Looker

LookML is Looker's proprietary data modeling language — YAML files that define dimensions, measures, and relationships for your data warehouse. Instead of writing SQL in every report, analysts write SQL-like logic once in LookML and Looker generates optimized SQL at query time. This ensures consistent metric definitions organization-wide: 'monthly active users' means the same thing in every dashboard. LookML files are stored in Git, enabling version control, code review, and rollback. The tradeoff: LookML requires data engineers or BI developers to build and maintain models, which is a higher technical bar than drag-and-drop tools like Tableau or Power BI.

Looker pricing is enterprise-only with no public pricing — sales negotiation required. Typical contracts start at $30,000/year for small deployments, with large enterprises paying $100,000–500,000+/year. Pricing factors include: number of Standard users, Developer users (can write LookML), API usage, and data platform connections. Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is completely free — it connects to 600+ sources including Google products and databases but lacks LookML's modeling depth. For startups and SMBs, Looker Studio or Metabase are usually better starting points before investing in full Looker.

Looker is better for organizations that prioritize data governance, consistent metrics, and centrally-managed data models — especially those already on Google Cloud or BigQuery. LookML's code-first approach scales well in data engineering cultures. Tableau is better for organizations that prioritize visualization richness, self-service flexibility, and want business analysts to build their own reports without engineering support. Tableau's drag-and-drop interface has a lower learning curve for non-technical users. Looker excels when you have a data team; Tableau excels when you want to democratize analytics to business users.