Looker Studio vs MicroStrategy comparison

Read 162 MicroStrategy reviews

5,103 Views
3,419 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Looker Studio

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

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

Find out in this report how the two Reporting solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Looker Studio vs. MicroStrategy Report (Updated: February 2023).

Looker Studio vs. MicroStrategy

February 2023

Download the complete report

Helped 884,873 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Looker Studio

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Reporting (11th)

MicroStrategy

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

162

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (14th), Embedded BI (4th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. Looker Studio is designed for Reporting and holds a mindshare of 2.6%, up 2.4% compared to last year.
MicroStrategy, on the other hand, focuses on BI (Business Intelligence) Tools, holds 1.2% mindshare, down 3.2% since last year.

Reporting Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Looker Studio	2.6%
Microsoft Power BI	17.4%
Tableau Enterprise	16.5%
Other	63.5%

Reporting

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
MicroStrategy	1.2%
Microsoft Power BI	9.3%
Tableau Enterprise	6.7%
Other	82.8%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

Heron Ziegel

Project Engineer at Quartz Consulting Group

Has supported quick dashboard creation and data sharing but lacks tools for managing multiple reports efficiently

We integrated Looker Studio with other platforms in our data ecosystem; we tried integrating with Sheets, and that went okay, but it could have been better. It could have been better because it needed a very specific format to read the data, so we had to reformat the sheet file. Looker Studio was mostly just helpful in that it provided live updating charts for tracking performance indicators in the organization. Integrating with a database was very difficult because there wasn't a lot of feedback for what was going wrong with the connection. I don't remember if we reached out to support. I didn't personally reach out, but my boss may have. I didn't reach out to support, so I do not have experience with it to rate it. We worked with the free version of Looker Studio initially, and we upgraded at some point to the pro version; I don't remember if we actually paid for it or if it was just a free trial. The pricing was reasonable. I remember doing a price comparison, and it was pretty reasonable, but it did have fewer features than a lot of other software, which was okay for a comparable price but a little cheaper.

Read full review

AnkushSingh

Lead Software Engineer at Momentus

Provides strong data visualization and security while easing deployment across multiple sectors

The most effective features of MicroStrategy for data analysis in my experience are the security, the metadata management, and the administration, along with the options of different workarounds available to accommodate different types of requirements. MicroStrategy's data visualization capabilities are great, and I would rate them nine out of 10.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I am impressed with the tool's scheduling mechanism, refresh mechanism, and different types of charts."

"The fact that Looker Studio is free and has a free tier was probably the biggest benefit; it is very accessible and not too difficult to use."

"The solution is free so that is a good feature."

"The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. We observed the progress of our portfolio from last week to the current week, allowing us to compare revenues."

"The ability to integrate with a great variety of data sources."

"The ability to design complex data models and equations."

"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."

"I would rate this solution eight or nine out of ten."

More Looker Studio pros

"Dossiers are going to change the name of the game for us. We want to be able to have the executive committee go into a meeting and tell a story. We want them to tell us a story, not us."

"The solution's platform analytics gives us real-time analysis of how a particular user uses the report and how the systems behave."

"Cube performance and easy integration with third-party tools/products, are valuable features."

"Having the analytics capabilities on a single platform."

"We are able to manage to get very in-depth and detailed management of the data model on the backend."

"It is providing both internal and external reporting for the business that was not previously possible."

"Tech support has been great, very responsive. We usually hear back within a day. We usually email them and that works out perfect. The right person always gets back to us."

"Technical support is knowledgeable. The right person gets back to us whenever we email them."

More MicroStrategy pros

Cons

"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."

"When you physically install a product on one machine instead of the cloud, you have a better visibility, best icon quality, etc.. It's more of an issue with how we are adapting to the transition. We are still in the early moments of using this tool, and we need to go deeper to discover some improvements."

"The tool should come up with data modeling layer features that are present in other products like Power BI."

"Other tools might be worth considering if you need more advanced features or support for a larger user base."

"The tool should improve on live data integration for quicker data reflection."

"I would appreciate improvements in the data modeling features, as it's not straightforward, and it's not what people in analytics are used to."

"There are issues with integration and I encountered limits and warnings, especially with my pivot table size."

"From the perspective of infrastructure, I cannot provide a valuable opinion on the ease of use and customization options of Looker Studio."

More Looker Studio cons

"I think they're still lacking on customer service. I think historically, MicroStrategy's customer service was a lot better than it is today."

"Our users tend to say the interface is a pain."

"There are a lot of offerings, and we are not fully using everything to its advantage."

"I did not see any additional value of providing one button for installation on the whole platform if it was going to be installed for different servers. You would have to make customization every time. There was no additional value in an installer."

"Areas of MicroStrategy that have room for improvement include pricing because it is costly."

"The analytic speed would probably be what I would look for in terms of improvement because we have super huge data, and if I do not build views on top of data, then reports render really slowly."

"Sometimes you can do something in reports, but you cannot do the same thing in documents."

"The solution's licensing could be improved because its cost is heavy on the pockets."

More MicroStrategy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is free but the Google Looker is expensive."

"I think the tool is cheap because you don't need to pay anything for using the tool. However, when connecting and analyzing other data sources, you should consider where to analyze this information because Google Data Studio doesn't handle much data well. You must also consider how you will connect this data to it. In this case, you might need to hire DevOps or a data team to help with these issues."

"The product is available for free."

"The tool is free."

"The cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."

"They gave us a good deal."

"The pricing is fair."

"For larger businesses, the pricing is logical."

"Pricing, in general, is high. With Power BI, you get mobile with the license, whereas with MicroStrategy, you have to purchase mobile for extra."

"It would be nice if there was a sticker price that says, "This software costs this amount of money." But I think that's just indicative of all software vendors. A lot of people are in it to make money, commissions, so it's just the nature of the business. But I would like to see more transparency, more equality, on pricing. Some people get better deals than others, I think."

"They can improve its licensing. It is a bit expensive as compared to Microsoft and other tools."

"The licensing is a bit high per user."

"They need to work on their license structure. They are not competitive against somebody like SAP BusinessObjects. We had a quote that was almost a third the price, coming from SAP BusinessObjects, and it's not a better platform. It's not cheaper. They do concurrent user licensing, while MicroStrategy does named user licensing, and that was literally the only difference. But it made a $500,000 difference. They've got to do something to make themselves more competitive. Maybe it's assessing your business users and what you really expect them to use, and maybe giving a reduced price on that. But they are already giving us a 60% discount and they were still a million or so above, over a three-year time period. That doesn't account for synergies as we get from on-site resources that are already available, but I thought that that was a big, big deficit for them."

More MicroStrategy pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Reporting solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user6330

Product Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

May 2, 2013

MicroStrategy vs. Tableau

After a recent presentation, several attendees asked me about the applications of Visual Insights and Tableau. Many companies are investing in both tools and are trying to figure out the right tool for specific applications Tableau has found its sweet-spot as an agile discovery tool that analysts…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

11%

Marketing Services Firm

10%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	37
Midsize Enterprise	26
Large Enterprise	100

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Data Studio?

The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. We observed the progress of our portfolio from last week to the current week, all...

What needs improvement with Google Data Studio?

I would appreciate improvements in the data modeling features, as it's not straightforward, and it's not what people in analytics are used to. Specifically, most people using this visualization too...

What is your primary use case for Google Data Studio?

I used Looker Studio mainly for reporting, where I created multiple dashboards on it. I wouldn't say I made the most of the usage of the connections because all the connections were based on flat f...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MicroStrategy?

My company has many licenses for MicroStrategy because we can build reports in this tool. I don't know what the cost is for these licenses.

What needs improvement with MicroStrategy?

I don't have any issues with MicroStrategy and would not suggest how it can be improved. I would not change anything because it's a great tool to build reports. I would appreciate improvements in M...

What is your primary use case for MicroStrategy?

I use MicroStrategy to build reports for my client, and in IQVIA, we work with pharmaceutical data and I build some reports in MicroStrategy. I built some cards for my client using MicroStrategy. T...

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker Studio

Comparisons

Compared 22% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker Studio

Compared 12% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Looker Studio

Compared 10% of the time

RStudio Connect vs Looker Studio

Compared 5% of the time

InetSoft Style Intelligence vs Looker Studio

Compared 3% of the time

More Looker Studio Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs MicroStrategy

Compared 11% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs MicroStrategy

Compared 10% of the time

QlikView vs MicroStrategy

Compared 6% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs MicroStrategy

Compared 6% of the time

IBM Cognos vs MicroStrategy

Compared 3% of the time

More MicroStrategy Competitors

Product Reports

Download Looker Studio product report

Looker Studio

March 2026

Download MicroStrategy product report

March 2026

Also Known As

Data Studio

No data available

Overview

Google Looker Studio is a free tool designed to help users create visually appealing reports and dashboards, making data easier to understand. It allows you to connect to various data sources such as Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and spreadsheets. With Looker Studio, you can create charts and graphs to showcase trends and comparisons, build comprehensive dashboards that provide an overview of your data, and customize reports to match your brand or preferences. Additionally, you can share your reports online or export them as PDFs for wider distribution.

Google

Company: Founded in 1989, MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is a leading worldwide provider of enterprise software platforms. With direct operations in 26 countries worldwide and approximately 2,000 employees, our mission is to provide enterprise analytics, mobility, and security platforms that are flexible, powerful, scalable and user-friendly. To learn more, visit MicroStrategy online, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Product portfoilio:

MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise™ empowers leading organizations to analyze vast amounts of data and distribute actionable business insight throughout an enterprise through two distinct offerings: MicroStrategy Analytics™ and MicroStrategy Desktop™. MicroStrategy Analytics delivers reports and dashboards, and enables users to conduct ad hoc analysis and share insights anywhere, anytime, via mobile devices or the Web. It also combines the agility and productivity of self-service visual data discovery with the security, scalability, and governance features of enterprise-grade business intelligence. MicroStrategy Desktop is a standalone, on-premise visual data discovery tool designed to enable business users to analyze and understand their data. MicroStrategy Mobile™ enables organizations to rapidly build custom business applications that deliver analytics combined with transactions, multimedia, and custom workflows to mobile devices. MicroStrategy Secure Cloud™ combines all of the enterprise analytics, mobile, and security features in MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise with powerful and scalable data integration, validation, and warehousing services — all delivered in an environment where organizations can deploy transformational analytics applications in minutes.

Usher, MicroStrategy’s breakthrough security solution, is a powerful mobile security platform designed to dematerialize traditional forms of identity verification (such as passwords, tokens, and physical badges) and replace them with a single mobile identity badge that is cryptographically linked to its owner’s smartphone and dynamically linked to an enterprise’s existing identity repositories. Usher works on standard Android and iOS smartphones, and also boasts an Apple Watch™ integration.

Sample Customers

Genesys, Shueisha

Allstate Insurance, Barneys New York, Boston Children's Hospital, Buenos Aires Department of the Treasury, Campbell Soup Company, DHL, eBay, eHarmony, Facebook, Four Seasons Hotels Inc., Godiva, Hard Rock International, LinkedIn, Netflix, Pfizer, SECO (Swiss Government Unemployment Agency), Starbucks, Texas A&M University, Thomson Reuters Markets, US House of Representatives, and the US Postal Service.