Data visualization tools are essential for businesses to gain insights and make informed decisions based on data. With so many options available, it can be challenging to choose the right one for your needs.

In this article, we will introduce you to the 10 best data visualization tools you should know in 2023.

What Is Data Visualization?

Data visualization refers to the depiction of information and data through different types of graphics. Through the use of visual components such as graphs, maps, and charts, these tools offer an effortless means of comprehending data patterns, anomalies, and trends. They also provide a convenient avenue for staff or entrepreneurs to relay data to lay audiences with ease, thus avoiding misunderstandings.

In the era of Big Data, the availability of data visualization tools and technologies has become indispensable in analyzing vast amounts of information and enabling evidence-based decision-making.

What Are Data Visualization Tools?

Data visualization tools refer to software applications or platforms that enable users to create graphical representations of information and data. These tools use various visual components such as charts, graphs, maps, and infographics to present complex data in a simple and accessible format. Data visualization tools allow users to interact with data, explore different angles, and gain insights into patterns, trends, and outliers.

There are various types of data visualization tools, ranging from simple chart-making software to more advanced platforms that leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to analyze and visualize data.

What Do Best Data Visualization Tools Have in Common?

All data visualization technologies available on the market share common advantages. The first benefit is their ease of use, which can be classified into two categories: user-friendly software with comprehensive documentation and tutorials, and difficult-to-use tools that lack in certain areas. The latter cannot be included in any list of “best” data visualization tools. It is important to ensure that the chosen software can handle vast amounts and diverse types of data in a single display.

Advanced data visualization software can generate a variety of chart types, graph styles, and maps, although other tools in the market may present data differently. Some data visualization tools are designed to specialize in a single chart or map style and excel in it, making them among the “best” tools available. Finally, price is a key factor to consider, as more expensive tools should be justified by greater support, features, and overall value.

10 Best Data Visualization Tools

1.FineReport

FineReport is a very useful and popular data visualization tool. The Excel-like interface and drag-and-drop mode make any user understand how to use FineReport quickly.

FineReport supports more than 70 chart styles, covering basically all basic and high-level charts on the market, and also has excellent dynamic effects and a powerful interactive experience. Various features can be set according to the needs during use, and can also be self-adjusted and displayed on the mobile terminal and large LED screen.

Also, FineReport provides many styles of self-developed HTML5 charts (including histograms, line charts, radar charts, scatter charts, and word cloud charts), with fabulous 3D and dynamic effects. 

Pros:

• Easy integration with various data sources
• Easy to make complex reports and dashboard
• Open APIs for customization
• Dynamic reports
• Query reports
• HTML5 charts 
• Task Scheduler
• Mobile BI
• Report Management 
• User Management 
• Task Scheduler

Cons:

• Do not recommend charts automatically

Pricing:

For personal use, FineReport is free without time or feature limits.

For enterprises, it offers a quote-based plan that charges according to different situations. In a word, FineReport is price-friendly to all customers.

2.Tableau

Tableau, a popular data visualization tool, provides interactive visualization solutions to over 57,000 companies. By integrating with advanced databases like Teradata, SAP, My SQL, Amazon AWS, and Hadoop.

Tableau can efficiently generate visualizations and graphics from large and constantly evolving datasets used in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Big Data applications.

Pros:

• Offers exceptional visualization capabilities
• User-friendly interface
• Delivers top-notch performance
• Supports diverse data sources
• Mobile responsive
• Has a helpful community

Cons:

• The pricing is relatively high
• Lacks auto-refresh and report scheduling options

Pricing:

• Tableau Public is free of charge
• Tableau Creator starts at $70 per license per month, billed annually, and is designed for connecting data sources and building visualizations
• Tableau Explorer starts at $42 per license per month, billed annually, and is only for editing existing visualizations
• Tableau Viewer is an online visualization option priced at $15 per user, allowing users to view and interact with data visualizations.

3.PowerBI

Power BI, a user-friendly data visualization tool developed by Microsoft, offers versatile deployment options, allowing users to install it on-premise or utilize cloud infrastructure. Renowned for its comprehensive capabilities, Power BI seamlessly integrates with numerous backend databases, including Teradata, Salesforce, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Google Analytics, GitHub, Adobe Analytics, Azure, SQL Server, and Excel. This enterprise-level tool empowers users to create visually stunning visualizations and provides real-time insights, facilitating quick decision-making processes.

Pros:

• No specialized technical support required
• Integrates easily with existing applications
• Personalized and rich dashboard
• High-grade security
• No speed or memory constraints
• Compatible with Microsoft products

Cons:

• Incompatible with multiple, diverse datasets

Pricing:

Power BI Pro is priced at $9.99/user/month and comes included in Microsoft 365 E5. This version provides mobile app access, enables users to publish and share reports, and has a model size limit of 1GB and refresh rate of 8/day. The maximum storage for each user is 10GB.

Power BI Premium is priced at $20/user/month and includes mobile app access, the capacity to publish and share reports and paginated reports, a model size limit of 100GB, and a refresh rate of 48/day. The maximum storage for this version is 100TB.

For more information about the detailed comparsion of Tableau, Power BI & FineReport, you can check out this article: Power BI vs Tableau vs FineReport: 11 Key Differences

4.Google Charts

Google Charts, a prominent contender in the data visualization market, is a powerful tool that utilizes SVG and HTML5 to produce exceptional visual representations of data. With features such as zooming, Google Charts is widely regarded for its cross-platform compatibility across various devices, including iOS, Android, and even earlier versions of Internet Explorer.

Pros:

• Intuitive and easy-to-use interface
• Seamless integration with data
• Visually appealing and engaging graphs
• Compatible with other Google products

Cons:

• Export feature requires improvement
• Insufficient demos and tutorials on available tools
• Limited customization options
• Network connectivity is necessary for visualization.

Pricing: Free

5.Infogram

Infogram is a drag-and-drop visualization tool that offers a range of features suitable for non-designers looking to create engaging data visualizations for marketing reports, infographics, social media posts, maps, and dashboards.

Users can export finished visualizations in various formats, including PNG, JPG, GIF, PDF, and HTML. Interactive visualizations are also supported, making it easier to embed visualizations in websites and apps. Infogram also provides a WordPress plugin that simplifies the embedding process for WordPress users.

Pros:

• Multiple pricing tiers, including a free plan with basic features.
• 35+ chart types and 550+ map types available.
• Drag and drop editor.
• API for importing additional data sources.

Cons:

• Fewer built-in data sources compared to some other apps.

Pricing:

• Pro: $25/month (billed monthly) or $19/month (billed annually).
• Business: $79/month (billed monthly) or $67/month (billed annually).
• Team: $179/month (billed monthly) or $149/month (billed annually).
• Enterprise: contact Infogram for pricing information.

6.ChartBlocks

ChartBlocks claims that their API allows data to be imported from any source, including live feeds, and can be accomplished with just a few clicks. However, this process may be more complicated than other applications that offer automated modules or extensions for specific data sources.

The app provides extensive customization options for the final visualization, and the chart building wizard assists users in selecting the right data for their charts before importing. The output is responsive, which is a significant advantage for data visualization designers who need to embed charts into websites that are accessed on different devices.

Pros:

• Offers free and reasonably priced paid plans
• Wizard for importing data is easy to use

Cons:

• The robustness of the API is not clear
• Doesn’t seem to offer any mapping capability

Pricing:

• Personal plan: starts from $8 per month;
• Professional plan: starts from $20 per month;
• Elite plan: starts from $65 per month.

7.QlikView

QlikView is a significant contender in the field of data visualization, with a client base of over 40,000 across 100 countries. Their tool enables fast and personalized visualizations and also includes powerful features such as analytics, enterprise reporting, and Business Intelligence capabilities.

Pros:

• Intuitive interface
• Engaging and vibrant visualizations
• Easy to maintain
• Cost-effective

Cons:

• Limited by RAM
• Poor customer support
• Lacks the drag-and-drop feature

Pricing:

Qlik offers a free version of QlikView for personal use, enterprise users can ask sales for a quote.

8.D3.js

D3.js is a JavaScript library that enables the manipulation of documents through data. Although D3.js requires a certain level of JavaScript knowledge, there are tools available for non-programmers to use the library, such as NVD3 that provides reusable charts, Plotly’s Chart Studio that supports WebGL and other charts, and Ember Charts that utilizes the Ember.js framework.

Pros:

• Extremely powerful and customizable
• Enables the creation of a vast array of chart types
• Emphasizes web standards
• Features tools for non-programmers to create visualizations
• Free and open source

Cons:

• Requires programming expertise when used independently
• Less support is available compared to paid tools.

Pricing: Free

9.Sisense

Sisense is a tool for generating data visualizations that aid in gaining business insights through business intelligence. While technically designed for dashboard creation, the tool’s capabilities extend beyond that. This data visualization tool is specifically designed for handling large amounts of data.

With the Sisense API, developers can build analytics apps using any type of dataset, which is particularly beneficial for larger corporations in industries such as healthcare and manufacturing. Additionally, the platform assists business owners in creating customized dashboards tailored to their specific needs.

Pros:

• Optimal for major projects that handle large datasets
• Dependable interface
• Exceptional customer support
• Swift software updates
• Customizable with great flexibility

Cons:

• Analytic cube development and maintenance can be difficult
• Time formats are not supported
• Visualizations are limited in number

Pricing:

Prices are not readily available on the website. Custom quotes are available upon filling out a form. Sisense team will contact the user for further discussion and provide pricing information based on specific needs.

10.DataWrapper

Data Wrapper is a rare data visualization tool available for free in the market. It is widely used in the media industry due to its fast chart creation and graphical statistics presentation capabilities, especially for large datasets. With its user-friendly interface, Data Wrapper enables users to generate maps and charts that can be easily integrated into reports without the need for installation.

Pros:

• No installation required to create charts
• Suitable for novice users
• Free of charge

Cons:

• Generating intricate charts such as Sankey can be challenging
• Security concerns due to being an open-source tool
• doesn’t integrate with data sources

Pricing: Free

Conclusion

While the other visual tools listed above can certainly meet your data visualization needs, FineReport offers an all-in-one data visualization platform that may be more suitable.

FineReport is a data visualization tool for making graphs, reports, and dashboards. You can easily create basic charts such as pie charts, bar charts, as well as advanced charts such as scatter, bubble, funnel, radar, and gantt charts.

Besides, FineReport provides stunning maps. It not only supports flow maps, heat maps, and customized maps but also works well with GIS maps such as Google. Dynamic effects such as 3D maps, auto-rotating maps will bring more fun to your maps. 

FineReport supports various types of data sources, including Excel. You can import your data from Excel to FineReport in batches. The graphs can be exported to Excel, PDF, PNG, etc.

Try out FineReport for free and see for yourself！

Also, feel free to make an appointment for a live demo with our product experts. We will be more clear about your needs and see how FineReport can help you and your organization to transform data into value.