What is Looker
Looker is business intelligence software and a big data analytics platform that helps you explore, analyse, and share real-time business intelligence. It is a handy tool and one of the few BI class products that allow you to work online with pre configured data cubes.
Why choose Looker
The Modern Web Architecture
Looker usually lives in the cloud (Looker-hosted, or your own VPC), it uses git, and it runs entirely in-browser, so there’s no desktop install.
Lack of Own Analytical Mechanism
Looker operates entirely on the data in your database. It generates SQL based on the semantic layer you design – sends that off to the DB and then displays the results in tables or graphs.
Analogue of the SQL for Data Modelling (LookML)
LookML brings to data modelling many of the tools used in software development, such as collaborative development with Git integration, object definitions, and inheritance. It allows you to define a dimension or measure once on it, and build on it, instead of having to repeat this effort.
Ensuring Integrity
Access to data modelling remains in the same hands – there is only one master version of the data model.
Modern data stack
Looker Alternatives
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How We Use Looker
Explore how we've helped businesses unlock the full potential of their data with Looker.
Frequently asked questions
What makes Looker different from other BI tools?
LookML modeling layer creates a single source of truth — every metric is defined once and reused across all reports. This eliminates the "which number is right?" problem that plagues growing teams.
How long does Looker implementation take?
Basic Looker setup takes 4-6 weeks. A full LookML model with explores, derived tables, and governed metrics takes 8-12 weeks. We accelerate this with proven patterns from 30+ implementations.
Is Looker worth the cost for a startup?
Looker starts at ~$5K/month — justified when you have 10+ data consumers and need governed metrics. Below that threshold, Metabase or Looker Studio deliver 80% of the value at 20% of the cost.
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