It’s evident that humans are visual-thirsty creatures. We always prefer viewing images or graphics to reading a bunch of text. The same thing goes for data and statistics. We’re definitely better at processing visual data than digesting them through text.
Data is likely an increasingly essential component of your business and organization. Briefly saying, you need a smart way to present data so that visitors can understand it.
Fortunately, WordPress makes it easy for you to create colorful and informative charts, graphs, and infographics thanks to data visualization plugins. However, you may fail to pick the right solution for your site, among a lot of plugins available in the market.
In this article, we’ll look at the top 5 data visualization plugins for your WordPress site. We’ll break them down according to their core features, pros, cons, and pricing plans.
Before getting into the plugins, understanding the reasons for data visualization, as well as examples of data tables, must be a priority.
Why Visualize Data on Your WordPress Site?
WordPress data visualization refers to the act of taking raw and numerical data and converting them into a more visual format like charts, graphs, or tables. This method best serves surveys and polls.
There are several reasons that motivate you to visualize your WordPress data. From your business side, it’s of indispensable necessity for you to identify what your data tells and spot trends from it.
Take Google Analytics as an example, you can show a huge amount of various data types in a table effortlessly. The line graphs also grease the wheels for users to see the traffic trends over days, weeks, months, or even years. You have area graphs for geographical data visualization too.
In terms of the audience’s attraction and impression, visualizing data allows you to engage users and increase the speed of decision-making. It’s possible for you to make money or generate leads from this data by creating an email opt-in. People have to sign up for your newsletter or pay for the full special data report.
Examples of Data Visualization in WordPress
There are multiple ways to exhibit data. Besides basic charts and graphs, you have comparison tables and map visualization.
Standard Charts and Graphs
Charts and graphs are preferred for their ease of creation, use, and sharing. You can divide them into line graphs, bar graphs, area graphs, and pie charts.
- Line graphs – Show data changes over time of at least one value.
- Pie charts – Give you a whole visualization of all elements in a group for a specific time.
- Bar graphs – Let you compare metric values of different groups or show a distribution of data points.
- Area graphs – Similar to line ones. They are in charge of tracking changes in a group over an interval or time period.
Comparison Tables
This type of data visualization quickly points out differences between groups based on specific factors/values. Plugin and service comparison tables are classic examples.
Map Visualizations
As its name indicates, map visualization captures data in specific locations. This proves useful when you conduct research to compare data from all over the world. If you’re using Google Analytics for your site, you can easily find this map data in the Geo report under the Audience section.
We can see from the Geo graph above that most of the website traffic comes from the US.
Infographics
You may think of infographics as an effective way to summarize the content and build backlinks. In fact, they can consist of numerous data visualization methods mentioned above in one graphic.
Top 5 WordPress Data Visualization Plugins
#1wpDataTables – Tables & Table Charts
wpDataTables comes as the most popular WordPress data visualization plugin of all time, proved by the number of 60K active installs.
The plugin packs enough power to get nearly anything you want for visualizing data. You can make use of Excel, CSV, JSON, and PHP data sources to quickly create tables and table charts.
Its new table builder gives you a chance to set up simple tables and then customize and style them. You’re able to merge cells, resize columns and rows, add media, and so on.
For those who wish to create really large tables containing huge data, consider upgrading the tool to the Premium version to access more useful features. Adding tables from Google Spreadsheet files, editing tables from the front end, filtering tables, and editing tables in the same ways as excels are all possible.
#2 Visualizer: Tables and Charts Manager for WordPress
It would be a huge missing without mentioning Visualizer when talking about powerful and easy-to-use WordPress table solutions. Developed by Themeisle, one of the most well-known WordPress theme providers, Visualizer receives a great deal of public attention.
The plugin lends you a helping hand in creating, managing, and embedding charts, graphs, and tables. Importing table data from Excel, CSV, Google Sheets, and other tools is at your fingertip.
The Lite version sheds light on 4 different chart types while its Pro version offers up to 11 ones. You’ll have basic charts like line, bar, pie, and table charts without having to pay for them.
It does wonders for table customization. You can style tables, short data, and assign page numbers. If you’re using WordPress built-in Gutenberg page builder, the plugin enables you to easily add a chart to a page or post with the chart code.
#3 Graphina – Elementor Charts and Graphs
To those who are using Elementor page builder for their WordPress site, Graphina would be your lifesaver when it comes to data visualization and chart creation. There are more than 14 graphs and charts, with over 1000+ variations for you to kick start.
Slow site speed due to huge data loading would never be an issue thanks to its AJAX data loading.
Unlike wpDataTables and Visualizer with some limited styling capabilities, Graphina provides a massive package of table customization options. This WordPress data visualization plugin empowers you to set custom colors, customize chart cards, display chart drop shadow, format numbers to string, set background color, etc.
Many useful features are at the ready when you buy the plugin’s Pro version. Some examples include importing dynamic charts from Google Sheets, local, and remote CSV, auto-reloading data from source with AJAX-based, and password-protecting charts.
#4 M Chart
M Chart permits you to create a data table in the exact same way as what you’re doing with a spreadsheet. This table will then be presented as a chart and you can add it to your post content using a shortcode.
Upon installation and activation, there is a new Charts section added to your admin navigation menu. You can even assign categories and tags to your charts. Under the chart types, there are 14 different options for you to choose from, consisting of a line, spline, area, column, bar, etc.
#5 Data Tables Generator by Supsystic
Besides famous plugins like Photo Gallery, Contact Forms, and Social Share Buttons, Supsystic provides you with the Data Tables Generator solution. It’s yielded over 30K users and the number is significantly increasing daily. The plugin packs can handle nearly anything you wish to be done in terms of WordPress data visualization.
Data Table Generator frees you from customizing tables manually for mobile and tablet screens using the responsive mode. Having SEO-friendly data tables is as easy as pie.
Noticeably, the plugin best serves product tables for WooCommerce stores. Searching and filtering products are all available on your table.
Get Ready with a WordPress Data Visualization Plugin
Tables, charts, and graphs help draw users’ attention. Users find your data clear and transparent, especially when you try to offer huge data sets transferring lots of value. You can also spot trends and come up with action plans for your business based on the results.
We’ve discussed the 5 best plugins for you to organize and visualize your data. They bring core features in common such as table creation and management. Some stand out from their competitors for special features.
While wpDataTables is known as the best plugin to export data from Excel, CSV, JSON sources, Visualizer allows you to style tables for free. Graphina, on the other hand, serves Elementor users only.
So what is your ideal pick among these plugins? Do you have any other options in mind? Share with us in the comment section below.
