Looker vs Tableau Enterprise comparison

Google and Salesforce are both solutions in the Embedded BI category. Google is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.0, while Salesforce is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Google holds a 8.3% mindshare in EBT, compared to Salesforce’s 29.1% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Looker

Read 19 Looker reviews

3,046 Views
1,005 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Tableau Enterprise

Read 307 Tableau Enterprise reviews

19,689 Views
2,953 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Looker

Tableau Enterprise

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 4, 2025

Tableau Enterprise and Looker compete in the business intelligence and analytics category. Tableau Enterprise is favored for its robust visualization capabilities, while Looker shines in data modeling with its LookML language.

Features: Tableau Enterprise includes comprehensive dashboards, custom visualizations, seamless data source integration, drag-and-drop analytics, and storytelling features. Looker focuses on modern BI with LookML facilitating data modeling and community-driven insights creation, leveraging flexible data models that adapt to various use-cases.

Room for Improvement: Tableau Enterprise needs better performance with large datasets, enhanced handling of complex data integrations, and stronger enterprise features. Looker should improve its visualization capabilities, user interface, integration options, and ability to handle large datasets efficiently.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tableau Enterprise offers on-premises, public, and private cloud options, providing highly rated customer service and community support. Looker primarily focuses on public cloud deployment, supported by an active user community, though it requires more personalized technical support compared to Tableau’s broader deployment flexibility and user-friendliness in diverse environments.

Pricing and ROI: Tableau’s pricing is high, yet it provides a strong ROI with flexible licensing options like core-based and user-based licenses, suitable for larger businesses. Looker’s pricing is also considered expensive, especially for smaller enterprises, yet might offer faster ROI in large-scale implementations. Both tools streamline data processes, promising substantial returns on investment.

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

Buyer's Guide

Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise

July 2025

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Helped 865,295 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

6th

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

6.3

Number of Reviews

307

Ranking in other categories

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

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Embedded BI category, the mindshare of Looker is 8.3%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tableau Enterprise is 29.1%, down from 33.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Embedded BI

Featured Reviews

Kishore Jhunjhunwala

Sr Analytics Consultant at a tech vendor 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

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

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

"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."

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

"The product is easy to use."

"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."

"We can centralize all our data models."

More Looker pros

"Tableau reduces manual labor and resources, providing cost-effective solutions for our operations."

"Very user friendly."

"The initial setup is quick and easy and you don't need special outside assistance to set everything up."

"The most valuable feature is the 3D charting."

"Tableau is easy to use compared to some other solutions, such as Excel."

"I work for clients. That is my business model. Business people really like to see Tableau. They love Tableau because it is very user-friendly. The platform provides an easy to use interface, which is what most people like about it."

"The solution allows for the possibility for end-users to do their own reporting."

"The most valuable features of Tableau include building hyper extracts and creating visuals."

More Tableau Enterprise pros

Cons

"The product does not have documented material."

"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."

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"Stability needs improvement."

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"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 integration with different databases must be improved."

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"I also work as an SME on the platform side. Tableau is very nice and jazzy for the end-users, but there are pain points for the admins. Performance is something about which we hear a lot of complaints, such as the dashboard doesn't open in time. It performs well on the desktop but not on the server. I know that there is always a limitation when it comes to a huge amount of data or the complexity of the calculations, but we often hear from end-users about the performance on the server side. It is easy to drag and drop all the columns and do what we want, but if it is not going to load better on the server, users are not going to like it."

"Licensing and pricing options could be made better so that more users would be able to use it."

"We have products like Tableau, Power BI, Cognos, and QlikView in the data visualization segment. Compared to those, Tableau is quite costly."

"The product's features for cloud integration need improvement."

"People are migrating to Microsoft BI due to the speed, which is quite slow to load, and the lack of visualization options."

"There should be more GIS features, such as location analysis, which is quite limited. There are very few location-based functionalities."

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

"Improvements in schema security and row/column security need to be made."

More Tableau Enterprise cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"It is cheap."

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

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

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

"Cost is where tools like MicroStrategy, Power BI, or Spotfire come into play. Cost-wise, Tableau is a little bit costlier than other tools such as Power BI. I have been using Tableau all these years, but about four years ago, Power BI came out at a very low cost. Their desktop version was free from the beginning. Power BI Desktop has always been free, whereas Tableau Desktop is costly. When it comes to cost, people prefer Power BI because it integrates very well with Office 365. You don't have to worry about integration with Teams or SharePoint."

"The product's price is relatively inexpensive and manageable for enterprise-level companies."

"The price of Tableau is high, although there are different types of licenses available."

"Its price is reasonable. Everything is included in the license."

"Tableau's prices are relatively high for our market. I am from Serbia, so many companies in this market don't have the ability to pay for expensive software. My clients are quite satisfied with a lot of Tableau's qualities except for the prices."

"Its price is higher than Power BI and QlikView. Tableau costs around $70 per user per month, whereas Power BI is around $8 to $9. QlikView is around $30. Tableau has various prices for various models such as Creator, Designer."

"If they want to be competitive in the market, the price must be improved."

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Looker?

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

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Looker?

I do not have to make any payments to use the solution. In the beginning, Looker may work fine for its users. If advanced users who have experience with BI tools use Looker, then they may find it t...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Looker?

The visualization capability of the product is limited. From an improvement perspective, the product should have more visualization capability. I can't clean data in Looker, and if I try to do it, ...

See all answers

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...

See all answers

Tableau vs. Business Objects - Which is a better solution for visualization and analysis?

Both tools have their positives and negatives. First, I should mention that I am relatively new to Tableau. I have been working on and off Tableau for about a year, but getting to work on it consta...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?

Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Databricks vs Looker

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker

Compared 11% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Looker

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Cognos vs Looker

Compared 7% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker

Compared 6% of the time

More Looker Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 18% of the time

Domo vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon QuickSight vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 6% of the time

Databricks vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 5% of the time

SAP Analytics Cloud vs Tableau Enterprise

Compared 4% of the time

More Tableau Enterprise Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Looker

August 2025

Download Looker product report

Buyer's Guide

Tableau Enterprise

July 2025

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

July 2025

Free Report: Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise

Find out what your peers are saying about Looker vs. Tableau Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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