Databricks vs Looker comparison

The compared Databricks and Google solutions aren't in the same category. Databricks is ranked #8 in CDW , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 8.8% mindshare in the category. Google is ranked #6 in EBT , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 8.9% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Databricks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Google users who would recommend it.

Databricks

Read 91 Databricks reviews

25,542 Views
2,043 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Looker

Read 19 Looker reviews

3,424 Views
1,130 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Databricks

Looker

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Databricks and Looker based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Snowflake Computing, Microsoft, Google and others in Cloud Data Warehouse.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloud Data Warehouse Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Data Warehouse

July 2025

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Helped 864,053 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

Databricks

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Warehouse (8th), Data Science Platforms (1st), Streaming Analytics (1st)

Looker

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Embedded BI (6th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. Databricks is designed for Cloud Data Warehouse and holds a mindshare of 8.8%, up 4.6% compared to last year.
Looker, on the other hand, focuses on Embedded BI, holds 8.9% mindshare, down 12.2% since last year.

Cloud Data Warehouse

Embedded BI

Featured Reviews

ShubhamSharma7

Data Engineer at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Capability to integrate diverse coding languages in a single notebook greatly enhances workflow

Databricks offers various courses that I can use, whether it's PySpark, Scala, or R. I can leverage all these courses in a single notebook, which is beneficial for clients as they can access various tools in one place whenever needed. This is quite significant. I usually work with PySpark based on client requirements. After coding, I feed the Databricks notebooks into the ADF pipeline for updates. Databricks' capability to process data in parallel enhances data processing speed. Furthermore, I can connect our Databricks notebook directly with Power BI and other visualization tools like Qlik. Once we develop code, it allows us to transform raw data into visualizations for clients using analysis diagrams, which is very helpful.

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Kishore Jhunjhunwala

Sr Analytics Consultant at a tech vendor 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

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Delta Lake data type has been the most useful part of this solution. Delta Lake is an opensource data type and it was implemented and invented by Databricks."

"The most valuable aspect of the solution is its notebook. It's quite convenient to use, both terms of the research and the development and also the final deployment, I can just declare the spark jobs by the load tables. It's quite convenient."

"The main features of the solution are efficiency."

"The ability to stream data and the windowing feature are valuable."

"Databricks is a unified solution that we can use for streaming. It is supporting open source languages, which are cloud-agnostic. When I do database coding if any other tool has a similar language pack to Excel or SQL, I can use the same knowledge, limiting the need to learn new things. It supports a lot of Python libraries where I can use some very easily."

"Databricks provides a consistent interface for data engineers to work with data in a consistent language on a single integrated platform for ingesting, processing, and serving data to the end user."

"The simplicity of development is the most valuable feature."

"I like the ability to use workspaces with other colleagues because you can work together even without seeing the other team's job."

More Databricks pros

"The product is easy to use."

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

"We can centralize all our data models."

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

"It's quite effortless to navigate through various applications and review their updated data in real-time."

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

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

More Looker pros

Cons

"Overall it's a good product, however, it doesn't do well against any individual best-of-breed products."

"The product should incorporate more learning aspects. It needs to have a free trial version that the team can practice."

"I would love an integration in my desktop IDE. For now, I have to code on their webpage."

"Databricks' performance when serving the data to an analytics tool isn't as good as Snowflake's."

"It's not easy to use, and they need a better UI."

"The pricing of Databricks could be cheaper."

"I have had some issues with some of the Spark clusters running on Databricks, where the Spark runtime and clusters go up and down, which is an area for improvement."

"It would be great if Databricks could integrate all the cloud platforms."

More Databricks cons

"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."

"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 product does not have documented material."

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"The integration with different databases must be improved."

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"Stability needs improvement."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Databricks uses a price-per-use model, where you can use as much compute as you need."

"The basic version of this solution is now open-source, so there are no license costs involved. However, there is a charge for any advanced functionality and this can be quite expensive."

"The cost for Databricks depends on the use case. I work on it as a consultant, so I'm using the client's Databricks, so it depends on how big the client is."

"We find Databricks to be very expensive, although this improved when we found out how to shut it down at night."

"I would rate the tool’s pricing an eight out of ten."

"Whenever we want to find the actual costing, we have to send an email to Databricks, so having the information available on the internet would be helpful."

"It is an expensive tool. The licensing model is a pay-as-you-go one."

"The licensing costs of Databricks is a tiered licensing regime, so it is flexible."

More Databricks pricing and cost advice

"It is cheap."

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

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

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

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which do you prefer - Databricks or Azure Machine Learning Studio?

Databricks gives you the option of working with several different languages, such as SQL, R, Scala, Apache Spark, or Python. It offers many different cluster choices and excellent integration with ...

See all answers

How would you compare Databricks vs Amazon SageMaker?

We researched AWS SageMaker, but in the end, we chose Databricks. Databricks is a Unified Analytics Platform designed to accelerate innovation projects. It is based on Spark so it is very fast. It...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Databricks or Azure Stream Analytics?

Databricks is an easy-to-set-up and versatile tool for data management, analysis, and business analytics. For analytics teams that have to interpret data to further the business goals of their orga...

See all answers

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

Comparisons

Dataiku vs Databricks

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Databricks

Compared 9% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs Databricks

Compared 7% of the time

Dremio vs Databricks

Compared 6% of the time

Tableau vs Databricks

Compared 5% of the time

More Databricks Competitors

Tableau vs Looker

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker

Compared 11% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Looker

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker

Compared 7% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs Looker

Compared 7% of the time

More Looker Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Databricks

July 2025

Download Databricks product report

Buyer's Guide

Looker

July 2025

Download Looker product report

Also Known As

Databricks Unified Analytics, Databricks Unified Analytics Platform, Redash

No data available

Overview

Databricks is utilized for advanced analytics, big data processing, machine learning models, ETL operations, data engineering, streaming analytics, and integrating multiple data sources.

Organizations leverage Databricks for predictive analysis, data pipelines, data science, and unifying data architectures. It is also used for consulting projects, financial reporting, and creating APIs. Industries like insurance, retail, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals use Databricks for data management and analytics due to its user-friendly interface, built-in machine learning libraries, support for multiple programming languages, scalability, and fast processing.

What are the key features of Databricks?

User-friendly interface: Simplifies operations and usability.
Built-in machine learning libraries: Facilitates machine learning tasks.
Support for multiple programming languages: Enhances flexibility.
Scalability: Efficiently handles growing data needs.
Fast processing: Improves performance and speed.
Automated optimization: Reduces manual efforts.
Data visualization: Provides insightful visuals.
Collaborative features: Enhances teamwork.
Delta Lake performance: Boosts data management.
Seamless cluster management: Simplifies system operations.

What are the benefits or ROI to look for in Databricks reviews?

Efficiency in handling large datasets: Ensures smooth processing.
Interactive workspace environment: Improves user collaboration.
Integration with platforms: Provides connectivity benefits.
Performance optimization: Enhances overall system performance.
Support for data governance and security: Ensures data integrity and protection.

Databricks is implemented in insurance for risk analysis and claims processing; in retail for customer analytics and inventory management; in manufacturing for predictive maintenance and supply chain optimization; and in pharmaceuticals for drug discovery and patient data analysis. Users value its scalability, machine learning support, collaboration tools, and Delta Lake performance but seek improvements in visualization, pricing, and integration with BI tools.

Databricks

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

Sample Customers

Elsevier, MyFitnessPal, Sharethrough, Automatic Labs, Celtra, Radius Intelligence, Yesware

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

Find out what your peers are saying about Snowflake Computing, Microsoft, Google and others in Cloud Data Warehouse. Updated: July 2025.

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