Evidence vs Looker

Evidence is an open-source business intelligence framework built around the idea of BI as code. Analysts write reports as Markdown files with embedded SQL queries and ready-made components for charts, tables and big numbers, and Evidence builds them into a fast static website. The project is MIT licensed and backed by a venture-funded company that also runs a hosted service.

Evidence connects to common warehouses and databases including Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, Postgres, MySQL and DuckDB, as well as CSV files. Query results are cached and processed in the browser with DuckDB, so pages stay quick once built. Templated pages generate one report per customer, region or product from a single file, loops and conditionals add logic, and everything lives in git, so changes go through pull requests and code review. The open-source framework is free to self-host; Evidence Cloud adds managed builds, hosting, scheduled refreshes and authentication.

Evidence fits data teams that already think in SQL and git and want polished, reproducible reports such as board packs, KPI sites or customer-facing data pages. It is not a self-serve tool for business users who want to drag fields onto a chart. Metabase and Looker Studio are better for ad hoc exploration, Lightdash builds BI directly on dbt models, and Observable Framework is the closest alternative for code-first data apps with more JavaScript flexibility.

Looker is Google Cloud's enterprise business intelligence and embedded analytics platform. It was founded in 2012 in Santa Cruz, California, by Lloyd Tabb and Ben Porterfield, and Google completed its $2.6 billion acquisition in February 2020. Its core job: give a company one governed definition of every metric through the LookML semantic layer, then let people explore, dashboard and embed that data without writing SQL.

Looker queries your warehouse directly (BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks and many SQL databases) instead of copying data into its own store. Developers model joins, dimensions and measures in LookML with Git version control; business users work in Explores, dashboards, scheduled deliveries and alerts. Gemini adds conversational analytics (GA in November 2025). It is sold as Standard (under 50 users), Enterprise and Embed editions on annual commitments, each including 10 standard and 2 developer users.

Looker fits data teams that want strict metric governance or need to embed analytics in a product. It is costly, needs LookML skills and is overkill for a few dashboards. Power BI is cheaper for Microsoft shops, Tableau is stronger for visual exploration, and Metabase is far simpler and open source. Google's free Data Studio covers basic reporting.

In April 2026 Google renamed Looker Studio back to Data Studio, leaving Looker as the enterprise brand. Before buying, run the 30-day trial instance, which has Standard edition features but caps users at 5 Viewer, 1 Standard and 1 Developer; it converts to a paid Standard instance unless you delete it.