Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Plotly VS Carto

Compare Plotly VS Carto and see what are their differences

Plotly logo Plotly

Low-Code Data Apps

Carto logo Carto

The future of GIS? Itโ€™s Spatial Data Science. CARTO is the worldโ€™s leading Location Intelligence platform for Data Scientists, Developers and Analysts in Enterprise.
  • Plotly Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-31
  • Carto Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-07

Plotly features and specs

  • Interactivity
    Plotly offers highly interactive plots that allow users to pan, zoom, and hover over data points for more information. This enhances the user experience and provides deeper insights.
  • High-quality visualizations
    It provides aesthetically pleasing and highly customizable charts, making it suitable for publication-quality visuals.
  • Versatility
    Plotly supports multiple chart types including line charts, scatter plots, bar charts, and 3D plots, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.
  • Python integration
    Plotly is well-integrated with Python and works seamlessly with other popular data science libraries like Pandas, NumPy, and Scikit-learn.
  • Web-based
    The plots can be easily embedded in web applications or dashboards, making it ideal for sharing insights over the internet.
  • Open-source
    Plotly offers an open-source version, which allows users to create and share visualizations without any cost.

Possible disadvantages of Plotly

  • Performance
    Rendering very large datasets can sometimes be slow, which may not be suitable for real-time data visualization requirements.
  • Learning curve
    Even though the library is well-documented, the extensive range of features can have a steep learning curve for beginners.
  • Cost for advanced features
    While the basic functionality is free, more advanced features, such as export to certain formats and additional customizable options, require a paid subscription.
  • Dependency management
    Plotly has a number of dependencies that need to be managed properly, which can sometimes complicate the setup process.
  • Complexity
    For simple visualizations, Plotly might be overkill and simpler libraries like Matplotlib or Seaborn could be more appropriate.

Carto features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    CARTO offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface that allows users to create complex maps and spatial analyses without needing extensive technical expertise.
  • Customizable Visualizations
    The platform provides robust options for customizing data visualizations, enabling users to tailor maps to meet their specific needs and branding requirements.
  • Advanced Spatial Analysis
    CARTO includes advanced spatial analytics tools and capabilities, allowing for in-depth geographic analyses and visualizations.
  • Integration Capabilities
    CARTO offers integrations with various data sources and tools such as SQL, GIS, and BI platforms, enhancing its utility and flexibility.
  • Cloud-Based Platform
    Being a cloud-based platform, CARTO allows for easy access and collaboration from anywhere, without the need for local installations.
  • Scalability
    CARTO can handle large datasets, making it suitable for both small businesses and larger enterprises looking to conduct complex spatial data analysis.

Possible disadvantages of Carto

  • Cost
    CARTO's pricing can be high, especially for small businesses or individual users, potentially making it inaccessible for some.
  • Learning Curve
    While CARTO is user-friendly, some advanced features and capabilities may require a learning curve for users not already familiar with spatial data tools.
  • Limited Offline Access
    As a cloud-based platform, CARTO relies on an internet connection, making it less effective in areas with poor connectivity or for use cases requiring offline access.
  • Performance Issues
    Some users have reported occasional performance issues when working with very large datasets or complex visualizations.
  • Dependency on Third-Party Services
    CARTO's effectiveness can be dependent on third-party data services and integrations, which may have their own limitations or costs.

Analysis of Plotly

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Plotly is a strong choice for those looking to create dynamic and interactive data visualizations, thanks to its range of features and ease of integration with web technologies.

Why this product is good

  • Plotly is considered good because it offers a comprehensive suite of tools for creating interactive visualizations that can be used in web applications, reports, and dashboards. It supports many different types of plots, is easy to use for both beginners and experienced developers, and integrates well with popular programming languages like Python, R, and JavaScript.

Recommended for

    Plotly is recommended for data scientists, analysts, and developers who need to create interactive and visually appealing data visualizations. It's particularly useful for those who work with Python or R and want the ability to embed their visualizations in web applications or dashboards.

Analysis of Carto

Overall verdict

  • Carto (carto.com) is generally considered a good platform for geographic information system (GIS) and location intelligence services.

Why this product is good

  • Carto is known for its user-friendly interface and powerful analytics capabilities, which allow users to efficiently visualize and analyze geospatial data. It offers a range of features, such as data import, interactive map creation, and robust data analysis tools, which make it appealing for both beginners and advanced users.

Recommended for

  • Businesses seeking to leverage location data for strategic decision-making.
  • Data scientists and analysts who frequently work with geospatial data.
  • Urban planners and government agencies needing tools for spatial analysis.
  • Developers building location-based apps and services.

Plotly videos

Create Real-time Chart with Javascript | Plotly.js Tutorial

More videos:

  • Review - Introducing plotly.py 3.0
  • Review - Is Plotly The Better Matplotlib?
  • Tutorial - Plotly Tutorial 2021
  • Review - Data Visualization as The First and Last Mile of Data Science Plotly Express and Dash | SciPy 2021

Carto videos

CartoDB, asรญ es la empresa de referencia en visualizaciรณn de datos en mapas

More videos:

  • Review - Using Map layer wizard in CArtodb to create Heat and Intensity maps

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Plotly and Carto)
Data Visualization
100 100%
0% 0
Maps
0 0%
100% 100
Charting Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Mapping And GIS
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Plotly and Carto

Plotly Reviews

Best 8 Redash Alternatives in 2023 [In Depth Guide]
Plotly is specifically designed for companies who want to build and deploy analytic applications like dashboards using Python, Julia, or R without needing DevOps or Javascript developers.
Source: www.datapad.io
5 Best Python Libraries For Data Visualization in 2023
Plotly is a web-based data visualization toolkit that comes with unique functionalities such as dendrograms, 3D charts, and also contour plots, which is not very common in other libraries. It has a great API offering scatter plots, line charts, bar charts, error bars, box plots, and other visualizations. Plotly can even be accessed from a Python Notebook.
Top 8 Python Libraries for Data Visualization
Plotly is a free open-source graphing library that can be used to form data visualizations. Plotly (plotly.py) is built on top of the Plotly JavaScript library (plotly.js) and can be used to create web-based data visualizations that can be displayed in Jupyter notebooks or web applications using Dash or saved as individual HTML files. Plotly provides more than 40 unique...
5 top picks for JavaScript chart libraries
Plotly is a graphing library thatโ€™s available for various runtime environments, including the browser. It supports many kinds of charts and graphs that we can configure with a variety of options.

Carto Reviews

Top 7 ArcGIS Alternatives For Your GIS Needs
Cloud-Based: Being a cloud-based platform, you can access and use Carto from any location with an internet connection. Carto extends the analysis and visualization features available in Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, Databricks, and more. Powerful data visualization tools: Using Cartoโ€™s intuitive drag-and-drop interface, users can easily develop and automate data processing...
Source: nextbillion.ai
6 Best GIS Software 2024
Carto is a versatile cloud GIS platform designed to empower users with a rich set of tools for spatial analysis and data visualization. It offers an API for data creation, management, and analysis and supports the setup of dashboard-style interfaces. Carto has a library of diverse plugins, catering to specific tasks and operations, including integration with CRM systems.
Source: www.caliper.com
5 Best Web Mapping Platforms โ€“ The Battle of Web GIS
Carto specializes in putting analysis into production. Itโ€™s meant for those types of projects where you dig deep into the data. No development is needed to build spatial models driven by machine learning. Out-of-the-box solutions like site selection, territory planning, and vehicle routing tackle everyday challenges. But it can be a bit of a steep learning curve if you donโ€™t...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Plotly should be more popular than Carto. It has been mentiond 34 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.

Plotly mentions (34)

  • How to Analyze 47 Million Hacker News Posts: A Data Scientist's Dream Dataset Just Got Better
    Let's dive into some practical examples. First, you'll need to set up your environment with the right tools. I recommend using pandas for data manipulation and plotly for visualization. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Python for Data Visualization: Best Tools and Practices
    Plotly is perfect for interactive visualizations. You can create interactive charts and graphs that allow users to hover, click, and zoom in. Plotly is also great for web-based visuals, making it easy to share your findings online. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Generative AI Powered QnA & Visualization Chatbot
    Front End: A React application that leverages React-Chatbotify library to easily integrate a chatbot GUI. It also uses the Plotly library to display the charts/visualizations. The generative AI implementation and details are entirely abstracted from the front end. The front-end application depends on a single REST endpoint of the backend application. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Build a Stock Dashboard in less than 40 lines of Python code!๐Ÿค“
    In this tutorial, Mariya Sha will guide you through building a stock value dashboard using Taipy, Plotly, and a dataset from Kaggle. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Essential Deep Learning Checklist: Best Practices Unveiled
    How to Accomplish: Utilize visualization libraries like Matplotlib, Seaborn, or Plotly in Python to create histograms, scatter plots, and bar charts. For image data, use tools that visualize images alongside their labels to check for labeling accuracy. For structured data, correlation matrices and pair plots can be highly informative. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
View more

Carto mentions (10)

  • Show HN: Is Hormuz Open Yet?
    Looks like it's using leaflet + map tiles from https://carto.com/ I think Mapbox also provides a similar looking basemap style. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Kepler.gl
    They probably mean CARTO, formerly known as CartoDB. https://carto.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Spatial Search of Overture Maps Data Using Wherobots Cloud
    I first heard about Wherobots before attending this year's AWS re:Invent, when I was invited to this year's "Geo Party," which CARTO held at last year's AWS re:Invent. The invitation informed me that this year's Geo Party would be a joint event with Wherobots, and that's how I first heard about Wherobots. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    Carto.com โ€” Create maps and geospatial APIs from your and public data. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • OC: A guide to easily accessing OSM data with Google BigQuery
    I've written a guide to how to do this over at carto.com - this also includes a general guide to OSM including benefits and limitations, use cases and schema. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Plotly and Carto, you can also consider the following products

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.

Mapbox - An open source mapping platform for custom designed maps. Our APIs and SDKs are the building blocks to integrate location into any mobile or web app.

RAWGraphs - RAWGraphs is an open source app built with the goal of making the visualization of complex data...

ArcGIS - ArcGIS software is a data analysis, cloud-based mapping platform that allows users to customize maps and see real-time data ranging from logistics support to overall mapping analysis.

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.

OSGeo - QGIS is a desktop geographic information system, or GIS.