Compare Looker and Tableau Desktop
See this
side-by-side comparison of Looker vs. Tableau Desktop
based on preference data from user reviews. Looker rates 4.4/5 stars with 930 reviews. By contrast, Tableau Desktop rates 4.4/5 stars with 894 reviews. Each product's score is calculated with real-time data from verified user reviews, to help you make the best choice between these two options, and decide which one is best for your business needs.
 Looker |  Tableau Desktop | |
| Star Rating | Looker | Tableau Desktop |
| Market Segments | Looker Mid-Market (69.0% of reviews) | Tableau Desktop Enterprise (49.0% of reviews) |
| Entry Level Price | Looker No pricing information available | Tableau Desktop $70/ per user / per month / billed annually |
Looker vs Tableau Desktop
When assessing the two solutions, reviewers found Looker easier to use and do business with overall. However, reviewers preferred the ease of set up with Tableau Desktop, along with administration.
- Reviewers felt that Tableau Desktop meets the needs of their business better than Looker.
- When comparing quality of ongoing product support, reviewers felt that Looker is the preferred option.
- For feature updates and roadmaps, our reviewers preferred the direction of Looker over Tableau Desktop.
Categories
Shared Categories
Looker and Tableau Desktop are categorized as Analytics Platforms
Unique Categories
Looker is categorized as Digital Analytics, Embedded Business Intelligence, Marketing Analytics, and Sales Analytics
Tableau Desktop has no unique categories
Pricing
‐
Free Trial
Tableau Creator
$70/ per user / per month / billed annually
Free Trial
Ratings
Meets Requirements
Looker
Responses: 648
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 747
Ease of Use
Looker
Responses: 646
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 754
Ease of Setup
Looker
Responses: 266
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 273
Ease of Admin
Looker
Responses: 280
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 258
Quality of Support
Looker
Responses: 544
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 617
Ease of Doing Business With
Looker
Responses: 262
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 246
Product Direction (% positive)
Looker
Responses: 605
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 746
Features
Reports
Reports Interface
Looker
Responses: 343
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 555
Verified Feature
Steps to Answer
Looker
Responses: 314
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 486
Verified Feature
Graphs and Charts
Looker
Responses: 346
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 583
Verified Feature
Score Cards
Looker
Responses: 239
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 432
Verified Feature
Dashboards
Looker
Responses: 349
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 574
Verified Feature
Data Preparation
Connectors
Looker
Responses: 95
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 59
Verified Feature
Data Governance
Looker
Responses: 90
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 61
Verified Feature
Data Modeling and Blending
Data Querying
Looker
Responses: 123
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 68
Verified Feature
Data Filtering
Looker
Responses: 132
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 71
Verified Feature
Data Blending
Looker
Responses: 121
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 70
Verified Feature
Self Service
Calculated Fields
Looker
Responses: 325
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 558
Verified Feature
Data Column Filtering
Looker
Responses: 335
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 568
Verified Feature
Data Discovery
Looker
Responses: 322
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 527
Verified Feature
Search
Looker
Responses: 320
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 485
Verified Feature
Collaboration / Workflow
Looker
Responses: 305
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 451
Verified Feature
Automodeling
Looker
Responses: 232
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 370
Verified Feature
Advanced Analytics
Predictive Analytics
Looker
Responses: 164
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 383
Verified Feature
Data Visualization
Looker
Responses: 330
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 565
Verified Feature
Big Data Services
Looker
Responses: 242
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 387
Verified Feature
Building Reports
Data Transformation
Looker
Responses: 154
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 187
Verified Feature
Data Modeling
Looker
Responses: 162
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 171
Verified Feature
WYSIWYG Report Design
Looker
Responses: 136
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 133
Verified Feature
Integration APIs
Looker
Responses: 104
Verified Feature
Tableau Desktop
Responses: 122
Verified Feature
Reviewers' Company Size
Reviewers of Looker were most often representing companies in the Mid-Market segment, while reviewers for Tableau Desktop were more commonly in the Enterprise segment.
Small-Business
(50 or fewer emp.)
Looker
Tableau Desktop
Mid-Market
(51-1000 emp.)
Looker
Tableau Desktop
Enterprise
(> 1000 emp.)
Looker
Tableau Desktop
Reviewers' Industry
Computer Software
11.0%
Internet
9.4%
Information Technology and Services
9.2%
Financial Services
8.2%
Marketing and Advertising
7.9%
Other
54.3%
Information Technology and Services
11.3%
Higher Education
7.9%
Marketing and Advertising
6.0%
Hospital & Health Care
5.3%
Computer Software
4.9%
Other
64.5%
Reviews
Most Helpful Favorable Review
Alan C.
Administrator in Staffing and Recruiting
So many things are done right: - The simplicity of creating a meta schema using lookml, the learning curve is lightning fast - The flexibility of the system, making data available to inter customer has never been so easy - The support team is really...
Jeff B.
User in Retail
Tableau enables users the ability build data visualizations in the matter of minutes without requiring technical report development knowledge. In my opinion, the top 5 best qualities: 1. Drag and drop functionality is easy for any user to...
Most Helpful Critical Review
User in Consumer Goods
Looker forces a company into two streams of thought: an analyst first culture and essentially married to Looker. Looker really thrives at young or small companies with no centralized reporting or analytics/data science teams. For the few people who know...
Kimiko T.
User in Real Estate
Needs an updated UI and better data connection process
Discussions
Best way to start on visualizations?
2 comments
FS
Looker has a built-in set of visualizations that you can automatically apply to any dataset that they work with. Once you setup your initial connection to a...Read more
Which databases does Looker work with?
1 comment
Offical Response from Looker
Looker works with any SQL readable data store, including Hadoop. Looker sits in-database allowing you to access all of your row level data and leverage the...Read more
Does Looker have and OEM or Embedded offering?
1 comment
G2
You can whitelabel the Looker app, or embed Looker visualizations into your own web app.
https://looker.com/product/powered-byRead more
why did saleforce by tableau? IS SFDC reporting going to change now?
2 comments
WM
Buying tableau was a strategic decision for Salesforce primarily because their products lacked the analytics edge at a sales point of view and now they have...Read more
What is the scalability if one starts with 1-10 professional licenses?
1 comment
G2
Its very easy to scale up, cost depends whether u want server edition or cloud based and u can find on internet, u can call for special pricing from their...Read more
What is dual axis and its purpose in Tableau?
1 comment
RM
Dual axis charts are used when you want to show 2 measures on same axis.
For example you want to show year wise sale using a bar chart and want to show a...Read more
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