Looker vs Tableau Enterprise comparison

Google and Salesforce are both solutions in the Embedded BI category. Google is ranked #9, while Salesforce is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2. Google holds a 6.4% mindshare in EBT, compared to Salesforce’s 17.9% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Looker

Read 19 Looker reviews

2,435 Views
901 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Tableau Enterprise

Read 309 Tableau Enterprise reviews

19,124 Views
2,869 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Looker

Tableau Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 9, 2025

Tableau Enterprise and Looker compete in the business intelligence and data visualization market. Tableau seems to have the upper hand in visualization capabilities and user friendliness, while Looker shines in data modeling and integration.

Features: Tableau is strong in graphical representation, offering interactive visualizations and seamless integration with varied data sources. Its drag-and-drop interface simplifies report creation. Looker excels with its LookML for data modeling, providing centralized data models, and is favored for its powerful analytical tools.

Room for Improvement: Tableau can enhance its handling of ETL processes and integration of complex datasets. Users note its high costs and suggest performance scalability improvements. Looker's visualization options and ease of use could be better, and expanding integrations would help it rival Tableau more closely.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tableau is versatile in deployment, available on-premises, cloud, or hybrid environments, and benefits from strong community support. Looker focuses on public cloud usage, offering ease of deployment but needing improvement in customer support availability.

Pricing and ROI: Tableau's higher price is a concern for smaller businesses, but its advanced features and integrations offer considerable ROI when fully utilized. Looker, though also costly, is seen as competitively priced for large enterprises, providing significant value aligning with market expectations.

To learn more, read our detailed Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 881,707 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

Ranking in Embedded BI

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Tableau Enterprise

Ranking in Embedded BI

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

309

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (2nd), Reporting (2nd), Data Visualization (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Embedded BI category, the mindshare of Looker is 6.4%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tableau Enterprise is 17.9%, down from 34.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Embedded BI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Tableau Enterprise	17.9%
Looker	6.4%
Other	75.7%

Embedded BI

Featured Reviews

Kishore Jhunjhunwala

Sr Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

A cloud solution for operational reporting but is expensive

Some basic feature that is available in other reporting tools is missing. Looker has the ability to show more than 5,000 rows for operational reporting. Some reporting tools allow users to scroll down to see more than 5,000 rows, but in Looker, you have to download the entire dataset. Looker should consider adding a scroll-down option to allow users to view large datasets on screen without downloading them. Looker has some options for granting users access as viewers. However, viewers cannot download the entire dataset. Only superusers can download the whole dataset on the Explore screen. This is a big limitation, as you cannot give any user viewer access. You can give access to superuser access, which is a cost to the company.

Read full review

Uzair Faruqi

Head Of Analytics at Mjunction Services

Ease of developing dashboards and receiving strong technical support have enabled efficient data visualization

Introducing custom features, such as NLP-based reports, is not very good in Tableau. My MD has been asking us for a way to write in natural language to request reports that the system should generate, but that isn't very effective with Tableau. As a developer, I can develop an on-demand report in Python quite easily, but exposing a REST API on the Tableau platform is not a very easy task. AI enablement is an area for improvement for Tableau, and that is something they might have to work upon. I have heard that ThoughtSpot is quite better in this regard, but the cost of ThoughtSpot is much higher. ThoughtSpot has lots of natural language-based report generation features that Tableau lacks.

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

"The stability of Looker has been good since I have been using it. However, it depends on what components are being used."

"It is a pretty stable solution because it is a cloud-based product."

"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. I didn't face any issues with stability."

"It's quite effortless to navigate through various applications and review their updated data in real-time."

"The product is easy to use."

"With Looker, I have experienced benefits in terms of usability and shareability."

"We can centralize all our data models."

"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."

More Looker pros

"Gradual scalability from simple to complex situations"

"The most valuable feature is the interface, which is user-friendly and intuitive."

"One of the most valuable features of Tableau is that it's a visual analytics solution, not just a dashboarding solution. Compared to Power BI, which is a dashboarding solution, there are no limitations with Tableau. For example, when you add a chart or a map to Power BI, it has a 3,000-point limitation. When you try to track your whole vehicle on the map, you only see the first 3,000 rows on the map, and Power BI doesn't tell you which part of the data is shown on the map. But Tableau doesn't have any limitations, which means that you can see five million data points on a map. It starts the project by creating the visuals that directly converts to SQLs. In that way, all the components have no limitations. When we compared Tableau to Power BI, we also found Tableau to be more fancy. Fancy means you can create more visual graphics and more visual dashboards. With Power BI, this isn't so—it's just some tables and some simple charts together. Tableau is more for business users who want to analyze data. Tableau can directly connect the analytics systems, like R or Titan, and get the results in screen, so it's a good solution for analytics scientists. It has some predefined capabilities to understand the data."

"Tableau is very good in the front-end visualization compared to Power BI."

"The most valuable feature is the aggregation function."

"A valuable feature of Tableau is that it is a useful tool for small setups. I shuffle between Tableau and MicroStrategy, so I use Tableau for personal purposes more than enterprise. I like the light version of Tableau for personal usage and doing some use cases on my own. When it comes to something small, I use Tableau for setups, rather than any other tool."

"Data Interpreter: Which can identify issues or potential errors with your imported data."

"Any feature I am looking for usually is part of the next upgrade within a few months. They have a very good dynamic evolution."

More Tableau Enterprise pros

Cons

"Stability needs improvement."

"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."

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"The integration with different databases must be improved."

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"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."

"The product does not have documented material."

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"The setup was easy but we are having some problems with the configuration that is taking a long time. We have done some initial tests and some of the delays could be from bandwidth issues. However, the whole installation process should be simplified."

"The price of Tableau is too high."

"The process of embedding the dashboards on external portals and websites could be improved."

"When there are millions of records, scaling up is quite difficult."

"Some of our clients are looking for better UI when using Tableau as they often work with this solution directly."

"From a customer's point of view, I have noted that after the acquisition by Salesforce, the customer service for Tableau has declined significantly."

"The customization in the front end is a bit difficult."

"The cost of owning the solutions from Tableau is much higher compared to any other analytical solutions."

More Tableau Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not cheap, but it's not expensive for big companies."

"The price of Looker usually depends on the solution's provider, but it is usually cheaper than the other products in the market. Looker is offered at different prices for different companies."

"It is cheap."

"I do not have to make any payments to use the solution."

"Looker is expensive and could be made better by reducing it."

"I like the payment model. For the people who need to create, they buy their licenses. Everyone else can use the free Tableau Viewer. This is much better than some of the competitor products, which require full licences for everything."

"Its cost is quite high. A corporate license costs about 150-200K per year for all the users, but there was probably some discounted amount. This cost includes everything."

"Tableau's licensing is pretty straightforward and simple."

"In Indian Rupees, Tableau costs about 30,000 to 40,000 per year."

"It is a bit overpriced."

"Tableau is an expensive solution compared to Power BI."

"Tableau is an expensive solution, though it comes with its advantages."

"Tableau can be costly (but this can be indefinable, such as user experience vs. cheaper etc.)"

More Tableau Enterprise pricing and cost advice

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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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

Retailer

Media Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	117
Midsize Enterprise	67
Large Enterprise	184

Questions from the Community

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Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker

Compared 13% of the time

Databricks vs Looker

Compared 11% of the time

MicroStrategy vs Looker

Compared 9% of the time

ThoughtSpot vs Looker

Compared 7% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Looker

Compared 7% of the time

More Looker Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 17% of the time

Domo vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 7% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 4% of the time

Julius AI vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 3% of the time

More Tableau Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Looker

January 2026

Download Looker product report

Buyer's Guide

Tableau Enterprise

January 2026

Download Tableau Enterprise product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online

Overview

Looker is a powerful data analytics platform that empowers businesses to explore and analyze their data in real time.

With its intuitive interface and robust features, Looker enables users to easily create and share interactive dashboards, reports, and visualizations.

The product's advanced data modeling capabilities and seamless integration with popular data sources make it a top choice for organizations looking to gain valuable insights from their data.

Google

Tableau Enterprise offers powerful features for creating interactive visualizations, dashboards, and maps, including drag-and-drop functionality and easy integration with multiple data sources, promoting real-time collaboration and self-service analysis.

Tableau Enterprise stands out with its ability to create user-friendly, interactive visualizations, making it pivotal for business intelligence applications. Users benefit from its seamless connectivity and advanced analytical functions, facilitating data blending and storytelling. Despite a complex learning curve and high licensing costs, its features like geospatial analysis and efficient content distribution drive its indispensable value for data-driven insights. Enhancements in predictive analytics and support integration with machine learning tools further its capabilities across industries.

What are the most valuable features?

Interactive Visualizations: Enables users to create engaging reports.
Drag-and-Drop Functionality: Simplifies data analysis processes.
Data Integration: Offers seamless connectivity with multiple sources.
Real-Time Collaboration: Supports synchronous data sharing.
Advanced Analytics: Provides predictive analytics and geospatial analysis.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Informed Decision-Making: Facilitates data-driven insights.
Efficiency in Reporting: Streamlines dashboard and reporting tasks.
Cost-Effectiveness: Despite high licensing, value in robust analytics tools.
Customizable Options: Tailors analytics to specific needs.

Tableau Enterprise is widely used for business intelligence, supporting industries like healthcare, telecommunications, and finance. Organizations utilize it to analyze performance indicators, operational insights, and financial analytics, enhancing decision-making through interactive reports and real-time data integration.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Yahoo!, Etsy, Kohler, Hipcamp, Hubspot, Kickstarter, Venmo, Dollar Shave Club, 600+ customer

Accenture, Adobe, Amazon.com, Bank of America, Charles Schwab Corp, Citigroup, Coca-Cola Company, Cornell University, Dell, Deloitte, Duke University, eBay, Exxon Mobil, Fannie Mae, Ferrari, French Red Cross, Goldman Sachs, Google, Government of Canada, HP, Intel, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Macy's, Merck, The New York Times, PayPal, Pfizer, US Army, US Air Force, Skype, and Walmart.

Buyer's Guide

Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise

December 2025

Free Report: Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise

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