Looker vs Microsoft Power BI comparison

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2,193 views|1,766 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
Microsoft Logo
34,187 views|29,049 comparisons
92% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Looker and Microsoft Power BI based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Tableau, Qlik, MicroStrategy and others in Embedded BI.
To learn more, read our detailed Embedded BI Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability.""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 product is easy to use.""It is a pretty stable solution because it is a cloud-based product.""With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.""The stability of Looker has been good since I have been using it. However, it depends on what components are being used.""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."

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"Many of my customers already use Microsoft products like Office 365, so I often propose Microsoft Power BI because it integrates well with all the standard Microsoft business tools. And it's the quickest tool to implement and start using daily.""Implementation is very quick and the solution is very user-friendly.""Users already using Excel can generate new reports and dashboards within minutes.""The solution overall is very useful. The reports that are generated and the reporting functionality management are beneficial.""We have a lot of servers and applications from which we want reports, and it allows us to create reports from an SQL source or some other source.""The sharing features are vital, especially the ability to share and test different shared dashboards.""The most valuable feature of Microsoft BI is its visualization and its ease of use.""Because this solution is very easy, and very visual, you can have results in minutes."

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Cons
"The product does not have documented material.""The integration with different databases must be improved.""It needs to be more user-friendly.""The visualization capability of the product is limited.""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.""Integrations with other BI tools could be better.""Stability needs improvement.""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."

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"From an improvement perspective, I think if the Power BI developers of that platform would really focus on being more detailed and specific on the error messages, it would help a lot of developers troubleshoot and maintain the report ECT or the dashboard ECT.""Integration with products that are not Microsoft could be more improved.""It should be easier to use when there are multiple system sources.""Maybe they can enhance the UI a bit. Right now, it's very basic, I would say, compared to the MicroStrategy or Qlik.""I would like for there to be some type of user manual that shows steps on how to navigate the solution.""​It needs more analytic tools.""At times, I feel that the system needs improvement in single sign-on, especially for the on-premises side of the tool.""I would like it to be a little bit more secure when I'm using the design feature on my desktop. For example, to have the ability to set up security passwords for opening the file. Currently, they don't have that. Tableau, for example, has a visual way of doing data processing steps, whereas the Power BI system still has some code, although it is very low code. It would be great to have the kind of view that Tableau has."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Looker is expensive and could be made better by reducing it."
  • "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."
  • "It is cheap."
  • "I do not have to make any payments to use the solution."
  • More Looker Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "There is room for at least 45% discount as compared to the initial price."
  • "MS BI comes with all the tools and it is, to the best of my knowledge, the most affordable solution."
  • "All in all, for the price, this is an excellent tool for helping your organization turn mounds of data into useful insights."
  • "I would advise that Microsoft BI products are rightly priced and the licensing is easy to follow and to fulfill."
  • "Remove the cost of a licence to show a dashboard within SharePoint. Why should readers of a dashboard have to pay to view? ​"
  • "Make it low in cost. It is a no-brainer!"
  • "Globally, we evaluated a number of products, including Salesforce's product, Microsoft won on the ground of simple functionally and cost."
  • "Paid for itself in the first month."
  • More Microsoft Power BI Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.
    Top Answer: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 to… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows:  1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle  - look for SAP… more »
    Top Answer:Power BI is an advanced visualization tool oriented to big data with a very complete set of widgets to visualize information, control users accessing information, the configuration of governance… more »
    Top Answer:Oracle OBIEE is great in allowing design and creativity per the individual needs of the organization. Dashboards are fully customizable and very user-friendly. This solution is very stable. Oracle… more »
    Ranking
    5th
    out of 31 in Embedded BI
    Views
    2,193
    Comparisons
    1,766
    Reviews
    10
    Average Words per Review
    634
    Rating
    7.7
    Views
    34,187
    Comparisons
    29,049
    Reviews
    23
    Average Words per Review
    553
    Rating
    7.9
    Comparisons
    Amazon QuickSight logo
    Compared 23% of the time.
    Tableau logo
    Compared 17% of the time.
    Google Data Studio logo
    Compared 10% of the time.
    Databricks logo
    Compared 7% of the time.
    IBM Cognos logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    Also Known As
    SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI
    Learn More
    Overview

    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.

    Microsoft Power BI is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization. This tool stands out for its ability to merge and analyze data from various sources. Widely adopted across different industries and departments, Power BI is instrumental in creating visually appealing dashboards and generating insightful business intelligence reports. Its intuitive interface, robust visualization capabilities, and seamless integration with other Microsoft applications empower users to easily create interactive reports and gain valuable insights.

    Sample Customers
    Yahoo!, Etsy, Kohler, Hipcamp, Hubspot, Kickstarter, Venmo, Dollar Shave Club, 600+ customer
    Accenture Adidas Aetna AIG Airbus Alibaba Allstate Amazon American Express Aon AT&T Audi Bank of America BASF Bayer Berkshire Hathaway Boeing Coca-Cola Comcast Cisco Coca-Cola Dell Disney Emirates Equinix FedEx Ford GE Google H&M Home Depot Honda IBM Intel JPMorgan Chase Kellogg's Kroger L'Oréal McDonald's Merck MetLife Microsoft Nike Oracle P&G PepsiCo Procter & Gamble Prudential Financial SAP Siemens Snapchat Spotify Starbucks Target Toyota T-Mobile Unilever Visa Walmart WeWork World Bank Xerox
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Retailer8%
    Recruiting/Hr Firm8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization33%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Energy/Utilities Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization35%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Government5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise42%
    Large Enterprise32%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise39%
    Large Enterprise46%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business39%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise41%
    Large Enterprise45%
    Buyer's Guide
    Embedded BI
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Tableau, Qlik, MicroStrategy and others in Embedded BI. Updated: March 2024.
    768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Looker is ranked 5th in Embedded BI with 19 reviews while Microsoft Power BI is ranked 1st in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 297 reviews. Looker is rated 8.0, while Microsoft Power BI is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Looker writes "The APIs are exposed at every level, so it's highly modular". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Power BI writes "A complete ecosystem with an builtin ETL tool, good integrations with python and R, and support of DAX and Power Query (M languages)". Looker is most compared with Amazon QuickSight, Tableau, Google Data Studio, Databricks and IBM Cognos, whereas Microsoft Power BI is most compared with Tableau, Amazon QuickSight, KNIME, Domo and Oracle OBIEE.

    We monitor all Embedded BI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.