Top 8 Looker Studio Alternatives

Are you hitting a wall with Looker Studio's limitations? You’re not alone!

A lot of teams start with this user-friendly tool - only to discover down the line that it can't keep up with growing demands for complex data analysis and enterprise security.

Some of the most common complaints I’ve heard from Looker users include:

• The data modeling capabilities struggle to cope with complex analysis. 
• It doesn’t have enterprise-grade, row-level security. 
• Looker lacks advanced embed capabilities for client-side reporting.

And the good news is that there are several good alternatives out there that offer features to make up for these limitations!

In this post, I’ll walk you through 8 such Looker Studio alternatives that I’ve tried and tested over the years.

I’ve included a wide range of tools on my list: some are enterprise-grade, some are embed-friendly, and others are open-source data.

Use the comparison table below to quickly scan your options, or read on for an in-depth analysis of each platform to find the best tool for your specific requirements!

• TL;DR: Top 3 Looker Studio Alternatives Compared
• 8 Looker Studio Alternatives (Tried and Tested)
• How to Choose the Best Looker Studio Alternative?
• Looker Studio Alternatives: Final Thoughts
• Looker Studio Alternatives: FAQs
  
  

Here’s a quick breakdown of the 3 best Looker Studio alternatives by their use cases:

1. Microsoft Power BI

Use Case: The Best All-Rounder for Most Businesses

Ideal for organizations of all sizes, especially those using Microsoft 365. It strikes the best balance between cost, user-friendliness, and powerful analytics, making it the most practical choice for the majority of teams.

2. Tableau

Use Case: The Gold Standard for Advanced Data Visualization.

The top choice for data professionals and enterprises that prioritize deep, exploratory data analysis and creating highly sophisticated, interactive dashboards. Best when visualization power is more critical than budget constraints.

3. Metabase

Use Case: The Top Choice for Open-Source & Embedded Analytics.

Perfect for startups, SMBs, and product teams needing a cost-effective, user-friendly tool for internal or embedded analytics. Its open-source core and intuitive interface lower the barrier to entry for self-service BI.

Quick Comparison: Top 3 Looker Studio Alternatives

Key Takeaways:

• Choose Power BI for the best balance of price, features, and ease of use.
• Go for Tableau for unmatched visualization capabilities and enterprise scale.
• Select Metabase for open-source flexibility and quick setup.
  
  

As promised, here’s my list of the 8 best Looker Studio alternatives - I’ve selected them based on their data modeling capabilities, ease-of-use, embed features, and pricing.

Here’s how the list stacks up:

1. Tableau: The Gold Standard for Visual Analytics

2. Microsoft Power BI: The Best All-Rounder

3. Domo: The Unified Cloud Platform

4. Qlik Sense: The Leader in Associative Analytics

5. Sisense: Best for Embedded Analytics

6. Metabase: The Top Open Source Choice

7. Zoho Analytics: The Best for SMBs

8. Apache Superset: The Scalable Open Source Powerhouse

1. Tableau: The Gold Standard for Visual Analytics

Tableau is one of the most popular Business Intelligence and data visualization tools on the market.

It’s a strong Looker Studio alternative for anyone who wants to perform complex analysis on large datasets.

It also helps you create interactive, intuitive visualizations and dashboards.

Best For: Large enterprises and data professionals who require deep, exploratory data analysis, robust security, and scalable deployment options.

Key Features of Tableau

• Advanced Visualization Capabilities: You get access to an extensive library of charts, such as bar, Gantt and motion charts. Plus, the drag-and-drop interface is perfect if you want a tool that is easy to use for non-technical users.

• Powerful Data Connectivity: One of Tableau’s strengths is that it integrates very well with a range of data connectors - cloud databases, data warehouses, spreadsheets, and big data platforms. The Hyper data engine delivers quick querying and can analyze large datasets without lagging.

• AI-Powered Analytics (Tableau Pulse): This is my favorite Tableau feature. It provides AI-driven insights, natural language querying (through Ask Data), and automated explanations of data points (via Explain Data). 

If you like these features and want to explore them in detail, check out my guide on How to Use Tableau.

Potential Limitations of Tableau

• Tableau’s pricing might be too expensive for SMBs, startups, and solopreneurs.
• The learning curve is pretty steep compared to other Looker Studio alternatives.
• Its data cleaning capabilities are not the strongest. 

Tableau Pricing Information

Tableau uses a tiered, per-user subscription model billed annually. Simply put, you need at least one Creator license to use Tableau effectively.

• Creator: $115 per user/month, includes Tableau Desktop, Prep Builder, and a Cloud/Server license.
• Explorer: $70 per user/month for self-serve analysis on published data sources.
• Viewer: $35 per user/month for viewing and interacting with dashboards.
  
  

2. Microsoft Power BI: Best All-Round Looker Alternative

Next on my list is Microsoft Power BI - a unified, scalable business analytics platform designed to turn data into actionable insights.

Technically, it is a core component of the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem that offers integrated tools for both self-service and enterprise BI requirements.

Best For: Organizations already using Microsoft tools like Office 365 and Azure, seeking a cost-effective and user-friendly BI solution.

Key Features of Microsoft Power BI

• Seamless Microsoft Ecosystem Integration: Power BI comes with a native integration for Microsoft 365 apps - Teams, Excel, SharePoint, and Azure services. This means Microsoft users won’t need to switch platforms to get insights into their data.

• AI Copilot for Analytics: Power BI also features a robust integration with Microsoft’s Copilot AI. You can use it to generate reports, DAX calculations, and simple answers to data-based questions using text-based queries.

• Comprehensive Platform Components: Power BI consists of Power BI Desktop (a free app for in-depth data modeling + report creation), the core BI service (a cloud-based SaaS for publishing and sharing), and mobile apps.

Check out my blog on How to Use Power BI to explore the tool and see if the features meet your requirements.

Potential Limitations of Power BI

• Power BI can slow down when processing large/complex datasets.
• You’ll have to spend some time learning how to use the more advanced functions.
• Limited data prep capabilities - so you might have to use an ELT/ETL tool for prep.

Check out my blog comparing Power BI vs. Looker to find out which one is better for you.

Power BI Pricing Information

Apart from a Free plan for basic functionalities, Power BI offers three different pricing plans:

• Power BI Pro: $14 per user/month (paid yearly). Required for publishing, sharing reports, and collaborating with other Pro users.
• Power BI Premium Per User (PPU): $24 per user/month (paid yearly). Includes all Pro features, plus larger model sizes, and more frequent data refreshes (48/day vs. 8/day on Pro).
• Power BI Embedded or Microsoft Fabric: Variable, capacity-based pricing for embedding analytics into applications and enterprise-wide deployment.
  
  

3. Domo: A Unified Cloud Platform

Domo is a cloud-native business intelligence platform.

Its core strength is that it’s an all-in-one data analysis and visualization solution that also offers strong embed capabilities.

That is, Domo unifies data integration, transformation, visualization, and collaboration into a single, integrated environment.

Best For: Large enterprises + mid-sized orgs that need to consolidate data from numerous sources and agencies require robust embedded analytics capabilities.

Key Features of Domo

• Extensive Data Connectivity: One of my favorite things about Domo is that it provides over 1,000 pre-built connectors to cloud applications, databases, and proprietary systems. You can also integrate it with tools like Magic ETL for drag-and-drop data transformation.

• Robust BI and Analytics Suite: Domo’s interface is both intuitive and low-code - perfect for building interactive dashboards. You can also choose from over 150 chart types. Plus, you get tools for storytelling, alerts, and scheduled reporting.

• Domo.AI: Domo has also done a solid job of integrating AI throughout its platform. For example, you can create custom AI agents, generate SQL code with text prompts, and even build + deploy advanced models with Jupyter Workspaces integration.

Potential Limitations of Domo

• Domo is an enterprise-grade tool with expensive and complex pricing.
• Creating tailored visualizations with advanced features might be challenging for non-technical users.

Domo Pricing Information

Domo does not publish transparent pricing - it’s best to contact their sales for a custom quote.

However, from the clients I’ve worked with and my personal experience, I do know that the pricing model is primarily credit-based, with costs scaling based on data volume and usage.

For mid-sized companies, I’ve seen annual costs fall in the range of $20,000 and $50,000, while enterprise deployments can range from $50,000 to over $100,000.

4. Qlik Sense: Best for Associative Analytics

Next up, we have Qlik Sense - a powerful data analytics platform whose strength is free data exploration and discovery through its unique associative engine.

It’s a unique tool on my list that goes beyond traditional query-based tools by indexing all relationships within your data and allowing you to intuitively uncover hidden insights that might otherwise be missed!

Best For: Data analysts and enterprises that need to perform deep or exploratory data discovery across complex & diverse datasets.

Key Features of Qlik Sense

• Associative Analytics Engine: This is the core technology that differentiates Qlik Sense from other data visualization tools. It indexes every possible relationship in your data! So, when you make a selection, it instantly highlights related (white), selected (green), and unrelated (grey) data, revealing hidden patterns that help you quickly understand potential relationships within your data.

• AI-Powered Insights: Qlik uses AI to automatically generate and prioritize visual insights. It also tells you which charts will best represent your data, thus accelerating analysis and visualization. I also like that its AI-assisted data prep features help users combine and transform data from multiple sources.

• Flexible Deployment Options: You can opt for a fully-managed cloud SaaS solution (Qlik Sense Business), an enterprise-grade platform for multi-cloud or on-premises deployment (Qlik Sense Enterprise), or a free desktop version for individual use.

Potential Limitations of Qlik Sense

• The associative model might require some to get used to.
• You might need to configure data between Direct Query mode and in-memory leading for complex datasets. 

Qlik Sense Pricing Information

Qlik offers three different pricing plans:

• Desktop: A free version for individual use and learning.
• Business: Starts at $30 per user/month (billed annually).
• Enterprise: Custom pricing based on organizational requirements. 
  
  

5. Sisense: Built for Embedded Analytics

If you’re an agency, an enterprise or just a user that wants deep embed capabilities, Sisense is the best Looker Studio alternative on the market.

It’s a powerful BI platform that you can use to integrate customizable AI-powered analytics directly into other apps or software products.

While anyone who needs embed capabilities can use it, Sisense is designed primarily for organizations that need to provide data insights within their own ecosystems, whether for internal tools or customer-facing SaaS products.

Best For: Software companies and enterprises requiring deeply integrated, white-label embedded analytics within their applications.

Key Features of Sisense

• Fusion Embed + Compose SDK: You can engineer tailored data products and dashboards that closely match your app’s look and feel using popular web frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.

• AI-Powered Insights: Sisense’s AI capabilities help you automate data analysis, generate predictive insights, and offer responses to text-based prompts. This makes Sisense very user-friendly - you don’t need deep technical expertise to uncover hidden trends or make data-driven decisions.

• Connectivity and Elasticube Engine: You can easily integrate data from sources like cloud data warehouses or on-premises databases. Plus, its proprietary ElastiCube engine can handle and analyze large, complex datasets efficiently - making it a strong option for lag-free performance in embedded scenarios.

Potential Limitations of Sisense

• Expensive, even when compared to some other enterprise-grade alternatives.
• You might need some time to familiarize yourself with the SDK capabilities to create custom embeds. 

Sisense Pricing Information

Sisense uses a custom-quote model - it doesn’t even have a public pricing page.

However, based on the clients I’ve worked with in the past, here’s the ballpark figure you can expect to pay:

• $10,000+ per year for self-hosted architecture.
• $21,000+ per year Sisense Cloud.

You might also have to pay more depending on the number of seats you need and the data volume (ElastiCube size) you want to service.

6. Metabase: The Top Open Source Choice

Metabase makes my list of the best Looker Studio alternatives as the best open-source business intelligence platform.

It makes data exploration and dashboard creation accessible to everyone, from non-technical business users and even professional data analysts.

What I like most about it is its user-friendly interface and quick setup, making it a popular choice for startups and small to mid-sized teams.

Best For: Startups, SMBs, and teams with limited budgets that need a quick-to-deploy, user-friendly BI tool for internal or embedded analytics.

Key Features of Metabase

• Intuitive No-Code Query Builder: Metabase's visual query builder is what allows you to ask questions of their data through a point-and-click interface. That means you don’t need to write even a single line of code to explore data or create interactive reports.

• Flexible Deployment and Embedding: Metabase’s second core strength is that it offers an open-source version for self-hosting + paid cloud-hosted plans. And both versions feature solid embedding capabilities so you can easily integrate dashboards and charts into your own apps, with white-labeling options available on paid tiers.

• AI-Powered Assistance (Metabot): Metabase includes an AI assistant that helps you ask text-based queries, generate SQL code, and debug queries. So, you can accelerate data-powered workflows even if you don’t have a  dedicated data engineer on your team!
  

Potential Limitations of Metabase

• I’ve seen and heard a lot of users complaining that Metabase slows down when handling complex datasets.
• Metabase offers limited options (graphs, charts, etc) for data visualization.
• It’s not suited to direct advanced data modeling tasks.
  
  

Metabase Pricing Information

Metabase’s open-source version is free forever as long as you self-host it. Apart from this, it offers three different pricing options, each for a different functionality:

• Starter (Cloud): $85 per month (includes first 5 users, then $5/user/month).
• Pro (Cloud/Self-Hosted): $500 per month (includes first 10 users, then $10/user/month), also unlocks advanced embedding, white-labeling, and permissions.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing (starts at around $15,000 per year).
  
  

7. Zoho Analytics: The Best for SMBs

Zoho Analytics is my pick for SMBs, solopreneurs, and startups that need a powerful BI tool.

It is a self-serve BI and data analytics platform designed you can use to analyze data, create visualizations, and uncover insights quickly.

One thing I really like about Zoho is that it doesn’t compromise on the number of features it offers even though it doesn’t charge a lot.

For just $24/month, you get access to all of its features - a wide range of connectors, an AI-powered assistant, and pretty decent data analysis capabilities.

Best For: SMBs and startups looking for an affordable, user-friendly BI tool with good integration capabilities. Also perfect for anyone already using other Zoho products.

Key Features of Zoho Analytics

• Extensive Data Connectivity: Native integration with over 500 data sources, including popular business apps (Zoho CRM, Salesforce, QuickBooks), cloud data warehouses, databases, and flat files.

• AI-Powered Analytics (Ask Zia): You can ask Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant, text-based questions and it will generate answers, reports, and even KPI widgets. Zia also provides automated insights (Zia Insights) + predictive analytics, and can guide you through data prep and report building processes through a simple conversation.

• Pre-Built Analytics Templates: This functionality is pretty similar to Looker Studio’s Templates - Zoho Analytics also gives you access to hundreds of domain-specific, pre-built reports plus dashboards for sales, marketing, finance, HR, and other functions.
  
  

Potential Limitations of Zoho

• The total cost can mount quickly due to Zoho’s row-based pricing tiers.
• Non-technical users might need some time to become familiar with the more advanced features. 

Zoho Pricing Information

Zoho Analytics uses a transparent, tiered subscription model billed monthly or annually (with a 20% discount for annual billing). Let me quickly walk you through its pricing plans:

• Free Plan: Available for up to 2 users and 10,000 rows.
• Standard: ~$24 per month (billed annually) for 2 users and 0.5 million rows.
• Premium: ~48 per month (billed annually) for 5 users and 1 million rows.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for 50+ users and 50+ million rows.
  
  

8. Cognos by IBM: The Enterprise Reporting Powerhouse

Last on my list of the best Looker Studio alternatives is IBM’s Cognos Analytics.

It is a comprehensive, enterprise-grade business intelligence platform designed for large organizations.

So, if you need robust reporting, stringent governance, and scalable deployment options - Cognos is a strong choice.

Plus, it goes beyond visualization to offer a unified environment for complex data modeling and AI-assisted analysis.

I also really like its pixel-perfect report generation that makes it very easy to create meeting-ready reports and dashboards.

Best For: Large enterprises and organizations in regulated industries that need highly governed, scalable BI solutions with powerful, traditional reporting capabilities.

Key Features of Cognos

• Augmented Analytics: You can ask text-based questions about your data and get AI-generated answers and insights. Cognos also features automated pattern detection, predictive forecasting, and smart visualization suggestions to help uncover hidden trends.

• Enterprise-Grade Reporting + Dashboards: Cognos is particularly known  for its high-performance, "pixel-perfect" reporting capabilities that you can use to create multi-page financial statements to interactive dashboards. You can also format the layout of your reports to meet strict corporate or regulatory standards.

• Flexible Deployment and Scalability: Cognos can be deployed on-premises, as a service on IBM Cloud, or in a hybrid model. You can also deploy it as a part of any cloud (including AWS, Azure, and GCP) via Kubernetes.
  
  

Potential Limitations of Cognos by IBM

• One problem with Cognos is that you'll need either a team of data engineers or a data visualization consultant to make the most of its complex features.
• Its visualization options are limited compared to Tableau or Power BI. 

Pricing Information

IBM Cognos Analytics uses a tiered subscription model - but you can expect to pay around $25/user/month for its starting plan.

To choose the best Looker Alternative, I recommend considering 4 main factors:

• Your Primary Use Case: First, you need to know what capabilities you absolutely need your BI tool to have. Is it self-service analytics for business users, embedded analytics for your product, or enterprise-wide reporting with strict governance? This will immediately narrow your options.

• Technical Resources Available to You: Next, assess the technical skills and knowledge of your team. For example, if you’ve got data engineers with good experience of handling BI tools, Metabase might help you cut down on your expenses. On the other hand, Sisense might be expensive, but perfect for enterprise-grade requirements.

• Your Data Sources: Make sure that the tool you’re choosing can natively connect to your critical data sources (e.g., CRM, databases, cloud warehouses). If not, you might want to evaluate whether it's worth the effort to get a more affordable Looker Studio and also work with another ELT/ETL tool on top.

• Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Lastly, don’t just look at the initial license fee. Consider costs for implementation, training, additional connectors, and scaling users.

My suggestion: make a list of the features/capabilities you need, and then compare different tools based on their user experience and pricing to find the best option.

And don’t forget to use free trials to explore the platform with your own data before committing!

Through this blog, I’ve walked you through the 8 best Looker Alternatives on the market.

I’ve also shared with you the factors you should consider to choose one that suits your data visualization and analysis needs.

And if you’re still not sure which Looker alternative best fits your requirements, reach out to us at Augmented Tech Labs!

Over the 10 years that we’ve been in the data visualization industry, we’ve worked extensively with all the Looker Studio alternatives we’ve mentioned above.

So, connect with us for a free consultation, and we’ll help you find the right data visualization tool that will align with your operational needs.

1. What is the best all-around Looker Studio alternative?

Microsoft Power BI is the top all-round Looker Studio alternative - it offers powerful analytics, seamless Microsoft 365 integration, and a cost-effective freemium model suitable for most organizations.

2. When should I hire a data visualization consultant?

You should hire a data visualization consultant when you need expert guidance to select, implement, and customize a BI platform. Data visualization consultants (like us at Augmented Tech Labs) ensure the tool aligns with your specific data infrastructure, security needs, and business objectives for maximum ROI.

3. What are the best dashboard creation tools for enterprises?

For large enterprises, the best dashboard creation tools are Tableau for advanced analytics and Domo for unified data consolidation. Both offer robust security, scalability, and powerful, interactive visualization capabilities for complex data environments.

4. Are there any capable free data visualization tools?

Yes, capable free data visualization tools include Microsoft Power BI Desktop and the open-source version of Metabase. These platforms offer strong core features for individual users and small teams to build reports and dashboards.

5. Which open-source tool is best for embedded analytics?

For open source data visualization and embedding, Metabase is a solid choice. Its intuitive interface and flexible deployment options make it ideal for integrating analytics directly into your own applications and software products.