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Looker Studio vs SAP Analytics Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Studio
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (12th)
SAP Analytics Cloud
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (5th), Predictive Analytics (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. Looker Studio is designed for Reporting and holds a mindshare of 2.6%, up 2.4% compared to last year.
SAP Analytics Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on BI (Business Intelligence) Tools, holds 2.1% mindshare, down 4.6% since last year.
Reporting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Looker Studio2.6%
Microsoft Power BI17.4%
Tableau Enterprise16.5%
Other63.5%
Reporting
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP Analytics Cloud2.1%
Microsoft Power BI9.3%
Tableau Enterprise6.7%
Other81.9%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Heron Ziegel - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Engineer at Quartz Consulting Group
Has supported quick dashboard creation and data sharing but lacks tools for managing multiple reports efficiently
We integrated Looker Studio with other platforms in our data ecosystem; we tried integrating with Sheets, and that went okay, but it could have been better. It could have been better because it needed a very specific format to read the data, so we had to reformat the sheet file. Looker Studio was mostly just helpful in that it provided live updating charts for tracking performance indicators in the organization. Integrating with a database was very difficult because there wasn't a lot of feedback for what was going wrong with the connection. I don't remember if we reached out to support. I didn't personally reach out, but my boss may have. I didn't reach out to support, so I do not have experience with it to rate it. We worked with the free version of Looker Studio initially, and we upgraded at some point to the pro version; I don't remember if we actually paid for it or if it was just a free trial. The pricing was reasonable. I remember doing a price comparison, and it was pretty reasonable, but it did have fewer features than a lot of other software, which was okay for a comparable price but a little cheaper.
Pavlina Pankova - PeerSpot reviewer
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
Brings reporting, planning, and prediction together in one seamless workflow
I think the areas of SAP Analytics Cloud that could be improved or enhanced are mentioned by users or companies, and they would definitely mention the price in terms of planning licensing. From a consulting point of view, I don't see any major weaknesses. It is reasonably well-developed, and the perfect strength is that innovations are coming on a quarterly basis. It is slightly behind other tools in terms of the number of graphical outputs. Some tools have it faster, but every increment of innovations contains new features. On the other hand, it is perfectly fitting to the SAP environment, with seamless integration to all SAP modules, not only ERP but also SuccessFactors and other tools from the SAP family, for example, integrated business planning for the production planning. This is really a highlight compared to other tools.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 integration with Excel and Google Sheets is a valuable feature, making it easy to access and visualize data."
"The fact that Looker Studio is free and has a free tier was probably the biggest benefit; it is very accessible and not too difficult to use."
"I am impressed with the tool's scheduling mechanism, refresh mechanism, and different types of charts."
"This has improved our organization by allowing people to see their data and develop visualizations themselves."
"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."
"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."
"The stories have really been helpful in looking at specific scenarios and analyzing trends over periods of time."
"The Smart Predict, Smart Insights, and Smart Discovery predictive analysis features are quite good."
"One feature I've found most valuable is discovery."
"The features that are most valuable in SAP Analytics Cloud are the planning feature and the predictive analytics feature, though the planning feature needs to be more efficient."
"The product's most valuable features are reporting and planning, driverless planning, business vertical-wise planning, dashboarding, forecasting tools, and business forecasting."
"All of the modules that we used to have separately in our on-premises solution are now integrated into one platform."
"If 85-90% of your data comes from SAP, then it's the best solution."
"Real-time data makes for a single version of the truth."
 

Cons

"There are issues with integration and I encountered limits and warnings, especially with my pivot table size."
"Insisting on forums, blogs and community outreach in communications, and posting videos on an established calendar would be useful."
"The tool should improve on live data integration for quicker data reflection."
"The challenges with Google Data Studio are associated with the security part, making it an area where improvements are required."
"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."
"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."
"The performance of Looker needs improvement, particularly the report loading time, which is critical for business users."
"Looker Studio did not fit our needs for scalability."
"There should be more features for the time series charts."
"In the live connection model, we can't create calculated dimensions, however, in the import model we can create them."
"SAP Analytics Cloud should improve the dashboard."
"I would also like to have more advanced features for predictive analytics."
"What could be improved in SAP Analytics Cloud is integration, particularly in terms of extracting data from the source system. Currently, its data extraction mechanism doesn't have good integration and needs improvement."
"However, there are areas of improvement, particularly in terms of visualization. The front-end interface of SAP Analytics Cloud is not as impressive as Tableau and Power BI. The charts in other solutions have a more visually appealing and customizable look, while in SAP Analytics Cloud, there's a lack of alignment between numbers and charts. This graphical aspect, especially concerning charts, is not as satisfactory in SAP Analytics Cloud compared to its counterparts."
"We are currently working on connectivity with S/4HANA, but we would like to have better connectivity with our legacy systems."
"The price, integration, and modeling capabilities could be better. I have to use an integration engine to integrate our products and databases. SAP Analytics Cloud is made specifically for KPIs and business intelligence. The modeling capabilities are kind of poor. You always have to model the data and then present it visually in SAP Analytics Cloud. In the next release, I would like to have a lite version for planning to create scenarios quickly. For me personally, planning is the most complicated feature of SAP Analytics Cloud."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is free but the Google Looker is expensive."
"The product is available for 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 tool is free."
"The cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."
"SAP pricing tends to be premium, so it is slightly higher."
"It is a bit expensive, but really worth it, especially if you are already using other SAP tools."
"This solution is pricey."
"It Wasn't directly involved in the pricing discussions, but when I joined the organization, they had already purchased the SAP Analytics Cloud solution. The organization faced challenges due to its perceived expense, leading to restrictions on granting access to many users."
"The platform is about 50% more expensive than Power BI."
"The pricing of this product is reasonable."
"The pricing is based on an annual license and is rated a four out of ten."
"SAP Analytics Cloud is a bit higher [in price]. Because, if Microsoft can afford a better product and lower cost, SAP can afford at least the same, or even lower."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Retailer
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise39
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What needs improvement with Google Data Studio?
I would appreciate improvements in the data modeling features, as it's not straightforward, and it's not what people in analytics are used to. Specifically, most people using this visualization too...
What is your primary use case for Google Data Studio?
I used Looker Studio mainly for reporting, where I created multiple dashboards on it. I wouldn't say I made the most of the usage of the connections because all the connections were based on flat f...
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 ...
What do you like most about SAP Analytics Cloud?
In the data warehouse, you're free to make changes. You can make everything text, meaning it's always a string. Even numbers appear as text, giving you the flexibility to work with all columns.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Analytics Cloud?
I normally do not deal with the commercials, so I am not aware of the pricing part of it.
 

Also Known As

Data Studio
SAP BusinessObjects Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Genesys, Shueisha
Live Oak Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Looker Studio vs. SAP Analytics Cloud and other solutions. Updated: March 2020.
883,026 professionals have used our research since 2012.