Looker Studio vs MicroStrategy vs Tableau Enterprise comparison

Read 161 MicroStrategy reviews

4,391 Views
3,118 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Tableau Enterprise

Read 307 Tableau Enterprise reviews

19,755 Views
8,692 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Looker Studio

Tableau Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Looker Studio, MicroStrategy, and Tableau Enterprise based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle and others in Reporting.

To learn more, read our detailed Reporting Report (Updated: August 2025).

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Reporting

August 2025

Helped 867,341 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:

Mindshare comparison

Reporting Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Looker Studio	3.0%
Microsoft Power BI	24.3%
Tableau Enterprise	20.6%
Other	52.099999999999994%

Reporting

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
MicroStrategy	2.1%
Microsoft Power BI	14.5%
Tableau Enterprise	11.0%
Other	72.4%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Tableau Enterprise	11.0%
Microsoft Power BI	14.5%
Amazon QuickSight	4.9%
Other	69.6%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

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.

Experience has shown effective features for analysis, but needs interface improvements

AJIN S L

Technical Analyst at Allianz

The most effective features of MicroStrategy for data analysis are those that cater to user needs. However, I find Power BI to be more useful when comparing some features, but my company does not choose Power BI due to certain code restrictions. The MicroStrategy interface is not as good as Power BI, especially concerning the user-friendly aspects.

Ease of developing dashboards and receiving strong technical support have enabled efficient data visualization

Uzair Faruqi

Head Of Analytics at Mjunction Services

Introducing custom features, such as NLP-based reports, is not very good in Tableau. My MD has been asking us for a way to write in natural language to request reports that the system should generate, but that isn't very effective with Tableau. As a developer, I can develop an on-demand report in Python quite easily, but exposing a REST API on the Tableau platform is not a very easy task. AI enablement is an area for improvement for Tableau, and that is something they might have to work upon. I have heard that ThoughtSpot is quite better in this regard, but the cost of ThoughtSpot is much higher. ThoughtSpot has lots of natural language-based report generation features that Tableau lacks.

More Tableau Enterprise pros

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

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

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

"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."

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

"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."

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

More Looker Studio pros

"It definitely impacts people, who are excited to use it."

"Stability is great, especially with package deployments. It is very consistent and stable."

"We are able to manage to get very in-depth and detailed management of the data model on the backend."

"The subscription model is excellent. About half of our reporting comes out of the subscription, and from there, the ease of use in dragging and dropping reporting objects."

"I find MicroStrategy the most suited to the enterprise-wide BI platform, because of its scalability and stability."

"The whole repository side of things is beneficial because you develop it once, and you can use it anywhere, in the Enterprise grade."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to build reports, then customize for different groups instead of having to build multiple reports. Therefore, the ability to build customization in the reports for different groups."

"It was easy to install and implement a report with it."

More MicroStrategy pros

"It is so easy to do a lot of things. There is a lot of flexibility and creativity in this product. In other products, you don't have this flexibility."

"I like the calculation feature. I would not say it's such a good feature in Tableau, but if you have the knowledge, you can make that feature visible to everyone. It's not a feature that we can drag and drop and get the information. But whatever the data, whatever the calculation, I'm able to do. It's basically the knowledge base. Whatever knowledge I have, I can make that information public and publish it for management."

"You are able to see and follow trends."

"The UI part is the best. The end-users can easily get started with Tableau Desktop or Tableau Online because of its user-friendliness."

"It is easy to adapt visualizers to have interactive conversations among decision-makers."

"It has made the reporting stage simple and enabled us to focus mainly on the ETL part"

"The most valuable features are data discovery and fine visualizations."

"Partner support is very good."

Cons

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

"The tool should come up with data modeling layer features that are present in other products like Power BI."

"Panels are not as easy to use as other data extraction UIs."

More Looker Studio cons

"There is room for improvement on the graphs."

"It is actually pretty complicated to use. It is complicated enough that user adaptation is sometimes difficult. We developed more experts rather than people using it."

"The product could be improved by adding additional visualization."

"Our data warehouse is sort of static; negative load and that is it. It is not as real-time as we would like. We are working on building that out first to create more real-time, at which point we will work on some potential integrations with other applications, but I don't think we are there yet."

"They need to do a better job In its ability to allow end users to produce their own reports, metrics, and self-service business intelligence."

"From a stability standpoint, from MicroStrategy, I would say it's fairly consistent. I would give it a "B" because there are times where we have issues that are just inexplicable. They go away and then we have no resolution. To me, that's not acceptable. There are just times where our users can't access things and we're not sure why, and that's a problem to me."

"Enterprise Manager should be a little bit less quirky when you build out-of-the-box customization reports for it."

"I think they're still lacking on customer service. I think historically, MicroStrategy's customer service was a lot better than it is today."

More MicroStrategy cons

"Tableau support could be improved."

"There are not enough language options. It needs to be offered in more than just English."

"There should be stronger data modules for the platform."

"With Tableau, when you're dealing with very large datasets, it can be slow so the performance is an area that can be improved."

"Tableau's automatic insight could be improved. It has some predefined capabilities to understand the data, but I think they need more. Customers need more insight automatically from data—they don't want to discover them, they want to get the forecast automatically. The data preparation should also be improved because it's not easy. Tableau tries to focus on the business side, but the backend side has not improved much. They also have an ETS solution, but it's limited."

"I have noticed that Tableau is not very compatible with ClickHouse. There's no direct connection to ClickHouse; you have to set up an ODBC connection."

"It needs more ETL capabilities, to be able to address the end-to-end BI need."

"I am a BI consultant. I have worked on different reporting tools, such as Power BI and MicroStrategy. As compared to other tools, Tableau lags behind in handling huge enterprise-level data in terms of robust security and the single integrated metadata concept. When we connect to large or very big databases, then performance-wise, I sometimes found Tableau a little bit slow. It can have the single metadata concept like other tools for the reusability of the objects in multiple reports."

More Tableau Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The product is available for free."

"The tool is free."

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

"It would be nice if there was a sticker price that says, "This software costs this amount of money." But I think that's just indicative of all software vendors. A lot of people are in it to make money, commissions, so it's just the nature of the business. But I would like to see more transparency, more equality, on pricing. Some people get better deals than others, I think."

"The price of MicroStrategy is reasonable."

"We have one of the best pricing available, but we can't disclose that information."

"The licensing is a bit high per user."

"The pricing for MicroStrategy is always on the higher side. They should seriously start thinking about their pricing and licensing strategy."

"The solution is scalable. A little expensive perhaps, but it is scalable."

"MicroStrategy's licensing cost is higher than that of other tools in the market. My company uses the enterprise edition of the product."

"They made a change in the licensing module some time ago and we can now use all the enterprise tools for free."

More MicroStrategy pricing and cost advice

"Deployment of dashboards to viewers and unit supervisors can be prohibitively expensive."

"Tableau is a little cheaper as compared to Power BI and other technologies that we have used in the past. However, if the business users in our organization want to make presentations, Tableau has been asking us to purchase a Tableau Creator license, and $35 per month is expensive for business users. Power BI is giving a free desktop version for business users to connect to any data source and build their own dashboards. That's why we have proposed to use Power BI for most of the business users in our organization."

"The initial cost that is set according to CPU cores is expensive."

"It is a bit difficult for some people when they hear $70.00 per month, as some solutions are available for less than $10.00 or for free."

"We are paying an annual licensing fee."

"In general, if someone is new and wants to learn Tableau, it's around $70 per month."

"I believe it has a lifelong license, and once you purchase it, you don't have to renew it, but I'm not sure."

"Its price is reasonable. Everything is included in the license."

More Tableau Enterprise pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user6330

Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

May 2, 2013

MicroStrategy vs. Tableau

After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…

What do you like most about Google Data Studio?

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Retailer

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	37
Midsize Enterprise	26
Large Enterprise	99

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	117
Midsize Enterprise	66
Large Enterprise	182

Questions from the Community

The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. W...

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 tem...

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 an...

What do you like most about MicroStrategy?

The stability of the product is good.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MicroStrategy?

For larger businesses, I think the pricing is logical, but for smaller companies, it can be a bit costly.

What needs improvement with MicroStrategy?

Areas of MicroStrategy that have room for improvement include pricing because it is costly. Organizations that are we...

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik ...

Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?

Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have be...

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....

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker Studio

Comparisons

Compared 43% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker Studio

Compared 16% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Looker Studio

Compared 4% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker Studio

Compared 4% of the time

Looker vs Looker Studio

Compared 2% of the time

More Looker Studio Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs MicroStrategy

Compared 15% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs MicroStrategy

Compared 7% of the time

Databricks vs MicroStrategy

Compared 7% of the time

QlikView vs MicroStrategy

Compared 7% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs MicroStrategy

Compared 7% of the time

More MicroStrategy Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 19% of the time

Domo vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

Databricks vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 5% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 2% of the time

More Tableau Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Download Looker Studio product report

Looker Studio

September 2025

Download MicroStrategy product report

August 2025

Download Tableau Enterprise product report

Tableau Enterprise

August 2025

Also Known As

Data Studio

No data available

Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online

Overview

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

Company: Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is a leading worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms. With direct operations in 26 countries worldwide and approximately 2,000 employees, our mission is to provide enterprise analytics, mobility, and security platforms that are flexible, powerful, scalable and user-friendly. To learn more, visit MicroStrategy online, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Product portfoilio:

MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise™ empowers leading organizations to analyze vast amounts of data and distribute actionable business insight throughout an enterprise through two distinct offerings: MicroStrategy Analytics™ and MicroStrategy Desktop™. MicroStrategy Analytics delivers reports and dashboards, and enables users to conduct ad hoc analysis and share insights anywhere, anytime, via mobile devices or the Web. It also combines the agility and productivity of self-service visual data discovery with the security, scalability, and governance features of enterprise-grade business intelligence. MicroStrategy Desktop is a standalone, on-premise visual data discovery tool designed to enable business users to analyze and understand their data. MicroStrategy Mobile™ enables organizations to rapidly build custom business applications that deliver analytics combined with transactions, multimedia, and custom workflows to mobile devices. MicroStrategy Secure Cloud™ combines all of the enterprise analytics, mobile, and security features in MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise with powerful and scalable data integration, validation, and warehousing services — all delivered in an environment where organizations can deploy transformational analytics applications in minutes.

Usher, MicroStrategy’s breakthrough security solution, is a powerful mobile security platform designed to dematerialize traditional forms of identity verification (such as passwords, tokens, and physical badges) and replace them with a single mobile identity badge that is cryptographically linked to its owner’s smartphone and dynamically linked to an enterprise’s existing identity repositories. Usher works on standard Android and iOS smartphones, and also boasts an Apple Watch™ integration.