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Facilitates seamless data aggregation with some outdated visual elements hindering user appeal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 Visualization could be improved as it appears outdated.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

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

"We can centralize all our data models."

"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."

"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."

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

"The product is easy to use."

More Looker pros

"We have found that the reporting and publishing are great."

"It gives you an edge if you are on the Microsoft platform. If you have been using Microsoft products for a long time or if you have the Microsoft infrastructure, this is the right tool for you. It has seamless integration with Microsoft SQL Server and other sources, and you get the best of the three things (SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS) in one suite."

"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."

"The various different ETL tools within it and the ability to have different data refreshes and scheduled refreshes [real-time data refresh capabilities] have most significantly improved the data analysis processes."

"One of the most valuable aspects of this tool is its ease of use and the ability to easily share information with others."

"I like all the tools in Microsoft BI because they all have different purposes. There are a lot of people using Microsoft BI, and everybody is using it. The users have adapted well to the technology."

"I like Microsoft BI's drill-down feature and its overall ease of use."

"The solution makes it easy for me to develop reports and publish them."

"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."

"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."

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

"It's easy to drill down or expand data to get more details right out of the box."

"The tool is user-friendly for the end users."

"The scalability is good."

"The tool is user-friendly for the end users."

"It is easy to set up the solution."

More ThoughtSpot pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"The integration with different databases must be improved."

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"The product does not have documented material."

"I have found that some issues exist, indicating room for improvement in scalability."

"The UI looks awkward once the graphs have been generated in the console. This is what Microsoft can work on."

"The reporting needs to be improved."

"It should be more user-friendly. There are very small or tiny icons that you need to move very carefully. If you go a little bit up and down, some of the values change. Its user interface should be improved. It should be like Tableau. Its performance is also slow and should be improved. I definitely feel some sort of speed issues with Power BI. The integration of Excel with Power BI would also be good."

"From any improvement perspective, I want the product to be made available to users free of cost...The stability and scalability of the product can be better."

"Anything they can do to improve enterprise collaboration is going to help people get set up and utilize the solution."

"I would like to see some AI incorporated into this solution in the future."

"Powerpoints are not available in the report server."

More Microsoft Power BI cons

"The most difficult thing I found is that it only deals with the files and does not have direct connectivity to databases."

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

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

"I encountered limitations mainly around UI and dashboard configuration."

"In terms of features, I'd like to be able to pivot data - for example, going from rows to columns. It's not easy to do."

"The one area of the solution that I do hear needs improvement is on the visualization front."

"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."

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

More ThoughtSpot cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is cheap."

"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."

"The license is on a yearly basis."

"The premium capacity is very costly in respect of the market in Egypt, amounting to $5,000 monthly."

"The solution is priced well for what they offer. However, the premium version is very expensive."

"I very much recommend the free trial mode."

"It's straightforward licensing."

"The cost of this product is very low, at approximately $8 or $9 per month for a developer."

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

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

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

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

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...

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs Looker

Comparisons

Databricks vs Looker

Compared 19% of the time

Tableau vs Looker

Compared 13% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker

Compared 8% of the time

Compared 8% of the time

Domo vs Looker

Compared 5% of the time

More Looker Competitors

Tableau vs Microsoft Power BI

Compared 13% 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

Databricks vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 16% of the time

Tableau vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 14% of the time

Napkin AI vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 7% of the time

Julius AI vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 7% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 6% of the time

More ThoughtSpot Competitors

Product Reports

Download Looker product report

Looker

July 2025

Download Microsoft Power BI product report

Microsoft Power BI

June 2025

Download ThoughtSpot product report

June 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.