The Most Popular Data Visualization Tools, Ranked

Choose the data visualization tools you think is the most popular!

Author: Gregor Krambs
Updated on May 5, 2024 06:15
As industries burgeon with data, the need to efficiently parse and present this information becomes crucial. Data visualization tools aid in transforming complex data into comprehensible visuals, facilitating better decision making and insights. Evaluating which tools perform best can significantly aid individuals and businesses in choosing the right software to meet their unique needs. That is why this interactive ranking site can be a vital resource. It gathers collective input to determine the most effective and popular data visualization applications. By voting on your favored tools, you help influence this dynamic ranking, providing both novices and seasoned professionals with up-to-date insights on top-performing solutions in the field.

What Are the Most Popular Data Visualization Tools?

  1. 1
    41
    votes
    Tableau is one of the most popular data visualization tools used by individuals, businesses, and organizations across the globe. It provides a wide range of interactive dashboards, charts, and graphs to represent complex data in a simple and understandable format.
    Tableau is a widely used data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive and visually appealing dashboards, reports, and charts. It provides an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and powerful analytics capabilities to help users explore, analyze, and visualize their data.
    • Drag-and-Drop Interface: Users can easily create visualizations by dragging and dropping data fields.
    • Interactive Dashboards: Tableau enables the creation of interactive dashboards with filters, drill-down capabilities, and dynamic updates.
    • Data Blending: It allows users to combine data from multiple sources and perform analysis on a unified dataset.
    • Wide Variety of Visualizations: Tableau offers a comprehensive set of visualizations, including bar charts, line charts, scatter plots, maps, and more.
    • Data Discovery: Users can easily explore and discover insights in their data through the use of visualizations and interactive features.
  2. 2
    30
    votes
    Microsoft Power BI
    Krauss · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Microsoft Power BI

    Microsoft Corporation
    Power BI is another popular data visualization tool that is widely used for creating interactive dashboards for business intelligence purposes. It offers advanced features like real-time data analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, making it a preferred choice for business analysts, data scientists, and developers.
    Microsoft Power BI is a business analytics tool that provides interactive visualizations and business intelligence capabilities with an interface that is user-friendly for end-users to create their own reports and dashboards. It allows users to import data from multiple sources, shape and transform the data, create visualizations, and share insights across the organization. Power BI is available as a cloud-based service and a desktop application.
    • Data Import: Ability to import data from various sources like Excel, databases, cloud-based services, etc.
    • Data Transformation: Advanced data preparation and transformation capabilities using Power Query Editor.
    • Data Modeling: Ability to create relationships, calculated columns, and measures for creating intelligent data models.
    • Visualizations: A wide range of customizable visualizations including charts, graphs, maps, and tables.
    • Interactive Dashboards: Creation of interactive and customizable dashboards by combining multiple visualizations.
    Microsoft Power BI in other rankings
  3. 3
    36
    votes

    Google Data Studio

    Google LLC
    Google Data Studio is a free data visualization and reporting tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards and reports using data from various sources like Google Analytics, Google Sheets, and Google AdWords. It is a user-friendly tool that requires no coding skills, making it accessible to anyone.
    Google Data Studio is a powerful web-based data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards and reports. It enables businesses to easily transform raw data into visually appealing and meaningful insights. With its drag-and-drop interface and extensive customization options, users can create and share interactive visualizations, charts, and graphs with ease.
    • User-friendly interface: Drag-and-drop functionality for easy creation of visualizations
    • Real-time collaboration: Multiple users can collaborate and work on visualizations simultaneously
    • Data integration: Seamless integration with various data sources, including Google Sheets, Google Analytics, and BigQuery
    • Customization options: Extensive styling and formatting options to customize visualizations according to specific needs
    • Interactive dashboards: Create interactive dashboards with multiple pages and interactive filters
  4. 4
    10
    votes
    D3.js is a JavaScript library that allows users to create dynamic and interactive data visualizations on the web. It is a powerful tool for creating custom visualizations and is widely used by developers and data scientists who want to create unique and complex visualizations.
    D3.js is a JavaScript library for creating data visualizations on the web. It provides a set of powerful tools and functions for manipulating documents based on data. D3.js allows developers to bind arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), and then apply data-driven transformations to the document. It allows for the creation of visually appealing and interactive visualizations through a declarative language. With its extensive functionality and flexibility, D3.js has become one of the most popular tools for data visualization in the web development community.
    • Programming Language: JavaScript
    • License: BSD 3-Clause License
    • Initial Release: 2011
    • Latest Version: 6.5.0
    • Size: 277 KB (minified and gzipped)
  5. 5
    10
    votes
    QlikView is a popular business intelligence tool that provides real-time data analysis and visualization capabilities. It offers a range of features like drag-and-drop data integration, interactive dashboards, and visualizations that help businesses make informed decisions.
    QlikView is a powerful and flexible data visualization and business intelligence tool that enables users to discover insights and make informed decisions. It allows for interactive exploration of data through dynamic dashboards, charts, and reports.
    • Data visualization: Provides a wide range of visualizations such as charts, graphs, tables, and maps.
    • Interactive dashboards: Allows users to create interactive and customizable dashboards for data exploration.
    • Drag-and-drop interface: Enables easy and intuitive creation of visualizations and reports.
    • Associative data model: Enables users to explore data relationships and make new discoveries.
    • Data integration: Supports data integration from various sources, including databases, spreadsheets, and cloud platforms.
  6. 6
    13
    votes

    SAS Visual Analytics

    SAS Institute
    SAS Visual Analytics is a powerful data visualization tool that enables users to create interactive dashboards, reports, and visualizations using data from various sources. It offers advanced analytics capabilities like predictive modeling, machine learning, and text analytics, making it a popular choice for data scientists and analysts.
    SAS Visual Analytics is a data visualization tool designed to enable organizations to explore, analyze, and present data visually. It provides a robust set of features and capabilities to visually represent complex data in an intuitive and interactive manner.
    • Interactive Dashboards: Create interactive dashboards to visually explore data and gain insights.
    • Drag-and-Drop Interface: Easily create visualizations using a simple drag-and-drop interface.
    • Advanced Analytics Integration: Integrate advanced analytics capabilities into visualizations for deeper analysis.
    • Data Mashup: Combine and blend data from multiple sources to create holistic visualizations.
    • Mobile-Friendly: Access and interact with visualizations on mobile devices for on-the-go analysis.
  7. 7
    13
    votes
    Infogram is a cloud-based data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive infographics, charts, and maps. It is a user-friendly tool that requires no coding skills, making it accessible to anyone.
    Infogram is a popular data visualization tool that allows users to easily create and share interactive charts, infographics, and maps. It offers a user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality, making it accessible to users without programming skills. Infogram supports various data sources and provides a wide range of customizable templates and design options.
    • Charts and Maps: Infogram offers a variety of charts and maps including bar charts, pie charts, line charts, scatter plots, and choropleth maps.
    • Templates and Themes: It provides a vast library of customizable templates and themes to quickly create visually appealing visualizations.
    • Interactivity: Infogram allows users to add interactivity to their visualizations, including tooltips, animations, and clickable elements.
    • Data Import: Users can import data from various sources such as Excel, Google Sheets, CSV files, and API connections.
    • Collaboration: Infogram supports collaboration features, enabling users to collaborate on projects with team members and provide real-time feedback.
  8. 8
    5
    votes
    FusionCharts is a JavaScript-based data visualization library that offers a wide range of interactive charts and graphs. It is a popular choice for developers who want to create custom visualizations for web applications.
    FusionCharts is a popular data visualization tool that enables users to create and embed stunning charts, graphs, and maps for web and mobile applications. It offers a wide range of interactive visualization options that can be used to present data in a visually appealing and easily understandable manner.
    • Chart Types: Supports over 100 chart types including bar charts, line charts, pie charts, heat maps, and more.
    • Customization: Provides extensive customization options for colors, fonts, labels, tooltips, and animations.
    • Interactivity: Allows users to add interactivity with drill-down, live data updates, and interactive legends.
    • Responsiveness: Automatically adjusts the size and layout of charts to fit different screen sizes and devices.
    • Data Connectivity: Offers built-in support for connecting to various data sources like JSON, XML, CSV, and databases.
  9. 9
    8
    votes
    Highcharts is another popular JavaScript-based data visualization library that offers a wide range of interactive charts and graphs. It is widely used by developers who want to create custom visualizations for web applications.
    Highcharts is a popular JavaScript library for creating interactive and customizable charts and graphs for web applications. It allows developers to easily display data in visually appealing and responsive ways.
    • Interactive charts: Highcharts provides a wide range of interactive features such as zooming, panning, and tooltips.
    • Customizable styling: Developers can extensively customize the appearance of charts, including colors, fonts, and labels.
    • Multiple chart types: Highcharts supports a variety of chart types including line, bar, column, area, pie, and more.
    • High performance: It focuses on rendering charts efficiently to ensure fast and smooth data visualization.
    • Responsive design: Charts created with Highcharts automatically adapt to different screen sizes and devices.
  10. 10
    8
    votes
    Plotly is a cloud-based data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive charts, graphs, and dashboards. It offers a range of features like real-time data analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, making it a popular choice for data scientists and analysts.
    Plotly is a popular data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive charts, graphics, and dashboards. It provides both online and offline capabilities, enabling users to create visualizations in their preferred environment. Plotly supports various programming languages such as Python, R, and JavaScript, making it accessible to data scientists, analysts, and developers. With its interactive and customizable features, Plotly enables users to create stunning and dynamic visualizations for data exploration and presentation.
    • Language Support: Python, R, JavaScript, MATLAB, Julia, Perl, and more
    • Interactivity: Allows users to create interactive charts and dashboards
    • Customizability: Users can customize visualizations with various styling options
    • Collaboration: Enables real-time collaboration and sharing of visualizations
    • Offline Mode: Users can create visualizations offline without an internet connection

Missing your favorite data visualization tools?

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Ranking factors for popular data visualization tools

  1. Ease of use
    The tool should be user-friendly and easy to learn. This includes having a good user interface, clear instructions, and the ability to create visualizations quickly and efficiently.
  2. Functionality
    The tool should offer a wide range of features to create different types of visualizations and meet various user needs. This includes support for different chart types, the ability to customize visual elements, and options for user interaction with the visualizations.
  3. Integration and compatibility
    A good data visualization tool should integrate easily with common data sources and formats, as well as with other data analysis tools and software. It should also be compatible with various operating systems.
  4. Scalability
    The tool should be able to handle large datasets and complex visualizations without performance issues or limitations.
  5. Customizability
    The user should have the option to fully customize the appearance and functionality of their visualizations, enabling them to adapt the tool to their specific needs and preferences.
  6. Collaboration
    The tool should support collaboration among multiple users, allowing them to share and edit visualizations together in real-time.
  7. Export options
    The tool should provide various options for exporting visualizations, such as images, PDFs, and interactive formats.
  8. Updates and support
    A good data visualization tool should be regularly updated with new features and improvements and should provide a strong community for help and support.
  9. Price
    The cost of the tool should be proportional to its features and capabilities, with reasonable pricing options available for individual users, small teams, and large enterprises.
  10. Reviews and reputation
    The tool should have a good reputation among its users and in the data visualization community, with positive reviews and recommendations.
  11. Training and resources
    The tool should provide adequate documentation, tutorials, and other resources to help users learn how to effectively use the software.

About this ranking

This is a community-based ranking of the most popular data visualization tools. We do our best to provide fair voting, but it is not intended to be exhaustive. So if you notice something or tool is missing, feel free to help improve the ranking!

Statistics

  • 1907 views
  • 175 votes
  • 10 ranked items

Voting Rules

A participant may cast an up or down vote for each tool once every 24 hours. The rank of each tool is then calculated from the weighted sum of all up and down votes.

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More information on most popular data visualization tools

Data visualization tools have become essential in today's world of data-driven decision making. With the increasing volume of data, it has become challenging to extract meaningful insights from raw data. Data visualization tools help in presenting complex data in a visually appealing format that is easy to understand and interpret. These tools enable businesses to make informed decisions based on data insights. There are several data visualization tools available in the market, each with its unique features and capabilities. Some of the most popular data visualization tools include Tableau, Excel, QlikView, D3.js, and Power BI. These tools offer a wide range of visualization options such as charts, graphs, heat maps, and infographics, making it easier to analyze data and identify trends. Data visualization tools have also become popular in various industries such as healthcare, finance, and marketing. These tools enable businesses to understand market trends, customer behavior, and track performance metrics. With the increasing demand for data-driven decision making, the popularity of data visualization tools is expected to grow in the coming years.

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