5 of Our Favorite Open Source Visualization Tools

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the collection and application of data is more important than ever for businesses looking to continue to grow. The downside? As we continually discover ways in which data is beneficial, the more difficult it can become for individuals to compile, present and implement findings. Thankfully, there’s an influx of open source data visualization tools that are able to intake your unique data, both spatial and tabular, and present the information back to you through the use of advanced graphs and charts.

So which tools are worth taking a moment to explore and/or possibly adopt? Below, we’ve assembled 5 of the open source data visualizations tools that take a much needed illustrative approach to complicated data.

R Shiny R Shiny is an open source package that provides the web framework for building data visualizations, interactive charts, and applications using R. This tool helps you to turn your analyses into sleek interactive web visuals without it requiring in-depth knowledge of HTML, CSS or JavaScript. Much like a spreadsheet, this reactive programming model allows for data to be manipulated with ease rather than waiting for the entire page to be reloaded...we’ve seen success for those within the retail sector who are constantly updating their data and looking for a platform that can keep up minute to minute.

Tableau Public With the ability to display graphs, charts, maps and more, Tableau Public is a popular data visualization tool that's also totally free. With up to 10 GB of storage and a drag-and-drop interface, users can watch their data update in real-time while collaborating with others on their team. The “public” portion of Tableau means that you can only save your data to public profile where others have access to your data, but if you’re not a highly public company whose privacy is your #1 concern, there are a plethora of upsides to Tableau Public for business analysts and managers. The newest version is optimized for mobile devices, can connect to a variety of data sources beyond Excel, and can link directly to Google Sheets.