10 Looker Alternatives and Competitors in 2025

Imagine you want to create data-driven insights without needing extensive technical expertise. Business intelligence (BI) software platforms like Looker are the clear solution. They are now an essential part of data analysis, marketing strategy, and business decision-making, giving users of all backgrounds the ability to whip up interactive visualizations, dashboards, reports, and more.

Looker is a popular BI tool with robust data analytics features, a proprietary modeling language (LookML), and the ability to provide advanced customization. It’s a solid option for data exploration, especially if you’re dealing with large datasets.

Still, Looker isn’t the best fit for everyone. It requires much more technical knowledge than many BI tools and focuses on comprehensive data analytics and modeling rather than viewing data intuitively.

Here, we’ll explain what Looker is, why it might not fit every organization’s needs, and why you might want to consider other options. Then, you can explore our list of the best alternatives and competitors in 2025 to help you find the right solution for your business goals.

What is Looker?

Looker is a BI tool that allows you to analyze, visualize, and share insights revealed through data. Acquired by Google in February 2020, Looker is part of the Google Cloud ecosystem. It’s the more advanced version of Looker Studio, a free and open-source BI tool that focuses on simple data visualization.

Google frequently describes Looker as “Google for your business data.” Just as Google organizes and analyzes information online, Looker organizes business data from hundreds of sources so you can use it to answer questions and gain insights.

Looker combines AI, cloud-native infrastructure, APIs, and a semantic layer. Here’s a preview of Looker’s key features:

• LookML: Use Looker’s SQL-based modeling language to create SQL queries and define and manage business rules and definitions.
• Integration with Looker Studio: Analyze governed and ungoverned data, create ad-hoc reports, and drill down deeper by connecting Looker Studio to Looker.
• Google Cloud core: Access Google Cloud infrastructure through Looker, which is integrated with existing Google Cloud services.
• Looker modeler: Expand data collaboration and analysis by sharing models with coworkers or submitting drafts for review.
• Embedding: Add customized Looker content to web pages with private or signed embedding.
• Looker API: Write applications or automation scripts, run queries, schedule data deliveries, and more.

With Looker, you can explore data, build applications, share dashboards, and embed visuals. The tool offers strong access controls, ensuring secure data use and adherence to compliance requirements. It integrates with a variety of databases and data warehouses, including BigQuery, Snowflake, and Redshift.

Why consider an alternative to Looker?

Looker is a cloud-based BI platform that gathers business data and helps visualize it in a way that’s easy to digest. It acts as a single source of truth for all analytics and offers multiple tools, like data science and analytics, for uncovering and understanding data patterns.

Yet there are a number of reasons Looker may not suit your business needs, including cost, complexity, and limitations on features and usability.

Looker isn’t the most user-friendly option for non-technical users, and many of its features lag behind competitors. Some users report slow, inconsistent support from Looker, making it difficult to resolve technical issues.

Here are common reasons why you might consider an alternative to Looker:

• Steeper learning curve: Many BI tools offer drag-and-drop features that make it easy to create dashboards with little to no coding. Looker’s tools are flexible, but they aren’t quite as user-friendly and have a steeper learning curve in comparison to competitors.
• Limited mobile application: Looker’s mobile application only supports simple tasks like viewing reports, sharing content, or accessing boards. It doesn’t allow for further data exploration, modeling, scheduling meetings, or responding to messages.
• Limited connectors: Looker connects with BigQuery, Snowflake, and Redshift and has more than 50 supported SQL dialects. However, third-party tools are often required to connect with other data sources, making integration less seamless than other BI tools.
• Gaps in security and governance: Looker’s security capabilities are built directly on top of your existing database. This keeps data secure, but it also limits the flow of data. Other tools offer security that’s built into every layer of the platform, ensuring free flow of data while preventing unauthorized access.
• High cost of ownership: Looker provides extensive capabilities, but those come at a high cost. Small businesses and startups are often priced out of its licensing fees.
• Complexity of setup and use: Looker’s proprietary modeling language offers high data consistency, but it also requires specialized expertise to set up and maintain. If your organization doesn’t have a dedicated team of data engineers, the maintenance effort may not be worth your time. 
• Limited real-time analysis: Looker relies on pre-existing data models but struggles with real-time analytics. Looker may not be the best choice if your business needs up-to-date insights for time-sensitive decision-making.
• Cloud-dependent infrastructure: Looker is a cloud-first solution, meaning performance is tied to the availability of cloud-based data warehouses. This limits access for organizations that use on-premise or hybrid environments.

By exploring alternative BI tools, you could enjoy improved decision-making, enhanced efficiency and productivity, and cost savings through data consolidation.

Improved decision-making with data-driven insights

Here’s how a Looker alternative could help drive quicker, smarter business decisions:

• Simpler interfaces: Other tools offer more intuitive drag-and-drop features, enabling you to effortlessly build dashboards and reports without relying heavily on technical teams.
• Real-time analytics: Unlike Looker, other BI platforms are optimized for real-time data processing, which empowers you to act quickly on trends or disruptions.
• Broader integrations: Alternative tools could offer broader or more native integrations that pull data from various sources. These options could enrich insights and improve decision-making.

Enhanced efficiency and productivity

Efficiency is critical as your business scales. Here’s how a Looker alternative could improve outcomes in this area:

• Streamlined setup: Compared with Looker, many solutions have simplified onboarding processes that can save you time and resources during implementation.
• Automated processes: Many BI tools offer a broader scope of pre-built connectors, templates, and workflows, reducing manual intervention and accelerating your data analysis.
• Improved collaboration: Platforms that place more emphasis on shared workspaces, annotations, and real-time updates foster greater collaboration among teams.

Cost savings through data consolidation

Looker often requires third-party tools, which increases the cost of ownership. Other options enable data consolidation and minimize redundant efforts, providing significant cost benefits:

• Reduced costs: Many BI alternatives come with cheaper licensing, minimal implementation fees, and reduced maintenance requirements, which reduces the overall cost of ownership.
• Unified data management: A tool that integrates better with existing systems can bring together different types of siloed data, reducing storage and processing expenses.
• Increased resource efficiency: More user-friendly platforms reduce the need for technical expertise and free up teams to focus on more strategic, high-value work.

What to look for in a Looker alternative

If Looker isn’t the right BI solution for your needs, how should you identify the right alternative? Start by evaluating key features and capabilities, ensuring the new solution aligns with your core business goals, budgets, and existing infrastructure.

Here are some factors to consider:

Enterprise-grade security and compliance

Data security should be a top priority if your business handles sensitive information. Look for a BI tool that provides the latest security measures:

• End-to-end encryption for data at rest and in transit
• Role-based access controls that ensure appropriate data permissions
• Compliance with industry and regulatory standards, such as GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, SOC 2, and ISO 27001

Scalability for growing business needs

When selecting a BI tool, it’s important to plan for future growth. Here are some scalability features to look for:

• Has the ability to handle increasing data volumes
• Accommodates added users and new data sources without slowdowns or performance degradation
• Supports both on-premises and cloud environments if needed

Dedicated customer support and training

A highly responsive, knowledgeable support team can make all the difference in your user experience. Seek out BI tools that offer the following:

• Onboarding assistance and training resources to ensure quick adoption
• Accessible support channels, such as chat, email, or phone
• Comprehensive documentation and community forums for educating and skill-building

Best alternatives and competitors to Looker in 2025

To help you navigate the ever-expanding BI landscape, here are the top 10 Looker alternatives to consider in 2025.

1. Domo

Domo is a comprehensive choice for business intelligence, offering easy data integration, built-in AI, real-time analytics, and security and governance features that adhere to the highest industry standards. The cloud-based platform unites and centralizes data from widely different sources, allowing for data analysis, modeling, and transformation. Domo also features embedded analytics and a full-scale mobile application with all the essential features for creating, sharing, and exploring data.

Key features

• Extensive integrations: Choose from more than 1,000 connectors to easily integrate data regardless of size, volume, and location.
• Visualization tools: Access more than 150 chart types and 7,000 custom maps to turn data into engaging visuals and stories.
• Collaboration: Use Buzz, Domo’s built-in messaging platform, to communicate and get real-time alerts.
• Predictive analytics: Deliver data to employees, customers, and partners with Domo Everywhere.

2. Tableau

Tableau is part of the Salesforce ecosystem, with a suite of products including desktop, online, server, and reader tools. Tableau Desktop is a well-known choice for data visualization, but additional products are needed to support data preparation and hosting. Tableau is best suited for advanced data science use cases, with many features focused on in-depth analytics. The platform features AI-powered insights, embedded analytics, and native CRM analytics for Salesforce.

Key features

• Data visualization: Build graphs, charts, and maps with drag-and-drop visualization features and no-code, templated formats.
• Data stories: Add automated plain-language explanations to dashboards and streamline workflow.
• Workbook optimizer: Compare design characteristics and best practices to see how workbook design affects performance.
• AI-driven analytics: Calculate and visualize data by writing conversational prompts in Tableau Agent. Get automated analytics in plain language with Tableau Pulse.

3. Power BI

Power BI is part of the Microsoft family, and it integrates with the Microsoft Office suite. It’s a good solution for users who are comfortable with advanced Office tools since it has a similar look and feel. However, those who aren’t familiar with these features may have a harder time learning to navigate the interface. Power BI connects with many common data sources and uses AI to uncover trends and generate insights.

Key features

• Drag-and-drop dashboards: Build reports without the need for coding expertise. Save and publish to other websites or access through the mobile app.
• Data visualization: Choose from hundreds of visuals available in the Microsoft app store or create your own visuals through open-source tools.
• Data science: Access tools like Power Query to model data and enhance analysis.
• Enterprise-level governance: Gain peace of mind with governance and security features that meet the highest standards.

4. Qlik

Qlik is a self-service BI tool for data discovery with a strong emphasis on data insights. The cloud-based platform is powered by AI with data integration tools that connect across business channels. Qlik integrates data from sources like Amazon, GitHub, and Microsoft Excel. Users can build detailed reports within the solution using Qlik Sense sheets, while embedded analytics allow for integration into workflows, applications, and portals.

Key features

• Automated data transformation: Create engaging data models and get continuous refinement.
• Data quality: Explore, remediate, and analyze data in a secure environment.
• Data warehouse automation: Streamline the data warehouse cycle with automated tools.
• Real-time data integration: Improve data availability and agility, no skilled developers required.

5. Sisense

Sisense is a BI solution focused on optimizing data analytics and embedding data into business workflows and applications. It is available in multiple formats, including on-premises, on the cloud, or through hybrid architectures. Though it doesn’t offer data storage, it works with existing data warehouses to pull data from original sources. It offers highly customizable data experiences for internal and external sharing, along with data governance, SSO integration, and multi-level security.

Key features

• Customizable interface: Change the typography, background colors, and system themes for a branded BI experience.
• Visualizations: Choose from many chart options or access add-on charting options with premium features.
• Data analytics: Use ElastiCubes for ETL functions—no need for an external tool. Dive deeper into raw data with Python, SWL, and R.
• Data connectors: Explore nearly 200 connectors to streamline data analysis across platforms and data sources.

6. Klipfolio

As a cloud-based data analytics platform, Klipfolio allows businesses to collect, share, and analyze data in real time. Users can track and visualize important business metrics and KPIs or build dashboards and other charts and graphs. Klipfolio has about 300 data connectors and is beginner-friendly, but it’s important to note that the solution is not fully self-service. It offers security through a third-party host and can be accessed on a mobile device.

Key features

• PowerMetrics: Connect to data sources, import data, and visualize with dashboards, reports, and more.
• Real-time data tracking: Modify and track data as needed using custom data and filter options.
• Dashboard building tool: Explore pre-built data visualization templates and customize to your business needs.

7. Databox

Databox is a solution used to track business performance, visualize data, and create custom data stories and presentations. Built with robust forecasting tools, users can anticipate future trends or compare outcomes with historical data. Data modeling templates simplify workflows, while benchmark data allows for easy browsing of custom business metrics. Databox integrates with more than 100 connectors, including APIs and databases.

Key features

• Performance tracking: Track pre-built metrics and get alerts with performance changes.
• Data visualization: Create dashboards with drag-and-drop builder and one-click templates.
• Report customization: Add your logo, brand colors, and more. Combine visuals with automated performance summaries.
• Goal setting: View goal progress and get alerts if you’re not on track.

8. SAP Data Intelligence Cloud

SAP Data Intelligence Cloud is part of the SAP ecosystem, with deep integrations for SAP HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud, and more. It features data integration, orchestration, and management and supports structured and unstructured data analysis. Users can process data in real time and get additional insights with the help of AI and machine learning.

Key features

• Data transformation: Augment data across multiple data types and curate a searchable data catalog.
• Centralized rules and ratings: Create a business glossary with business rules and ratings.
• Machine learning pipelines: Conduct complex data flows with intelligent data processes.
• Hybrid and multi-cloud support: Manage data across multiple environments with ease.

9. Mode

Mode is a central hub for uniting and analyzing data. The self-service tool enables ad hoc analysis and data reporting, connecting SQL, R, Python, and data visualization. With Mode, users can create interactive dashboards, build custom data apps, and share reports with stakeholders. Mode connects to most major data warehouses, including Azure, BigQuery, and MySQL.

Key features

• Custom data apps: Get total HTML customization to build tools suited to your business needs.
• SQL Editor: Gain greater understanding by iterating through multiple queries and exploring data in depth.
• Integrated notebooks: Write SQL and analyze data with predictive modeling and forecasting in Python.
• Visual explorer: Build data visualizations from a variety of template formats, such as charts, line graphs, and tables.

10. ThoughtSpot

A BI and big data analytics platform in one, ThoughtSpot is a tool made for business users with some data science expertise. It provides search and AI self-service tools to find new data insights and requires a server to operate. Users can build interactive data apps on open source platforms with flexible APIs, or get answers to ad-hoc queries. ThoughtSpot can connect to cloud data warehouses to live-query data quickly.

Key features

• Natural language search: Ask questions in standard English, then use answers to analyze data and discover insights.
• Augmented analytics: Set custom business metrics, get automatic anomaly alerts, or set custom alerts to track progress.
• Data importing: Import metadata information related to tables and columns from your data catalog.

While Looker is a robust, cloud-based BI and data analytics solution, there are many capabilities that fall short of competing solutions and may not always be the best fit for every organization.

Alternatives like Domo offer greater ease of use, faster processing, and more data connectors tailored to diverse business needs. Domo has a vast library of data visualization tools, with security and governance built into every layer of the platform. Try Domo today to discover the difference.