Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

D3.js VS Flourish

Compare D3.js VS Flourish and see what are their differences

D3.js logo D3.js

D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS.

Flourish logo Flourish

Powerful, beautiful, easy data visualisation
  • D3.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-11

D3 allows you to bind arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), and then apply data-driven transformations to the document. For example, you can use D3 to generate an HTML table from an array of numbers. Or, use the same data to create an interactive SVG bar chart with smooth transitions and interaction.

D3 is not a monolithic framework that seeks to provide every conceivable feature. Instead, D3 solves the crux of the problem: efficient manipulation of documents based on data. This avoids proprietary representation and affords extraordinary flexibility, exposing the full capabilities of web standards such as HTML, SVG, and CSS. With minimal overhead, D3 is extremely fast, supporting large datasets and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation. D3’s functional style allows code reuse through a diverse collection of official and community-developed modules.

  • Flourish Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-11

D3.js features and specs

  • Powerful Visualization
    D3.js allows for the creation of highly customized and interactive data visualizations, harnessing the full power of web standards like SVG, Canvas, and HTML.
  • Data Binding
    It offers robust support for data-driven transformations and binding, enabling intuitive connections between data sets and DOM elements.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    A large and active community contributes to tutorials, plugins, and tools, which can significantly simplify the development process.
  • Flexibility
    D3.js is highly flexible, providing low-level manipulation capabilities without being tied to any specific chart types or patterns.
  • Performance
    It is highly optimized for performance, allowing for efficient rendering of complex visualizations even with large data sets.

Possible disadvantages of D3.js

  • Steep Learning Curve
    D3.js has a steep learning curve due to its low-level nature and requires a solid understanding of JavaScript, DOM manipulation, and data concepts.
  • Complexity
    Creating complex visualizations can be time-consuming and require a significant amount of custom code, making it less approachable for quick, simple tasks.
  • Browser Compatibility
    Although widely supported, some D3.js features may have inconsistent behavior across different browsers, requiring additional testing and debugging.
  • Documentation
    While extensive, D3.js documentation can be challenging for beginners to navigate and understand, causing misunderstandings and slower development times.
  • Dependency Management
    The library itself is modular, but managing dependencies and integrating D3.js with other JavaScript frameworks or libraries can sometimes be problematic.

Flourish features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Flourish offers a highly intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easy for users of all skill levels to create visually appealing data visualizations.
  • Customizable Templates
    Users have access to a wide range of customizable templates which can be tailored to meet specific visualization needs without requiring extensive design skills.
  • Interactivity
    The platform supports interactive elements that can make data visualizations more engaging and dynamic for viewers.
  • Wide Range of Visualization Types
    Flourish supports a variety of visualization types, including maps, charts, and animated graphics, catering to diverse data presentation needs.
  • Collaboration Features
    Flourish allows for collaborative work, enabling multiple users to contribute to and refine data visualizations in a structured manner.
  • Embeddability
    Visualizations created in Flourish can be easily embedded into websites, blogs, and presentations, enhancing content with professional-grade graphics.

Possible disadvantages of Flourish

  • Pricing
    While there is a free tier available, advanced features and premium templates require a subscription, which may not be affordable for all users.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    Despite its user-friendly interface, mastering advanced features and customizations can take some time, especially for beginners.
  • Performance Issues
    Large datasets or complex visualizations can sometimes lead to performance issues, such as slower rendering times.
  • Limited Offline Access
    Flourish is a web-based tool which means that users need an internet connection to create and edit visualizations; offline access is quite limited.
  • Dependency on External Data Sources
    Users relying on real-time data need to ensure their external data sources are consistently accessible and reliable, as Flourish does not inherently host data.
  • Customization Constraints
    While customization options are extensive, there can still be limitations compared to fully coding visualizations from scratch using libraries like D3.js.

Analysis of D3.js

Overall verdict

  • Yes, D3.js is a highly regarded library for data visualization in the web development community.

Why this product is good

  • Flexibility: D3.js provides incredible flexibility in creating complex and interactive visualizations with web standards (SVG, HTML, and CSS).
  • Customization: It allows for high levels of customization, which lets developers create unique and detailed visualizations tailored to their specific needs.
  • Community and Ecosystem: D3.js has a large, active community and a rich ecosystem of plugins and extensions conducive to learning and integration.
  • Data Binding: Offers powerful ways to manipulate documents based on data; the data-driven approach simplifies dynamic interaction creation.
  • Performance: Efficiently manipulates DOM elements and performs well with large datasets if used correctly.

Recommended for

  • Data Scientists and Analysts looking to create custom, interactive visualizations.
  • Web Developers who need to incorporate complex data visualizations into applications.
  • Educators and Researchers presenting data in an engaging way.
  • Anyone needing to build bespoke visualizations that are not possible with off-the-shelf solutions.

Analysis of Flourish

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Flourish.studio is a good tool for data visualization, particularly for users who need to create interactive visual content without extensive knowledge of coding or design. Its user-friendly interface, variety of templates, and integration capabilities with other data sources make it a strong choice for both beginners and professionals looking to present their data in a visually compelling way.

Why this product is good

  • Flourish is a data visualization tool that makes it easier to transform complex datasets into engaging and interactive visual representations. It provides a range of customizable templates, allowing users to create charts, maps, and stories that can enhance the presentation of data. The platform is designed to be user-friendly, enabling those with limited technical expertise to produce professional-quality visualizations efficiently.

Recommended for

  • Journalists and media professionals who need to create interactive graphics for storytelling.
  • Educators and students looking to visualize data for teaching or learning purposes.
  • Business analysts and marketers who want to present insights in an engaging way.
  • Researchers or scientists aiming to make their data more accessible to a wider audience.

D3.js videos

Data Visualization with D3.js - Full Tutorial Course

More videos:

  • Review - Let's learn D3.js - D3 for data visualization (full course)

Flourish videos

Seachem Flourish review | Does Flourish work?

More videos:

  • Review - Seachem Flourish Review
  • Review - Seachem Flourish Root Tabs Review Guide

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to D3.js and Flourish)
Charting Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Data Dashboard
73 73%
27% 27
Data Visualization
80 80%
20% 20
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare D3.js and Flourish

D3.js Reviews

6 JavaScript Charting Libraries for Powerful Data Visualizations in 2023
Depending on your requirements, the best JavaScript library is D3.js, as it’s by far the most customizable. However, it’s also really complex and difficult to master. Plus, it’s not as compatible with TypeScript as it is with JavaScript, which can be off-putting for some developers. If you’d prefer a less complex library that you can use with TypeScript, ECharts, and...
Source: embeddable.com
15 JavaScript Libraries for Creating Beautiful Charts
When we think of charting today, D3.js is the first name that comes up. Being an open source project, D3.js definitely brings many powerful features that were missing in most of the existing libraries. Features like dynamic properties, Enter and Exit, powerful transitions, and syntax familiarity with jQuery make it one the best JavaScript libraries for charting. Charts in...
Top 20 Javascript Libraries
D3 stands for Data-Driven Documents. With D3, you can apply data-driven transformations to DOM objects. The keyword with D3 is ‘data-driven,’ which means documents are manipulated depending on the data received. Data can be received in any format and bound with DOM objects. D3 is very fast and supports dynamic behavior for animation and interactions. There are plenty of...
Source: hackr.io
20+ JavaScript libraries to draw your own diagrams (2022 edition)
D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Right now, I would say is the most popular library of its kind.
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Another open source tool, D3.js is a JavaScript library for creating custom data visualizations in a web browser. Commonly known as D3, which stands for Data-Driven Documents, it uses web standards, such as HTML, Scalable Vector Graphics and CSS, instead of its own graphical vocabulary. D3's developers describe it as a dynamic and flexible tool that requires a minimum amount...

Flourish Reviews

The Best Data Visualization Tools - Top 30 BI Software
Flourish offers a solid range of standard charts, with some extra animation on loading plus useful interactivity. There’s some excellent built-in color ranges, along with the option to create your own as well. Where Flourish really stands out is that it offers some charts you’re unlikely to find elsewhere that can be created so easily. The ability to sort and compare by...
Source: improvado.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, D3.js should be more popular than Flourish. It has been mentiond 167 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

D3.js mentions (167)

  • IO Devices and Latency
    Do you mean something for data visualization, or tricks condensing large data sets with cursors? https://d3js.org/ Best of luck =3. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • 2024 Nuxt3 Annual Ecosystem Summary🚀
    Document address: D3.js Official Document. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    D3.js: One of the most popular JavaScript visualization libraries. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • What are npm Peer Dependencies and how to use them?
    A Dependency is an npm package that our code depends on in order to be able to run. Some popular packages that can be added as dependencies are lodash, D3, and chartjs. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Introducing RacingBars 📊
    RacingBars is an open-source, light-weight (~45kb gzipped), easy-to-use, and feature-rich javascript library for bar chart race, based on D3.js. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
View more

Flourish mentions (46)

  • Racing Bar Graph - Top 20 Artists
    I have a racing bar graph of my top 20 artists from Jan 2020 to present. I got an account 12/16/19 but like to start my data at 1/1/20 because it's more of an even date (idk). Anyways I use flourish.studio and update it monthly and it's super fun to see my data move over time. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Tool to draw Infra diagrams
    Go with https://flourish.studio/ they are easy to feed and tons of option. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • I've made a news site built on prediction markets
    Building charts showing the market trends over time (currently use Flourish.studio) This is the most painful, time-consuming part of the process as I'm currently inputting data manually. If I raise funds, the first thing I will do is automate. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Tool for graphic designers to create beautifull charts
    Maybe have a look at https://flourish.studio/ as they might be a potential competitor! Source: about 2 years ago
  • Last.FM needs a "live bar-chart race" feature
    I think you can make yourself a one by using this website. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing D3.js and Flourish, you can also consider the following products

Chart.js - Easy, object oriented client side graphs for designers and developers.

Tableau - 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.

Highcharts - A charting library written in pure JavaScript, offering an easy way of adding interactive charts to your web site or web application

DataWrapper - An open source tool helping anyone to create simple, correct and embeddable charts in minutes.

Plotly - Low-Code Data Apps

Microsoft Power BI - BI visualization and reporting for desktop, web or mobile