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  5. D3.js vs Tableau

D3.js vs Tableau

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

D3.js
D3.js
Stacks2.0K
Followers1.7K
Votes653
GitHub Stars111.7K
Forks22.9K
Tableau
Tableau
Stacks1.3K
Followers1.4K
Votes8

D3.js vs Tableau: What are the differences?

# Introduction
This Markdown code discusses the key differences between D3.js and Tableau in the context of data visualization for website development. 

1. **Development Approach**: D3.js is a JavaScript library that allows for more customization and control over the creation of data visualizations through code, making it suitable for developers with coding experience. On the other hand, Tableau is a visual analytics platform that provides a user-friendly interface for creating visualizations without the need for coding, catering to a wider range of users including non-technical ones.
   
2. **Flexibility and Customization**: D3.js provides a high level of flexibility and customization in creating complex and interactive visualizations by manipulating the DOM directly. Tableau, while offering intuitive drag-and-drop functionalities, may have limitations in advanced customization options compared to D3.js.
   
3. **Learning Curve**: D3.js requires a steeper learning curve due to its programmatic approach and the need for familiarity with JavaScript, SVG, and DOM manipulation concepts. Tableau, with its user-friendly interface and guided features, offers a lower learning curve for beginners and users without programming knowledge.
   
4. **Integration with Web Development**: D3.js integrates smoothly with web development frameworks and technologies, allowing for seamless incorporation of visualizations within websites and web applications. Tableau visualizations can be embedded into webpages, but may have more limitations in terms of design and customization control compared to D3.js.
   
5. **Community Support**: D3.js has a strong and active community of developers contributing to its open-source ecosystem, providing a wide range of resources, libraries, and examples for users. Tableau also has a supportive community, but its focus is more on commercial users and enterprise solutions, which may differ in terms of available resources and community interaction.
   
6. **Cost**: D3.js is a free and open-source library, making it cost-effective for projects without budget constraints. Tableau, as a commercial software, offers various pricing plans based on the user's needs, making it more suitable for businesses with specific requirements and resources to invest in data visualization.

In Summary, D3.js and Tableau differ in their development approach, flexibility, customization, learning curve, integration with web development, community support, and cost, catering to different user profiles and project requirements in data visualization for websites.

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Advice on D3.js, Tableau

Vojtech
Vojtech

Head of Data at Mews

Nov 24, 2019

Decided

Power BI is really easy to start with. If you have just several Excel sheets or CSV files, or you build your first automated pipeline, it is actually quite intuitive to build your first reports.

And as we have kept growing, all the additional features and tools were just there within the Azure platform and/or Office 365.

Since we started building Mews, we have already passed several milestones in becoming start up, later also a scale up company and now getting ready to grow even further, and during all these phases Power BI was just the right tool for us.

353k views353k
Comments
Ayaskant
Ayaskant

SSE-II at Akamai

Oct 25, 2019

Needs advice

I want to get suggestions on these 2 open source js libraries (D3.js & echarts) that help in creating charts or graphs on the UI. Which one will be better for bar graphs. Which is easy to learn and start with? Which provides better features and community support?

My requirements are 1 - Plot data in X-Y axis graph where x-axis will present time till seconds level and Y-Axis will present the data corresponding to that time.

2 - Zoom-in and zoom out feature.

56k views56k
Comments
Wei
Wei

CTO at Flux Work

Jan 8, 2020

Decided

Very easy-to-use UI. Good way to make data available inside the company for analysis.

Has some built-in visualizations and can be easily integrated with other JS visualization libraries such as D3.

Can be embedded into product to provide reporting functions.

Support team are helpful.

The only complain I have is lack of API support. Hard to track changes as codes and automate report deployment.

230k views230k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

D3.js
D3.js
Tableau
Tableau

It is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Emphasises on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework.

Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.

Declarative Approach for Individual Nodes Manipulation; Functions Factory; Web Standards; Built-in ELement Inspector to Debug; Uses SVG, Canvas, and HTML; Data-driven approach to DOM Manipulation; Voronoi Diagrams; Maps and topo.
Connect to data on prem or in the cloud—whether it’s big data, a SQL database, a spreadsheet, or cloud apps like Google Analytics and Salesforce. Access and combine disparate data without writing code. Power users can pivot, split, and manage metadata to optimize data sources. Analysis begins with data. Get more from yours with Tableau.; Exceptional analytics demand more than a pretty dashboard. Quickly build powerful calculations from existing data, drag and drop reference lines and forecasts, and review statistical summaries. Make your point with trend analyses, regressions, and correlations for tried and true statistical understanding. Ask new questions, spot trends, identify opportunities, and make data-driven decisions with confidence.; Answer the “where” as well as the “why.” Create interactive maps automatically. Built-in postal codes mean lightning-fast mapping for more than 50 countries worldwide. Use custom geocodes and territories for personalized regions, like sales areas. We designed Tableau maps specifically to help your data stand out.; Ditch the static slides for live stories that others can explore. Create a compelling narrative that empowers everyone you work with to ask their own questions, analyzing interactive visualizations with fresh data. Be part of a culture of data collaboration, extending the impact of your insights.
Statistics
GitHub Stars
111.7K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
22.9K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
2.0K
Stacks
1.3K
Followers
1.7K
Followers
1.4K
Votes
653
Votes
8
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 195
    Beautiful visualizations
  • 103
    Svg
  • 92
    Data-driven
  • 81
    Large set of examples
  • 61
    Data-driven documents
Cons
  • 11
    Beginners cant understand at all
  • 6
    Complex syntax
Pros
  • 6
    Capable of visualising billions of rows
  • 1
    Intuitive and easy to learn
  • 1
    Responsive
Cons
  • 3
    Very expensive for small companies
Integrations
JavaScript
JavaScript
React Native
React Native
AngularJS
AngularJS
React
React
Bootstrap
Bootstrap
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to D3.js, Tableau?

Metabase

Metabase

It is an easy way to generate charts and dashboards, ask simple ad hoc queries without using SQL, and see detailed information about rows in your Database. You can set it up in under 5 minutes, and then give yourself and others a place to ask simple questions and understand the data your application is generating.

Highcharts

Highcharts

Highcharts currently supports line, spline, area, areaspline, column, bar, pie, scatter, angular gauges, arearange, areasplinerange, columnrange, bubble, box plot, error bars, funnel, waterfall and polar chart types.

Plotly.js

Plotly.js

It is a standalone Javascript data visualization library, and it also powers the Python and R modules named plotly in those respective ecosystems (referred to as Plotly.py and Plotly.R). It can be used to produce dozens of chart types and visualizations, including statistical charts, 3D graphs, scientific charts, SVG and tile maps, financial charts and more.

Superset

Superset

Superset's main goal is to make it easy to slice, dice and visualize data. It empowers users to perform analytics at the speed of thought.

Chart.js

Chart.js

Visualize your data in 6 different ways. Each of them animated, with a load of customisation options and interactivity extensions.

Recharts

Recharts

Quickly build your charts with decoupled, reusable React components. Built on top of SVG elements with a lightweight dependency on D3 submodules.

ECharts

ECharts

It is an open source visualization library implemented in JavaScript, runs smoothly on PCs and mobile devices, and is compatible with most current browsers.

Cube

Cube

Cube: the universal semantic layer that makes it easy to connect BI silos, embed analytics, and power your data apps and AI with context.

ZingChart

ZingChart

The most feature-rich, fully customizable JavaScript charting library available used by start-ups and the Fortune 100 alike.

Power BI

Power BI

It aims to provide interactive visualizations and business intelligence capabilities with an interface simple enough for end users to create their own reports and dashboards.

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