Looker vs ThoughtSpot comparison

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2,246 views|1,776 comparisons
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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Looker and ThoughtSpot based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Embedded BI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Looker vs. ThoughtSpot Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 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
"We can centralize all our data models.""The product is easy to use.""The stability of Looker has been good since I have been using it. However, it depends on what components are being used.""I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability.""With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.""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 is a pretty stable solution because it is a cloud-based product."

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"It is easy to set up the solution.""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.""ThoughtSpot takes the modifying of existing reports out of our hands.""The ability to do ad hoc explorations of data has been most valuable.""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.""The initial setup was very straightforward.""It's easy to drill down or expand data to get more details right out of the box."

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Cons
"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.""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 visualization capability of the product is limited.""It needs to be more user-friendly.""Stability needs improvement.""The product does not have documented material."

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"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.""The one area of the solution that I do hear needs improvement is on the visualization front.""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.""If I want to order columns, this feature is not there.""The most difficult thing I found is that it only deals with the files and does not have direct connectivity to databases.""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.""A customized visualization is lacking in this product.""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."

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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 →

  • "I give the pricing a six out of ten."
  • More ThoughtSpot Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    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:It's easy to drill down or expand data to get more details right out of the box.
    Top Answer:I like the pricing structure. I get billed by how much data I put in, not how many people are looking at the data. It's better for me as I can control pricing a bit more easily.
    Top Answer:We'd like more flexibility with the calendar as our fiscal year does not align with the calendar year. We have to load or create our own custom calendar to actually need our fiscal year-end. With… more »
    Ranking
    4th
    out of 31 in Embedded BI
    Views
    2,246
    Comparisons
    1,776
    Reviews
    11
    Average Words per Review
    608
    Rating
    7.9
    7th
    out of 31 in Embedded BI
    Views
    1,300
    Comparisons
    997
    Reviews
    8
    Average Words per Review
    783
    Rating
    7.5
    Comparisons
    Amazon QuickSight logo
    Compared 23% of the time.
    Tableau logo
    Compared 17% of the time.
    Google Data Studio logo
    Compared 11% of the time.
    Qlik Sense logo
    Compared 7% of the time.
    Oracle OBIEE logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    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.

    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.

    Sample Customers
    Yahoo!, Etsy, Kohler, Hipcamp, Hubspot, Kickstarter, Venmo, Dollar Shave Club, 600+ customer
    Primary Capital Mortgage, Sterling Backcheck, RichRelevance, Rambus, Batteries Plus Bulbs
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Retailer8%
    Recruiting/Hr Firm8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization33%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm24%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Healthcare Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise42%
    Large Enterprise32%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise40%
    Large Enterprise46%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business13%
    Large Enterprise88%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business13%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise78%
    Buyer's Guide
    Looker vs. ThoughtSpot
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Looker vs. ThoughtSpot and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Looker is ranked 4th in Embedded BI with 19 reviews while ThoughtSpot is ranked 7th in Embedded BI with 8 reviews. Looker is rated 8.0, while ThoughtSpot is rated 7.6. 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 ThoughtSpot writes "You can drill down into any data right out of the box, with a straightforward deployment, and great support". Looker is most compared with Amazon QuickSight, Tableau, Google Data Studio, Qlik Sense and Oracle OBIEE, whereas ThoughtSpot is most compared with Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, Amazon QuickSight, Mode Analytics and Apache Superset. See our Looker vs. ThoughtSpot report.

    See our list of best Embedded BI vendors.

    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.