Looker Studio vs Zendesk comparison

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Looker Studio

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Looker Studio and Zendesk compete in the fields of data visualization and customer service management, respectively. Looker Studio is strong in data analytics while Zendesk stands out in customer service features, leaning towards Zendesk for customer-focused operations.

Features: Looker Studio offers excellent data visualization with features like seamless integration with Excel and Google Sheets, data aggregation before visualization, and custom filter creation. Zendesk provides robust customer service management with features like comprehensive ticketing, integration with multiple business applications, and customizable workflows.

Room for Improvement: Looker Studio could enhance its real-time collaboration capabilities, expand its integration options beyond Google products, and improve data model customization. Zendesk may benefit from streamlining its interface for easier navigation, improving integration with non-CRM tools, and offering more affordable pricing for smaller teams.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Looker Studio integrates well with existing data ecosystems, providing instant insights, although it may need enhanced guidance for users. Zendesk requires alignment with CRM systems but compensates with excellent implementation support and comprehensive user training that supports its complex deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Looker Studio's competitive pricing offers good ROI due to its data utilization capabilities without significant initial costs. Zendesk demands a higher upfront investment because of its extensive features; however, it promises high ROI through improved customer satisfaction and retention.

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

Looker Studio vs. Zendesk

September 2025

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Helped 867,445 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

Looker Studio

Ranking in Reporting

8th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zendesk

Ranking in Reporting

15th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (6th), CRM (17th), Help Desk Software (8th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (8th), Sales Force Automation (9th), Knowledge Management Software (5th), Community Platforms (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Looker Studio is 3.0%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Reporting Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Looker Studio	3.0%
Zendesk	0.5%
Other	96.5%

Reporting

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.

Read full review

JohanSkibdahl

CEO at Etcetera Networks

Automating customer support with advanced AI capabilities and seamless communication

Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls. It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities. This intelligent tool can manage complex queries before users even realize they are interacting with a non-human. Additionally, we have integrated Zendesk with Datto and Klaviyo, enhancing our workflows.

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

"I would rate this solution eight or nine out of ten."

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

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

"The solution is free so that is a good feature."

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

"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."

"This has improved our organization by allowing people to see their data and develop visualizations themselves."

More Looker Studio pros

"Its agility and simplicity are the most valuable features. This tool is very user-friendly."

"We rarely had issues with Zendesk."

"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."

"It's a very stable tool, very powerful."

"I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to use, and I haven't encountered any issues with delays or communication gaps in ticket resolutions."

"The most valuable feature is the trackability of incoming requests. The system keeps a comprehensive history of work requests, making it a useful tool for our internal processes."

"It's very convenient to use."

"The most valuable features of Zendesk Support are collaboration, reports, and a self-service portal. The customer and team can see all the information needed from the portal."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

More Looker Studio cons

"As per me, there arent much significant issues or areas for improvement with Zendesk, as my usage of it is limited. I appreciate its ability to organize tickets effectively based on tags, allowing me to easily gather and analyze customer feedback and requests."

"The solution itself wasn't easy to set up."

"The data you get when logged in to Zendesk Support differs from the data you get when you programmatically query Zendesk Support through its API because of a sync time delay."

"Zendesk Guide could be improved by allowing us to put our assets in one location. What happens now for each article, for example, is we have to upload the images for that article to that location, so the image reuse is still not something that they have perfected. If they could allow us to update all the images in one location, and then pull the image from there, it would be easier when working on Multibrand projects. There are no Multibrand updates available—we have to update each brand manually. For my company, I have come up with an API tool which allows me to push the content to multiple brands together, but if you don't have something like that, you have to manually do it."

"The solution could integrate better with QR codes from some websites such as Facebook."

"One of the drawbacks of Zendesk is that it doesn't provide a secure way for us to send data. So, we usually use a secure SharePoint folder link. We put that in the Zendesk ticket so that the requester has a secure way of getting to their data."

"They have something called Zendesk Explore, which isn't as good as what they had in place previously."

"Zendesk Guide's customization could be improved. I would like it to be easier and maybe open-sourced, so that if you have a developer in your company, you can do it yourself. Right now, that isn't allowed, so you need to have it done via the integrator. Another improvement—this is nit-picking—is that it could be less easy to make changes. Some things are so easy that they sometimes look a little amateur-ish. Most of the templates are built-in so they can be used directly, so they are very simple."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"We pay for the solution on a yearly basis and my understanding is that the cost is about $30,000. That's the cost for 24 to 25 agents."

"From what I hear, Zendesk's pricing is a little expensive."

"You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for the support as well."

"Zendesk's licensing is not cheap. For Enterprise, we are paying $200 per agent. It's a per-month cost, so it's pretty steep. There are some services you need to pay extra for. For example, with Zendesk Guide, we had to buy the most expensive offering in order to get Multibrand and everything. We also had to pay a lot of money for themes."

"The price is very competitive."

"There are different plans that are offered. We are using the entry-level plan. The overall price of the solution should be reduced. The price is too high."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Computer Software Company

22%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Performing Arts

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	29
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	11

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 do you like most about Zendesk Support?

I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?

Zendesk's pricing is reasonable. It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.

What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

I'm going to piggyback on what I said regarding Freshdesk concerning what could be better in Zendesk: incorporate more AI. I know many CRM tools are already on the way to do that.

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Product Reports

Download Looker Studio product report

Looker Studio

September 2025

Download Zendesk product report

August 2025

Also Known As

Data Studio

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

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

Zendesk Support is intuitive, and it's built with support agents in mind. Everything they need lives in a single, dynamic help desk interface so it's easy to be productive and manage customer interactions.

Sample Customers

Genesys, Shueisha

Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber