Looker Studio vs BigQuery

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Our analysts compared Looker Studio vs BigQuery based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Big Data Analytics Tools, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Google Looker Studio is a robust data analytics and business intelligence platform designed to help organizations extract valuable insights from their data. It offers a user-friendly interface for data exploration, powerful visualization tools, and real-time data monitoring. Key features include customizable dashboards, SQL-based queries, and seamless data integration from various sources. Users can collaborate within the platform, fostering a data-driven culture. Looker Studio empowers users to make data-informed decisions, with the ability to create tailored reports and leverage machine learning for predictive analytics. It suits businesses of all sizes and industries, facilitating scalable analytics and promoting data-driven decision-making.
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BigQuery, a cloud-based data warehouse offered by Google, provides businesses with a scalable and cost-effective solution for analyzing massive datasets. It eliminates the need for infrastructure management, allowing users to focus on extracting valuable insights from their data using familiar SQL and built-in machine learning capabilities. BigQuery's serverless architecture enables efficient scaling, allowing you to query terabytes of data in seconds and petabytes in minutes.

BigQuery is particularly well-suited for organizations dealing with large and complex datasets that require rapid analysis. Its ability to integrate data from various sources, including Google Cloud Platform and other cloud providers, makes it a versatile tool for businesses with diverse data landscapes. Key benefits include scalability, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness. BigQuery offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, allowing you to only pay for the resources you consume. You are billed based on the amount of data processed by your queries and the amount of data stored.

While BigQuery offers numerous advantages, it's important to consider factors such as your specific data analytics needs and budget when comparing it to similar products. User experiences with BigQuery have generally been positive, highlighting its speed, scalability, and ease of use. However, some users have noted that the pricing structure can become complex for highly demanding workloads.

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Product Insights

  • Actionable Insights: Google Looker Studio empowers businesses to derive actionable insights from their data. It goes beyond raw data to provide meaningful, data-driven recommendations and strategies.
  • Unified Data Platform: Looker Studio offers a unified data platform that brings together data from various sources, enabling a holistic view of your organization's data. This centralization streamlines decision-making and enhances data consistency.
  • Scalable Analytics: Scalability is a key advantage of Looker Studio. Whether you're a small startup or a large enterprise, it can scale with your data needs, ensuring you have the analytics power you require as your business grows.
  • Customizable Dashboards: With Looker Studio, you can create customized dashboards tailored to your specific needs. This flexibility allows you to focus on the metrics that matter most to your organization.
  • Collaborative Environment: Collaboration is made easy with Looker Studio. Teams can work together within the platform, share insights, and collaborate on data-driven decisions, fostering a data-driven culture within your organization.
  • Real-Time Data: Stay up-to-date with real-time data insights. Looker Studio provides real-time analytics, enabling you to make informed decisions quickly and adapt to changing circumstances.
  • Enhanced Data Security: Security is a top priority, and Looker Studio offers robust data security features, including role-based access control and encryption, ensuring your data remains protected.
  • Reduced Time-to-Insight: Looker Studio's intuitive interface and powerful querying capabilities reduce the time it takes to extract valuable insights from your data, accelerating decision-making processes.
  • Optimized Performance: The platform optimizes data performance, ensuring that you can analyze large datasets efficiently, even in complex analytical scenarios.
  • Adaptive Analytics: Looker Studio adapts to changing business needs, allowing you to evolve your analytics strategy as your organization grows and your data requirements change.
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  • Forecast and Plan Ahead: Ingest large amounts of data quickly to strengthen forecasting and boost decision-making processes. 
  • Deliver Insights: Find discrepancies in data and act on them accordingly. 
  • Focus on Analytics and Not Infrastructure: Handles large volumes of data without putting strain on an organization’s IT resources. 
  • Provide a User-Friendly Environment: It’s user-friendly for both technical and non-technical users. High-level knowledge is not necessary to operate the software effectively. 
  • Speed Up Processes: Utilizes fast SQL databases to quickly and efficiently analyze terabytes worth of data. 
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  • Interactive Dashboards: Create dynamic, interactive dashboards that allow users to explore data, drill down into details, and gain insights effortlessly.
  • Customizable Reports: Generate tailored reports with a variety of visualization options, including charts, graphs, and tables, to communicate data findings effectively.
  • Data Exploration: Easily explore and analyze data from multiple sources with intuitive data exploration tools, making it simple to uncover hidden patterns and trends.
  • SQL-Based Queries: Leverage the power of SQL for querying and manipulating data, enabling advanced users to perform complex analyses and calculations.
  • Data Integration: Seamlessly integrate data from various platforms and sources, including databases, cloud services, and spreadsheets, for a holistic view of your organization's data.
  • Machine Learning Integration: Incorporate machine learning models and predictive analytics into your data analysis, allowing for data-driven predictions and recommendations.
  • Collaborative Workspace: Foster collaboration among team members by sharing data, insights, and reports within the platform, promoting data-driven decision-making across the organization.
  • Role-Based Access Control: Ensure data security with role-based access control, granting different levels of access to users based on their roles and responsibilities.
  • Real-Time Data Monitoring: Keep a pulse on your data with real-time data monitoring and alerts, allowing you to respond promptly to changing conditions and opportunities.
  • Scalable Architecture: Scale your analytics infrastructure as your organization grows, accommodating increasing data volumes and user demands without sacrificing performance.
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  • Machine Learning: Comes with machine learning modules that can perform mass-segmentation and recommendations in seconds. These modules can be built and trained within minutes without ingesting data for training. 
  • Cloud Hosted: Handles all the hardware provisioning, warehousing and hardware management from the cloud. 
  • Real-Time Analytics: Large volumes of business data are quickly analyzed and presented to the user to ensure that insights and data discrepancies can be immediately uncovered. 
  • Automated Backups: Data is automatically stored and backed up multiple times a day. Data histories can be easily restored to prevent loss and major changes. 
  • Big Data Ecosystem Integrations: Integrate with other big data products such as Hadoop, Spark and Beam. Data can be directly written from the system into these products. 
  • Data Governance: Features such as access management, filter views, encryption and more are included in the software. The product is compliant with data regulations such as the GDPR. 
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Product Ranking

#22

among all
Big Data Analytics Tools

#10

among all
Big Data Analytics Tools

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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BigQuery
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Augmented Analytics Computer Vision And Internet Of Things (IoT) Dashboarding And Data Visualization Data Management Data Preparation Geospatial Visualizations And Analysis Machine Learning Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Reporting 38 0 94 74 74 55 65 100 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 1074 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 724 reviews
86%
of users recommend this product

Looker Studio has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 86% when considering 1074 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

90%
of users recommend this product

BigQuery has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 90% when considering 724 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

4.4 (426)
4.4 (292)
4.3 (365)
4.6 (283)
4.2 (283)
4.4 (149)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Looker Studio and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Reporting.

Reporting Award

BigQuery stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Intuitive Interface: Users appreciate Looker Studio's user-friendly interface, making it easy to navigate and perform data analysis tasks.
Powerful Visualization: The platform offers a wide range of visualization options, enhancing data presentation and making insights more accessible.
Collaborative Tools: Users value the collaborative features, enabling teams to work together seamlessly, share insights, and drive data-driven decisions.
Real-Time Insights: Looker Studio's ability to provide real-time data insights helps users stay informed and agile in their decision-making processes.
Customization: Users can tailor dashboards and reports to their specific needs, allowing for a personalized analytics experience.
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Performance: The system can execute queries on massive amounts of data with agility, as specified by about 89% of users who mentioned performance.
Functionality: About 68% of users who reviewed functionality talked about its robust inbuilt features.
Ease of Use: The UI is simple and easy to navigate, according to about 72% of users who talked about user-friendliness.
Integration: Approximately 75% of reviewers who talked about integration said that it connects to numerous other tools seamlessly.
Scalability: All users who reviewed scalability said that the platform scales to thousands of servers.
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Steep Learning Curve: Some users find Looker Studio challenging to learn, especially if they lack SQL or data analysis skills, leading to initial difficulties.
Data Integration Complexity: Integrating data from various sources can be complex, requiring substantial setup and maintenance efforts for certain users.
Resource Intensiveness: Resource-intensive tasks, such as processing large datasets, may lead to performance issues, causing frustration for some users.
Costs: The pricing structure can be a drawback for organizations with tight budgets, as Looker Studio's pricing may not be suitable for all user needs.
Limited Offline Functionality: Some users desire more robust offline capabilities, as Looker Studio primarily operates in an online environment.
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Cost: Approximately 76% of users who mentioned cost complained that it’s expensive, and charges can rack up quickly if queries aren’t properly constructed.
Learning Curve: About 82% of users mentioned that the software has a steep learning curve.
Resources: About 89% of users who spoke about resources said that documentation and video tutorials are lacking and need improvement.
Visualization: Data visualization capabilities aren’t up to the mark, according to all users who talked about visualization.
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User reviews for Google Looker Studio indicate both strengths and weaknesses. Many users praise its intuitive interface, which simplifies data analysis. The platform's powerful visualization tools and real-time insights are widely appreciated, enabling users to present and act on data effectively. Collaboration features also receive positive feedback, facilitating teamwork and informed decision-making. However, several users highlight challenges. A notable drawback is the steep learning curve, especially for those without SQL or data analysis skills. Some users find data integration complex and resource-intensive, potentially impacting performance. Cost considerations also arise, with users noting that Looker Studio's pricing may not align with all budgets. In comparison to similar products, Looker Studio stands out for its user-friendly interface and strong visualization capabilities. However, some users mention limitations in offline functionality, which competitors may handle better. Overall, Google Looker Studio appears to be a valuable tool for data analysis and collaboration, but it may require a learning curve and careful consideration of budget constraints.

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Bigquery is a scalable big data warehouse solution. It enables users to pull correlated data streams using SQL like queries. Queries are executed fast regardless of the size of the datasets. It manages the dynamic distribution of workloads across computational clusters. The easy-to-navigate UI is robust and allows the user to create and execute machine learning models seamlessly. Users liked that it can connect to a variety of data analytics and visualization tools. However, users complained that query optimization is an additional hassle they have to deal with, as the solution is expensive and poorly constructed queries can quickly accumulate charges. It can be overwhelming for the non-technical user, and SQL coding knowledge is required to leverage its data analysis capabilities. Data visualization features are lacking and in need of improvement.

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