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!
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.
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.
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:
This software is known for its 3 main features:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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