What are Data Visualization Tools?

Data visualization software is an application that helps you to transforms raw data in easy to understand graphical formats. Various data visualization software on the market specializes in different data visualization types. For example, BI and Reporting software is professional in representing data in the way of dashboard and reports.

Following is a list of 20 Best Data Visualization Tools with their pros, cons, and the suitable crowd. To help you faster find the data visualization software, I categorized these tools into different types. And the list contains both open-source(free) and commercial(paid) software

Data Visualization Software–Commercial 

1.BI and Reporting

1) PowerBI    

PowerBI is a BI tool that takes the Excel pivot table to the next level. 

Pros:

• Short learning curve since the UI is similar to Excel 
• PowerBI can seamlessly integrate with Ms office since power BI is developed by Microsoft.
• PowerBI supports using R to present advanced data shaping and analytics, such as forecasting.

Cons:   

• It does not support enterprise-class control, which may cause authority management issues.
• The free version has a limit on the amount of data.

Suitable crowd: for BI engineers and data analysts

2）FineReport

FineReport is a reporting software while being distinct at data visualization, primarily visualizing your data via reports or dashboards with impressive HTML5 charts, including 3d and dynamic effects.

Pros:

• Data entry feature makes it easy to input massive data via forms directly into databases. In this way, it is convenient to visualize real-time data.
• The capacity for making complex reports is impressive. You can drag&drop to create outstanding irregular reports.
• FineReport is flexible to integrate with various business systems so that visualizing the data in other systems is easy.
• FineReport is free for personal use. And there are hundreds of impressive charts are open for use.

Free Download

Cons:

• To realize multi-dimension visualization, you need to create a report for each dimension. 
• Although it provides a wealth of visual effects, charts, maps, 3D effects, it does not recommend charts according to the data. You should choose the charts by yourself. 

Suitable crowd: for report developers and BI engineers

3) Tableau

Tableau may be the most famous BI and dashboard reporting software around the world. 

Pros:

• The community is awesome, where you can find many data visualization showcases created by Tableau users.
• Data visualization capabilities are unparalleled. The Tableau development team is working on exploring what types of charts users prefer so that Tableau can display the best graphs for the data. 

Cons:

• It does not offer 3D charts and no custom visual imports.
• Tableau is almost closed. Therefore, it is hard to customize or embed it into companies’ IT landscape.

Suitable crowd: for BI engineers and data analysts

2.Charts and Graphs

4) Datawrapper

Datawrapper is an online data visualization software requires no coding and design skills.

Pros:

• All the charts are available as a responsive iframe, PNGs, SVGs, or as print-ready PDFs with defined CMYK colors.
• No code or design skills needed

Cons:

• It can be complex to store data on your server
• It is better for a small amount of data

Suitable crowd: journalists and other content creators.

5) Chartblocks 

Chartblocks is an online graph maker that allows users to import data from different sources, customize charts, design, and share charts all within minutes.

Pros:

• You can import your data instantly.
• It supports you to control almost every aspect of your chart
• It offers hundreds of customization options.

Cons:

• The amount of data you can upload is rather small
• On the free version, you can only do a few charts at a time
• The export quality isn’t the best on the free version

Suitable crowd: non-technical users

3.Infographics

6) Piktochart

Piktochart is a web-based data visualization software designed to make infographics.

Pros:

• You can import and organize data into a mini spreadsheet from Google Drive, SurveyMonkey, and Excel.
• Support download ad blocks 
• It offers a wealth of free infographics to use within your creations.

Cons:

• There are no rich media (HTML5) export options
• Unable to search the infographic templates based on topic, tags, or design.

Suitable crowd: Non-technical users

7) Visme

Same as Piktochart, Visme provides rich infographic templates that are available in both paid and free options.

Pros:

• Visme provides keyword search function so that you can find the template types you want quickly. 
• You can create interactive and animated infographics in Visme. 

Cons:

• Changing, cloning, and moving the sections in Visme isn’t as easy as it is in Piktochart.
• It takes longer to learn compared to other infographics software.

Suitable crowd: non-technical users

4.Maps

8) Mapbox

Mapbox is a mapping platform for designed maps. The APIs and SDKs are the building blocks to integrate location into any mobile or web app.

Pros:

• The data loading is speedy due to custom tile generation 
• Standardized data flow for large organized projects

Cons:

• The System is too complicated for simple projects or maps
• It has a steep learning curve for developers used to other APIs

Suitable crowd: non-technical users and developers

5.Networks

9) Keylines

Keylines is a lightweight JavaScript toolkit, using HTML to visualize the network.

Pros:

• It is compatible with all any browser, device, server, or database.
• It provides eight automatic graph layouts for detangling links to reveal patterns and anomalies.
• It allows users to filter networks, combine nodes, analyze the social network.

Cons:

The scope of customizing is limited unless its support via functions

Suitable crowd:  JavaScript developers

6.Stock Charts

10) StockCharts.com

StockCharts.com is a web-based charting and analysis platform that specializes in the stock charts.

Pros:

• It offers a wide variety of advanced charts and analysis from industry experts to analyze the stock.
• Ir provides excellent point and figure charts
• You can write your own scan criteria

Cons:

• Charts are not dynamic and clunky
• Inability to zoom in and out
• Clumsy interface loaded with ads

Suitable crowd:   non-technical users

Data Visualization Software–Free Or Open Source 

1.Charts and Graphs

11）D3.js

D3.js is an open-source JavaScipt Library and framework for creating charts. It visualizes data by binding arbitrary data and graphical elements to a Document Object Model (DOM). You can use HTML, SVG, and CSS to bring data to life.

Pros:  

• Efficient manipulation based on data
• Supports large dataset and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation 
• Easy to debug using the browser’s built-in element inspector

Cons:

•  Learning D3 requires a lot of time initially
• D3 requires users to have programming skills

Suitable crowd:  developers who are good at Javascript, SVG or DOM

12）Plotly 

Plotly is an open-source and browser-based python graphing library for creating charts. It can be called an advanced chart gallery since it is built on the top of the d3.js libraries.

Pros: 

• Publication-quality image export
• Fully interactive (hover, zoom, pan)
• It can be installed on premised or be deployed in the cloud.

Cons:

• It doesn’t involve jQuery but Javascript only.
• It requires an API key and registration rather than just a pip install

Suitable crowd：developers who are good at Python

13）ggplot2

ggplot2 is a data visualization package for the statistical programming language R. The idea of ggplot2 is to separate the drawing from the data.

Pros:

• Only a few high-end functions, but with far-reaching applicability.
• You can approach your graph from a visual perspective rather than a programming perspective.
• Graphic-artist quality default output.

Cons:

• Some graphs are pretty straightforward in the base but require quite a bit of work in ggplot2.
• There are many ggplot2 graphs out there with text that is too small, unclean labels, scales that could be modified to make more sense.

Suitable crowd: professionals with R knowledge

14）RAWGraphs 

Rawgraphs is an open-source data visualization framework with the goal of building a link between spreadsheets and vector graphics editors.

Pros:

• The process of insert your data as simple as a copy-paste.
• Data uploaded to RAW will be processed only by the web browser, which guarantees data safety.

Cons:

• Most charts are for more obscure purposes. (No basic line graph.)
• You need a developer to bring in your own custom charts.

Suitable crowd: non-technical users

2.Map

15）Leaflet

Leaflet is an open-source Javascript library for interactive maps.

Pros: 

• It is lightweight, weighing just about 38 KB of JS.
• It provides well-structured documentation with a lot of examples and tutorials.
• It contains all the features the most developers ever need by building a map

Cons:

• The core functionally supports only the GeoJSON format.
• The basic documentation contains only basic examples; you have to search on the Internet if you need to learn more. 

Suitable crowd: for developers with javascript skills

16）PowerMap

PowerMap is an Excel plugin developed based on the Bing map. It is a part of the BI suite and is used to map geographic data. 

Pros: 

• Easy to manipulate the Excel data.
• Allow multiple layers of different map types.

Cons:

• No ability to filer data
• No drill-down features
• No Custom shapes

Suitable crowd: non-technical users. 

17）OpenLayers 

OpenLayers is an open-source data visualization software for dynamic maps.

Pros:

• The library provides all the required features in the core functionality.
• It supports GeoJSON, GeoRSS, KML, GML, and map data from any source using OGC-standards as WMS or WFS.

Cons:

• Some of the documentation already updated. 
• It requires more time to start compared to other open-source map visualization library. 

Suitable crowd：for developers with javascript skills

3.Network Visualization

18）Gephi

Gephi is an open-source data visualization tool that is professional in network visualization.

Pros:  

• Gephi generates a graph automatically once the correct data is loaded and mapped together.
• It allows users to zoom in, to select nodes, to adjust node size and color, to find shortest paths, and to access attributes of nodes and edges.
•  It provides some nice use controls to parameterize the color-coding.

Cons:

• Graph navigation can be improved
• No linking among views

Suitable crowd: Non-technical users

19) Sigma JS

Sigma Js is a free data visualization software specialized in drawing networks on web pages.

Pros:

The assortment of plugins is rather extensive.

It offers two formats for data: GEXF and JSON.

Cons:

It isn’t completely straightforward to use. 

It can be a bit difficult to figure out at first.

Suitable crowd：for developers with javascript skills

4. Stock Charts

20) TradingView

TradingView provides an open-source library for stock charting and other financial charts.

Pros:

• This JS library weighs in at just 43kb
• The latest data can be displayed in real-time without having to reload the page.
• The charts intelligently adapt to any device.

Cons:

• The news and headline system of the platform is a week.
• You do not get access to level 2 data with paper trading.

Suitable crowd: for developers with javascript skills

Conclusion

This article’s visualization software covers BI and Reporting visualization tools, charts and graph makers, infographics, maps, and networks. There is truly a wide variety of choices for designers to choose from. I hope you can find the one that meets your needs in visualization.