About

Thanks, everyone! This site has now been featured at the top of ProductHunt, FlowingData and CreativeBlocs, with 289,321 unique users and counting.

This site features a curated selection of data visualization tools meant to bridge the gap between programmers/statisticians and the general public by only highlighting free/freemium, responsive and relatively simple-to-learn technologies for displaying both basic and complex, multivariate datasets. It leans heavily toward open-source software and plugins, rather than enterprise, expensive B.I. solutions.

Why?

Well, information visualization, or InfoVis, has for the past three decades been mostly regarded as a specialty skill relegated to the ranks of researchers and scientists. But in recent years, the proliferation of Big Data combined with a surge of new, open-source tools for data display have given rise to the democratization of “data visualization” and “data journalism.” It’s something anyone can do. As such, all resources that may require basic programming knowledge are labeled as such.

As Simon Rogers of The Guardian so artfully stated in 2008, “Anyone can do it. Data journalism is the new punk.”

FAQ

Is there a way to sort between what’s open-source and what’s not?

Not currently, but this is underway. It’s just a matter of reviewing the items to see which are open-source and which aren’t.

Can I view only tools that don’t require programming knowledge at all?


Again, this is in the pipeline, but will need further time to review and sort in the underlying data.

Is there a source file for this directory?


Yes, in fact! You may view, copy or contribute to this directory by heading over to the dataviz.tools master-list on Google Sheets.

Contact

Queries? Concerns? Contributions? Corrections? Email me at [email protected].

Want to help curate this site and be part of this project? Shoot me an email or send over a DM on Twitter to @dataviztools to volunteer to be a part of the site’s ongoing curation.