The chart below originally accompanied our story 22 free tools for data visualization and analysis, but I'm continuing to update it as I cover additional tools. Newest additions are toward the table bottom.
Features: You can sort the chart by clicking on any column header once to sort in ascending order and a second time to sort by descending (browser JavaScript required).
Skill levels are represented as numbers from easiest to most difficult to learn and use:
- Users who are comfortable with basic spreadsheet tasks
- Users who are technically proficient enough not to be frightened off by spending a couple of hours learning a new application
- Power users
- Users with coding experience or specialized knowledge in a field like GIS or network analysis. Next page: Screenshots of several tools
Data visualization and analysis tools
| Tool | Category |
Multi-purpose visualization | Mapping | Platform |
Skill level |
Data stored or processed |
Designed for Web publishing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) | Data cleaning | No | No | Browser | 2 | Local | No |
| R Project | Statistical analysis | Yes | With plugin | Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, Windows XP or later | 4 | Local | Yes |
| Google Fusion Tables | Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | Browser | 1 | External server | Yes |
| Tableau Public | Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | Windows, OS X | 3 | Public external server | Yes |
| VIDI | Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | Browser | 1 | External server | Yes |
| Zoho Reports | Visualization app/service | Yes | No | Browser | 2 | External server | Yes |
| Exhibit | Library | Yes | Yes | Code editor and browser | 4 | Local or external server | Yes |
| Google Chart Tools | Library and Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | Code editor and browser | 2 | Local or external server | Yes |
| JavaScript InfoVis Toolkit | Library | Yes | No | Code editor and browser | 4 | Local or external server | Yes |
| D3 | Library | Yes | Yes | Code editor and browser | 4 | Local or external server | Yes |
| Quantum GIS (QGIS) | GIS/mapping: Desktop | No | Yes | Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows | 4 | Local | With plugin |
| OpenHeatMap | GIS/mapping: Web | No | Yes | Browser | 1 | External server | Yes |
| OpenLayers | GIS/mapping: Web, Library | No | Yes | Code editor and browser | 4 | local or external server | Yes |
| OpenStreetMap | GIS/mapping: Web | No | Yes | Browser or desktops running Java | 3 | Local or external server | Yes |
| TimeFlow | Temporal data analysis | No | No | Desktops running Java | 1 | Local | No |
| IBM Word-Cloud Generator | Word clouds | No | No | Desktops running Java | 2 | Local | As image |
| Gephi | Network analysis | No | No | Desktops running Java | 4 | Local | As image |
| NodeXL | Network analysis | No | No | Excel 2007 and 2010 on Windows | 4 | Local | As image |
| CSVKit | CSV file analysis | No | No | Linux, Mac OS X or Linux with Python installed | 3 | Local | No |
| DataTables | Create sortable, searchable tables | No | No | Code editor and browser | 3 | Local or external server | Yes |
| Highcharts* | Library | Yes | No | Code editor and browser | 3 | Local or external server | Yes |
| Mr. Data Converter | Data reformatting | No | No | Browser | 1 | Local or external server | No |
| Panda Project | Create searchable tables | No | No | Browser with Amazon EC2 or Ubuntu Linux | 2 | Local or external server | No |
| Weave | Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | Flash-enabled browsers; Linux server on backend | 4 | Local or external server | Yes |
| Infogr.am | Visualization app/service | Yes | Limited | Browser | 1 | External server | Yes |
| Datawrapper | Visualization app/service | Yes | No | Browser | 1 | Local or external server | Yes |
| Dataset | Library | No | No | Browser | 4 | Local or external server | Yes |
| Leaflet | Library | No | Yes | Browser | 4 | Local or external server | Yes |
| Searchable Fusion Table Map Template | Library | No | Yes | Browser | 3 | Local or external server | Yes |
| Tabletop | Library | No | No | Browser | 3 | Local or external server | Yes |
| eSpatial | GIS/mapping | No | Yes | Browser | 2 | External | Yes |
| Jolicharts | Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | Browser | 1 | External server | Yes |
| Silk | Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | Browser | 1 | External server | Yes |
| Chartbuilder | Visualization app/service | Yes | No | Browser | 1 | Local | Yes |
| Plotly | Library, Visualization app/service | Yes | No | Browser or scripting environment | 1 | Local or external server | Yes |
| Vida.io | Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | Browser | 1 | External server | Yes |
| IBM Watson Analytics | Visualization & analysis app/service | Yes | Yes | Browser | 1 | External server | No |
| Tabula | Data acquisition | No | No | Browser on Windows, OS X or Linux | 1 | Local | No |
| DataHero | Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | Browser | 1 | External server | Yes |
| Qlik Sense Desktop | Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | 64-bit Windows | 2 | Local | Coming |
| Microsoft Power Bi | Visualization app/service | Yes | Yes | Browser or Windows | 2 | Local or External Server | Yes |
| Trifacta | Data cleaning/wrangling | No | No | Windows or Mac | 1 | Local | No |
*Highcharts is free for non-commercial use and $80 for most single-site-wide licenses. **While add-ons are free, Excel (which is required to run them) is not.
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