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Looker Studio vs Sisense comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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
11th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sisense
Ranking in Reporting
9th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (11th), Cloud Analytics (3rd), Data Visualization (8th), Embedded BI (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Looker Studio is 2.6%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sisense is 2.0%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sisense2.0%
Looker Studio2.6%
Other95.4%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Heron Ziegel - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Caramel Moana - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Analyst at Target
Data analytics has transformed our KPI tracking and now drives faster sales decisions
This tool has given me the power to convert data into new analytical applications, giving me transparency about working on multiple platforms, and since it is cloud-based, it combines different pages for a complete progress report. Overall, it is playing a perfect, fantastic role in my organization. Some of the best features Sisense offers include its speed due to the In-Chip methodology, great visualization that makes BI easier, and the ability to load millions of data in seconds, which did not seem possible with other traditional reporting tools. It also has a robust architecture and provides REST APIs for external access. I emphasized the In-Chip methodology because it allows for accessing millions of data in a short span of seconds while providing the best visual effects for our business data.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"Data Studio integrates seamlessly with other Google products, and we can use it with other APIs if we like."
"I am impressed with the tool's scheduling mechanism, refresh mechanism, and different types of charts."
"The ability to design complex data models and equations."
"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."
"The product's initial setup phase is very simple."
"What I appreciate about Looker Studio is mostly the clean visuals, which is good, as I prefer a dashboard with a clean aesthetic rather than feeling sort of an old Windows type of dashboard."
"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."
"Sisense's documentation and video tutorials were thorough and helpful in starting off with the basic usage of the product."
"Ability to work with very large data sources without the limitations of Excel."
"My advice to others looking into using Sisense is that it is the best choice for any company seeking a reliable, powerful, and accurate tool that connects to various databases, providing amazing dashboards and consolidated data resources while ensuring a proper assessment before deployment."
"The client we have deployed this for is now able to easily make decisions based on the visualizations from this BI solution."
"No issues with stability. It is a very stable solution."
"This solution is easy to learn how to use."
"The Sisense solution was very easy to set up, and its visualizations were effective."
"In a short period of time, my team acquired the necessary skills to deploy a very high quality BI tool across the company, integrating all our data sources and building dashboards expected by different business units for a long time."
 

Cons

"Looker Studio did not fit our needs for scalability."
"The tool has a lot of room for improvement. It's not very professional and allows for only simple tasks like indicating KPIs or quick calculations. It lacks a good calculation-based language like Power BI's DAX, making it less suitable for professional use. Additionally, the variety of visualization tools is limited, and customization options are restricted."
"Other tools might be worth considering if you need more advanced features or support for a larger user base."
"Panels are not as easy to use as other data extraction UIs."
"The performance of Looker needs improvement, particularly the report loading time, which is critical for business users."
"It's not yet a replacement for a complete BI tool."
"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."
"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."
"This solution does not have tabs. In order to have tabs, you have to download an add-on to mimic the tabs. They should be integrated to improve the solution."
"Sisense has no native support for week as a data dimension, which is a major issue for us."
"I did encounter an issue with the Dashboard load time to be slow considering that we had a basic dashboard with five reports and no more than 300 rows was disconcerting."
"The document is definitely a sore spot as well as the limited inner join functionality of the cubes."
"For very complicated blended data from multiple sources we would like Sisense to add a "nerd mode" where we can geek out without the visual connecting of tables and data elements."
"I would say that using Sisense on Linux's platform might not be advantageous for everyone."
"I would like Sisense to improve its performance, particularly when we are dealing with large-scale data."
"I would like to see an improvement in the live data connection, specifically making the process faster."
 

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."
"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."
"Compared to Power BI or Tableau, Sisense is much more expensive."
"This solution is more expensive than Tableau, Qlik and Dundas. It is an expensive tool. They charge $75,000 while Tableau is $45,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise15
 

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 needs improvement with Sisense?
So far, Sisense is performing well, but some visualizations lack flexibility in design options. Sisense should improve on handling extremely large data sets, and they should improve on maintaining ...
What is your primary use case for Sisense?
In our organization, we use Sisense for business intelligence where it helps us with complex data from multiple sources and provides excellent insights, which makes it easy for us to make data-driv...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sisense?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been positive, as the price is relatively affordable compared to other solutions, and I have no challenges with the pricing. The setup is s...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Data Studio
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Genesys, Shueisha
Ebay, WIX, Wave Accounting, ESPN.com, Magellan Luxury Hotel, Paylogic, Sony, Merck, EDA, One Hour Translation, NASA, Plastic Jungle, Philips, Yahoo
Find out what your peers are saying about Looker Studio vs. Sisense and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.