Looker Studio
Prometheus
| Feature | Looker Studio | Prometheus |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $9/mo | Free only |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.2 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Best For | marketers, analysts, google-ads-users, small-businesses | devops-engineers, sre-teams, kubernetes-users, infrastructure-teams |
| Founded | 2016 | 2012 |
| Dashboards | ✓ | ✗ |
| Data Connectors | ✓ | ✗ |
| Visualizations | ✓ | ✗ |
| Sharing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Templates | ✓ | ✗ |
| Calculated Fields | ✓ | ✗ |
| Metrics Collection | ✗ | ✓ |
| Alerting | ✗ | ✓ |
| Promql | ✗ | ✓ |
| Service Discovery | ✗ | ✓ |
| Grafana Integration | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi Dimensional Data | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Looker Studio Pros
- Free
- Google data integration
- Shareable dashboards
- Many connectors
✗ Looker Studio Cons
- Can be slow
- Limited data blending
- Basic compared to paid tools
✓ Prometheus Pros
- Free and open-source
- Powerful query language
- Great Kubernetes integration
- Active community
✗ Prometheus Cons
- No built-in long-term storage
- Complex setup
- Steep learning curve
The Verdict
Looker Studio is built for marketers and analysts, with a focus on dashboards and data-connectors. Prometheus targets devops engineers and sre teams and leads with metrics-collection and alerting.
Prometheus uses custom enterprise pricing, while Looker Studio starts at $9/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Bottom line: Prometheus has a slight overall edge — but if free matters most to you, Looker Studio may still be the right call.