LookerAgentic business intelligence and embedded analytics on Google Cloud
vs
ZedThe world's fastest IDE. Open source. AI optional.
Comparison · AI Coding Assistants · weekly run Nov 3
Looker vs Zed
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Looker is the stronger AI pick in AI Coding Assistants: it has a visibility score of 8.3 versus 1 for Zed, and ranks ahead in 100% of the answers that name both.
Choose Looker if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (8.3 vs 1)
- You need SOC 2 or ISO 27001 or FedRAMP or HIPAA coverage
- Governed semantic layer and metric consistency
- Strong integration with Google Cloud, BigQuery and Workspace
Choose Zed if…
- AI answers describe it more positively (50% vs 30% positive)
- Ideal for small teams already on GitHub
- Works with VS Code and JetBrains
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Looker | Zed |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 8.3% | 1% |
| Change vs last week | New | New |
| Rank in AI Coding Assistants | #11 | #26 |
| Share of voice | 3.2% | 0.4% |
| Mentions this run | 17 | 2 |
| Positive in AI answers | 30% | 50% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Looker 0pp · Zed 0pp over 0 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Looker leads on 3 of 3 engines
ChatGPT
AI Mode
Perplexity
LookerZed
Head to head in AI answers
1 engine answers name both brands
1Looker ranked higher
0Zed ranked higher
| Prompt | Engine | Looker | Zed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official website of the top AI coding assistant vendors | ChatGPT | #5 | #16 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Looker | Zed |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | — | Per seat |
| Entry price | — | Free; paid from $10 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Deployment | Google Cloud | Desktop editor on Windows, macOS and Linux, with remote development over SSH, WSL and dev containers. Users can run local Ollama models, and API keys for hosted providers are kept on the local machine. |
| Compliance | SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP, HIPAA | — |
| Founded | — | 2021 |
| Headquarters | — | Boulder, Colorado |
| Employees | — | 11–50 |
| Funding | Series E · $280M raised | Series B · $42M raised |
| Best for | — | Developers who want a fast editor with AI optional, and teams that need org-level control over AI features and data sharing through the Business plan. |
Plans side by side
Looker
Pricing not available.
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Looker
- Governed semantic layer and metric consistency
- Strong integration with Google Cloud, BigQuery and Workspace
- Developer-centric data modeling via LookML
- Around 4.5 out of 5 stars on Gartner Peer Insights
- Quote-only enterprise pricing starting above $60,000 a year
- Poor fit for NoSQL-heavy data stacks or standalone embedded needs
- Less suited to teams using macOS without virtual machines
Zed
- Ideal for small teams already on GitHub
- Works with VS Code and JetBrains
- Heavy usage requires a paid plan upgrade
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 100%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Looker vs Zed”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/looker-vs-zed, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.