When working with datasets containing hundreds of thousands or millions of data points, automating the data visualization process makes the designer’s job easier.
Working with large amounts of data isn’t always straightforward. Sometimes, the dataset is so large that it’s simply impossible to discern anything useful from it. That’s where data visualization comes in.
What are the data visualization tools? Creating a data visualization is rarely straightforward. Designers don’t simply take a dataset with thousands of entries and create a visualization from scratch. Of course, it’s possible, but who wants to spend tens or hundreds of hours plotting dots on a scatter plot? That’s where the best data visualization tools for data come in.
What is a data visualization tool?
Data visualization tools provide data visualization designers with an easier way to create visual representations of large datasets. When working with datasets containing hundreds of thousands or millions of data points, automating the process of creating visualizations has, at least to some extent, made the designer’s job easier.
These data visualizations can then be used for a variety of purposes: dashboards, annual reports, sales and marketing materials, investor slides, and pretty much any other information that needs to be explained immediately.
What do the best data visualization tools have in common?
The best data visualization tools on the market have a few things in common. The first is their ease of use. Some very complex applications can be used to visualize data. Some have excellent documentation and tutorials and are designed in a way that feels intuitive to the user. Others fall short in these areas, removing them from any list of “best” tools, regardless of their other features.
The best tools can also handle large amounts of data. In fact, the best can even handle multiple sets of data in a single visualization.
What are the commonly used data visualization tools? The best tools can also output a range of different charts, graphs, and map types. Most of the tools below can output images and interactive graphics. However, there are exceptions to the various output standards. Some data visualization tools focus on a specific type of chart or map and do it really well. These tools also have a place among the “best” tools.
Finally, there are cost considerations. While a higher price tag doesn’t necessarily disqualify a tool, it must justify a higher price tag in terms of better support, better features, and better overall value.
This data visualization shows the human rights protection index (1950 to 2014) and human rights violation index (2014) for 50 countries. ( Federica Fragapane)
Data Visualization Tools Comparison: Which Data Visualization Tool Is Best?
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of applications, tools, and scripts that can be used to create visualizations of large datasets. Many are very basic and have a lot of overlapping features.
But there are some outstanding products that either have more power on the types of visualizations they can create, or are easier to use than other options.
Tableau (and Tableau Public)
Tableau has a variety of options available, including a desktop app, a server, and a hosted online version, as well as a free public option. There are hundreds of data import options available, from CSV files to Google Ads and Analytics data to Salesforce data.
Output options include a variety of chart formats as well as mapping capabilities. This means that designers can create colour-coded maps that present geographically important data in a format that is easier to understand than tables or charts.
The public version of Tableau is free to use for anyone looking for a powerful way to create data visualizations that can be used in a variety of settings. From journalists to political junkies to those who just want to quantify the data for their lives, there are many potential uses for Tableau Public. They have an extensive library of infographics and visualizations that are created using the public version to provide inspiration for those interested in creating their own.
merit
- Hundreds of data import options
- Mapping capabilities
- A free public version is available
- Plenty of video tutorials walk you through how to use Tableau
shortcoming
- The non-free version is expensive ($70/user per month for Tableau Creator software)
- The public version doesn’t allow you to keep your data analysis private
Example of data visualization
Data visualization of the unique words used by the three central characters in the Game of Thrones book series.
Data visualization can make public safety data easier to digest.
An interactive visualization of the highest-grossing actor of all time.
outline
Tableau is a great choice for users who need to create maps and other types of charts. Tableau Public is also a great choice for anyone who wants to create public-facing visualizations.
Infogram
Infogram is a full-featured drag-and-drop best data visualization tool that even non-designers can use to create effective data visualizations for marketing reports, infographics, social media posts, maps, dashboards, and more.
What are the data visualization tools? THE FINISHED VISUALIZATION CAN BE EXPORTED TO A VARIETY OF FORMATS: .PNG, . JPG、. GIF、. PDF and .HTML. Interactive visualizations are also possible and ideal for embedding into websites or apps. Infogram also offers a WordPress plugin that makes it easier for WordPress users to embed visualizations.
merit
- Tiered pricing, including a free plan with basic features
- Includes more than 35 chart types and more than 550 map types
- Drag-and-drop editor
- API for importing additional data sources
shortcoming
- Compared to some other applications, there are significantly fewer built-in data sources
example
Visualization can make complex topics easy to understand.
Charts make it easier to compare data from year to year.
Maps are an excellent way to provide a snapshot of the world’s data.
outline
Infogram is a great choice for both non-designers and designers. The drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create professional-looking designs without the need for a lot of visual design skills.
ChartBlocks
What are the commonly used data visualization tools? ChartBlocks claims to use their API to import data from “anywhere,” including from live feeds. While they say that importing data from any source can be done with “a few clicks”, it is certainly more complex than other applications that have automation modules or extensions that target specific data sources.
The app allows for extensive customization of the final visualization created, and the chart building wizard helps users select the right data for their charts before importing them.
Designers can create almost any type of diagram, and the output is responsive – a big plus for data visualization designers who want to embed charts into websites that may be viewed on a variety of devices.
merit
- Free and affordable paid plans are available
- An easy-to-use wizard for importing the necessary data
shortcoming
- It’s not clear how robust their API is
- There doesn’t seem to be any mapping functionality
example
Stacked charts are an effective way to compare and contrast data.
A scatter plot is a simple way to represent trends in your data.
Line charts are an effective way to show trends and comparisons.
outline
ChartBlocks has a good free plan, which is a big plus. The ease of use of creating basic charts and graphs is also excellent.
Data wrappers
Which data visualization tool is best? Datawrapper was created specifically for adding charts and maps to news stories. The charts and maps created are interactive and can be embedded in news websites. However, they have limited data sources, and the main method is to copy and paste the data into the tool.
Once the data is imported, you can create a chart with a single click. Their visualization types include column charts, line charts, and bar charts, election doughnuts, area charts, scatter charts, contour and symbol charts, and locator charts, among others. The finished visualization is reminiscent of those seen on sites like the New York Times or the Boston Globe. In fact, their charts are used by publications such as Mother Jones, Fortune, and The Times.
The free plan is great for embedding graphics on small websites with limited traffic, but the paid plans are expensive, starting at $39 per month.
merit
- Designed for newsroom data visualization
- The free plan is great for small websites
- The tool includes a built-in color blindness checker
shortcoming
- Limited data sources
- The paid plans are on the expensive side
example
Scatter plots can show a lot of data, especially when color-coded to show more points.
outline
Datawrapper is an excellent choice for data visualization for news websites. Despite the hefty price, the features included in Datawrapper for specific news visualizations make it worth the money.
D3.js
D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents with data. D3.js requires at least some JS knowledge, although there are some applications that allow non-programmed users to use the library.
These applications include NVD3, which provides reusable charts for D3 .js; Plotly’s Chart Studio, which also allows designers to create WebGL and other charts; and Ember Charts, which also uses the Ember .js framework.
merit
- Very powerful and customizable
- There may be a large number of chart types
- Focus on web standards
- A tool that allows non-programmers to create visualizations
- Free and open source
shortcoming
- Programming knowledge is required to use on its own
- There is less support available than paid tools
example
Chord diagrams show the relationships between groups of entries.
It’s best to use a data map to display geographic data.
Voronoi maps are an interesting way to display geographic data.
outline
D3.js is only for designers who can ask for help from programmers or have programming knowledge themselves.
What are the data visualization tools? Google Charts
Google Charts is a powerful free and best data visualization tool that specializes in creating interactive charts embedded online. It handles dynamic data, and the output is entirely based on HTML5 and SVG, so they can run in the browser without the need for additional plugins. Data sources include Google Spreadsheets, Google Fusion Tables, Salesforce, and other SQL databases.
There are a variety of chart types, including maps, scatter charts, bar and bar charts, histograms, area charts, pie charts, tree charts, timelines, gauges, and more. These charts can be fully customized with simple CSS editing.
merit
- freely
- A variety of chart formats are available
- Cross-browser compatible as it uses HTML5/SVG
- Work with data in motion
shortcoming
- In addition to the tutorials and forums available, there is limited support
example
Combo charts show trends and comparisons.
GeoCharts is simply one way to visualize data using Google Charts.
Annotations make charts and graphs easier to understand.
outline
If a designer is somewhat familiar with coding and wants a robust free solution, then Google Charts is a great choice. Being able to use any SQL database as a data source also makes it a good choice for large datasets.
FusionCharts
What are the commonly used data visualization tools? FusionCharts is another JavaScript-based option for creating web and mobile dashboards. It includes more than 150 chart types and 1,000 map types. It can integrate with popular JS frameworks, including React, jQuery, React, Ember, and Angular, as well as server-side programming languages, including PHP, Java, Django, and Ruby on Rails.
FusionCharts provides ready-made code for all chart and map variants, making it easier to embed into websites even for designers with limited programming knowledge. Because FusionCharts is designed to create dashboards and not just simple data visualizations, it’s one of the most expensive options included in this article. But it’s also one of the most powerful.
merit
- Lots of chart and map formatting options
- More features than most other visualization tools
- Integrates with many different frameworks and programming languages
shortcoming
- Expensive (one developer license starts at nearly $500)
- For simple visualizations outside of the dashboard environment, excessive
example
FusionCharts is designed to create data visualization dashboards.
Dashboards can display a large number of data visualizations side-by-side.
Business operations can be best managed using data visualization dashboards.
outline
When it comes to creating dashboards, nothing else in this article can compare to FusionCharts. If this is the project at hand, this is undoubtedly the most powerful option.
Chart .js
Which data visualization tool is best? Chart.js is a simple but flexible JavaScript charting library. It’s open-source, offers a variety of chart types (eight in total), and allows for animation and interaction.
Chart.js uses HTML5 Canvas for output, so it renders charts well in all modern browsers. The charts created are also responsive, so they’re great for creating mobile-friendly visualizations.
merit
- Free and open source
- Responsive and cross-browser compatible output
shortcoming
- The chart types are very limited compared to other tools
- Limited support outside of official documentation
example
Bubble charts can display multiple data points at the same time.
Multi-axis line charts are better when annotating (using tooltips when hovering over points on the line).
The stacked area line chart is a visually compelling visualization.
outline
Chart.js is a good choice for designers who need simple, customizable, interactive visualization options. Its biggest selling point is that it is free and open-source.
What are the data visualization tools? Grafana
Grafana is an open-source visualization software that allows users to create dynamic dashboards and other visualizations. It supports hybrid data sources, annotations, and customizable alerting capabilities, and can be extended with hundreds of plugins available. This makes it one of the most powerful and best data visualization tools available.
The export feature allows designers to share snapshots of dashboards and invite other users to collaborate. Grafana supports more than 50 data sources through plugins. It’s free to download, or there’s a cloud-hosted version available for $49 per month. (There’s also a very limited free hosting version.) The downloadable version also has a support plan available, which is not available with many other open-source tools.
merit
- Open source, with both free and paid options available
- Plenty of data sources to choose from
- A variety of chart types are available
- Make it simple to create dynamic dashboards
- You can use hybrid data sources
shortcoming
- Overkill to create simple visualizations
- It doesn’t offer as many visualization customization options as some other tools
- Not the best option for creating visualizations
- You can’t embed a dashboard in a website, but you can use it for a single panel
example
Grafana is a powerful data visualization dashboard tool.
outline
Grafana is one of the best options for creating dashboards for internal use, especially for hybrid or large data sources.
Chartist.js
Chartist.js is a free, open-source JavaScript library that allows the creation of simple, responsive charts that are highly customizable and cross-browser compatible. When GZIP is compressed, the entire JavaScript library is only 10KB long. Charts created with Chartist.js can also be animated, and the plugin allows them to be extended.
merit
- Free and open source
- Small file size
- Charts can be animated
shortcoming
- Not the widest selection of chart types available
- There is no mapping function
- Limited support outside of the developer community
example
Chartist.js provides many basic graphics types.
outline
Chartist.js is a great choice for designers who want simple, embeddable, responsive diagrams with smaller file sizes.
Sigma
Sigmajs is the best data visualization tool for a single purpose for creating network diagrams. It’s highly customizable, but requires some basic JavaScript knowledge to use. The graphics created are embeddable, interactive, and responsive.
merit
- Highly customizable and scalable
- Free and open source
- Easy to embed graphics in websites and apps
shortcoming
- Create only one type of visualization: a network diagram
- JS knowledge is required to customize and implement
example
Sigmajs specializes in creating network diagrams.
outline
Because of its single focus, Sigmajs is an excellent choice for creating network diagrams as long as the designer is familiar with JavaScript.
Polymaps
What are the commonly used data visualization tools? Polymaps is a dedicated JavaScript library for mapping. The output is a dynamically responsive map in a variety of styles, from image overlays to symbol maps to density maps. It uses SVG to create images, so designers can customize the map’s visuals using CSS.
merit
- Free and open source
- Purpose-built for mapping
- Easy to embed maps in websites and apps
shortcoming
- Create only one type of visualization
- Some coding knowledge is required to customize and implement
example
In this case, the data represented is a collection of photos from NASA Earth Observatories.
Flickr geotagged photo representation.
outline
If maps are the only type of visualization you need, Polymaps is a good choice, as long as the designer is familiar with some basic coding.
Which data visualization tool is best? conclusion
What are the data visualization tools? There are so many visualization tools available to designers that it can be difficult to decide which one to use. Data visualization designers should keep in mind factors such as ease of use and whether the tool has the features they need.
It’s not always the best idea to choose the most powerful tool available: the learning curve can be steep and require more resources to get up and running, while simpler tools may be able to create exactly what you need in a fraction of the time. But keep in mind that the tool is only part of the equation for creating data visualizations; Designers also need to consider other factors that make great data visualizations.
Most of the best data visualization tools include a free trial (if the entire tool isn’t free), so it’s worth taking the time to try a few before deciding on a single solution.
