Google Charts vs. Looker

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Charts
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Google Charts provides a way to visualize data on your website - for free. From simple line charts to complex hierarchical tree maps, the chart gallery provides a large number of ready-to-use chart types. The most common way to use Google Charts is with simple JavaScript that you embed in your web page.N/A
Looker
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Looker is a BI application with an analytics-oriented application server that sits on top of relational data stores. It includes an end-user interface for exploring data, a reusable development paradigm for data discovery, and an API for supporting data in other systems.N/A
Pricing
Google ChartsLooker
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google ChartsLooker
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google ChartsLooker
Features
Google ChartsLooker
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
8.8
Ratings
8% above category average
Looker
8.3
Ratings
2% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports8.10 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Customizable dashboards9.50 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.80 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
9.3
Ratings
14% above category average
Looker
8.4
Ratings
4% above category average
Drill-down analysis8.60 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Formatting capabilities9.50 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages9.50 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.60 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
9.0
Ratings
8% above category average
Looker
8.7
Ratings
5% above category average
Publish to Web9.50 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.60 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Versioning8.60 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.70 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
8.8
Ratings
10% above category average
Looker
6.9
Ratings
14% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.90 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.80 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.80 Ratings4.60 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
8.8
Ratings
4% above category average
Looker
8.2
Ratings
3% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.80 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.80 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.80 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
9.0
Ratings
14% above category average
Looker
6.1
Ratings
25% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access9.50 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Mobile Application9.60 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.70 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Google Charts
8.8
Ratings
12% above category average
Looker
-
Ratings
REST API8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google ChartsLooker
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.0 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Kyvos Semantic Intelligence Layer
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google ChartsLooker
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.3
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.9
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
5.0
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.3
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Online Training
5.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google ChartsLooker
Likelihood to Recommend
Google Charts is perfectly suited for most presentations that are data oriented. There's not much of a limit on the type of table or chart you can create, and being able to integrate with Google Sheets just makes things even easier if you've already got the data stored somewhere. It works well on desktop browsers, Iphones, and Android phones. The only drawback I've been able to find is for those that prefer to have a desktop application.
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When you need to create a centralised dashboard for multiple stakeholders that blends cross-channel reporting. As an SEO agency reporting for clients - Looker is a great solution. It's less appropriate depending on the intended users. For instance, in my experience Looker reports have been under-utilised because they're not accessed regularly, provide too much noise or often simple PDF reports are preferred
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Pros
  • Google Charts is free so a terrific tool for universities and students
  • Provides new users that need charts an inventory and gallery of potential charts and types to visualize data
  • The software is useful to add charts and data for websites with limited effort but with success
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  • It is very easy to start a new dashboard and configure what you want to display by just selecting/dragging from the list of available columns.
  • It is intuitive, mainly if you use other Google services like Google Sheets.
  • The look and feel is modern and nice.
  • It it very useful to have an immediate visual overview of the data in a spreadsheet.
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Cons
  • I would like a couple more introductory videos or a live chat option for when you run into an issue. I think this is a Google-wide problem, not only linked to Google Charts.
  • I have run into some issues with the Dynamic Data but also admittedly could potentially dive in deeper and investigate.
  • It would be great if Google Charts made it possible to integrate Google Chat into the platform.
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  • I wish I could get more granular in the Google ad data, such as down to the campaign type, instead of having to see only all campaigns.
  • The setup can be time-consuming if you're not using the product regularly.
  • Editing the dashboard requires a few logins; I wish it was more seamless.
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Likelihood to Renew
Google Charts is a good product. It's widely supported with deep documentation and a large community. But for me, it wasn't customizable enough. When we started with simple charts, it was great, but as we got deeper and more complex, our needs outgrew the library. If I was going forward, I would choose a more barebones library with more freedom and extensibility.
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We are very haooy with Looker, it provides us with all the funciomalities we need for both the day to day oerformance tracking and longer periods reporting. It is easy to use for account managers, configurable and customizable for soecialists and what is most imoortant, our clinets generally really love it
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Usability
Requires knowledge of Javascript, which can be difficult for a beginner. A business analyst often isn't as technically minded as a developer so collaboration is often required to produce a correct chart for the purpose required. However, the customisation capable due to this creates much better looking charts compared to other tools.
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Looker is relatively easy to use, even as it is set up. The customers for the front-end only have issues with the initial setup for looker ml creations. Other "looks" are relatively easy to set up, depending on the ETL and the data which is coming into Looker on a regular basis.
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Reliability and Availability
Google charts is always available and provides fast output.
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No objections
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Performance
Connectivity is occasionally very slow.
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Somehow resources heavy, both on server and client. I recommned at least 50Mbs data rate and high performance desktop comouter to be abke to run comolex tasks and configure larger amount of data. On the other hand, the client does not need to worry when viewing, the performance is usually ok
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Support Rating
Google Charts has a very good documentation that we can just go in there and find the stuff we need to implement our solutions on Google Charts. Plus, if we get stuck, we can also email the support and they are very responsive. So overall, the support is very satisfying.
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Never had to work with support for issues. Any questions we had, they would respond promptly and clearly. The one-time setup was easy, by reading documentation. If the feature is not supported, they will add a feature request. In this case, LDAP support was requested over OKTA. They are looking into it.
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Online Training
The online training was solely done through self training on google's guide to charts.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Easy to implement
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Very satisfied, easy to implement
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Alternatives Considered
In comparison to Microsoft Power BI, Google Charts has more ease of use for businesses who simply need a way to visually display their data from their reports. Although Power BI may be more robust in more complicated data compilation, Google Charts can still be able to do some of the basics that Power BI delivers.
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In my opinion, Looker is no Power BI. It is good, but I think Power BI is amazing. That said, in my experience, Power BI is nowhere near as easy to setup and report on Google services as Looker is. We plan to continue using Power BI for c-suite and corporate reporting, especially for internal databases, but will gladly use Looker for our marketing information for AdWords, Analytics, Search Console, and YouTube.
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Scalability
Google Charts is essential for quick, easy, reporting. There are opportunities for advanced features.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • teams were easily able to create charts and find out progress on our learning courses and thus take actionable insights to their managers, professors
  • students could also know their progress on various courses from one single view, same for instructors in terms of imparting education
  • sales team could learn which kind of courses sold more to focus more on those areas
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  • Other than some people not liking the numbers, I don't see any negative impacts; we haven't experienced that.
  • The reports help us unravel the story of our users and how they are sifting through our pages.
  • Our clients enjoy seeing the numbers to understand better what stands out on their sites.
  • The reports have helped us see what campaigns are working and where we need to tweak things.
  • The reports have enabled us to have better conversations with stakeholders about how their web pages should be modified, edited, etc., to reflect the data.
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ScreenShots

Looker Screenshots

Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.