Our Top 10 Picks for Modern Data Visualization Tools Compared

Our brains are wired to scan and select in seconds.

Social media platforms have us hooked by exploiting this part of our brain. It's super easy to scroll for ours and thumb-stop on the videos & images that are most interesting to us.

For content creators making short-form or long-form content, the era of pure text content is fading and the era of highly-visualized

Even Twitter/X, famously short-form text, is inundated with imagery, videos, and charts to capture our attention.

There are two primary reasons for data visualization tools:

  1. Create powerful dashboards for executives & team members to move work forward
  2. Bring data to life in a more scannable, visual way

In the past, these were two separate business units and approaches, but my philosophy is that more and more these will become intertwined. Storytelling is extremely powerful in business, and the greats like Elon Musk know how to inspire their teams and drive innovation with powerful storytelling that leads to massive action. Elon doesn't tell Tesla employees that they work at an automobile manufacturer. No, they work at an autonomous robotics company ushering in the next age of human progress, and the current step they're working on is self-driving and humanoid robots.

Data visualization tools can help visualize all the data generated by business processes and create dashboards to keep track of pretty much everything. These tools are also perfect for creating graphics with data about specific events, projects, and information.

We’ve put together this list of tools to help you choose the best one for your needs.

1. Flourish Studio – best for easy, yet advanced beautiful visualizations

Flourish is amazing and probably my number one recommendation for beginners and experts alike that want an easy, no-code data visualization solution with a lot of graphs and options.

They have a very generous public free plan that gives you most of what you need, including a good amount of advanced visualizations.

For larger datasets, the tool allows you to upload spreadsheets or paste from Excel which you can turn into charts, maps, and interactive stories. It is extremely straightforward with no coding required and they have a very flexible template library. Once you’ve finished your visualization you can embed it on your own site or download the raw files.

Pricing:

  • Public – $0/month
  • Personal – $69/month
  • Business – Custom
  • Enterprise – Custom

My take on pricing: I appreciate that Flourish has a very generous free plan, but also has an approachable Personal plan with premium features. This is in direct contrast to Datawrapper that doesn't have much of an in-between plan before you start going corporate and enterprise.

Top Features:

  • Stunning visualization
  • Animated slideshows
  • Unlimited flexibility

Full Pricing and Features Table

PublicPersonalBusinessEnterprise
$0/month$69/monthCustom PriceCustom Price
All data and projects publicEverything in PublicEverything in PersonalScalable team size
Share or embed projectsKeep your data and projects privateCustom theme with Google fontBespoke themes in your fonts/styles
Create stories and presentationsEmail supportPassword-protected publishingPremium templates and features
Mobile and tablet friendlyConnect to live CSV or Google SheetsEmbeds and scrollytelling in your CMS
Remove Flourish attributionMSA, SLA and security processes
Account manager and priority support
Customization, training and services
Videos for presentations and social
SDK for private custom templates
Integrate with your analytics system
API for integration anywhere
SAML-based SSO

Comparing Flourish vs Alternatives

Flourish is awesome, but not always the right fit for every project.

Flourish vs Datawrapper

Flourish and Datawrapper are close alternatives to each other. You'll do well with starting with either one, and the skills you learn in manipulating the data and configuring the visualizations will very much translate to jumping over to the other tool, so pick whichever one looks closer to what you're liking, then try the other one before you specialize in one over the other.

My team and I have found Flourish has a wider array of creative charts, such as bubble and timeline visualizations that Datawrapper doesn't have, so we prefer Flourish in these scenarios.

That being said, when you need more flexibility and customization, we've found Datawrapper has more fine-tuned controls that we like.

We typically use Flourish on 50% of data visualization articles, and Datawrapper on the other 50%.

Flourish vs Tableau

Choose Flourish if you are focusing on web articles & blog content and want to do creative data visualizations that are web-first.

Choose Tableau if you're working with larger datasets and want to build dashboards. Tableau does have an embeddable web version, but I've found it less user-friendly than Flourish for articles. It doesn't pan an zoom nearly as well.

2. Datawrapper – best for news and publishers

DataWrapper is a data visualization tool for creating charts, maps, and tables. All charts created with DataWrapper are mobile responsive and the visualizations adjust to different screen sizes by minimizing lines and shrinking empty spaces.

Datawrapper looks the closest like visualizations used by news organizations. The designs are conservative and focus more on the content.

Pricing:

  • Free – $0/month
  • Custom – $599/month
  • Enterprise – Custom

My take on pricing: it's very much bifurcated in such a way that they want to release the free product to the masses, but then work with larger organizations for custom implementations. There's not really an in-between plan for small businesses, agencies, or in-house teams that aren't looking to go all-in on this.

Top Features:

  • Interactive maps for anywhere in the world
  • Highly interactive charts and tables
  • Drag-and-drop

Full Pricing and Features Table

FreeCustomEnterprise
$0/month$599/monthCustom price
Publish unlimited visualizationsIncludes full design customizationAll features of Free & Custom
Export visualizations as PNGExport as PNG, SVG & PDF Self-hosting of visualizations
Includes “Created with Datawrapper” attribution10 user licenses includedOn-premise installation available
No “Created with Datawrapper” attributionService & support SLA agreements available

3. Tableau – best for desktop-based visualization and dashboards

Tableau is a data visualization tool that can be used by data analysts, scientists, statisticians, etc. to visualize the data and get a clear opinion based on the data analysis. It allows its users to prepare, clean, and format their data and then create data visualizations to obtain actionable insights that can be shared with other users. Tableau is available for individual data analysts or at scale for business teams and organizations.

Pricing:

  • Viewer – $15/month
  • Explorer – $42/month
  • Creator – $70/month

Top Features:

  • Numerous data connections
  • Drag-and-drop integration
  • Mobile optimized designs

Full Pricing and Features Table

ViewerExplorerCreator
$15/month$42/month$70/month
View lineage and impactManage users and permissionsAdvanced Server Deployment Monitoring
Interact with visualizations and dashboardsCurate and share data sourcesProgrammatic Content Migration
Create and share custom viewsManage content and certify data sourcesCreate and publish new workbook with a new data source
Download visualizations as imagesAuthor from curated dataCreate and publish new data sources
Download summary dataServer administrationCreate new workbooks based on pre-built Dashboard Starters
See data quality warningsSet data quality warningsEdit and modify a data flow
Export data
Create new data flows
Monitor flow performance and health

4. Infogram

Infogram is a fully-featured drag-and-drop visualization tool that allows even non-designers to create effective visualizations of data for marketing reports, infographics, social media posts, maps, dashboards, and more.

Downside: I'm not a fan of how if you ever decide to cancel a pro plan, that there are elements of the embedded chart that will default to the free plan, including an in-your-face Infogram logo.

Pricing:

  • Basic – $0/month
  • Pro – $25/month
  • Business – $79/month
  • Team – $179/month
  • Enterprise – Custom

Top Features:

  • Drag and drop editor
  • API for importing additional data sources
  • Very powerful and customizable

Full Pricing and Features Table

BasicProBusinessTeamEnterprise
$0/month$25/month$79/month$179/monthCustom Price
37+ interactive charts typesUp to 100 projectsUp to 1,000 projectsUp to 3,000 projectsUp to 10,000+ projects
Up to 10 projectsUp to 10 pages per projectUnlimited pages per projectSingle team functionality starting with 3 usersBranded public profile and subdomain
Up to 5 pages per project100+ premium templatesYour brand logo, color palette, fonts, and image assetsReal-time collaborationMultiple team functionality starting with 10 users
13 map types550+ map typesYour own logoCommentingAdvanced training & dedicated account manager
Publish your content online1 million images and icons availableBasic analyticsEngagement analyticsFirst Priority support
Import dataSet your favorite colors, fonts, and imagesSQL Connectors, Iframe integrationsTracking linksCustom design implementation and team templates
Object animationsAdvanced image editing featuresVersion historyExport interactive charts and maps for offline use.
Download HD images and videosCallouts, custom links and page linkingCustom development
Privacy controlSSO
Data connections and live data99.9% uptime SLA
Web tracking opt out

5. ChartBlocks

Chartblocks is a cloud-based data visualization tool for SMB to large companies. The platform offers different chart types for your data and contains pre-made templates with editable sizes, colors, fonts, grids, and legends.

Pricing:

  • Personal – $0/month
  • Professional – $20/month
  • Elite – $65/month

Top Features:

  • Social media integrations
  • Chart building wizard
  • Multiple file support

Full Pricing and Features Table

PersonalProfessionalElite
$0/month$20/month$65/month
Up to 50 active chartsAll the features of personalAll the features of professional
Export charts to PNG imagesUp to 75 active chartsUp to 200 active charts
Export charts as vector graphics (.eps, .pdf, .svg)Unlimited additional usersAPI access
Make your charts privateRemove brandingCharts automatically poll for new data
Hide sharing buttons

6. Sisense

Sisense is a business intelligence tool for creating data visualizations that help gain business insights. Technically, Sisense is for creating dashboards. But the tool’s capabilities go beyond that. This data visualization tool is specially created to visualize large amounts of data.

Pricing:

Get a price quote here

Top Features:

  • Custom UI to deliver branded analytic experiences
  • A dedicated portal for developer content
  • Self-service dashboards

7. Zoho Analytics – a contender if using Zoho ecosystem

Zoho Analytics is the best option for beginners. It’s easy to use and built for non-technical users. You can import and blend data from virtually any source, including databases, cloud storage, websites, and other business applications you use to power your business.

Pricing:

  • Basic – $30/month
  • Standard – $60/month
  • Premium – $145/month
  • Enterprise – $575/month

Top Features:

  • Embedded BI
  • Flexible deployment options
  • Unified business analytics

Full Pricing and Features Table

BasicStandardPremiumEnterprise
$30/month$60/month$145/month$575/month
2 Users5 User15 Users50 Users
0.5 Million Rows1 Million Rows5 Million Rows50 Million Rows
Unlimited Reports and DashboardsHourly data syncAdvance Data Preparation5x Performance
250+ Data ConnectorsData AlertsZia Insights1 Analytics Portal
Daily SyncData SnapshotsPrivate LinksLive Chat Support
Ask ZiaAdvanced SlideshowAnalytics Portal add-on
SlideshowGroups SupportLogo Rebranding
Live connectAdministrator RolesActivity Logs
Data BackupPremium support add-on
Access Logs

8. Chartio

Chartio data visualization software provides the insights and analytics that businesses rely upon to understand and grow their business. Companies of all sizes use this cloud-based software to explore and transform data into engaging visualizations. However, it focuses on small and mid-sized organizations.

Pricing:

  • Startup – $40/month
  • Growth – $60/month
  • Premium – Custom

Top Features:

  • Multiple data sources and connections
  • Reports interface
  • Attractive graph and chart formats.

Full Pricing and Features Table

StartupGrowthPremium
$40/month$60/monthCustom price
Unlimited charts and dashboardsEverything from Startup planEverything from Growth Plan
Scheduled email reportsChat supportDedicated technical Data Advisor
Data StoresAlertsAdvanced query log
Email supportAmazon RedshiftSingle sign-on authentication
20+ cloud database connectionsGoogle BigQueryEmbedding
Google SheetsPanoplyAPI access
CSVsSnowflakeHigher query limits

9. Cluvio

Cluvio is the perfect solution for small data-driven companies and fast-growth startups interested in deeper performance insights. With it, you get everything you need to build a growth-ready infrastructure and make data-heavy decisions that will help drive your business forward.

Pricing:

  • Free – $0/month
  • Pro – $279/month
  • Business – $669/month
  • Enterprise – $2250/month

Top Features:

  • Sharing dashboards
  • Custom analytic dashboards
  • Real-time data

Full Pricing and Features Table

FreeProBusinessEnterprise
$0/month$279/month$669/month$2250/month
3 Dashboards50 Dashboards100 DashboardsUnlimited Dashboards
Data processing in RData processing in RData processing in RData processing in R
1000 query executions / mo.Unlimited query executionsUnlimited query executionsUnlimited query executions
All analytical capabilities20 SQL alertsUnlimited SQL alertsUnlimited SQL alerts
20 dashboard schedules50 dashboard schedulesDashboard schedules: Contact us
Dashboard sharingDashboard sharing with parametersDashboard sharing with parameters
2 analyst usersExternal and embedded sharingExternal and embedded sharing
Unlimited viewer usersUnlimited viewer usersUnlimited viewer users
5 analyst usersAnalyst users: Contact us
10 user groupsUser groups: Contact us
IP restricted sharingIP restricted sharing
Premium supportEnterprise SLA support
HIPAA Compliance as add-onHIPAA Compliance
Private cloud installation
White-labeling
Customer success manager

10. Whatagraph

Whatagraph is the perfect reporting solution If you’re a marketer or digital marketing agency. Whatagraph is an excellent, automated solution to deliver multi-source reports that are easy to read and understand from a non-marketing perspective.

Pricing:

  • Professional – $119/month
  • Premium – $279/month
  • Growth – $699/month

Top Features:

  • Cross-channel reporting
  • Add custom data
  • Pre-made templates and widgets

Full Pricing and Features Table

ProfessionalPremiumGrowth
$119/month$279/month$699/month
1 user5 usersCustom users
15 data sources50 data sourcesCustom data sources
Live chat supportDedicated account managerDedicated account manager
Custom brandingCustom branding
Multisource reportingMultisource reporting
Public API

Last Updated on December 27, 2023 by Joe

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