The Top Database Visualization Tools Compared
We are going to examine the top database visualization tools. Notice I said visualization tools, this means tools that allow data exploration, multiple charts/tables/maps and the ability to explore data without necessarily writing SQL. A separate article will be written shortly on SQL charting libraries.
Database Visualization Features
The key features that we will look at include:
- Price - What does it cost? Per user?
- User Friendliness - Can my manager use this? Or will I need DBA help?
- HTML5/Web Support - Many of these big tools are old and don't support web or mobile well.
- Real Time - Can charts be live updated very frequently? Or do they need regenerated?
Top Database Visualization Tools
The available tools can roughly be split into three categories:
- Extremely expensive - Either has a wide range of user friendly features (tableau) or provides real-time charting. Tend to be older well testsed products.
- Middle Tier - Still quite friendly but more targeted at smaller segments of the market.
- New Comers - Recent entrants that provide HTML/SAAS database visualizations
| Product | License | Price (per user/year) | Runtime | Realtime | Time Series | Tech | Ease of Use | Handles Big Data | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panopticon | Commercial | $$$ | Self Hosting | Yes | Yes | Java | 10 | Yes | video |
| Tableau | Commercial | $2000 | App | No | Yes | Java | 10 | video | |
| Tableau Online | Commercial | $$$ | SAAS | No | Yes | HTML | ? | video | |
| Delta Dashboards | Commercial | $$$ | Self Hosting | Yes | Yes | Flex/Flash | 7 | Yes | |
| sqlDashboards | Commercial | $51 | App | Yes | Yes | Java | 5 | Yes | video |
| Bime | Commercial | $3000 | video | ||||||
| dashbuilder | Open Source | >0 | Self Hosting | Near | ? | HTML | 5 | video | |
| DataPine | Commercial | $1555 | SAAS | ? | ? | HTML | 7 | ? | video |
| DbFace | Commercial | $90 | SAAS / Self Hosting | No | Limited | HTML | 7 | No | |
| metabase | Open Source | 0 | Self Hosting | Near - 1 min refresh | Limited | HTML | 7 | No | video |
| chartio | Commercial | ?? | SAAS | video | |||||
| viurdata | Commercial | $300 | SAAS | Manual Refresh | Yes | HTML | 9 | OK | video |
| lumalytics | Commercial | $200 | SAAS | video | |||||
| slemma | Commercial | $200 | SAAS | ? | ? | HTML | ? | ? | video |
Good Database Visualization Tools
sqlDashboards
Bime
dashbuilder
DataPine
metabase
Expensive Commercial Database Visualization Vendors
Panopticon
User friendly, fast, extensive time-series support, numerous adapters including specific drivers that generate smarter SQL queries than most other tools. Expensive.
Tableau
Wide range of visualizations, massive community, extremely user friendly.
Tableau Online
Relatively new product.
New Database Visualization Tools
chartio
viurdata
slemma
