Free data visualization tools are professional in different categories: dashboard, chart, maps, network, and so on. Today, let's review the top free data visualization tools on the market.

What are the Benefits of Using Free Data Visualization Tools?

The most significant advantage is free, and open-source data visualization tools can help you control your budget.

Some of the free data visualization tools have their paid version. Although not all free data visualization tools provide stunning data visualization; they provide basic charts that can meet your basic needs.

I listed 10 Free and Open Source data visualization toolsfor you as a reference. Welcome to take full advantage of it!

An In-Depth Look at the Top Free Data Visualization Tools

1.FineReport

data visualization tool that free fpr personal use
From FineReport

Free Download

FineReport is a data visualization tool free for personal use, which supports visualizing your data into reports and dashboards.

FineReport provides more than 19 categories and 50+ styles of HTML5 charts. These charts are self-developed and can be shown on different sizes of screens. You can transform your data into these stunning charts via simple drag and drop.

Besides, data visualization in FineReport has distinct dynamic and interactive effects. You can use interactive highlighting, series interaction, scaling, and automatic refresh to do interactive analysis.

Another stunning feature of FineReport is real-time visualization. You can write your data back to the database through the data entry feature and visualize the latest data.

Category: Reports and Dashboards

For enterprise users, we offer a quote-based plan to provide you with more professional services. In addition, it's free to make an appointment for a live demo with product experts from FineReport and work together to discover your needs and see how FineReport can help you and your organization to transform data into value.

Book a Free Demo

2. D3.Js

free data visualization tool- d3.js
From Google

D3.Js is an open-source JavaScipt Library for usingHTML, SVG, and CSS to create a data visualization, which can also be applied with Python or R. By combining graphical elements and arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), it is efficient to manipulate data.

D3 is the best chart gallery and is highly flexible. It supports large datasets and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation. And it is easy to debug using the browser's built-in element inspector

However, D3 requires users to have programming skills, and it takes a lot of time initially for newies.

Category: charts and graphs

3. Plotly

From Google

Plotly is an open-source, browser-based, and interactive data visualization tool, built on top of the d3.js visualization libraries.

You can create multi-chart visualizations when comparing datasets.

The complex charts generated by Plotly can be smoothly displayed on the dashboard and websites. These charts are fully interactive. You can hover, zoom, and pan these charts.

Besides, Plotly can be installed on premised or be deployed in the cloud. You can work in both online or offline mode.

However, Plotly does not support jQuery, and it needs the API key and registration when installing.

Category: charts and graphs

4. ggPlot2

free chart tool- ggpot2
From Google

ggplot2 is a free data visualization package for the language R. The idea of ggplot2 is similar to architectural thinking, making the drawing according to layers. Compared to other free data visualization tools, ggplot2 allows you to approach your graph from a visual perspective instead of a programming perspective. It is easy and quick to make plots involving mountains of data. Besides, you can build complex charts by defining various underlying components and simple functions.

The disadvantage is some text in ggplot2 graphs is too small, and the labels are unclean; you need to modify it manually.

Category: charts and graphs

5. RawGraphs

From Google

RAWGraphs is a free data visualization framework that builds a link between spreadsheets and vector graphics editors, making it easy to visually express complex data.

Through RawGraphs, you can import data from Excel, Google Spreadsheets TextEdit, and other data sources, and then generate charts.

Importing the data is as simple as a copy-paste. And you can visualize the data from delimiter-separated values such as CSV and tsv files. Although RawGraphs is a web app, data security is guaranteed because the Data inserted into RAW is handled only by the web browser.

The disadvantage is that you need your developers' help if you want to custom the advanced charts.

Category: charts and graphs

6. Leaflet

data visualization tool for map
From Google

Leaflet is a lightweight and free Javascript library for visualizing interactive maps, weighing just about 38 KB of JS. But it has almost all the features that the developers need to generate maps. You can implement interactive features such as multiple maps scaling and keyboard navigation. And the map can be shown on the PC and mobile devices. To customize the maps, users can use the APIs to develop. And the documentation is well structured that provides rich examples and tutorials.

The only disadvantage is the core functions only support the GeoJSON format.

Category: maps

7. PowerMap

From Google

Powermap is a free Excel plugin that provides Bing Map visualizations and is used to map geographic data. It is easy to transform the Excel data into maps; even non-technical users can plot data on a 3-D globe or custom map without coding, including the geographic and temporal maps

The cons are weak interactive features. You can not filter data or drill down in Powermap. And custom shapes are unavailable.

Category: maps

8. OpenLayers

From Google

OpenLayers is an open-source JavaScript library professional in dynamic maps. It supports multiple GIS formats such as GeoJSON, GeoRSS, KML, GML. It also supports different Geo data sources using OGC-standards as WMS or WFS.

Another strong characteristic is power and flexibility. The library provides all the demanded features in the core functionality.

However, compared to other map visualization tools, OpenLayers requires more code, and it takes more time for newbies to start.

Category: maps

9. Gephi

From Google

Gephi is a free graph maker that is professional in network analysis and visualization. It provides a user-friendly interface that users can quickly learn without much time. Besides, once loading and mapping the correct data, Gephi generates a graph automatically. The distinctive advantage is the interactive feature; you can zoom in, select nodes, adjust node size and color, find shortest paths, and access nodes and edges' attributes.

However, Gephi only supports exporting the charts into an image and HTML document.

Category: network visualizations

10. Keyline

free data visualization tool in network
From Google

Keyline is a lightweight JavaScript toolkit that using HTML5 to visualize the network. It supports extracting data from any database and displaying your design on any browser and device.

Keyline provides eight automatic graph layouts that you can detangle links to reveal patterns and anomalies. And you can filter network, combine node, analyze the social network.

Category: network visualizations

Summary

Besides the benefits of these free data visualization tools mentioned above, we can not deny that they also have disadvantages. For advanced charts need, you can use the paid version of these data visualization tools to make up for these shortcomings.

Explore Other Resources

Reporting Tools | 8 min read

Informative analytical reports are critical when projects involve messy data. Here to find out the principal guidance and samples for better data analysis.

02-26-2021

Reporting Tools | 7 min read

Read to find out more about reporting, dashboard, types, structure, and formats. Also, you can find multiple report examples & templates here.

04-28-2021

Dashboard Tools | 7 min read

Scorecards and dashboards are both important parts of business intelligence. Click to check how to choose scorecard vs dashboard.

09-22-2021