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Cube.js vs Looker: What are the differences?
Introduction
Cube.js and Looker are both data analytics and business intelligence platforms that aim to provide organizations with insights and analytics capabilities. However, there are several key differences between these two platforms.
Architecture: Cube.js is an open-source tool, while Looker is a commercial platform. Cube.js follows a modular architecture, allowing users to choose their preferred components and build a customized analytics stack. Looker, on the other hand, is a complete BI platform with a predefined architecture and feature set.
Flexibility: Cube.js provides greater flexibility in terms of data source connections. It supports a wide range of databases and data warehouses, allowing users to connect to multiple data sources simultaneously. Looker primarily supports SQL-compatible databases and limits users to connect only to those supported by the platform.
Development Experience: Cube.js is designed to be developer-friendly, with a focus on enabling developers to build custom analytics solutions. It provides a rich set of APIs and libraries that developers can leverage to create data models and build interactive visualizations. Looker, on the other hand, is more user-centric and provides a visual interface for non-technical users to create and explore visualizations.
Embeddability: Cube.js is designed to be embeddable into other applications, providing developers with the ability to integrate analytics capabilities seamlessly. It offers a flexible embedding API and supports embedding charts, dashboards, and other visualizations. Looker also supports embedding visualizations, but its embedding capabilities are not as comprehensive as Cube.js.
Customization: Cube.js provides more extensive customization options compared to Looker. Developers can customize the entire analytics pipeline, from data modeling to visualization components, to suit specific requirements. Looker, although it allows a degree of customization, has limitations in terms of modifying the platform's core functionalities.
Pricing Model: Cube.js being an open-source tool is free to use, with users only bearing the cost of infrastructure and maintenance. Looker, being a commercial platform, comes with a subscription-based pricing model, with costs depending on factors like the number of users and the required features.
In summary, Cube.js and Looker differ in terms of architecture, flexibility, development experience, embeddability, customization options, and pricing model.
We are a consumer mobile app IOS/Android startup. The app is instrumented with branch and Firebase. We use Google BigQuery. We are looking at tools that can support engagement and cohort analysis at an early stage price which we can grow with. Data Studio is the default but it would seem Looker provides more power. We don't have much insight into Amplitude other than the fact it is a popular PM tool. Please provide some insight.
Hello Mohan,
To be honest, I don't have experience working with analytics on apps and also I don't have experience with Looker, so I cannot say I will suggest that one. I know that Amplitude is a known product analytics tool for apps. I know that in the #GoPractice course, Oleg (CEO GoPractice) was using Amplitude in all his experience with mobile game apps, so I guess apps could work well too. I have experience using Amplitude for SaaS solutions and it is great to create all kinds of analytics for the product. Then Google Datastudio is the classic solution to create dashboards and reports connect it with any data source. Also, some people, instead of Amplitude are using the new Google Analytics, @GoogleAnalytics #GA4 or Mixpanel. However, my suggestion is to use Amplitude and if there are reports that you cannot answer with Amplitude, use Google Data Studio.
I hope that could help you.
Cheers,
Very easy-to-use UI. Good way to make data available inside the company for analysis.
Has some built-in visualizations and can be easily integrated with other JS visualization libraries such as D3.
Can be embedded into product to provide reporting functions.
Support team are helpful.
The only complain I have is lack of API support. Hard to track changes as codes and automate report deployment.
Power BI is really easy to start with. If you have just several Excel sheets or CSV files, or you build your first automated pipeline, it is actually quite intuitive to build your first reports.
And as we have kept growing, all the additional features and tools were just there within the Azure platform and/or Office 365.
Since we started building Mews, we have already passed several milestones in becoming start up, later also a scale up company and now getting ready to grow even further, and during all these phases Power BI was just the right tool for us.
Pros of Cube
- API8
- Caching6
- Open Source6
- Visualization agnostic6
- Rollups orchestration4
Pros of Looker
- Real time in app customer chat support4
- GitHub integration4
- Reduces the barrier of entry to utilizing data1
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Cons of Cube
- Incomplete documentation1
- Doesn't support filtering on left joins1
- Poor performance1
- No ability to update "cubes" in runtime1
- Cannot use as a lib - only HTTP1
Cons of Looker
- Price3
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What is Cube?
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