Looker Studio vs Plotly comparison

Google and Plotly are both solutions in the Reporting category. Google is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.6, while Plotly is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.7. Google holds a 2.9% mindshare in RT, compared to Plotly’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Plotly users who would recommend it.

Looker Studio

Read 13 Looker Studio reviews

975 Views
255 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Plotly

Read 3 Plotly reviews

618 Views
100 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Looker Studio

Plotly

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Plotly and Looker Studio are competitive tools in the data visualization arena. Plotly seems to have the upper hand with its versatility in generating interactive visualizations, whereas Looker Studio's strength lies in its robust data integration capabilities, making it ideal for comprehensive business intelligence.

Features: Plotly offers versatility in interactive visualizations, strong customization options, and detailed control over visual outputs. Looker Studio provides powerful data integration, collaboration tools, and is suitable for team-oriented projects.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Plotly features an accessible deployment model focused on standalone use, simplifying implementation. Its customer service is responsive. Looker Studio offers a cloud-based architecture supporting complex deployments with a broader support ecosystem for enterprises, providing comprehensive options for large organizations.

Pricing and ROI: Plotly is cost-effective with lower initial costs, appealing to small teams. Looker Studio requires a higher initial investment, justified by robust long-term ROI through its extensive feature set. Businesses seeking immediate savings may prefer Plotly, while those wanting strategic ROI and a feature-rich platform might choose Looker Studio.

To learn more, read our detailed Looker Studio vs. Plotly Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio vs. Plotly

June 2025

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Helped 858,435 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

Ranking in Reporting

9th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Plotly

Ranking in Reporting

19th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Looker Studio is 2.9%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Plotly is 1.2%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Reporting

Featured Reviews

Srini-Dhanaraj

Founder & CEO at imfine.club

Available for free and can help businesses resolve their data migration problems

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. Google Data Studio is a cloud-based tool. With cloud-based tools, there can be two challenges, the first one being associated with the bandwidth of your data strength. If I run a report from my home because of the wi-fi connection, it may give an excellent response. When I run the reports, Google Data Studio develops reports from my home, and because of wi-fi, it works in an excellent manner. When I am on the road or at the wheel, if I use the internet data from my mobile to browse my reports, the performance may not be good, and this issue is not because of the product but because of the bandwidth. The second issue arises when you connect Google Data Studio to a source system to extract the data to do the visualization. If the source system is not responding as quickly as expected, it could be the reason why the report may be printed slowly. Considering the aforementioned aspects, the problem may not be because of Google Data Studio but because of the source system.

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VenkateshJuloori

Founder & CEO at Ira

A flexible tool that offers an open-source version

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine to ten out of ten. In my company, there are around five resources that use the product. My company's clients use the product a lot on a daily basis. I use the product twice a week in my company before I get any call from our clients.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product's initial setup phase is very simple."

"Data Studio integrates seamlessly with other Google products, and we can use it with other APIs if we like."

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

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

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

"The integration with Excel and Google Sheets is a valuable feature, making it easy to access and visualize data."

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

"The best thing about the tool is that it allows you to share information easily and dashboards with colleagues and teammates because it's all online. No matter where you are, as long as you have the Internet, you can connect and use these dashboards. Google made good documentation for this tool. There are many examples of how to use and create dashboards and videos on YouTube. So, I think it's easy to learn."

More Looker Studio pros

"It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine to ten out of ten."

"The level of interactivity that the product provides is valuable to me."

"When reviewing and interpreting data, I typically examine it in a tabular form to understand its structure. However, when explaining or presenting the findings to others, I often use visualization tools such as Plotly. These tools allow me to create visual representations of datasets."

Cons

"The performance of Looker needs improvement, particularly the report loading time, which is critical for business users."

"Panels are not as easy to use as other data extraction UIs."

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

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

"Insisting on forums, blogs and community outreach in communications, and posting videos on an established calendar would be useful."

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

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

"The challenges with Google Data Studio are associated with the security part, making it an area where improvements are required."

More Looker Studio cons

"The solution cannot be deployed on the website and shared with others through its own platform."

"I believe that the prices of the tool's paid services could be on the premium side, so the pricing model can be considered for improvement."

"The tool needs to improve its pie charts. Regarding Plotly, I find the online documentation somewhat challenging to navigate, especially when dealing with many parameters. Searching through thousands of parameters can be a tedious and less straightforward process. While the documentation is available online and serves its purpose, I often encounter difficulties in finding the information."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The tool is free."

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

"The product is available for free."

"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."

"It is an open-source tool. My company hasn't explored Plotly's premium services yet, but I believe the prices could be on the premium side."

"I only use the free tier of the product."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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...

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What needs improvement with Google Data Studio?

From the perspective of infrastructure, I cannot provide a valuable opinion on the ease of use and customization options of Looker Studio. I can ask our designers how they feel since they have expe...

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What is your primary use case for Google Data Studio?

We use Looker and Looker Studio, as Looker licenses Looker Studio for data presentation and reporting. With GCP, we use Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, Kubernetes, and we utilize BigQuery extensively. ...

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What do you like most about Plotly?

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine to ten out of ten.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Plotly?

It is an open-source tool. My company hasn't explored Plotly's premium services yet, but I believe the prices are on the premium side. I rate the product price as five or six on a scale of one to t...

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What needs improvement with Plotly?

I believe that the price of the tool's paid services is on the premium side, so the pricing model can be considered for improvement.

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker Studio

Compared 44% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker Studio

Compared 18% of the time

Tableau vs Looker Studio

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker Studio

Compared 5% of the time

Looker vs Looker Studio

Compared 2% of the time

More Looker Studio Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Plotly

Compared 41% of the time

Tableau vs Plotly

Compared 30% of the time

TIBCO Spotfire vs Plotly

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services vs Plotly

Compared 8% of the time

More Plotly Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio

June 2025

Download Looker Studio product report

Buyer's Guide

Reporting

June 2025

Download Plotly product report

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

Plotly creates leading open source tools for composing, editing, and sharing interactive data visualization via the Web.

Our collaboration servers (available in cloud or on premises) allow data scientists to showcase their work, make graphs without coding, and collaborate with business analysts, designers, executives, and clients.

Plotly

Sample Customers

Genesys, Shueisha

Google, Goji, VIT, Smpl Bio, U.S. Air Force, C12 Energy, New York University

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio vs. Plotly

June 2025

Free Report: Looker Studio vs. Plotly

Find out what your peers are saying about Looker Studio vs. Plotly and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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