BI platformSample
Looker
Google Cloud
An enterprise BI platform centred on LookML, a modelling layer that defines metrics once and generates SQL against the database.
Scores
Out of 5. The tick marks the average for BI platforms in the library.
- Ease of use
- 2
- Visual control
- 3
- Interactivity
- 3
- Sharing
- 4
- Governance
- 5
- Low cost
- 2
- Data scale
- 5
Strengths
- One definition for every metric, reused everywhere
- Queries run in the warehouse: no extracts to refresh
- Models are code, version-controlled with Git
Limitations
- LookML needs developer skills to set up and maintain
- Less free-form visual design
- Enterprise pricing
Best for
- Governed metrics shared across many teams
- Cloud data warehouses such as BigQuery or Snowflake
Other BI platforms
Power BI
Microsoft
Microsoft’s BI platform: model data in Power BI Desktop, publish interactive reports to the Power BI service and share them across Microsoft 365.
FreemiumDAXPower Query M
Tableau
Salesforce
A visual analytics platform built around drag-and-drop exploration, known for polished and highly interactive dashboards.
CommercialCalculated fieldsLOD expressions
Qlik Sense
Qlik
A BI platform built on Qlik’s associative engine: every selection shows at once which values are related, and which are not, across the whole dataset.
CommercialQlik load scriptSet analysis