Looker vs ThoughtSpot comparison

Read 13 ThoughtSpot reviews

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92% willing to recommend

Looker

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Executive Summary

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

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

To learn more, read our detailed Looker vs. ThoughtSpot Report (Updated: April 2025).

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Looker vs. ThoughtSpot

April 2025

Helped 851,604 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

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

ThoughtSpot

Ranking in Embedded BI

6th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (15th), Data Visualization (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Embedded BI category, the mindshare of Looker is 9.4%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ThoughtSpot is 5.0%, down from 6.5% 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.

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Sushma Polavarapu

Sr Data Analytics Consultant at Capgemini

Creates user-friendly analysis environments for large datasets

The tool is user-friendly for the end users. It is primarily a search-based tool. Users do not need a technical background to work directly on the dataset. Its compatibility with most databases, including the latest from FlexMovely and Redshift, allows users to create joins and worksheets easily. ThoughtSpot is fast, even with one to ten terabytes of data.

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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 is easy to use."

"From a developer's perspective, the way the functionality's being handled is great."

"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."

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

"We can centralize all our data models."

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

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

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

More Looker pros

"I would say the return on investment is good. Whatever we invested, we got results. We have been finding it easy to use and onboard new use cases."

"It's easy to drill down or expand data to get more details right out of the box."

"The tool is user-friendly for the end users."

"The initial setup was very straightforward."

"ThoughtSpot takes the modifying of existing reports out of our hands."

"The ability to do ad hoc explorations of data has been most valuable."

"ThoughtSpot saves a significant amount of time compared to other tools and is very user-friendly."

"The main core of ThoughtSpot is to create models, connect data pipelines, and create business models and dashboards on top of them."

More ThoughtSpot pros

Cons

"Integrations with other BI tools could be better."

"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."

"Stability needs improvement."

"The product does not have documented material."

"The visualization capability of the product is limited."

"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."

"It needs to be more user-friendly."

"The integration with different databases must be improved."

"A customized visualization is lacking in this product."

"The customer service and support are not good. I stopped opening tickets due to insufficient and untimely responses."

"The visualization customization needs improvement."

"I encountered limitations mainly around UI and dashboard configuration."

"If I want to order columns, this feature is not there."

"The most difficult thing I found is that it only deals with the files and does not have direct connectivity to databases."

"Some areas for improvement include the pixel-perfect dashboards, which are not as refined as those in Tableau."

"The one area of the solution that I do hear needs improvement is on the visualization front."

More ThoughtSpot cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"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 is cheap."

"I give the pricing a six out of ten."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

28%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Healthcare Company

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.

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...

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, ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ThoughtSpot?

The pricing is on the higher end but reasonable for what ThoughtSpot offers.

What needs improvement with ThoughtSpot?

ThoughtSpot lacks an intermediate layer for data loading, unlike Qlik, which affects dashboard stability when the database has issues. The platform also has fewer formulas and functions compared to...

What is your primary use case for ThoughtSpot?

I am working for a telecommunication company where we use ThoughtSpot ( /products/thoughtspot-reviews ) to create monthly, weekly, and daily ad hoc reports for business needs. We work for both B2B ...

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Compared 17% of the time

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Compared 16% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

TIBCO Spotfire vs ThoughtSpot

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Download Looker product report

Looker

May 2025

Download ThoughtSpot product report

April 2025

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

ThoughtSpot is a powerful business intelligence tool that allows easy searching and drilling into data. Its ad hoc exploration and query-based search features are highly valued, and it is easy to set up, stable, and scalable.

The solution is used for reporting purposes, self-service BI, and embedding into other applications for customers to do self-service analytics. It helps businesses with metrics, KPIs, and important insights by sourcing data from various sources into one golden source and visualizing it in an easy way for the business to consume. The pricing model is ideal, charging for data rather than the number of users.

Sample Customers

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

Primary Capital Mortgage, Sterling Backcheck, RichRelevance, Rambus, Batteries Plus Bulbs