Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) vs Microsoft Power BI

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

The connector gallery claims over 1,470 connectors and more than 1,400 data sources, including the databases we actually run — PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server — plus BigQuery with custom queries, Snowflake, Redshift, spreadsheets and named business applications such as Salesforce, Shopify and Stripe, with documented blending to combine sources in one report and a developer platform for custom connectors. What stops me going higher: we found no public information on a stated refresh interval, on a gateway, tunnel or allow-list for reaching a database behind our firewall, or on per-plan connector limits; the only extract storage detail documented is that Pro can keep extracts in our own BigQuery dataset.

Microsoft Power BI

Connectivity goes through Power Query, and every connector article states whether DirectQuery live queries are supported, with caching and multiple-query behaviour explained; gateways and imports also appear among the documented REST operations. What I could not see on the captured pages is the connector list itself, a stated refresh interval, or a documented route to a database behind our firewall — and Report Server stops supporting some Desktop data sources after publishing, which I would have to check against our ERP.

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

The pages document a drag-and-drop editor with a pixel-perfect or snap-to-grid canvas, interactive reports with filters and multiple tabs or pages, a mobile app, and alerts when a chart meets criteria — enough to build and read daily reports. We found no public information on the range of chart types, maps, KPI tiles, cross-filtering, brand theming, or accessibility and localised number and date formats, so I cannot place it higher.

Microsoft Power BI

Desktop offers a drag-and-drop freeform canvas with modern visualisations, both interactive and paginated report types, scaling to thousands of users, and consumption on web and mobile. We found no public information on the chart library, dashboard-wide filters, drill-down, localised number and date formats, or accessibility of the result.

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

Gemini assistance in the Pro edition lets users ask questions about their data and build calculated fields from natural-language prompts, blending joins sources into one report, and BigQuery connections accept custom queries, with notebooks and conversational agents reachable through the Data Cloud portal. We found no public information on a visual query builder, on a semantic layer where metrics are defined once inside this product, or on version-controlled definitions; the semantic models on offer are Looker's, reached through a connector, and nothing says the natural-language answers show the query they ran.

Microsoft Power BI

Business users author visually in Desktop with Power Query doing the connection work, and datasets and dataflows exist as managed API objects. We found no public information on a shared semantic layer, a SQL editor, natural-language questions, or version control of metric definitions, which is what I would need before calling this governed self-service.

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

Sharing with individuals, groups or the world, personal links that give each reader an editable copy, embedding on any web page or intranet, up to 200 delivery schedules per report with delivery to Google Chat, and chart alerts are all documented. We found no public information on scheduled delivery as PDF or image by email, export to Excel or PowerPoint, delivery to Slack or Microsoft Teams, or embedding with per-viewer row-level filtering and white-label styling.

Microsoft Power BI

Reports are shared to users for web and mobile, organised in folders with managed access on Report Server, and embedding is a first-class capability — embedding tokens, embedded capacities managed through Azure APIs, and template apps all appear in the documentation. We found no public information on scheduled email or chat delivery, threshold alerts, export formats, or per-viewer row filtering in embedded scenarios.

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

Team workspaces with Manager, Content Manager and Contributor roles, project-level IAM permissions, organisation-owned content, customer-managed encryption keys and a data residency control are documented for the Pro edition, alongside a REST API to search, manage and migrate assets. For what I need before a company-wide rollout, we found no public information on row-level or column-level security, single sign-on, user provisioning, an audit log, or a self-hosted edition we could run ourselves; the API is available only to Google Workspace or Cloud Identity organisations, deeper report metadata such as filters and dimensions cannot be retrieved through it, and the documented export is the account-wide content export from the Google account.

Microsoft Power BI

The edition I prefer is real and documented: Report Server runs on-premises, distributes reports behind our firewall, and gives us folders with access management, plus a documented admin REST API authenticated through Azure AD covering users, groups, gateways, capacities and pipelines. We found no public information on row-level security, single sign-on for report readers, audit logs, or exporting dashboards and definitions out again — exactly the questions I must answer before the tool touches customer, pricing and employee data.

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

The contracting entity for users in the European Economic Area is Google Ireland Limited in Dublin, a Cloud Data Processing Addendum is published and incorporated into the customer agreement, and a subprocessor list is published — though we found no public information on the subprocessors' locations or on security certifications. The privacy policy states servers are operated worldwide with transfer frameworks invoked as the safeguard, while the Pro edition adds a data residency control, customer-managed storage for uploads and extracts in our own Cloud Storage bucket and BigQuery dataset, and customer-managed keys; we found no public information on a self-hosted edition, and the parent company sits in the United States.

Microsoft Power BI

The EU Data Boundary commits Microsoft to store and process customer data for Power Platform and Azure in named datacentres across fifteen European countries, a data processing addendum is published, and an Irish group entity is named in the German legal notice. But the provider of record is Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, the boundary applies only when tenant, signup and billing conditions are met, limited transfers outside it are expressly reserved, and the API pages state that request and response data may be processed in datacentres outside the home region; we found no public information on subprocessors, security certifications, or where extracts and caches are stored.

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

The free edition is stated at no charge for creators and report viewers, and Data Studio Pro is published at $9 per user per project per month with self-service upgrade and a 30-day trial with no user limit that bills automatically afterwards unless cancelled. What I cannot compute from these pages: the Pro price varies depending on the length of the subscription but those variations are not published, technical support requires a separately purchased Google Cloud support plan whose price is not stated, partner connectors carry their own vendor trials and plans, and we found no public information on VAT treatment or a minimum term.

Microsoft Power BI

The captured product page offers a free trial download and a "Preise anzeigen" link but states no price figures, and we found no public information on tier or seat prices, viewer cost, capacity pricing, or the licence for the on-premises edition. I cannot compute even a rough annual cost from these pages.