vioscaleAI
Comparison

Cube vs Looker

On the evidence we track, Cube leads this comparison with a composite score of 75/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Cube full profile →Looker full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
★Cube75
Looker52
Score
vioscaleAI score
Cube75 / 100medium · 73%
Looker52 / 100medium · 53%
Pricing
Free tier
Cube✓
Looker✗
Model
Price level
Cubemid
Looker–
Starting price
Cube$20
Looker–
Transparent
Cube✓
Looker✗
Integrations
Count
Cube16
Looker6
Security
Certifications
Cube–
LookerISO/IEC 27001
Gdpr
Cube✓
Looker✓
Hipaa
Cube✓
Looker–
Iso27001
Cube–
Looker✓
Soc2
Cube✓
Looker✓
Reliability
Sla pct
Cube99.95
Looker99.9
Status page
Cube✓
Looker✓
Adoption
Stackoverflow questions
Cube–
Looker2,000
Release
Cadence days
Cube–
Looker30
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
Cube7 items
Looker8 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for bi software. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
BI paradigm
CubeSemantic layer
LookerNLQ / search
Semantic / modelling layer
CubeBuilt-in
LookerBuilt-in
Engine
Warehouse-native (SQL push-down)
Cube✓
Looker✓
Deployment
Self-hostable / OSS core
Cube✓
Looker✓
Managed cloud available
Cube✓
Looker✓
Intelligence
Natural-language query / AI copilot
Cube✓
Looker✓
Delivery
Embedded / white-label analytics
Cube✓
Looker✓
Scheduled reports / alerting
Cube✓
Looker✓
Governance
Row-level security & SSO/SAML
Cube✓
Looker✓
Commercial
Per-seat pricing published
Cube✓
Looker✗
Free tier / free desktop
Cube✓
Looker✓
Ecosystem
dbt-native integration
Cube✓
Looker-
Data-source connector breadth
Cube50+ data sources plus MCP connectors
LookerCloud data warehouses (Snowflake confirmed), OAuth-authenticated data sources

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Cube

Leader

A modern analytics platform that combines a semantic layer with dashboard, workbook, and conversational AI interfaces to serve teams and autonomous agents. Users query data through dashboards, natural language chat, or APIs, while the semantic layer ensures consistent metric definitions and business logic across all tools and workflows.

Independently observed

Looker

A business intelligence and analytics platform offering self-service dashboards, data exploration through LookML models, and embedded analytics capabilities with support for cloud and self-hosted deployment.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Cube

Leader
from $20/explorer/moSubscriptionFree tier

From $40/developer/month; free tier available

  • FreeFree
    • Connect any data source
    • Model in semantic layer IDE
    • Explore data in workbooks
    • Publish workbooks as dashboards
    • Semantic model agent
    • +2 more
  • Starter$40/developer/month
    • Everything in Free
    • Extended limits on agents
    • Use premium LLMs
    • Unlimited workbooks
    • Extended query limit
    • +6 more
  • Premium$80/developer/month + $20/explorer/month
    • Everything in Starter
    • Explorer role
    • Viewer role
    • Embedded dashboards
    • Embedded analytics chat
    • +7 more
  • EnterpriseContact sales
    • Everything in Premium
    • 99.990% Uptime SLA
    • Dedicated single-tenant installation
    • Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC)
    • Bring Your Own LLM (BYOLLM)
    • +3 more
as of verify ↗

Looker

Pricing not documented yet.

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Cube✓
Looker✓
CLI
Cube✓
Looker✗
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Cube✓
Looker✓
Self-hosted
Cube✓
Looker✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (2)
  • Snowflake
  • BigQuery

Cube

Leader
21 total - 19 not shared
  • Notion
  • Linear
  • Sentry
  • Attio
  • Google Sheets
  • Excel
  • dbt
  • Okta
  • Power BI
  • Slack
  • Claude
  • ChatGPT
  • Cursor
  • Databricks
  • Presto
  • Amazon Athena
  • Postgres
  • ClickHouse
  • Tableau
Independently observed

Looker

10 total - 8 not shared
  • GitHub
  • GitLab
  • Bitbucket
  • Dataplex
  • Cloud Storage
  • GitHub Actions
  • GitLab CI
  • Bitbucket Pipelines
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Cube or Looker: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.