Looker vs Microsoft Power BI vs Sisense comparison

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Looker

Microsoft Power BI

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Executive Summary

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

Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce, Qlik, MicroStrategy and others in Embedded BI.

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

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Embedded BI

August 2025

Helped 867,826 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

Embedded BI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Looker	8.2%
Tableau Enterprise	27.4%
Qlik Sense	12.0%
Other	52.400000000000006%

Embedded BI

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

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Sisense	1.2%
Microsoft Power BI	14.5%
Tableau Enterprise	11.0%
Other	73.3%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

Kishore Jhunjhunwala

Sr Analytics Consultant at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

A cloud solution for operational reporting but is expensive

Some basic feature that is available in other reporting tools is missing. Looker has the ability to show more than 5,000 rows for operational reporting. Some reporting tools allow users to scroll down to see more than 5,000 rows, but in Looker, you have to download the entire dataset. Looker should consider adding a scroll-down option to allow users to view large datasets on screen without downloading them. Looker has some options for granting users access as viewers. However, viewers cannot download the entire dataset. Only superusers can download the whole dataset on the Explore screen. This is a big limitation, as you cannot give any user viewer access. You can give access to superuser access, which is a cost to the company.

Facilitates seamless data aggregation with some outdated visual elements hindering user appeal

Shoury Priyanshu

Senior Manager, Strategy & Consulting at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd

Real-time data integration is an area for improvement. Although I've worked on several solutions involving real-time integration, it's not very user-friendly and often lags, especially with over a million data rows. This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today. There are challenges with scalability, requiring multiple pages in dashboards to manage these issues. Visualization could be improved as it appears outdated. Users, especially newcomers, find it unappealing and not user-friendly.

Helps businesses save time and offers good integration features

Wiboon Thabsuwan

Senior Consultant at IMD Company Limited

I would say that using Sisense on Linux's platform might not be advantageous for everyone. I am more familiar with Windows than Linux. With Windows, the system performs very fast. Even if your data size consists of like 10,00,00,000 loads or whatever, it works very fast. When using Sisense, it is better to have some people with a very good understanding of Linux. I need more technical people who understand about Linux OS. Only two people would be enough to operate the tool.

More Microsoft Power BI pros

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The stability of Looker has been good since I have been using it. However, it depends on what components are being used."

"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."

"It is a pretty stable solution because it is a cloud-based product."

"We can centralize all our data models."

"With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability."

"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."

"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability."

More Looker pros

"In the early stage of an implementation, it not only helps decision making, but it allows people to have insight into problems with data so that they can go and get it corrected."

"The most valuable feature is definitely the visual aspect and the DAX capabilities to virtually do anything."

"It is a good platform for data analysis, organization, and all of the other interim performances that are necessary."

"The capability to add custom visuals and create Power BI apps. You can package datasets, synchronization details, and dashboards into a single app."

"With the out-of-the-box Data Platform and Business Intelligence ecosystem, you get the entire platform with a single license."

"As it was my first time using Power BI, I can say that it was fairly easy to learn, especially if you already know BI-type tools."

"Ease of development and maintenance."

"The flexibility of the program is valuable. We are able to add other information to the reporting information and expand upon it."

"We like that this solution allows us to use data cubes to set up specific visualizations."

"The most valuable thing I have found is the ability for Sisense to connect data from totally different sources."

"Visually displaying data."

"ElastiCube Manager is a very easy to use ETL tool, which includes the ability to easily transform raw data into reusable data."

"The solution's technical support team is good."

"The Sisense solution was very easy to set up, and its visualizations were effective."

"Ability to work with very large data sources without the limitations of Excel."

"The dashboard design interface is very intuitive and allows you to quickly and easily produce professional, innovative dashboards."

More Sisense pros

Cons

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"Stability needs improvement."

"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."

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"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."

"The product does not have documented material."

"The integration with different databases must be improved."

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"Performance can be an issue when there's too much data, and getting data into Microsoft Power BI via APIs can be slow."

"The orchestration module for refreshing data flows is something that is missing and we have to do it manually."

"One area for improvement in Microsoft Power BI is serviceability. Compared to one of its competitors: Tableau, there are a lot of things which you cannot do in this tool, that can be done in Tableau."

"We haven't used it that long and I haven't come across anything that's stood out as needing to be fixed."

"Microsoft is behind IBM when it comes to security features."

"The solution could improve by having more attractive graphical charts."

"This solution's performance when handling big data could be improved. Right now, if you're handling big data, the application becomes slow and the performance is very low."

"The handling of the workspaces can be made more granular for user access rights. It can be managed a little bit better in terms of the connection to Active Directory so that we have more granular access rights. I am not sure if this is really possible or if we can solve it differently, but we need a lot of workspaces, and we are not sure how we can deal with it from the access rights perspective."

More Microsoft Power BI cons

"I would like to see an improvement in the live data connection, specifically making the process faster."

"I would like Sisense to improve its performance, particularly when we are dealing with large-scale data."

"The initial version we purchased only ran on Windows servers, which was less than ideal for our DevOps team. I believe that has been remedied in the latest release."

"The solution's setup process could be easier."

"Larger datasets will sometimes give a "Accumulated logs" error when trying to make minor changes. T"

"I would say that using Sisense on Linux's platform might not be advantageous for everyone."

"They should improve the filters to create downloaded data by moving them to the top of the dashboard."

"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."

More Sisense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is cheap."

"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."

"I do not have to make any payments to use the solution."

"Looker is expensive and could be made better by reducing it."

"The solution is less expensive than other PowerBI tools, which is why most people go with it, although it does cost more than MSBI tools."

"Once the trial period for the BI service is over, the cost is approximately $10 USD per user, per month, so it's quite reasonable."

"Both cost-wise and implementation-wise, this product is a good choice."

"There is room for at least 45% discount as compared to the initial price."

"For my primary use case, i.e. teaching students, the free version of Power BI is adequate."

"I very much recommend the free trial mode."

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"Downloading Power BI Desktop is free."

More Microsoft Power BI pricing and cost advice

"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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Comparison Review

it_user79932

Senior Manager - BI Head at NVidia

Feb 4, 2015

Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho

1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…

What do you like most about Looker?

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	134
Midsize Enterprise	57
Large Enterprise	165

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Looker?

I do not have to make any payments to use the solution. In the beginning, Looker may work fine for its users. If adva...

What needs improvement with Looker?

The visualization capability of the product is limited. From an improvement perspective, the product should have more...

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I wou...

Is Power BI a complete platform or only a visualization tool?

Power BI is an advanced visualization tool oriented to big data with a very complete set of widgets to visualize info...

How does Oracle OBIEE compare with Microsoft BI?

Oracle OBIEE is great in allowing design and creativity per the individual needs of the organization. Dashboards are ...

What needs improvement with Sisense?

I would like to see an improvement in the live data connection, specifically making the process faster. Additionally,...

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...

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 ...

Tableau Enterprise vs Looker

Comparisons

Databricks vs Looker

Compared 15% of the time

Compared 12% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Looker

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker

Compared 8% of the time

Looker Studio vs Looker

Compared 2% of the time

More Looker Competitors

Tableau Enterprise vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 13% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 9% of the time

Databricks vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 7% of the time

Domo vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 7% of the time

KNIME Business Hub vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Power BI Competitors

Tableau Enterprise vs Sisense

Compared 19% of the time

Apache Superset vs Sisense

Compared 12% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Sisense

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Sisense

Compared 7% of the time

Visokio Omniscope vs Sisense

Compared 3% of the time

More Sisense Competitors

Product Reports

Download Looker product report

Looker

September 2025

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Microsoft Power BI

September 2025

Download Sisense product report

August 2025

Also Known As

No data available

SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI

No data available

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.

Google

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.

Microsoft

Sisense is an end-to-end business analytics software that enables users to easily prepare and analyze large, complex datasets. Sisense’s Single-Stack BI software includes data preparation, data management, analysis, visualization and reporting capabilities.