicating KPIs or quick calculations. It lacks a good calculation-based language like Power BI's DAX, making it less suitable for professional use. Additionally, the variety of visualization tools is limited, and customization options are restricted."

"The performance of Looker needs improvement, particularly the report loading time, which is critical for business users."

"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."

"Other tools might be worth considering if you need more advanced features or support for a larger user base."

More Looker Studio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Adaptive Insights' pricing is relative to its peer competitors. It's certainly competitive compared to a spreadsheet template that you build in Excel. It can be expensive if you need to have 100-500 budget holders giving input and building financial plans. However, in that case, it becomes an extremely good bargain. Compared to its competitors, it offers an excellent value."

"Ensure that you have the proper pricing plan in place."

"It's affordable."

"Prior to purchasing licenses, make sure you understand which users will only need planning and which users will need both planning and OfficeConnect."

"Licensing seems to be worth the cost considering the efficiency Adaptive brings."

"Everything is negotiable, but this solution is low cost compared to others."

"Adaptive Insights' pricing is reasonable."

"Pricing is in line with other cloud-based EPM tools. It is a subscription-based model based upon the number of users and site type if it's an admin or end-user type thing."

"The solution is free but the Google Looker is expensive."

"I think the tool is cheap because you don't need to pay anything for using the tool. However, when connecting and analyzing other data sources, you should consider where to analyze this information because Google Data Studio doesn't handle much data well. You must also consider how you will connect this data to it. In this case, you might need to hire DevOps or a data team to help with these issues."

"The tool is free."

"The product is available for free."

"The cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Adaptive Insights?

It's very simple to create a new version and do some more modeling based on your need for planning things like headcount, other expenses, and revenue, everything is configurable within Workday.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Adaptive Insights?

12 years ago, it was very affordable. Workday has definitely increased its price since it acquired Adaptive a few years ago. So, it's affordable. But there are other more affordable solutions that ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Adaptive Insights?

The integrations could be simpler. It takes quite a bit of internal and IT know-how to set up. So, there could be room for just improving the integrations, making it easier to integrate outside sys...

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Data Studio?

The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. We observed the progress of our portfolio from last week to the current week, all...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Data Studio?

We are aware that there are areas in Looker Studio that could be improved. Out of the box, if you don't utilize a template or create a template, which can take significant time, it's not the most u...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Data Studio?

Regarding the product, I was doing research for a client in the LMS industry. I was seeing what else was out there and why certain things were pulling for certain reasons. I wouldn't say I'm techni...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Microsoft Power BI vs Adaptive Insights

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IBM Planning Analytics vs Adaptive Insights

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Compared 41% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker Studio

Compared 16% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Looker Studio

Compared 7% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Looker Studio

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services vs Looker Studio

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Adaptive Insights

October 2025

Download Adaptive Insights product report

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio

September 2025

Download Looker Studio product report

Also Known As

Workday Adaptive Planning, Adaptive Discovery , Workday Adaptive Planning

Data Studio

Overview

Adaptive Insights is a cloud-based financial planning and analysis software that helps businesses streamline their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes.

With its intuitive interface and powerful analytics, it enables organizations to make data-driven decisions and drive business performance.

Workday

Google Looker Studio is a free tool designed to help users create visually appealing reports and dashboards, making data easier to understand. It allows you to connect to various data sources such as Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and spreadsheets. With Looker Studio, you can create charts and graphs to showcase trends and comparisons, build comprehensive dashboards that provide an overview of your data, and customize reports to match your brand or preferences. Additionally, you can share your reports online or export them as PDFs for wider distribution.

Google

Sample Customers

1. Cisco Systems 2. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated 3. Deloitte 4. DocuSign 5. Dropbox 6. Electronic Arts 7. Fender Musical Instruments Corporation 8. Fitbit 9. Fossil Group 10. Groupon 11. Hilton Worldwide 12. HP Inc. 13. Intuit 14. Johnson & Johnson 15. LinkedIn 16. Lyft 17. McAfee 18. Medtronic 19. Netflix 20. Oracle 21. Pandora 22. PayPal 23. Pinterest 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. ServiceNow 27. Slack Technologies 28. Spotify 29. Symantec 30. Tableau Software 31. Twitter 32. Workday

Genesys, Shueisha

Buyer's Guide

Adaptive Insights vs. Looker Studio

September 2025

Free Report: Adaptive Insights vs. Looker Studio

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