A simplified representation of complex data is key for any data-driven business. Raw data must be turned into a cohesively formatted visual that is easy to understand. This can be done via data visualization tools. With a simple view of complex data, your team might identify trends and patterns that they might have otherwise missed.
Whether you are looking for free data visualization tools or seeking an enterprise solution, we’ve done the legwork to discover the top 5 data visualization tools in 2023. Dive in!
Top 5 Best Data Visualization Tools in 2023
All of these tools are adaptable to multiple workflows, are user-friendly, and can visualize data in a variety of ways. From creating interactive visualizations to gaining insights from massive datasets, these tools can easily help you along the way.
1. Best Overall Data Visualization Tool: Tableau
Ranking at the #1 spot in ’top data visualization tools,” Tableau is a trusted leader in visual analytics. This Seattle-based company was launched in 2002 and has gained a 7% market share of the business intelligence platform market. Some popular companies that use Tableau are Coca-Cola Company, Dell, eBay, Ferrari, The New York Times, and more.
This platform’s set of features is comprehensive enough to meet the requirements of multinational corporations yet easy enough to use that people of all backgrounds (technical/non-technical) can benefit from it. Other key highlights are that it gives you plenty of flexibility, uses visuals and natural language, and meets the toughest security requirements.
Its data rendition capabilities are far superior to industry giants like IBM or Oracle Data Visualization software. All the results are highly interactive and have appealing dashboards. It lets users arrange raw data and pie charts via a drag-and-drop method, meaning you can sort stats without in-depth training.
The program allows for connections to be established with several data sources, including BigQuery, Redshift, MySQL, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. Users have access to a highly active forum, which caters to their inquiries, along with an efficient mobile app. This app is compatible with both Android & iOS, and it allows you to keep track of statistics with just a few simple clicks.
Owing to the availability of all these latest features, their license is quite costly, and their sales model requires clients to purchase an extended license from the beginning. Many users also state that their after-sales support is not that good, but the organization is effectively scaling its workforce to handle demands.
Also, keep in mind that you will require IT assistance for basic functionality expansion. Operations like the creation of SQL series, complex configurations, etc., will require the services of a skilled developer. Only an admin can configure a scheduled email subscription; thus, the BI (Business intelligence) capabilities are not so good either.
All in all, this is an excellent tool that does its primary job quite well but has certain drawbacks because of its limited capacity to deal with analytical data.
Pros
- Good visualization capabilities
- Easy to use
- Mobile friendly
- Compatible with multiple data source connections
- Engaging community forum
Cons
- Inflexible pricing
- After-sales support could be better
- Poor BI capacities
- Requires IT assistance for full-scale use
- Certain users faced embedment issues
Industries It’s Used For:
- Tech sector
- E-commerce
2. Best for Large Companies: Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is a cloud-based business intelligence service that turns raw data into interactive reports, scalable dashboards, infographics, and more. It manages to bring together cutting-edge analytics, an intuitive user interface, and excellent data visualization. Some notable clients include Adobe, Kansas State University, Toshiba, HP, Edsby, Pepsi, and more.
They offer the following products:
- Power BI Desktop
- Power BI Mobile
- Power BI Pro
- Power BI Premium
This software is known for its 3 main features:
- Dashboards: You can compile data from several sources in one convenient location by means of dashboards. These are interactive panels consisting of smaller displays called tiles, which make up the dashboard itself. Each piece of data has its own dashboard that can be used for assessment & comparison and shared with other people in the same field.
- Datasets: Datasets can be defined as “everything you can import or link to”. By integrating with an organization’s data sources, Power BI provides a centralized location for easy access to all business data. This makes it less of a hassle to keep track of and analyze your data, which in turn, makes it easier to make prudent business choices.
- Reports: Reports allow for the inclusion of critical information, which can be password protected and easily shared with colleagues in the form of linked files. Some more features are:
- The Navigation Panel, which lets you move between different datasets, dashboards, and reports
- The Q&A question box, which lets you search through data by asking questions
- Feedback buttons for settings, downloads, and support
- Office 365 launcher
You can also purchase custom visualization on the Office Store for free or source it from other customers using the “Publish to Web” option.
Here is the pricing info:
Pro
- Costs $9.99
- 100 data sources
- Embedded APIs and controls
- Publishing up to 10 GB per user
Premium (per user)
- All benefits of Pro
- Paginated reports
- 100 GB model size limit
- 100 TB of maximum storage
Premium (per capacity)
- All Premium benefits
- 400 GB model limit
- Auto scale add-on
- Multi-location deployment management
While the free service gives you 1 GB of storage space and daily backups, small-to-medium-sized organizations will be better off with the Pro plan. It brings additional benefits like fresh cycles, higher streaming rows, and collaboration features.
Pros
- User-friendly
- Numerous custom configurations
- Excellent data visualization capabilities
Cons
- Limited refresh cycle on the free version
- Desktop & web versions divide data prep tools
Industries It’s Used For:
- Law enforcement
- Schools
- Businesses
- Software companies
3. Best Self-Service Analytics: Looker
Coming with its very own proprietary modeling language called LookML, Looker provides a data modeling solution that is easily usable. This self-service business intelligence tool is focused on keeping track of SQL-based and NoSQL Big Data sources.
Not only does it help you edit your data charts and enhance them visually, but you can also write SQL code to examine your data and share it across your organization. It supports multiple data sources like Snowflake, RedShift, BigQuery, etc.
With Looker, you no longer need to put data into its own proprietary engine; it takes advantage of the capabilities of contemporary data warehouses rather than constructing its own storage layer. This has two advantages: first, it eliminates the need to manually handle data loading and updating. Second, it provides complete access to raw data down to the row level.
The data team now has a unified, version-controlled, and authoritative repository for their data modeling logic, thanks to the combination of LookML and Git. The data modeling procedure becomes much more usable & manageable as a result.
Though inferior to the likes of tools like Tableau or PowerBI, Looker offers 15 different types of charts with various customization options. It also supports data blending with Merged Results as a SQL join. As for data delivery and scheduling, Looker lets users send data results through email, webhooks, SFTP servers, or Amazon S3.
There are 3 types of access controls in Looker: Content, Data, and Feature. Using these, you can restrict what kind of activity a particular user can do and assign those roles to specific users.
They do not offer a free trial and let you select a plan based on their custom-tailored model. According to a source, their pricing hovers around $3,000-$5,000 a month for 10 users, with $50 extra for each new user.
The customer support is also quite responsive and helpful, as reported online.
Pros
- Customizable dashboards
- UI is simple and easy to understand
- Visualizes data relatively quickly
- Easy integration with data sources
- Comes with plenty of online training materials
Cons
- Data uploading could be better.
- Scaling options for larger enterprises are quite limited.
Industries It’s Used For:
- Enterprises and the computer software industry
4. Best Free Data Visualization Software: Looker Studio (Prev. Google Data Studio)
This is a good free tool for light reports. The Google Marketing Platform (GMP) brings Looker Studio (prev. Google Data Studio), which lets users connect to data sources and build interactive dashboards and reports. They can then be shared with and used by other business users to make more informed choices. Everyone may use Google Data Studio at no cost. One Google account is all that’s required. You can make your first dashboard in no time by visiting datastudio.google.com.
Being a Google product, Looker Studio naturally integrates with other Google services like Analytics, Ads, Sheets, BigQuery, Cloud Storage, and many more. You may also integrate with Adobe Analytics, Facebook, and JASON.
If you can’t find a data studio connection that meets your needs, this software also lets you always create your own. Keep in mind that although most BI tools can only connect to SQL data sources, Google Data Studio can connect to both SQL and NoSQL-based data sources.
On the downside, Looker Studio is a cloud-only (browser-based) service. This necessitates using a Google account with an active internet connection to access Data Studio online. Your customized dashboards will be stored permanently and made available for use during subsequent sessions.
In contrast, Looker (our previous pick) was a business intelligence application that runs entirely in a web browser and is stored in the cloud, thus, users are spared the trouble of setting up and maintaining a connection.
Pros
- Custom SQL scripts
- Range of data sources
- Good data visualization
Cons
- The web app only gives access to a select few themes.
- There are fewer graph varieties as opposed to Tableau.
Industries It’s Used For:
- Tech-oriented companies
- Marketing agencies
- E-commerce
5. Best Support and IT-oriented: Metabase
Metabase is an open-source Business Intelligence (BI) tool that lets you post questions about your data and get answers in graphs, interactive charts, tables, and other formats that can be shared among users. To understand it and use it, you need to know what problems it solves and how it does that. Metabase allows you to make dashboards that can show KPIs and other metrics that are important to an organization. It also gives you updates with the help of visual metrics.
Any organization that uses this software usually hires a team of professionals that knows how to use it. You can connect it to MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc. Flexibility is one of the strongest features of Metabase. The UX interface is also very interactive and easy for beginners.
Users can add data directly into the database to create a visualization. On the downside, this software lacks some key features like hoc reports, benchmarking, performance metrics, NLG, or problem indicators. This cannot be easily justified, given the cost. A rare set of reviewers have also reported that Metabase tends to crash graphs at random points and experiences frequent server issues.
This is open-source software with packages starting from $85, which include 5 users and an extra $5 per user/per month. However, the enterprise version is quite expensive, costing at least $15,000 per year.
Pros
- Reports or dashboards can be sent directly to an email list.
- Visualizations are easy to make, even for individuals who have never built dashboards before.
- Joining tables on keys is easy.
- Compared to other tools, it is easier to drag and drop tables and data visualizations on dashboards.
Cons
- Filtering could have been more accurate.
- Prior SQL knowledge is required to get the most out of it.
Industries It’s Used For:
- Tech sector
- E-commerce
Conclusion
This was a round-up of some of the top 5 data visualization tools in 2023. Each of these tools is designed keeping features like ease of use, customizability, and a smooth UI in mind.
Weigh all the pros & cons and pick one that best suits the needs of your business. Make sure to choose the correct plan that matches the size of your company and fits your budget. Thanks for reading!
You need this guide, because it includes:
- evolution of data stack
- reasons why many well-known tools do not meet the challenges of the new world
- vital structure of modern data stack
- the newest tools for every part of modern data stack
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