Looker vs. Tableau Comparison

What is Looker?

Looker is a business intelligence solution that aims to make it easy for users to evaluate and visualize data. One of its distinctive features is that users don't need to know the SQL database language for data modeling, but can use the self-developed, supposedly simpler language LookML. In mid-2019, Looker was acquired by Google and then integrated into the Google Cloud division. Accordingly, using Looker in conjunction with Google products is said to be one of Looker's strengths. Looker claims that users can also host their data in the clouds of other providers; the most important database interfaces would be supported.

What is Tableau?

Tableau, a business intelligence and analytics platform founded in 2003 in California, offers various solutions for aggregating data in individual dashboards, visually processing it, and creating reports. One of these tools is Tableau Desktop. Interactive dashboards transform data, which can be added via drag and drop, live into diagrams. The data can come from varied sources such as Big Data, SQL databases, spreadsheets or cloud applications like Google Analytics and Salesforce. In mid-2019, Salesforce acquired Tableau for approximately 15.7 billion US dollars.

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