Looker vs Zoho Analytics

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

Looker Software Tool
Zoho Analytics Software Tool

Product Basics

Looker is a web-based analytics solution that offers businesses the ability to explore, discover, visualize and share data insights. Enterprises can view data sources and drill down into data to better understand their business and metrics.

Using a simple proprietary modeling language, this system helps define data relationships while bypassing SQL. It facilitates data literacy and accessibility, irrespective of technical skill levels. It was acquired by Google on June 6, 2019, for $2.9 billion.
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Zoho Analytics (formerly Zoho Reports) allows users to create visualizations and dashboards to present their data via a quick, easy, self-service model. It brings insight and analysis to an organization’s business data on-demand without needing IT assistance or data analysts through extensive automation efforts in several dimensions of the analytical process.

Users can crunch huge datasets, clean and blend data, perform various analytical tasks and visualize the results in dynamic graphics to uncover insights. They can make data-informed business decisions in a stand-alone or embedded environment with support for mobile devices. It has flexible on-premise or cloud deployment models.
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$2,900 Monthly
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$24 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Mobile
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Product Assistance

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In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
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Videos
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Email
Phone
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FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Real-Time Data: Keep up to date on the most recent numbers through real-time updates to dashboards and other visualizations.
  • Local Database: Uses an organization’s proprietary database to collect data — no need to rely on parallel data pipelines or data extracts.
  • Self-Service BI: Explore data through the self-serve function and then refine the automatically generated visualizations. Create custom dashboards to reflect specific KPIs based on the business’ specific needs.
  • Virtual Schema: Create live connections to over 35 SQL databases through a code-based virtual query-time schema. Keeps data visualizations secure and up-to-date.
  • Embedded Analytics: Embeddable through SSO, it can deploy into third-party solutions like a CRM or ERP as an embedded iframe or through Javascript. Empowers other software solutions with BI capabilities including reliable data, self-service analytics, actionable insights and intuitive dashboards.
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  • Visualize Data in Intuitive Graphics: Create insightful, useful dashboards to gain valuable information. Offers an expansive library of visualization types that is expanded frequently. Employees can also blend multiple reports into a single dashboard to gain insight into larger data trends. 
  • Discover Business Operations Insights: Get in-depth, actionable overviews of operations, ranging from sales, finance and marketing to resource management and geographic activity through geo visualizations that facilitate comparison across and between regions. 
  • Perform In-Depth Analysis: Managers can perform deep analytical queries that increase their business intelligence through powerful features like pre-built formulas and functions that identify business metrics and smart forecasting to project future outcomes. 
  • Share and Collaborate on Reports: Provides managers with fine-grained access over the content clients and colleagues can see and edit. Users with access can publish reports, embed them into websites or share them via email for collaboration. Peers can create comment threads on reports as well as add images and annotations. 
  • Embed Into Other Systems: Embed the software’s analytics capabilities into other solutions like CRM platforms, ERP tools or others. Offers seamless integration and a fully re-branded user portal for a continuous user experience across platforms. 
  • Extend the Software as Business Grows: The platform’s extensible, scalable architecture helps build and integrate analytics into applications of any size. Scales up to enterprises using huge volumes of data by utilizing scalable columnar database technology. 
  • Draw Data From Many Sources: Develop a 360-degree view of the organization by blending different types and sources, including outside sources, of data into a single cohesive database, allowing businesses to better answer questions regarding customer behavior, business operations, financial status and more. 
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  • Automated Modeling: Connects to relational databases and automatically generates models from the database schema.
  • Intuitive Visualizations: Generates visualizations in real time directly from the specified data source. Choose from an expansive library of visualization options like bar graphs, pie charts, Sankey diagrams, spider web charts, sunburst graphs, chord diagrams, heatmaps, funnels, treemaps and many more.
  • Time Zone Handling: Incorporates data seamlessly into the visualization, regardless of what time zone it is coming from.
  • LookML Data Modeling Language: Create scalable, reusable data models through the proprietary SQL-based data modeling language LookML.
  • Pre-Built Analytics Code: Use its Blocks feature as a starting point for building data analytics models with customizable code blocks. Includes optimized SQL patterns, custom visualization options, pre-built data models and more.
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  • Geo Visualization: Sales reps can quickly and easily compare regional performance with interactive map charts. Comparisons can be performed across countries, states, counties and more. 
  • Data Alerts: Managers can set alert conditions that trigger automated alerts when there is a significant change or anomaly in the data. 
  • Report Scheduling: Reports can be scheduled to be published or emailed automatically. Also, schedule recurring reports to generate on a set schedule. 
  • Drag-and-Drop Interface: An intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes generating useful reports quick and easy, without the need for code. View underlying data, set contextual filters, perform data exploration and drill down into the data to gain insights. 
  • White Labeling: The solution is white-labeled to facilitate embedding into websites or applications. Use this technology to embed individual reports or dashboards. 
  • Ask Zia: Zia is a smart analytical assistant built out of a blend of AI and machine learning algorithms. Employees can type out questions in natural query language (NQL), and the assistant will offer answers and suggestions via reports or automatically build and source KPI widgets. 
  • Data Connectors: Connects to a broad range of data connectors, including files and feeds, cloud storage, multiple databases, CRM systems, Google Analytics, marketing platforms, social media, financial platforms, e-commerce platforms, HR and more. 
  • Auto-Joined Data: Auto-joining tables can automatically merge tables linked by a Lookup column (schema attribute). This assists and partially automates cohesive database creation. 
  • Mobile Support: Apps on iOS and Android allow managers to view reports and dashboards from their mobile devices and overwatch operations from anywhere. 
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Product Ranking

#4

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Business Intelligence Tools

#23

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Business Intelligence Tools

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 1836 reviews
Great User Sentiment 748 reviews
88%
of users recommend this product

Looker has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 88% when considering 1836 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

89%
of users recommend this product

Zoho Analytics has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 89% when considering 748 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (20)
5.0 (14)
4.4 (1070)
4.2 (130)
4.6 (141)
4.5 (226)
4.4 (371)
4.5 (168)
4.1 (234)
4.4 (210)

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Reporting: Looker features strong reporting features that offer a degree of granularity and scheduling that 100% of users who mention reporting evaluate as a strong benefit.
Support: Of the users who say they’ve contacted customer support, 95% say the team’s quick and informative responses are a plus.
Data Accessibility: All users who mention accessibility to data say Looker does this well, distributing insights to employees across departments and teams with ease, with 100% of users mentioning this feature believing it is a benefit.
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Ease of Use: It is a user-friendly platform that makes it easy to upload and control data, as noted by more than 77% of reviewers who mention ease of use.
Integration: Facilitates integration with multiple databases and platforms for greater insights, as reported by 82% of the users noting integrations.
Dashboards: It enables easy creation and sharing of multifaceted, custom dashboards, as observed by 75% of reviewers specifying dashboards.
Flexible Reports: It helps generate dynamic and customizable reports quickly, as stated by 88% of the users who refer to reports.
Implement: This tool is simple to deploy and implement, as noted by 75% of reviewers mentioning the implementation process.
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Learning Curve: About 74% of users who touch on the platform’s ease of use say that the confusing documentation, lack of training opportunities and difficulty of using programming language make Looker a tough tool to pick up as a beginner.
Setup: Of the users who mention implementation, 81% say that setting up the platform is difficult, with integrations not being as plug-and-play as competitors and assistance from IT necessary to the setup process.
Speed: Approximately 87% of users who comment on the platform’s speed say that it is slow to render certain queries and often takes a while to load.
Functionality: About 78% of users who talk about Looker’s features say that they are left wanting many functions and find the ones that it does have limited in customization or too complex to use easily.
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Learning Curve: Around 63% of reviewers who mention the learning curve report that it has a steep learning curve for non-technical users.
User Interface: Its user interface can be confusing because of the multiple options and features available, as noted by over 54% of reviewers that mentioned the user interface.
Limited Queries: All users who refer to queries state that composing and joining queries is limited.
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Looker is a forerunner in the business intelligence field for a reason; it generates reports that include easy sharing via link, automatic scheduling and a level of granular detail that allows for deeper analysis below the surface. It excels in its filter and drill-down features and creates unique URLs when users make changes to data, leading to enhanced sharing. However, one of its biggest strengths could also be considered one of its biggest weaknesses: its proprietary programming language, LookML which is used to construct SQL queries in the platform. While a flexible and powerful data querying language, of course, LookML isn’t the most accessible to non-technical users, which means that Looker requires an IT or data team to access its full capabilities and has a steep learning curve. Users also note that its data visualizations, while simple and easy to understand, are quite basic and lacking in customization options, particularly in comparison to competitors. Some users say that it may be more appropriate for internal reporting than presentation to shareholders and end-users because of its bare-bones visualization options. However, Looker truly shines when used by enterprises, with its scalability and data accessibility making it a stellar solution that can align departments and provide thousands of users access to data insights. Its price point reflects this, with its pricing being prohibitive to startups as about 88% of users who comment on its cost remark. Overall, Looker is a solid pick for larger businesses that have a team of power users who can maximize its functionality and set it up to deliver to employees across an entire organization.

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Zoho Analytics is a BI and data analytics software platform that helps users visually analyze data, create visualizations and get a deeper understanding of raw data. It helps users generate dynamic, highly customizable and actionable reports and allows integration with multiple platforms for achieving greater insights. Its multifaceted and customizable dashboards can enhance the user experience. However, many reviewers have reported that the user-interface can be confusing to use with the many options and features available. Also, it has a steep learning curve, and non-technical users might find it difficult to use in the beginning. Overall, it is a user-friendly platform that enables effortless data handling.

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