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Google Data Studio pros and cons

Vendor: Google
4.0 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

Buyer's Guide

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Looker empowers employees to make smarter decisions, leading to a strong ROI.
It uses an architecture that supports microservices, making it an ideal BI platform for BigQuery.
The platform stabilizes data visibility and improves interaction speed with clients.
Looker features allow non-technical users to create and maintain high-quality dashboards with ease.
Using Looker saves users significant time compared to previous manual processes.

CONS

There have been minor bugs, including a security bug that did not affect users.
Looker doesn't connect to Excel and can't consume data directly from REST APIs, limiting data source connectivity.
Integrations with other BI tools and databases need improvement to enhance functionality.
Looker's pricing model can be prohibitively expensive for smaller companies.
Manual work involved in defining schemas and restrictive syntax make maintenance challenging for administrators.
 

Google Data Studio Pros review quotes

Hemanthreddy Vakiti - PeerSpot reviewer
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Apr 1, 2026
Since we brought Looker into our project, it has improved data visibility and enabled faster interaction between us and our client.
TC
IT Admin at RusteTIC Inc.
Jun 22, 2026
In terms of time saved, my team probably saves close to 40 hours per week due to using Google Data Studio instead of the old manual process.
Anton Nenov - PeerSpot reviewer
Credit Risk Manager at ITF Group JSC
Oct 31, 2023
It is a pretty stable solution because it is a cloud-based product.
Learn what your peers think about Google Data Studio. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: July 2026.
906,852 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Dmitri Solodovnik - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Intelligence Team Lead at Oxagile
Oct 18, 2023
I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability.
Adedayo Iyanda - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Intelligence Analyst || Data Engineer at Traction Apps
Nov 1, 2023
It's quite effortless to navigate through various applications and review their updated data in real-time.
Abhishek Swain - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at Adaequare
Nov 7, 2023
The product is easy to use.
Luiz Cesar Gosi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Analytics Engineer at TalkDesk
Oct 19, 2023
We can centralize all our data models.
Subramani R - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Data Engineer at PayPal
Oct 5, 2022
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.
reviewer2143233 - PeerSpot reviewer
Student at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Dec 26, 2023
With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability.
reviewer1856880 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President Engineering at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
May 12, 2022
From a developer's perspective, the way the functionality's being handled is great.
 

Google Data Studio Cons review quotes

Hemanthreddy Vakiti - PeerSpot reviewer
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Apr 1, 2026
One thing is that Looker is not user-friendly to non-technical users.
TC
IT Admin at RusteTIC Inc.
Jun 22, 2026
The biggest friction point or frustration I have encountered with Google Data Studio is the lack of automatic integrations.
Anton Nenov - PeerSpot reviewer
Credit Risk Manager at ITF Group JSC
Oct 31, 2023
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.
Learn what your peers think about Google Data Studio. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: July 2026.
906,852 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Dmitri Solodovnik - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Intelligence Team Lead at Oxagile
Oct 18, 2023
Integrations with other BI tools could be better.
Adedayo Iyanda - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Intelligence Analyst || Data Engineer at Traction Apps
Nov 1, 2023
Stability needs improvement.
Abhishek Swain - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at Adaequare
Nov 7, 2023
The product does not have documented material.
Luiz Cesar Gosi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Analytics Engineer at TalkDesk
Oct 19, 2023
The integration with different databases must be improved.
Subramani R - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Data Engineer at PayPal
Oct 5, 2022
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.
reviewer2143233 - PeerSpot reviewer
Student at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Dec 26, 2023
The visualization capability of the product is limited.
reviewer1856880 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President Engineering at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
May 12, 2022
It needs to be more user-friendly.