CentrioHost Blog

Whether you’re a researcher compiling data about a local election or a teacher sharing data about the local wildlife population with your class, there are no better substitutes than charts and graphs. These visual tools turn boring, seemingly worthless data into easily-digestible information.

What’s great is that you don’t have to worry about handling a complex graph-building software, since WordPress graphs and charts can be made with simple plugins. Therefore, we’re here to outline which of those plugins are the best, and we’ll also go into how to create beautiful WordPress charts and graphs.

Advantages of Making Charts and Graphs in WordPress

You might be wondering why you couldn’t simply develop a graph or chart in, say, Excel, then take a screenshot of it to place it in your blog post. Sometimes this method works fine, but other times it’s a huge waste. The main reason you would go with Excel, or another chart building program, is when you need an advanced feature that’s not available through a WordPress plugin.

Otherwise, here are the benefits of making WordPress charts and graphs with plugins:

1. It consolidates all of your graph building into one area. If you make graphs or charts on a regular basis, this saves you loads of time.
2. It allows you to go back and edit the graph if needed. A picture limits quick fixes and requires you to find that old file you used to make the graph.
3. Some charts and graphs have interactive features, which would never be possible with a picture.

Overall, a WordPress chart plugin simplifies the process, but it still gives you most of the features you’ll need for your blog posts.

5 Effective WordPress Charts and Graphs Plugins in 2019

Before we get started with a tutorial on how to create beautiful WordPress charts and graphs, we want to walk through the best plugins to accomplish what you need.

1. wpDataTables
2. WordPress Charts and Graphs Lite
3. WordPress Charts
4. Interactive Maps, Charts, Graphs
5. UberChart

1. wpDataTables

wpDataTables is a very robust WordPress plugin! Don’t let the name fool you. It can do a lot more than just create your typical tables. You can design all sorts of charts and graphs as well. It was specifically developed to allow you to input large amounts of data and quickly turn that into a nice graphical display for you readers.

wpDataTables is a premium plugin, starting at $44 for a license. It currently has over 13,000 sales on CodeCanyon with a 4.5 out of 5-star, so you can rest assured there are a lot of people happily using it. Some of its features include:

• Everything is responsive, meaning they will scale beautifully for every device
• wpDataTables plugin has three different chart rendering engines: Google Charts, Highcharts, and Chart.js. This allows you to render simple and flexible charts with a lot of customizable options
• Real-time auto-refresh for tables and charts
• Preview your charts in the backend along with the table

2. WordPress Charts and Graphs Lite

If you want to display data and information on your WordPress blog using beautiful charts and graphs, look no further than the excellent, WordPress Charts and Graphs Lite plugin. It does a wonderful job of creating beautiful and interactive visuals while giving you total freedom to customize the output to make it suit your exact requirements: you can change colors, customize fonts, hide text, add text — all this even after the chart is published. Displaying charts in your posts and pages is as simple as uploading a spreadsheet and adding the shortcode the plugin automatically generates to your page.

Later, if you decide you want to change the type of graph from, say a block graph to a pie chart, simply hit the edit button and make the switch. Yep, it really is as easy as that. It’s also worth mentioning that the charts and graphs it produces work on all device screens (desktops, tablets, mobiles) of all sizes because the plugin is responsive.

It includes nine chart types, shortcode support, and the option to import loads of data with a CSV. This chart plugin is also referred to as the Visualizer plugin, so you might see it referred to as that. There is both a free and pro version. The Pro Version goes for at least $74 (one site license,) and it offers tools for importing from other charts. Some other Pro features include:

• The option to give users editing capabilities
• Private chart creation
• Auto-syncing with your online file
• Additional chart types
• You gain access to a live editor

The Lite plugin is still pretty powerful. Here are some of the charts you can make:

• Line chart
• Pie chart
• Bar chart
• Column chart
• Area chart
• Geo chart
• Table chart
• Guage chart
• Candlestick chart
• Combo chart
• Scatter chart
• Timeline chart

3. WordPress Charts

The WordPress Charts plugin would be my third choice, many users like it for the clean designs, animations, and colorful options. However, also be aware that it hasn’t been updated for quite a while.

The WordPress chart plugin offers six unique chart and graph templates, which you can adjust and insert your own data to display on your website. The charts offered include:

• Line
• Bar
• Pie
• Radar
• Polar area
• Doughnut types

All of these charts are built using HTML5. The customization options are pretty much endless, but you will have to know a little bit about coding, shortcodes, or at least adjusting the default settings. The reason we like this WordPress chart plugin so much is that it’s extremely lightweight. You could insert dozens of charts on all your blog posts and not have a problem. And that’s the whole point of working with HTML5. You get to remove the clutter without sacrificing any of the functionality.

4. Interactive Maps, Charts, Graphs – For VC

If you currently have the Visual Composer plugin on your website, the Interactive Maps, Charts, Graphs plugin might be for you. It’s an add-on to Visual Composer, so there’s no reason to get it otherwise.

The add-on sells for $12, which then provides interactive maps, charts, and graphs, all packaged into the Visual Composer interface. The add-on comes with vector icons, Google Fonts, unlimited colors, and a wide set of other features for constructing and customizing your charts and graphs. The add-on has your standard charts and graphs, such as pie and line graphs. There’s also a unique map feature for highlighting certain areas, whether it be a local map or one of the world.

5. UberChart – WordPress Chart Plugin

UberChart is a more versatile premium chart plugin, since it doesn’t require the Visual Composer plugin. The plugin provides 10 built-in chart types, for which you receive around 240 customizable options per chart.