Looker vs Microsoft Power BI vs ThoughtSpot 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 ThoughtSpot based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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Review summaries and opinions

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

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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Facilitates seamless data aggregation with some outdated visual elements hindering user appeal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 Visualization could be improved as it appears outdated.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.

Creates user-friendly analysis environments for large datasets

Sushma Polavarapu

Sr Data Analytics Consultant at Capgemini

The tool is user-friendly for the end users. It is primarily a search-based tool. Users do not need a technical background to work directly on the dataset. Its compatibility with most databases, including the latest from FlexMovely and Redshift, allows users to create joins and worksheets easily. ThoughtSpot is fast, even with one to ten terabytes of data.

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

"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."

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

"It's quite effortless to navigate through various applications and review their updated data in real-time."

"We can centralize all our data models."

"The product is easy to use."

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

"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."

More Looker pros

"SSRS and the Tabular server/Vertipaq engine/DAX are probably the two most valuable components."

"It is easy to use. It has got a desktop where people can develop their own dashboards. Basically, we have figured out how to connect finance contracts and all programs for the government agency. So, they can see everything in a dashboard. So, it is very easy to use from a technical standpoint of view."

"Power BI pricing is generally considered more affordable than Tableau."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Power BI is the drill-through feature that takes you to a details page the users want to see."

"It's a very easy-to-use solution."

"The scalability is good. We have 20 people in my organization using this solution and plan to increase usage."

"The drag and drop facility to easily change the data correctly is the most valuable feature. I am happy to see visualizations. It's easier to talk about and make people understand what is going on."

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

"ThoughtSpot is much easier to work with and maintain than other BI solutions, and it significantly reduces costs related to manual labor."

"The main core of ThoughtSpot is to create models, connect data pipelines, and create business models and dashboards on top of them."

"I like ThoughtSpot's search capabilities. You can also create custom analytics even if you aren't an experienced data analyst. We have users with no data analytics experience making some of the dashboards we've created, copying components, and customizing them to their specific use cases."

"It is easy to set up the solution."

"ThoughtSpot excels in being self-service oriented, allowing users who aren't developers to easily create their own reports and visualizations, making it very intuitive."

"ThoughtSpot takes the modifying of existing reports out of our hands."

"The scalability is good."

"I would say the return on investment is good. Whatever we invested, we got results. We have been finding it easy to use and onboard new use cases."

More ThoughtSpot pros

Cons

"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."

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"The product does not have documented material."

"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 integration with different databases must be improved."

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"I would like to see integration with Excel."

"Microsoft BI lacks some of the scheme features. It would be beneficial if there were a way to show how we move values in a different way."

"There needs to be improved guidance and documentation for the initial setup of Power BI as it currently remains complex."

"Microsoft BI typically connects to a database, often SQL Server, but it's also capable of connecting to multiple databases, pulling data from them, and allowing for data consolidation. You can then aggregate and generate dashboards and reports from this combined data. Personally, I wouldn't claim to have the expertise to suggest significant changes or additional features, as it functions quite well as is."

"It would be nice to use other connectors to link with the data."

"I would like Microsoft to include some inbuilt machine learning so that it becomes point-and-click, rather than us developing models out of API and BI connecting to that and getting the results. That process gets in the way of continuity."

"A lot of people work on Excel, so being able to export an Excel file as part of a subscription would be an improvement."

"There is room for improvement in terms of pricing for the solution."

More Microsoft Power BI cons

"I would like to see more flexibility in adding the pins. Currently, we have four different sizes in which I can add pins, but I would like to be able to resize my pins."

"A crucial feature we needed is missing, which involves restricting views of certain KPIs when users select conflicting parameters. We had to create a workaround, which impacted performance by loading pinboards slowly."

"ThoughtSpot lacks an intermediate layer for data loading, unlike Qlik, which affects dashboard stability when the database has issues."

"ThoughtSpot is a fairly new product, so some usability aspects aren't as mature as we'd like them to be. One example is their organizational methodology, like how objects are organized in their dashboards inside the product. They're all on a flat list, which works if you've got five or 10 dashboards. However, it's insufficient when you're a large enterprise with multiple groups looking at the same dashboards. It isn't organized well."

"Some areas for improvement include the pixel-perfect dashboards, which are not as refined as those in Tableau."

"A customized visualization is lacking in this product."

"The visualization customization needs improvement."

"The dashboards could give you more ability to fine tune the appearance. You get a great deal more control over how something looks in Power BI than you do in ThoughtSpot."

More ThoughtSpot cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not cheap, but it's not expensive for big companies."

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

"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."

"It is cheap."

"Its price is very low. It is like $10 per user, per month. The clients pay for their own licenses. It is not on us. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees. That's the beauty. With other systems, you need to spend a couple of thousand dollars just to get started, and then you need to spend $500 per year for the license, which becomes much more costly. You have a system here where for $120 to $140 a year, you can start with two people and start developing and deploying. You can see why the cost difference is huge, especially when you are on a low scale, like us, and you're not building something very huge."

"Its pricing is great."

"Microsoft BI for desktop is free to use, and you can download and use it."

"All of the licenses are on an annual basis, but Microsoft will amortize it to an extent. If it's five years, they'll include the possible interest they might have the following year. Ideally, their licensing scheme is an annual license, but they make it easier for some of our clients to take a five-year license but package everything inside for them to buy the license for five years."

"I would advise that Microsoft BI products are rightly priced and the licensing is easy to follow and to fulfill."

"We have enterprise licenses and some of the other tools or features come as a package and others you have to purchase separately."

"It is somewhere in the middle in terms of price. Licensing is quite clear."

"It is based on the usage. If you're using it, you pay for it, and if you're not using it, you stop paying for it."

More Microsoft Power BI pricing and cost advice

"I give the pricing a six out of ten."

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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

Educational Organization

26%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

37%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ThoughtSpot?

The pricing is on the higher end but reasonable for what ThoughtSpot offers.

What needs improvement with ThoughtSpot?

ThoughtSpot lacks an intermediate layer for data loading, unlike Qlik, which affects dashboard stability when the dat...

What is your primary use case for ThoughtSpot?

I am working for a telecommunication company where we use ThoughtSpot ( /products/thoughtspot-reviews ) to create mon...

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker

Comparisons

Databricks vs Looker

Compared 18% of the time

Tableau vs Looker

Compared 13% of the time

Compared 12% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs Looker

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle OBIEE vs Looker

Compared 5% of the time

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Tableau vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 14% of the time

Domo vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 8% of the time

Databricks vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 7% of the time

KNIME vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Power BI Competitors

Tableau vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 17% of the time

Databricks vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 16% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 9% of the time

TIBCO Spotfire vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 6% of the time

Napkin AI vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Download Looker product report

Looker

May 2025

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Microsoft Power BI

May 2025

Download ThoughtSpot product report

April 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

ThoughtSpot is a powerful business intelligence tool that allows easy searching and drilling into data. Its ad hoc exploration and query-based search features are highly valued, and it is easy to set up, stable, and scalable.

The solution is used for reporting purposes, self-service BI, and embedding into other applications for customers to do self-service analytics. It helps businesses with metrics, KPIs, and important insights by sourcing data from various sources into one golden source and visualizing it in an easy way for the business to consume. The pricing model is ideal, charging for data rather than the number of users.