Google Data Studio

Avantages

I love how easy it is to put the data points into different graphs and visualizations. The UI is typical of Google. Super intuitive and user-friendly and most aspects of the product behave exactly as a user would expect (which isn't the case in my experience for softwares like Tableau). Ease of use is by far what makes Google Data Studio stand out among the crowd.

Inconvénients

Can be hard to integrate data with certain platforms if they aren't Google owned platforms. There's also minor functionality gaps around not having all of the relevant google ads dimensions and labels accessible within data studio.

Avantages

Extremely user friendly. Setting up the dashboards was simple. You have control over almost every detail, including the layout and design. This is unlike many data platforms I've used in the past. ALMOST everything is totally customizable. This brings in all your Google/Youtube data automatically (including Google Sheets/docs). It also lets your bring in images, links, and other assets. You can change the data range filter easily for all metrics. The dashboard also is easily shareable to all team members and you can export the dashboard to a PDF.

Inconvénients

The connectivity to other platforms is disappointing. In order to automatically bring in your social media data or data from other sources (such as digital advertising or 1st party ecommerce data) you need to purchase a "connector". However, there are ways around this if you export your data from your other sources and just put this in a Google Sheet and connect that sheet to your Google Data Studio.

Avantages

I would recommend every business used this, from small to large. The ability to combine and view google analytics, google ads and search console data is fantastic and gives you great insights into your business performance. There are also lots of templates available online to get you started for no cost.

Inconvénients

The customisation has to come from someone with a fair bit of knowledge of the product when sharing with others. In the majority of times people will have to only have a view of the report and they won't really be able to amend or see other data within it. It is also a little slow when doing lots of data and changing the views.

Avantages

1) Simple to use
It is easy to use. Drag & drop, add texts, connect sources, ... It all works like a charm.

2) Free
It is free to use. Connect your account and you're good to go. The downside: you're on your own...

3) Visual freedom
As opposed to other solutions we (currently) use, Google offers by far more flexibility in terms of creating something that is visually exactly what you want.

Inconvénients

1) What security?
We used google data studio to embed dashboards in our own SAAS solution. As embedding only works with 'open access' documents, it means that you open up your dashboard to the world (provided they know the URL). It is not the security we like.

2) Lack of roadmap impact & customer support
As one of the many free users, we have no impact on how the product evolves over time. Customer support is a matter of googling your way around and finding a community response rather than an official spokes persons' help.

3) Speed... Or the opposite rather: slooooowness
No matter how happy we are about Google's Cloud Platform solution, Data studio is sloooow.

Avantages

You can integrate it with most advertising platforms (e.g. Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Facebook, etc) and create dashboards which update automatically.

Inconvénients

Sometimes the bar charts do not scale correctly. Integrations are free with other Google products however you need to buy third party data connectors to integrate with other advertising platforms. Not as advanced as Tableau.