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Looker vs Microsoft SSRS: What are the differences?
Introduction
Looker and Microsoft SSRS are both popular business intelligence tools used for data visualization and reporting. While they serve a similar purpose, there are key differences between the two that set them apart.
Deployment and Platform: Looker is a cloud-based platform that requires an internet connection to access, whereas Microsoft SSRS is an on-premises solution that requires installation on a server. Looker's cloud-based nature allows for quicker implementation and easier scalability, while SSRS provides more control over data and security as it is hosted on-premises.
Ease of Use and Learning Curve: Looker has a highly intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easier for non-technical users to create their own reports and dashboards. SSRS, on the other hand, has a steeper learning curve and requires more technical knowledge to set up and use effectively.
Features and Flexibility: Looker offers a wide range of visualization options, interactive dashboards, and advanced analytics features such as data exploration and data discovery. It also has robust collaboration capabilities, allowing users to share and collaborate on reports easily. SSRS provides basic reporting capabilities with limited interactive features, making it less suitable for complex data analysis and exploration.
Integration and Compatibility: Looker can seamlessly integrate with a variety of data sources and tools, including popular databases, data warehouses, and cloud platforms. It also offers APIs for custom integrations. SSRS is mainly designed for Microsoft SQL Server, although it can also connect to other data sources with some configuration. It tightly integrates with other Microsoft tools such as Excel and SharePoint.
Scalability and Performance: Looker's cloud-based architecture allows for automatic scalability, ensuring that it can handle large volumes of data and users without performance degradation. SSRS's performance is dependent on the resources of the server it is installed on, making it less scalable and potentially slower for large datasets.
Pricing and Licensing: Looker follows a subscription-based pricing model, where users pay based on the number of users and the level of functionality required. SSRS is included as part of the SQL Server licensing, making it a cost-effective option for organizations already using the Microsoft ecosystem.
In summary, Looker is a cloud-based, user-friendly, and scalable BI tool with advanced analytics capabilities and flexible integration options, while Microsoft SSRS is an on-premises, more technical, and basic reporting tool tightly integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem.
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 Looker
- Real time in app customer chat support4
- GitHub integration4
- Reduces the barrier of entry to utilizing data1
Pros of Microsoft SSRS
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Cons of Looker
- Price3
Cons of Microsoft SSRS
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What is Looker?
What is Microsoft SSRS?
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