Google Data Studio Reviews

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

The initial set-up is very easy
Easy to use templates
Very straight forward
New features coming in monthly
Can use calculated fields and items

Cons

There are some minor tweaks like adjusting data label position which isn't available
Can't use the studio with big datasets on Google sheet
Is slow when there are lot of responsive graphs

Pros

1. It is free
2. It connects to your Google account
3. It can connect to a whole variety of data sources, I have been using several Google spreadsheets
4. The ease of inserting a table, a graph, scorecard, heatmap etc
5. It is visually pleasing
6. It can serve as a live dashboard with custom and malleable date ranges
7. It allows you to easily switch around different chart versions
8. You can embed a Google spreadsheet! and scroll through the live Data Studio file!
9. All sorts of sharing settings
10. Can also download as a static PDF file
11. They have a basic training online, and there is a world of articles and youtube videos to help you
12. You can create new fields, rename them etc

Cons

1. You have to link by tab for each spreadsheet, which is tedious. It would be nice to be able to link multiple tabs and spreadsheets at once.
2. There is no option for an automatic refresh if there is a change in the base file -- you have to go to View and hit refresh (not intuitive either).
3. The legend text often gets hidden and is not easy to resize and move around.
4. I couldn't find any option for inserting headers or page numbers automatically.

Pros

Google Data Studio is an excellent (and free!) alternative to software like Power BI or Tableau when the datasets you are using are smaller in size and the analysis needed is more presentation-based than behind the scenes number crunching. It's a fast way to put together a visually appealing dashboard without a lot of the 'frills' of the bigger players like Power BI.

Cons

CSV import is limited to 100mb, which has been an issue in some of the datasets I have used (also why I noted Data Studio is for smaller datasets). This is a nit-picky one, but there is no word cloud functionality, which I really wish they would add.

Pros

It's free. It's Goolge so you know that it will evolve. It allows you to combined data sources for charts and graphs. One you understand how to use the tool it is fairly intuitive.

Cons

Lack of supporting materials or tutorials.

Pros

It has built in integrations for every Google product, so when Data Studio came out it enabled us to deprecate another tool and helped us to keep it simple.

Cons

It's not so straightforward to do some specific analysis, setting filters for example. The tool is limited for more complex analysis.

Pros

The ability to create dashboard with disparate data in realtime and show them to any user for free has been huge for us.

Cons

Not all data connections are easy to create and sometimes the connections can be a little bug filled.

Pros

Data Studio provides so many valuable metrics to a team that runs a website. We have a data studio report that is constantly updating. We had to integrate data studio in the back end of our site, but once we did that we were able to track which content does best on our site, which content gets the highest engagement, which content our users spend the most time with etc. It is so valuable.

Cons

There is a huge learning curve to this software. People on our team had to take classes in order to even get started with data studio.

Pros

The best part of it is that I no longer have to spend hours on making reports for our clients. You just make a template, create a data source and it's done. It's one of the best tools Google came up with in the last years.

It's very easy to use and extremely intuitive.

Cons

Could use a couple more integration (Facebook for exemple) but hey it's FREE and it's very very good.

Pros

Very easy to use and can collect data from a lot of sources with basic connectors.

Cons

No native connector to facebook, we need to extract data into Google Spreadsheet and then link the SS has a new data source

Pros

Great job to Google's team for making this wonderful tool! Data studio is an amazing platform that helps us in terms of creating data reports that are otherwise quite difficult to create on your own when you have multiple data sources at once, this solves that problem rather efficiently. Now we just assign the source for our tables or charts into the data studio and it makes professional reports for us on the go!

Cons

Nothing to dislike as this has only helped in creating reports that are rather time consuming if you were to create them manually in excel or word

Pros

Ability to create custom reports from Google Analytics data.
Ability to style/format reports as you wish - fonts/colours/graphics etc.

Cons

Can be tricky to pull in the right data at a first glance.

Pros

1. Easy sharing options across a vast umber of users.
2. Easy to understand reports and dashboards.

Cons

1. Reports and dashboards take a certain amount of time to get refreshed and updated.

Pros

GDS is free and that is its greatest strength. It connects easily to Google services, and supports a smattering of other data sources. It is easy to use and has some power under the hood that isn't obvious at first blush, especially with recent updates that permit better data aggregation and transformation.

Cons

It is very good for relatively simple dashboards, but if you are looking for larger scale "enterprise" tools or want more flexibility in data management, it's probably not a good fit. Maintenance of dashboards is highly manual and it is nearly impossible to create template reports or duplicate them for other similar data sources.

Pros

It is great once you get the hang of it. There are issues (see below), but it is great for those using an analytical approach to their job and any who have a reporting aspect. It makes for a beautiful product when complete.

Cons

The inability to leave comments is a bummer. Every other Google product you can leave comments and tag people. Why not this one? The X and Y axis are also frustrating when trying to edit them. The bottom one isn't able to be edited for percentages, which is a lot of what I work with.

Pros

It helps me to manage, control and understand data. It´s really useful and saves me a lot of time. I can create entire campaign reports in a few hours, adding dynamic charts, text, maps and a lot of graphic elements that make my reports more attractive and easy to understand.

Cons

It took me a little bit of time understanding how it works; but once I learned everything was easier for me.

Pros

I LOVE Data Studio because it makes all our clients' reports look professional and easy to read. You can combine multiple data sources on a single dashboard, you can have multiple pages, and puts it into one dashboard that I can customize. We use supermetrics and the data pulls in from Facebook, Google Ads, Bing, LinkedIn, and Twitter with ease. Our clients LOVE their dashboards.

Cons

The data sources sometimes break and you have to go in and re-create another data source. Also, their customer support is non-existent.

Pros

Overall I really like Data Studios. It's relatively easy to use and helps effectively visualize data. All of our clients love the reports that we are able to put together for them. It requires some up front work, but once that is done, it's fairly simple moving forward, providing real time data across multiple channels.

Cons

Some of the integrations are a bit hit or miss and it's hard to merge data together in an effective way. We run marketing campaigns across multiple channels and to pull a holistic number such as total CPA is a bit of a challenge.

Pros

I happily took the initiative to move our company to have all automated reports coming out of Google Data Studio.
- Reports are modern, visual yet insightful.
- Almost all the needed metrics are offers.
- Linking to your Ads, Analytics is simple, takes minutes.
- Setting up automation is easy, takes less to none practice!

Cons

I wish there was a way to link Bing Ads account to have reporting come from Google Data Studio!

Pros

Considering GDS is free, it's a great value. The platform has come a long way since it's inception, and in my time using it, has continued to evolve in the right direction.

Cons

There are still a number of functions which can be done in GA which are difficult or impossible in GDS. Make sure you map out your reporting before setting out.

Pros

Very good at collating data and presenting with multiple graphs and layout. Best for daily reporting and checking stats.

Cons

Very slow at loading data when file size is huge. Need more features with respect to pivots & more sorting options.

Pros

Pricing (it’s free)
Native integration with Google Ads and Analytics
New features are being added very frequently
Good UX

Cons

Quite complicated to create your own functions
Weak templating
Can’t move files to Team Drives
Separation between data and visualization is confusing

Pros

This tool makes it very easy to connect and display data from multiple sources. Some of the main benefits of this very powerful software:
1. It's easy to setup dashboards, you don't need any experience.
2. You can connect data from multiple points - for example Google Analytics and Google Search console.
3. Styling your dashboards is easy and you have a lot of options in it.
4. There are many many options to visualize the data in your preferred way.

Cons

The only downside for me was that it does not integrate with many other projects yet. I would like it to combine with my CRM system.

Pros

Google Data Studio makes it so easy to generate dynamic reports for yourself or clients. You can easily pull data from Google properties, and others with support, to create customized reports to observe any and all metrics that guide your organization.

Cons

There are limited features when incorporating data from non-Google sources, which require a third party tool to access easily.

Pros

Love being able to use different connectors to bring all of our data into one place - it makes monthly reporting a whole lot easier than it ever used to be

Cons

Finding the right connector can sometimes take time, as well as the ever-changing landscape of how different services report info, but patience is rewarded