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Looker Studio vs Sisense comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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
Ranking in Reporting
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sisense
Ranking in Reporting
13th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (18th), Cloud Analytics (6th), Data Visualization (13th), Embedded BI (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Looker Studio is 3.1%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sisense is 2.3%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Looker Studio3.1%
Sisense2.3%
Other94.6%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Vijay Subramanyam - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Vishal Halbe - PeerSpot reviewer
Has improved project turnaround time with customizable dashboards and faster data delivery to stakeholders
Sisense has some limitations, especially in rendering tables or graphs. For example, if you want to perform custom sorting or searching based on multiple columns, that becomes quite tricky. Providing more control over how the data is sorted or filtered would be quite useful. Additionally, it could provide more connectors to integrate with emerging different data sources to exponentially increase the amount of data it can handle. Sisense should provide more support for CI/CD, as we found the CI/CD approach quite limited, which is something that can be worked on. Some data scientists suggested more features can be offered by providing different models for data analytics. Sisense can improve by adding more features for handling complex schemas and making the pricing straightforward. The dashboarding features are good enough, but additional features could make it even more attractive. Also, CI/CD support or source control support would be really helpful.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I appreciate about Looker Studio is mostly the clean visuals, which is good, as I prefer a dashboard with a clean aesthetic rather than feeling sort of an old Windows type of dashboard."
"The ability to design complex data models and equations."
"The product's initial setup phase is very simple."
"Looker's ability to perform aggregation before visualization allows for effective data slicing and dicing."
"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."
"The integration with Excel and Google Sheets is a valuable feature, making it easy to access and visualize data."
"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."
"​Allows users to build their own solutions without as much reliance on technology staff."
"The Sisense solution was very easy to set up, and its visualizations were effective."
"I have found the dashboard creating feature helpful."
"The most valuable thing I have found is the ability for Sisense to connect data from totally different sources."
"We like that this solution allows us to use data cubes to set up specific visualizations."
"Ability to work with very large data sources without the limitations of Excel."
"The solution's technical support team is good."
"ElastiCube Manager is a very easy to use ETL tool, which includes the ability to easily transform raw data into reusable data."
 

Cons

"Stability and scalability an be improved for a full ten."
"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."
"Insisting on forums, blogs and community outreach in communications, and posting videos on an established calendar would be useful."
"Panels are not as easy to use as other data extraction UIs."
"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."
"From the perspective of infrastructure, I cannot provide a valuable opinion on the ease of use and customization options of Looker Studio."
"The tool should improve on live data integration for quicker data reflection."
"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."
"I would also like to be able to run a bursts of reports based on different field values with PDF output right in the tool, rather than filtering on each field value and generating each PDF manually."
"At present there are additional costs involved if we wish to share our data queues within this solution, which we would like to see removed."
"The administrative side of Sisense is a little cumbersome and confusing."
"They should improve the filters to create downloaded data by moving them to the top of the dashboard."
"Larger datasets will sometimes give a "Accumulated logs" error when trying to make minor changes. T"
"This solution does not have tabs. In order to have tabs, you have to download an add-on to mimic the tabs. They should be integrated to improve the solution."
"I would like to see an improvement in the live data connection, specifically making the process faster."
"I would like to see an improvement in the live data connection, specifically making the process faster."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is free."
"The solution is free but the Google Looker is expensive."
"The product is available for free."
"The cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."
"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."
"Compared to Power BI or Tableau, Sisense is much more expensive."
"This solution is more expensive than Tableau, Qlik and Dundas. It is an expensive tool. They charge $75,000 while Tableau is $45,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise11
 

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?
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...
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...
What needs improvement with Sisense?
I would like to see an improvement in the live data connection, specifically making the process faster. Additionally, incorporating more self-service capabilities would benefit the product.
What is your primary use case for Sisense?
I was looking into some of our business operations with tow truck companies. I focused on evaluating turnaround times for tow trucks to arrive on-site for accidents and how long it took them to cle...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sisense?
There was no significant difference in pricing between Sisense and ThoughtSpot. They were practically dead even from a pricing perspective.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Data Studio
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Genesys, Shueisha
Ebay, WIX, Wave Accounting, ESPN.com, Magellan Luxury Hotel, Paylogic, Sony, Merck, EDA, One Hour Translation, NASA, Plastic Jungle, Philips, Yahoo
Find out what your peers are saying about Looker Studio vs. Sisense and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,883 professionals have used our research since 2012.