whats-best.ai
Search Sign in

Business Intelligence & Dashboards

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

Rest of world Report an error

Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Google Ireland Limited · cloud.google.com

Compare with Microsoft Power BI → Report an error on this page Is this your product? →

Link to this page

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio): AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Google Data Studio (Looker Studio): AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) at a glance

Vendor
Google Ireland Limited
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Free plan
Yes, per the vendor’s own page source, captured 1 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) 2.5/5, the mean of 6 judges. Google Data Studio is a free report builder with a Pro edition at $9 per user per project per month. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 1 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 1 Nov 2026. all sources

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Finance Controller

Weighted verdict

Head of controlling at a 250-person machine builder in Baden-Württemberg. Closes the month from DATEV, the ERP, the CRM and a dozen Excel files that colleagues still mail around, and spends two days a month copying numbers into the management report. Wants the sources connected and refreshed on a schedule, one definition of contribution margin on every page, a report that prints cleanly for the advisory board, and data that stays where the auditors expect it.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Finance Controller

Panel median The Finance Controller This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Finance Controller
Data sources, connectors & refresh 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Dashboards, charts & interactivity 2 of 5 2 of 5
Self-service analysis & shared metrics 2 of 5 2 of 5
Sharing, scheduled reports & embedding 2.5 of 5 2.5 of 5
Access control, administration & portability 2 of 5 2 of 5
European sovereignty 2.5 of 5 2 of 5
Pricing transparency 3 of 5 3 of 5

Data sources, connectors & refresh

How this is scored

Which data the product can reach and how it stays current: native connectors to databases and warehouses (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, BigQuery, Snowflake), to business applications (accounting, ERP, CRM, shop, help desk, ad platforms) and to files and spreadsheets (Excel, CSV, Google Sheets), live queries versus imported extracts, scheduled and incremental refresh with its minimum interval, joining data from several sources, light data preparation, access to databases behind a firewall (gateway, SSH tunnel, IP allow-list), and a generic REST or custom connector for what is not listed.

0 — Not a reporting product, or data can only be typed or pasted in by hand.

3 — Spreadsheet and file uploads plus a handful of named connectors; refresh schedules, live queries and blending sources are basic or not described.

5 — A published connector list covering the common databases, warehouses, spreadsheets and several named business applications, scheduled refresh with its interval stated, live queries or extracts at the customer's choice, data from two sources combined in one report, and a documented way to reach a database behind a firewall.

8 — Hundreds of maintained connectors or a full SQL layer over every major warehouse, incremental refresh and caching explained, a built-in data preparation or modelling step, a gateway or agent for on-premise sources, a generic REST or custom connector SDK, and connector limits (rows, API calls, history) stated per plan.

10 — Connectivity an organisation can standardise on: every source reachable live or by extract with the trade-offs documented, refresh down to minutes with lineage from report back to source, source changes detected and reported, and connector behaviour, quotas and failure handling published.

Report an error

The Finance Controller

The connector gallery claims over 1470 connectors with native connectors for PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon Redshift, BigQuery with custom queries and Snowflake, plus partner connectors for Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify and Stripe; data blending and extracts are documented and a developer platform allows building more. For my month-end close, however, I find no DATEV or SAP among the connectors listed, and we found no public information on refresh intervals, incremental refresh or a documented way to reach a database behind our firewall. That breadth without refresh mechanics or on-premise access keeps it short of the strongest showing I could give. 1 2 3 4

Report an error

Dashboards, charts & interactivity

How this is scored

What can be built and how readers use it: the range of chart types, tables and pivot tables, maps, KPI tiles with targets and comparisons, dashboard layout, filters and date controls that apply across a dashboard, drill-down and drill-through, cross-filtering by clicking a chart, templates for common sources, mobile and TV display, theming to the company's design, number formatting and localisation (decimal comma, currencies, German date formats), and accessibility of the result.

0 — No charts or dashboards; the product only stores or moves data.

3 — Standard bar, line and pie charts and a table on a dashboard; filters, drill-down and mobile display are basic or not described.

5 — A broad chart library with pivot tables, maps and KPI tiles with comparison to a previous period or target, dashboard-wide filters and date ranges, drill-down, templates for common sources, a mobile view, and number and date formats localised.

8 — Cross-filtering and drill-through between dashboards, custom visuals or a chart SDK, conditional formatting and annotations, dashboards themed to a brand, TV and presentation modes, pixel-exact or paginated reports for print, and accessibility of charts documented.

10 — Dashboards that a whole organisation reads daily: every interaction (filter, drill, cross-filter, parameter) available to readers without editor rights, performance on large data stated, accessibility conformance (WCAG) published, and every chart reproducible from a documented query.

Report an error

The Finance Controller

Interactive reports with filters, multiple pages, a drag-and-drop editor offering a pixel-perfect or snap-to-grid canvas and a mobile app are documented — the pixel-perfect canvas is what I would need for the advisory board printout. We found no public information on the chart library itself: pivot tables, maps, drill-down, templates, German number and date formats and accessibility are not described on the captured pages. So I score what is shown: interactive, filterable, mobile, but without evidence of the depth a controller relies on. 1 2 4

Report an error

Self-service analysis & shared metrics

How this is scored

Whether people outside the data team can answer their own questions and whether everyone gets the same answer: a visual query builder, a SQL editor for analysts, calculated fields and formulas, a semantic layer or data model where metrics such as revenue or churn are defined once and reused, metric definitions under version control (Git, dbt integration), questions in natural language with the generated query shown, forecasting and anomaly detection with the method stated, and notebooks or Python for deeper analysis.

0 — Dashboards can only be viewed; no one can ask a new question of the data.

3 — Charts are configured from a field list and simple calculated fields; shared metric definitions, SQL and a query builder are basic or not described.

5 — A visual query builder for business users and a SQL editor for analysts, calculated fields and formulas, saved questions reused across dashboards, a data model or dataset layer where joins and metrics are defined once, and natural-language questions that show the query they ran.

8 — A semantic layer with governed metrics and dimensions reused across every report, definitions in code under Git version control or synced with dbt, certified or endorsed datasets, forecasting and anomaly detection with the method stated, and Python or notebook analysis beside the dashboards.

10 — Self-service that stays consistent at scale: every metric defined once and traced to every chart that uses it, changes reviewed and tested before they reach readers, AI answers grounded in the semantic layer with their limits documented, and the model exportable in an open format.

Report an error

The Finance Controller

Gemini in the Pro edition lets users ask questions about their data and create calculated fields from natural-language prompts, and there is a native connector to Looker semantic models — a route to defining a metric once, but through another product. We found no public information on a governed metric layer inside Data Studio itself, on definitions under version control, or on whether the AI answers show the query they ran. One contribution-margin definition on every page is what I need, and the evidence does not yet reach that. 1 3 4

Report an error

Sharing, scheduled reports & embedding

How this is scored

How results reach the people who need them: sharing a dashboard with colleagues and with external parties, public or password-protected links, scheduled reports by email or chat (Slack, Microsoft Teams) as PDF, image or data, threshold alerts, comments and annotations, export to PDF, PowerPoint and Excel, embedding dashboards in an intranet, a website or the company's own software product, white-label options, and per-customer data separation for embedded use.

0 — Results cannot leave the editor; no sharing, export or embedding.

3 — Dashboards shared with other users of the account and exported to PDF or CSV; scheduled reports, alerts and embedding are basic or not described.

5 — Sharing with colleagues and by link, scheduled email reports with PDF or image, alerts when a metric crosses a threshold, export to PDF and Excel, and dashboards embedded in a website or intranet with an iframe or script.

8 — Reports delivered to Slack or Microsoft Teams, comments and annotations on dashboards, signed embedding with row-level filtering per viewer, an embedding SDK for a software product with white-label styling, client or guest portals, and an embedding licence model documented.

10 — Distribution as a product: multi-tenant embedded analytics with per-customer data isolation, theming and custom domains, end-user self-service inside the host application, every delivery channel automatable through an API, and usage of shared and embedded content reported to the customer.

Report an error

The Finance Controller

Sharing with individuals, teams or the world, embedding in any web page or intranet, personal report links, alerts when a chart meets specified criteria, and up to 200 delivery schedules per report with delivery to Google Chat are all documented. We found no public information on scheduled email delivery as PDF or image, on Slack or Microsoft Teams, or on export to PDF, PowerPoint or Excel. That leaves me in the middle: colleagues can get the numbers, but the print path for the advisory board stays unclear. 1 2 4

Report an error

Access control, administration & portability

How this is scored

What a company needs before it gives the tool to everyone, and what leaving would cost: roles and folder or workspace permissions, row-level and column-level security, single sign-on (SAML, OpenID Connect) and user provisioning (SCIM), audit logs and usage analytics, content certification and lifecycle, environments for development and production, a public REST API for administration and content, export of dashboards and definitions in a reusable format, open-source code, and a self-hosted or on-premise edition the customer runs on its own servers.

0 — A single shared login with no permissions; dashboards cannot be exported or administered.

3 — Users with view and edit rights; row-level security, single sign-on, an API and export of definitions are basic or not described.

5 — Roles and folder or workspace permissions, row-level security documented, single sign-on on at least one stated plan, an audit log, a documented REST API, and dashboards and data exportable on termination.

8 — Column-level security and data permissions inherited from the source, SAML and SCIM provisioning, usage analytics for admins, development and production environments or content promotion, dashboards and definitions as code that can be versioned and moved, and a self-hosted or on-premise edition with its own documentation.

10 — Governance and an exit that can be verified: open-source code under a named licence that runs fully self-hosted with feature parity stated, every object (data model, dashboards, permissions) exportable in a documented format another instance imports, audit logs streamed to the customer's own systems, and deletion of every copy on termination documented.

Report an error

The Finance Controller

Team workspaces with Manager, Content Manager and Contributor roles, project-level IAM permissions, organization-owned content, customer-managed encryption keys and an asset-management API for Google Workspace organizations are documented. We found no public information on row-level security, single sign-on, SCIM provisioning, audit logs or development and production environments, and the API documentation itself states that filters, sections and dimensions within a report cannot be retrieved — a hard limit if we ever wanted to move our reports out. Account-level export of content through the Google data export softens the exit question slightly. 4 5 9

Report an error

European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where the connected business data is queried, cached, extracted and stored, and who the subprocessors are (hosting, query engine, AI model providers, email delivery of reports, support and payment tools). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; a BI tool reads revenue, customer and employee data from many systems, so every place a copy or cache lands counts, not only the account database. A self-hosted or open-source edition the customer runs on its own European servers counts as the customer's chain, whatever the vendor's seat.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (query engine, extracts and caches, AI features, report emails, support, payment) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, where extracts and caches are stored stated, and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) stated — or a self-hosted edition documented that keeps every query and cache on the customer's own servers.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor including AI features, or a self-hosted open-source edition with no call home, data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

Report an error

The Finance Controller

For users in the European Economic Area the data controller is Google Ireland Limited in Dublin, a Cloud Data Processing Addendum is published, and a Google Cloud subprocessor list is maintained. Against that, the privacy policy states that servers are operated worldwide, the same policy names Google LLC in Mountain View as controller for UK users, and we found no public information on security certifications or on where the Gemini features process data. The Pro edition's data residency and customer-managed storage for uploads and extracts are the one documented mitigation for keeping our figures where the auditors expect them. 4 6 7 8 9

Report an error

Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per creator or editor seat and whether viewers are free or paid, capacity or usage pricing (rows, refreshes, queries, AI credits), which features (row-level security, SSO, embedding, API, more connectors, faster refresh) sit behind a higher tier or "contact sales", the price of embedding for external users, the self-hosted edition's licence, the free tier and its limits, minimum term and setup.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call.

3 — A starting price or a free tier exists, but how cost scales with viewers, data volume or features is unclear.

5 — Tiers are public with their seat price and main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (viewer seats, row-level security, SSO, embedding, extra connectors or refresh frequency) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every tier priced publicly with its scaling rule (creators, viewers, capacity, rows), viewer pricing stated, add-ons and usage overage priced, embedded and self-hosted pricing stated, minimum term and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given number of creators and viewers, data volume and feature set, with every add-on, embedding, setup, support and overage fee and the cancellation and data-return terms published.

Report an error

The Finance Controller

The free tier is stated plainly — no charge for creators and report viewers — and Data Studio Pro is stated at $9 per user per project per month with a 30-day trial that can be cancelled without charge, upgradeable self-service from the website. But that per-user price varies with the length of the subscription without the variants published, VAT treatment and minimum term are unstated, and partner connectors such as Supermetrics carry their own separate pricing. I can budget the Google part of the bill; the connectors my colleagues would actually need are not computable from these pages. 1 3 4

Report an error

European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

Is Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) as Rest of world.

Where does Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

Does Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) have a free plan?

Yes. Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) has a free plan, per the vendor’s page captured 1 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)?

As of 1 Nov 2026, the panel rates Metabase (3.5/5), Preset (Apache Superset) (3.5/5) and Holistics (3/5) highest among the other 15 Business Intelligence & Dashboards products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Luzmo (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Do you know more about Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)? Tell us Report an error on this page

Sources (10)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor product page (with pricing) cloud.google.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Features page datastudio.google.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Integrations page (connector gallery) datastudio.google.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Documentation (Pro edition) docs.cloud.google.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →
  5. 5 API documentation developers.google.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Data processing agreement (dpa) cloud.google.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Subprocessor list cloud.google.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Legal notice www.google.de Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Privacy policy policies.google.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Self-hosting / on-premises installation docs — found from the homepage cloud.google.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →