Looker vs Domo: Which is Better for BI?

When looking at business intelligence tools designed for enterprise audiences, two tools often come to mind: Looker and Domo. Both can be used for everything from simple dashboards to advanced data modeling and analysis.

If you’re considering which of the two is better, has more affordable pricing or better connectors, we’re here to help. Today, we take a look at these two cloud-based BI tools to learn which one is the more sensible choice.

The basics

Looker is a data exploration and discovery platform founded in 2012. In 2019, it was purchased by Google. It’s important to differentiate it from Looker Studio (formerly known as Google Data Studio), which is Google’s free offering for marketing reporting.

Domo is a full-stack cloud-based business intelligence tool, offering every functionality a modern data team may need. User-friendly interface, powerful data integrations, ETL capabilities, drag-and-drop dashboard builder: Domo packs a mighty punch.

Data visualizations

If you want to get tailored insights out of your data quickly, Domo can be a bit of a letdown. Although it has a wide range of visualization choices (150+), the lack of variety is not what the Domo user base complains about. 

The major issue is the level of customization: getting your metrics and KPIs to show up just the way you want them will require quite a bit of work.

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Looker visualizations, according to user reviews, are much different. There is a massive choice of supported visualization types and customization is very easy. Business users can make adjustments to pre-built templates or create their own without breaking a sweat. However, having a Looker developer on standby can help if you want to make those data-driven decisions faster.

The ease of use

The two tools score pretty evenly on this front. Looker seems very simple from the start, but in reality, you really need someone who is handy with data management, preparation, APIs, modeling and visualizations to get the most out of this tool. 

Creating any kind of workflow requires knowledge of LookML, which is completely different from something like SQL. This can be a hurdle for startups, as you most likely need to hire a Looker expert to achieve real ROI from this platform.

When it comes to the ease of use, Domo reviews are mixed. Some customers state that for the less technically inclined users, Domo is an excellent choice since it does not take much to get the tool up and running. 

Others state that for more advanced use cases, Domo is difficult to use because it does not have data modeling. Ironically, this means it’s more difficult to use if you have an advanced use case.

Data sources and integrations

Looker performs really well with native Google Cloud integrations, but it does not end there. It integrates with over 60 different tools and platforms, such as HubSpot, MailChimp, Xero, Quickbooks, Slack and others. However, it pales in comparison to Domo.

Domo reigns supreme in this category. Compared to other enterprise-elvel tools like Microsoft’s Power BI or Salesforce’s Tableau, it’s worlds apart. At the moment of writing, there are over 1,000 different connectors to meet your specific needs. Data warehouse, business tool, data pipelines and more.

The performance

In general, Looker performance is very admirable. Provided that you set up the explore functionality well from the start, having solid knowledge of LookML and your favorite database, you can expect lightning-fast performance. There is a bit of a steep learning curve to master these key features, so it’s advisable for non-technical users to find some outsourced help.

Looker for embedded analytics is exceptionally fast, but the setup is time-consuming and it can be very costly with a large number of end-users.

In terms of performance, Domo is a hit or miss. If your datasets aren’t large and you only create the most basic of dashboards, they will load fairly quickly. However, if you have large datasets, it can take a good amount of time for it to fetch in the dashboard. For on-premise data analysis and visualization, this may not be a problem.

However, if you want to use Domo for embedded analytics, this can be an issue. End-users and stakeholders will expect app-like performance. Most Domo competitors perform better in this area.

Domo vs Looker: pricing

One thing these tools have in common is how cryptic their pricing is.

We’ve recently discussed Domo pricing and it boils down to the three main plans with fairly similar features. The main difference is the self-service help in the cheaper plans compared to proper account managers when you pay for one of the more expensive plans.

The pricing is based on usage. In other words, every action on this BI platform (whether it’s your team or your end-users) costs a certain amount of credits. You pay that on top of your account fees, as well as a $750 license fee for every user in Domo.

That all boils down to this: you’re going to pay anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 (and more) annually for Domo.

Looker, on the other hand, starts at $60,000 annually. This gets you basic access to the platform, and you’ll have to pay extra for every role on your team: developers, analysts, viewers. While Looker is excellent for real-time decision-making, the price point makes it prohibitive for smaller teams with lower budgets.

Conclusion

Which is the better of the two data analytics tools? Looker has better visualizations. In terms of the ease of use, they are on the same level. Sources and integration? Domo takes the cake. The performance is where Looker shines. Last but not least, pricing is equally bad for both tools and can get you into the six-figure mark easily.

If you’re looking for a tool for embedded analytics, neither Looker nor Domo are a good choice. They’re overly expensive, difficult to embed and with the excessive loading times, don’t provide the best user experience.

Give your software the embedded analytics platform it deserves. Try a free trial of Luzmo and see how your end-users can experience self-service analytics for better decision-making.