Board vs Looker Studio comparison

Board International and Google are both solutions in the Reporting category. Board International is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.3, while Google is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.8. Board International holds a 1.1% mindshare in RT, compared to Google’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Board International users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of Google users who would recommend it.

Board

Read 37 Board reviews

1,812 Views
362 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Looker Studio

Read 14 Looker Studio reviews

1,842 Views
829 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

Board

Looker Studio

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Board and Looker Studio are competing products in the analytics and business intelligence space. Board seems to have the upper hand due to its broad range of features and robust support options, whereas Looker Studio stands out for its scalability and data integration capabilities.

Features: Board offers advanced planning and simulation capabilities critical for strategic decision-making, the flexibility to customize processes and reporting without extensive IT involvement, and comprehensive multidimensional analyses. Looker Studio excels in real-time data exploration and collaboration, seamless integration with various data sources, and effective aggregation capabilities for detailed trend reports.

Room for Improvement: Board could improve with quicker deployment times, enhanced user interface design to boost intuitiveness, and better-nuanced data visualization tools. Looker Studio might enhance its customization options for specific organizational needs, include offline accessibility features, and expand support for more complex data modeling processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Board provides a highly customizable deployment model tailored to specific needs and offers dedicated customer support for smooth implementation, yet it experiences longer setup times. Looker Studio, with its cloud deployment model, allows quick and straightforward setup backed by responsive customer service, though it may be less tailored to unique customer requirements.

Pricing and ROI: Board typically involves higher initial expenditure but promises substantial ROI through detailed analytics and planning features that aid long-term strategic goals. Looker Studio offers competitive pricing requiring less upfront investment, delivering good ROI for businesses prioritizing flexible data analysis and reporting.

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

Buyer's Guide

Board vs. Looker Studio

September 2025

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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

Board

Ranking in Reporting

17th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (21st), Business Performance Management (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 Board is 1.1%, 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%
Board	1.1%
Other	95.8%

Reporting

Featured Reviews

Wiboon Thabsuwan

Senior Consultant at IMD Company Limited

Easy to use and requires less time to learn or understand its features

I think the product is good in terms of ease of use. The interface looks really nice and very easy to use. Every command appears in the icon. It looks like you don't have to understand everything about the command. You do not necessarily have to know more, or I would say that there is less time for our study about the products. Functionality-wise, it is quite easy to use and requires less time to understand or learn about the product. I am a software vendor, so I do not use the tool myself. I use it for my clients. My clients mostly use it for budgeting and timing purposes. I would say that's really less maintenance at all because they can do everything by themselves. It is good in terms of ease of use.

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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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It allows people to quickly create dashboards with reports."

"Where it used to take me three days at the beginning of the year to create the new financial statement, now it is a matter of minutes because all the data is in the system."

"We have better reporting and have been able to better track performance."

"The drill down is good for people who have that high level view, because they can do some analysis based on it."

"The benefits are getting the data in one spot, the ability to report dynamically, and version control."

"I find Board to be simple and easy to use."

"Primary valuable features are its flexibility and versatility and, obviously, functionality goes along with that. Plus, it does that at a small footprint in the file servers, and does it very efficiently."

"The ease of being able to get the data into BOARD is what makes it nice for people with a semi-IT background."

More Board 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."

"I am impressed with the tool's scheduling mechanism, refresh mechanism, and different types of charts."

"Data Studio integrates seamlessly with other Google products, and we can use it with other APIs if we like."

"The ability to integrate with a great variety of data sources."

"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."

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

"The product's initial setup phase is very simple."

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

More Looker Studio pros

Cons

"What could be better is the manual... nowadays, most people use a web client, but on the Board manual website, a lot of the information is only about the Windows client. If they could update that, it would be helpful."

"We would like to see better logging in the procedural world."

"If we could upload other data, e.g., pivot tables which can be done in BOARD already, that we have pre-existing and have that data distribute to more complex spreadsheets, I would like that going forward."

"I would like to see better relationships with the partners."

"The engine of the Board should be made powerful like the engine of IBM planning which is more powerful in terms of performance. The consolidated finance area also needs improvement."

"Board's integration could be a bit more robust, but what we have works. If the design isn't right, the flexibility of Board can negatively impact performance."

"I would like an eLearning platform for BOARD."

"Some of our users are still using an MS Office add-in for Excel for certain calculations, and when they export from Board, some of the values, some of the totals and column names, are not coming through into Excel."

More Board cons

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

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

"The challenges with Google Data Studio are associated with the security part, making it an area where improvements are required."

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

"Stability and scalability an be improved for a full ten."

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

"When you physically install a product on one machine instead of the cloud, you have a better visibility, best icon quality, etc.. It's more of an issue with how we are adapting to the transition. We are still in the early moments of using this tool, and we need to go deeper to discover some improvements."

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

More Looker Studio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Find a partner who will take responsibility for the implementation, and be available for support."

"It is not the cheapest product on earth, but you get so much. It provides good value for money."

"In terms of the pricing, it was reasonable. BOARD is not the lowest in the market, but it was reasonable for us."

"The tool's price is a bit high compared to other solutions."

"The solution is quite expensive, if it is made cheaper then we can have more clients. I rate it four out of ten."

"The product is available for free."

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

"The tool is free."

"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 cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Insurance 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	13
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	8

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

Questions from the Community

Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?

We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...

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What do you like most about Board?

All the reports are prepared automatically.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Board?

Board's integration could be a bit more robust, but what we have works. If the design isn't right, the flexibility of Board can negatively impact performance.

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...

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Comparisons

Anaplan vs Board

Compared 23% of the time

Pigment vs Board

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Board

Compared 10% of the time

Jedox vs Board

Compared 9% of the time

Oracle Hyperion vs Board

Compared 8% of the time

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Amazon QuickSight vs Looker Studio

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

Board

October 2025

Download Board product report

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio

September 2025

Download Looker Studio product report

Also Known As

No data available

Data Studio

Overview

BOARD International - headquartered in Switzerland - is a leading global provider of software for improving business results through better decision making. By unifying Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management into a single product, BOARD enables companies to achieve a shared vision of their performance across the entire organization, and thus a single version of the truth.

BOARD provides seamless solutions for • Reporting & Analysis • Budgeting, Planning & Forecasting • Profitability Modelling & Optimization • Simulation & What-if-Analysis • Scorecarding & Strategy Management • Financial Consolidation. Based on visual modelling, BOARD has enabled global companies to deploy BI and CPM applications without a single line of code in a fraction of the time and cost associated with traditional solutions.

Board International

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

Coca-Cola, Puma, Desigual, Ricoh, KPMG, H&M, Groupe SEB

Genesys, Shueisha

Buyer's Guide

Board vs. Looker Studio

September 2025

Free Report: Board vs. Looker Studio

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

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