Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a free, flexible dashboard builder. It's widely used, deeply integrated with Google's ecosystem, and genuinely capable. It's also a blank canvas — and blank canvases require a painter. If your team doesn't have someone who can build and maintain reports, Looker Studio will collect dust.
What Looker Studio Gets Right
Looker Studio is excellent for marketing dashboards, especially for Google Ads, GA4, and Search Console data. It's free, collaborative, and can connect to dozens of sources via native connectors or Looker Studio Partner connectors. If you have a marketing analyst or an agency managing your reports, it's a solid tool.
The Scorecard Gap
Looker Studio doesn't have a concept of "targets." It shows you data — it doesn't tell you whether you're on track. Setting up red/green status based on targets requires calculated fields, custom formulas, and conditional formatting that has to be rebuilt for every metric. There's no ownership layer, no weekly accountability, and no alert system when a metric goes off track. It's a dashboard, not a scorecard.
The Hidden Cost: Maintenance
Looker Studio dashboards break. API changes, connector updates, and schema changes all cause reports to stop refreshing. Someone has to fix them — usually the same person who built them originally. If that person leaves or gets busy, the dashboard becomes stale and untrustworthy.
Orbit Scorecard vs. Looker Studio
Use Looker Studio if: You have a dedicated analyst or agency managing your reporting and you need flexible, custom visualizations.
Use Orbit Scorecard if: You want red/yellow/green status on your KPIs, metric ownership, and alerts — without a data team maintaining the stack.