Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio)
Worth it
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you want free, shareable dashboards over Google data like GA4, Ads, Sheets, or BigQuery.
Comparison
Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) vs Metabase
Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) lands on Worth it, and Metabase lands on Depends.
Metabase
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy it if someone on your team can host it, patch it fast, and write SQL . the free open-source core is genuinely capable BI.
| Compare | Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) | Metabase |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Worth it | Depends |
| Best for | Marketing teams reporting GA4 and ad spend | Startups wanting free BI on existing databases |
| Who it's not for | Teams wanting vendor SLAs or phone support . free tier won't provide them | Teams with nobody to own hosting and patching |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.13 | Active 2026 vulnerability stream . four critical CVEs including an unauthenticated SQL injection; prompt patching is non-optional.14 |
| Support quality | No support evidence found | No support-quality evidence in sources |
| Public sentiment | Directory review snippets are truncated in the sources; third-party guides praise free reporting but warn about setup caveats and Pro pricing quirks.⁷ | Users like the query builder and SQL access; recurring gripes are exports, dashboard customization, and slow queries on big datasets. |
| Biggest gotcha | Pro bills per monthly active user plus per project . model total cost before upgrading.⁵ | Self-hosting means you own patching; 2026 fixes spanned 55.13, 56.3, 57.1 and later |
Pick Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) when
- Marketing teams reporting GA4 and ad spend
- Google Sheets and BigQuery shops
- Agencies sharing client dashboards
- Zero-budget teams needing shareable BI
When Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is not a fit
- Teams wanting vendor SLAs or phone support . free tier won't provide them
- Microsoft-stack shops . Google ecosystem lock-in is real
- Anyone whose 'dashboard' is 10 rows in a sheet . don't add BI for that
- Real-time operational alerting . it's reporting, not monitoring (Guess)
Pick Metabase when
- Startups wanting free BI on existing databases
- Product teams embedding analytics in their app
- SQL-comfortable data teams
- Self-hosters with patching discipline
When Metabase is not a fit
- Teams with nobody to own hosting and patching
- Security-sensitive orgs handling regulated data
- Non-technical teams needing polished exports and dashboards
- Analysts on huge datasets where query speed matters
Sources
- Looker Studio Overview (official)lookerstudio.google.comofficial
- Data Studio Pro subscription overviewdocs.cloud.google.comofficial
- Connect to Google Analyticsdocs.cloud.google.comofficial
- Data Studio release notes (Gemini)docs.cloud.google.comofficial
news
- Google Data Studio vs. Tableausupermetrics.comreview
- Data Studio . Capterracapterra.comreview
- Google Data Studio . SaaSWorthysaasworthy.comreview
- Top 30+ Free and Paid Data Studio Connectorsportermetrics.comnews
news
- GA4, Ads & Sheets Integration Guidemidsummer.agencynews
- Data governance in Data Studiodocs.cloud.google.comsecurity
- Looker Studio security pagelookerstudio.google.comsecurity
- Horizon3 . CVE-2026-72898 SQL injectionhorizon3.aisecurity
- OpenCVE . CVE-2026-50148app.opencve.iosecurity
- Tenable . CVE-2026-59826tenable.comsecurity