Best Charts to Show Discrete Data
Here, we will review discrete data graphs that help find similarities and differences between various categories of data and discuss their purposes and specifics.
But firstly, let’s sort out what a discrete data is.
What is discrete data?
Data is discrete if you can answer affirmatively on the following questions about it:
- Is it countable?
- Is it possible to divide the data into smaller parts? (i.e., to categorize it)
Discrete data can contain only a finite number of values. One of its notable properties is that, unlike continuous data, it can’t be measured, only counted.
Examples of discrete data: the number of players in a team, the number of planets in the Solar System.
Examples of non-discrete (continuous) data: height, weight, length, income, temperature.
The following charts work especially well for representing the discrete data:
Bar chart
The simplest and the most popular type of chart to show discrete data. It displays grouped data using rectangular bars with lengths that are proportional to the values. Bar charts are broadly used in marketing and finance.
Purpose
Use it to compare data points that are spread across categories with each other.
Pros
Makes data more readable if the categories have long names or if you have more than 10 categories.
Recommendation
Arrange bars on the chart in a logical ordering: ascending or descending one.
Examples and variations
- A single-series chart in which the values are compared inside one category
- This is an example of a clustered (grouped) bar chart. Use it for comparing multiple series inside the same category
Stacked bar chart
A stacked bar chart is composed of multiple bar series stacked horizontally one after the other. This modification of the bar chart makes it easier to track the variation in the individual values and their total value.
Purpose
Use it if you are interested in the proportional contributions either of categories to the total or of values within each category.
Pros
If designed wisely, this type of chart is the best option for comparing multiple categories by measuring the bar lengths.
Recommendation
Limit the chart to six-seven series, otherwise, a chart will be cluttered and difficult to interpret.
Example
Column chart
It’s constructed the same way as a bar chart but with a vertical axis for categories and a horizontal – for their values.
Purpose
It helps track changes in values over time by comparing total column lengths.
Pros
Highly readable when comparing values between a small number of categories (less than 12).
Recommendation
In case your dataset has negative values, use the column chart instead of the bar chart as the negative values are associated with a downward direction.
Examples and variations
- A single-series column chart:
- Clustered (grouped) column chart:
Stacked column chart
A stacked column chart is composed of multiple column data series stacked on top of one another.
Purpose
The stacked column chart is designed to compare totals and notice changes at the item level that are likely to have the most impact on changes in totals.
Pros
- Best for part-to-whole comparisons over time or across categories
- It helps to get an understanding of the integral picture in a quick glance without a focus on the details
Examples
Bullet chart
A bullet chart is a modification of a bar chart adapted by modern business needs. It can be displayed both vertical and horizontal. The chart consists of a target marker that represents the target value, an achievement bar that represents the current value of a metric and a comparison range.
Purpose
It was designed by Stephen Few for tracking progress toward a goal and measuring how far you are from the target.
Pros
It removes the necessity to use circular/linear gauges and meters on a dashboard.
Recommendation
Use custom background colors to encode the interpretation of values that lie within the comparison range.
Example
Usual meaning: the lighter the background, the better the result. However, in the case of “Expenses”, according to its negative sense, you can reverse the quantitative scale.
Do you want to be the first to test the grid with your data?
Spider chart
In this chart, each variable’s axis starts from the center point. Axes are arranged radially around it. The value is presented by an anchor on the axis. This data point is connected with the axis by a line. It’s the process of plotting a polygon. As you may notice, it reminds a spider web; hence the name. Equivalent names are ‘polar chart’, ‘web chat’, ‘radar chart’, and ‘star plot’.
Purpose
It’s designed for comparing multivariate data that has three or more quantitative variables.
Pros
Works best for comparing products by highlighting their strengths (features) and weaknesses.
Recommendations
- Use color coding and labels to distinguish multiple items when comparing them.
- Don’t be misled by the area of the polygons: it is increased by the squares of values. Thus, one may think that tiny changes are more important than they really are.
- Take into account that the area and the shape of the polygons may vary significantly depending on the position of axes.
Examples
Summary
All of these chart types can be integrated with WebDataRocks to create interactive reports, dashboards, and pivot table visualizations for business analytics.
We truly hope this overview will help you decide which charts are best suited to your data and give you a general idea of how to compare discrete groups graphically.
Stay tuned for further updates!
What’s next?
- Power of Data Visualization and Charts
- Charts for Comparison Over Time
- How to Choose Charts to Show Data Composition
- Best Charts to Show Correlation
- Best Charts to Show Data Distribution
- How to use WebDataRocks Pivot Table with Google Charts
Demos
Have you already received gifts from your dearest ones? So, guess what? WebDataRocks prepared a present for you, too. We’ve mentioned already that our pivot table can be used by anyone, but have you ever thought that even Santa can use WebDataRocks?
We think that our pivot table can be a really convenient way to store and process all the children’s letters.
Didn’t expect that? However, today we want to show you how to do it yourself.
Step 1: Adding WebDataRocks to the Page
First, let’s include WebDataRocks styles and scripts in our HTML:
<link href="https://cdn.webdatarocks.com/latest/theme/stripedteal/webdatarocks.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script src="https://cdn.webdatarocks.com/latest/webdatarocks.toolbar.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.webdatarocks.com/latest/webdatarocks.js"></script>
Step 2: Initializing the Pivot Table
Now, let’s bring the pivot table to life, where each letter will be shown as a single row. Probably, it will be quite convenient for Santa to ensure that no present for a child is forgotten.
var pivot = new WebDataRocks({
container: "wdr-component",
customizeCell: customizeCellFunction,
width: "100%",
height: "100%",
report: {
dataSource: {
type: "json",
data: getData()
},
slice: {
rows: [
{ uniqueName: "name" },
{ uniqueName: "city" },
{ uniqueName: "date" },
{ uniqueName: "gifts" },
{ uniqueName: "letter" }
]
},
options: {
grid: {
type: "flat",
showTotals: "off",
showGrandTotals: "off"
},
datePattern: "MMMM d, yyyy",
showAggregationLabels: false
}
}
});
Step 3: Replacing Long Letters with a Button
But here’s a tiny problem: in our dataset, the text of letters is too long to display, so let’s replace it with a button, clicking on which we will see the whole text in a convenient format. To achieve it, just add a customizeCellFunction:
function customizeCellFunction(cell, data) {
if (
data &&
data.type === "value" &&
data.hierarchy &&
data.hierarchy.uniqueName === "letter"
) {
const escapedLabel = data.label
.replace(/\n/g, "\\n")
.replace(/'/g, "\\'")
.replace(/"/g, '\\"');
cell.addClass("letter-cell");
cell.text = `
<button class="letter-btn" onclick="openLetter('${escapedLabel}')">
View Letter
</button>
`;
}
}
And add this function to customizeCell in our pivot table component:
var pivot = new WebDataRocks({
container: "wdr-component",
customizeCell: customizeCellFunction,
…
)}
And another functions for opening our letter in a new window and closing it:
function openLetter(letterContent) {
const unescapedContent = letterContent
.replace(/\\n/g, "\n")
.replace(/\\'/g, "'")
.replace(/\\"/g, '"');
document.getElementById("letterContent").textContent = unescapedContent;
document.getElementById("letterModal").style.display = "block";
}
function closeLetter() {
document.getElementById("letterModal").style.display = "none";
}
Step 4: Styling
Now, let’s create an actual Christmas atmosphere magic using customization.
Step 4.1: Choosing a Theme for the Pivot Table
Before creating custom styling, we’ll apply the built-in Striped-Teal theme:
<link href="https://cdn.webdatarocks.com/latest/theme/stripedteal/webdatarocks.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
Moreover, you can choose from our eight built-in themes to quickly change the appearance of the pivot table.
Step 4.2: Styling the Letter Pop-up
Next, let’s focus on how the letter itself is displayed in a pop-up window:
#letterModal {
display: none;
position: fixed;
inset: 0;
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
z-index: 999;
}
#letterModalContent {
background: #ffffff;
max-width: 600px;
margin: 10% auto;
padding: 24px;
border-radius: 12px;
box-shadow: 0 10px 30px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
}
#letterContent {
white-space: pre-wrap;
line-height: 1.5;
}
Step 4.3: Styling the Background of The Dashboard
As a final touch, let’s add even more holiday vibes in our background by adding a soft gradient with some present emojis:
body {
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #0f4c75, #3282b8, #0f4c75);
background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='40' height='40' viewBox='0 0 40 40'%3E%3Ctext x='20' y='25' font-size='20' text-anchor='middle' opacity='0.1'%3E🎁%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E");
background-repeat: repeat;
background-size: 40px 40px;
background-attachment: fixed;
font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif;
margin: 0;
padding: 20px;
min-height: 100vh;
}
And that was it, our winter festive demo is ready for Santa’s use to ensure that all presents will be delivered this year. Hopefully, this example gives you a few ideas on how you can experiment with WebDataRocks in your own projects, no matter how festive they are.
Okay, we’re being honest — we love all our demos! But we did put together a list of the Top 6 for you today. They’re a perfect way to explore our features, discover how they can be used in different ways, and experience the magic of customization.
Let’s take a look at them together!
Stranger Things Episode Rating
Probably the best example to demonstrate that your pivot table can be customized precisely as you want. Here, we’ve used everyone’s familiar series style, “Stranger Things”. And not only colors and fonts, but we went much further by creating an “upside-down world” effect. You can enter this mysterious and spooky world by simply clicking one button: the demo changes completely and appears with a spotlight effect.
By the way, in this demo specifically for the pivot table, we’ve used our predefined Striped-Teal theme (we have seven more). It can be achieved by easily adding this code snippet:
<link id="wdr-theme" href="https://cdn.webdatarocks.com/latest/theme/stripedteal/webdatarocks.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
Nutrition Facts for McDonald’s Menu
Okay, but let’s come back to reality. Our next demo is about the worldwide popular fast-food restaurant McDonald’s, and more specifically, the nutritional values of its menu items. And now it is full of bright colors, which we all associate with this cafe. To make it even more obvious, we added burger emojis in the background. Must admit, looks quite tasty.
body {
font-family: "Quicksand", serif;
height: 100vh;
margin: 20px;
background: #ffd700;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
align-items: center;
background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='32' height='32'><text x='0' y='24' font-size='24'>🍔</text></svg>");
background-repeat: repeat;
background-size: 64px 64px;
}
Christmas Sales
The Christmas atmosphere is already in the air. Have you prepared presents already? What about packing cells of your pivot as Christmas gifts? Easy to achieve with WebDataRocks! Just a few lines of code, and your dashboard is also ready for the winter holidays.
pivot.on("cellclick", (cell) => {
if (cell.columnIndex === 3) {
// Update visibleNumber only for column 3
visibleNumber.rowIndex = cell.rowIndex;
visibleNumber.columnIndex = cell.columnIndex;
pivot.refresh(); // Refresh to apply customization
}
});
Pumpkin WebDataRocks and Highcharts
As you guessed, our customization can go much further; for example, you can style the Toolbar! Add/delete buttons, change icons, or do whatever you want. In our pumpkin demo, you can notice spooky buttons. To apply it to your own project, just write these code snippet:
function customizeToolbar(toolbar) {
var tabs = toolbar.getTabs();
toolbar.getTabs = function () {
for (let i = 0; i < tabs.length; i++) {
switch (i % 4) {
case 0:
tabs[
i
].icon = `<img width=30 height=30 src="https://cdn-icons-png.flaticon.com/512/6433/6433146.png"/>`;
break;
case 1:
tabs[
i
].icon = `<img width=30 height=30 src="https://cdn-icons-png.flaticon.com/512/3330/3330533.png "/>`;
break;
...
}
}
return tabs;
};
}
But not only is the Toolbar special in this demo. We want to remind you that WebDataRocks can integrate with many charting libraries, and here you can see an example of its interaction with Highcharts
function createAreaChart() {
pivot.highcharts.getData(
{
type: "area",
slice: {
rows: [
{
uniqueName: "Date.Month"
}
],
columns: [
{
uniqueName: "Measures"
}
],
measures: [
{
uniqueName: "Price",
aggregation: "average"
}
]
}
},
drawAreaChart,
drawAreaChart
);
}
WebDataRocks Pivot Table with Google Charts Map
So, let’s continue the topic of integrations with charts. This demo perfectly demonstrates how a wide diversity of charts can be applied to your data visualization. Your structured table data can be displayed even as a world map with Google Charts Map!
WebDataRocks integrates with Google Charts through a connector that sends aggregated pivot data directly into any chart you choose. Once both components are loaded, the pivot prepares the data, the connector formats it, and Google Charts instantly turns it into a visual. All you really do is place both components on the page, load the connector, and call a function to draw the chart.
<script src="https://cdn.webdatarocks.com/latest/webdatarocks.googlecharts.js"></script> <script src="https://www.gstatic.com/charts/loader.js"></script>
And more about any chart integrations with WebDataRocks, you can read in our “Available Tutorials” page.
Analytical Sport Dashboard: Y2K Style
Not only for serious work projects, but WebDataRocks can also be used for personal purposes. Plan your daily routine, track habits, manage budgets, or organize any kind of personal data with the same clarity you use at work. This Analytical Sport Dashboard demo perfectly shows how flexible and insightful your personal analytics can become.
These demos are just a glimpse of what’s possible. WebDataRocks can become anything: from a spooky scene to a tasty fast-food board or even a Christmas gift grid. Try out these examples and have fun creating your own unique dashboards!
What else to read?
- Trick or Pivot! Interactive Demos on this Halloween
- Turn Your Data Into a Halloween Treat with WebDataRocks
Spooky atmosphere is everywhere in the air, and WebDataRocks isn’t staying behind!
Our pivot grid is highly flexible, allowing you to easily change its look and style to suit any theme or event. Since it’s Halloween, we want to show you a few fun examples to demonstrate you features for customizing your reports and making them more exciting!
So, let’s start!
Rating of Candies with WebDataRocks Pivot Grid
Did you know that Halloween 2025 is expected to be the most expensive one? Total spending on candy is anticipated to reach $3.9 billion! It’s evident that candies are an essential part of this holiday. But which sweets do people love the most, and which are likely to be left at the bottom of buckets?
All this info you can find in our demo:
Every candy rating is colored based on how much people love (or don’t love) it:
Top-rated treats are colored orange, and lower-rated ones are yellow.
We easily achieve this using our conditional formatting. You can set it up using our toolbar, or this snippet of code:
conditions: [
{
formula: "#value >= 4",
format: {
backgroundColor: "#ff9933",
color: "#000000"
}
},
{
formula: "#value <= 2",
format: {
backgroundColor: "#ffcd55",
color: "#000000"
}
}
]
Pumpkin WebDataRocks and Highcharts
Okay, now what first comes to your mind when you hear “Halloween”? Most likely it’s pumpkins. They’ve become a defining symbol of this holiday, but have you ever considered which state has the most expensive ones and how their prices fluctuate throughout the entire Halloween season?
This demo will help you find out! You can see how they vary by color, and thanks to Highcharts, our dashboard has become more interactive and easier to use for valuable insights.
Look at these toolbar icons! Would you also like to customize your own to add a festive atmosphere?
This can be done using the beforetoolbarcreated property in WebDataRocks:
var pivot = new WebDataRocks({
container: "#wdr-component",
toolbar: true,
beforetoolbarcreated: customizeToolbar,
height: 500,
…
});
function customizeToolbar(toolbar) {
const tabs = toolbar.getTabs();
toolbar.getTabs = function () {
for (let i = 0; i < tabs.length; i++) {
switch (i % 4) {
case 0:
tabs[i].icon = `<img width=30 height=30 src="https://cdn-icons-png.flaticon.com/512/6433/6433146.png"/>`;
break;
case 1:
tabs[i].icon = `<img width=30 height=30 src="https://cdn-icons-png.flaticon.com/512/3330/3330533.png"/>`;
break;
case 2:
tabs[i].icon = `<img width=30 height=30 src="https://cdn-icons-png.flaticon.com/512/8490/8490308.png"/>`;
break;
case 3:
tabs[i].icon = `<img width=30 height=30 src="https://cdn-icons-png.flaticon.com/512/3277/3277415.png"/>`;
break;
}
}
return tabs;
};
}
If you want to style your toolbar even further, we recommend reading our Toolbar documentation to explore all the possibilities.
Halloween Time with WebDataRocks
Still not enough spooky atmosphere? Horror movies are gonna fix it!
Advanced Television mentions that nearly 3 in 5 people worldwide (59%) are likely to pick a horror movie or show over other genres during the autumn season. Horror is especially popular in Mexico (76%), Spain (71%), and the US (61%).
In our demo, you can see both movie lengths and ratings, or explore whether longer movies receive better ratings or if shorter ones are more popular.
The thing is that the Runtime column is stored as seconds in the dataset, but WebDataRocks automatically converts it into the familiar HH:MM:SS format. This makes it much easier to work with durations and compare movie lengths, since everyone is used to reading time this way.
function getData() {
return [
{
"Movie Title": {
caption: "Movie Title",
type: "string"
},
"Movie Year": {
caption: "Movie Year",
type: "string"
},
Runtime: {
caption: "Runtime",
type: "time"
…
},Now it’s much easier to choose what to watch this Halloween movie night!
So we can confidently say that you’re ready to dive into your own Halloween dashboards and uncover all the seasonal insights. You can customize it for any needs (more interactive pivot table demos you can find on our webpage), and we hope these examples were helpful and brought you some festive mood!
What else to read?
Storytelling with data is a must-have 21st-century skill. Whether you are a marketer, a business analyst, or a data scientist, you will need to be able to communicate your findings to others in a simple and concise way. Data visualization is an effective tool that can help you with your data.
To turn raw data into insights, it is essential to acquire skills and master techniques for working effectively with data. That’s where data visualization blogs come in handy.
Data visualization blogs are a great resource for learning about data visualization techniques and best practices. They can help you to get a better understanding of your data, to come up with new ideas for data visualizations, and to improve your storytelling skills.
We have compiled a list of excellent blogs that we believe will help you improve your storytelling-based data visualization skills. We hope that this article will help you to find the data visualization blogs that are right for you.
Information is beautiful
Information is Beautiful is a blog by David McCandless, known for its visually stunning and informative data visualizations. As soon as you are taken to its main page, you may become struck by rich and engaging visualizations. The blog’s mission is to show how to present data in captivating graphics and make the numbers speak loudly. The visualizations provided offer insightful answers to a wide range of pertinent questions spanning demographics, politics, economics, and more.
For example, check out interactive infographics about Hollywood films and see it with your own eyes.
Flowing Data
Flowing Data is an exploration of the impact of data on our everyday lives. Founded by statistician Nathan Yau. This blog offers a fresh perspective on data visualization, combining data, art, and storytelling, and covers a variety of topics.
FlowingData is a veritable paradise for R programmers and statisticians. Besides, it contains versatile content for all tastes and purposes.
Here, you not only gain a deeper understanding of how data shapes our daily lives, but also learn how to create visualizations like an expert (mostly in R). We highly recommend paying attention to the guides which focus on specific topics and courses which explain in a step-by-step manner how to excel at data visualization in R.
Cool Infographics
Cool Infographics is a blog that showcases the best infographics from the web. It is run by Randy Krum, a data visualization expert. The blog explores various topics, such as science, technology, business, and social issues. It also offers helpful articles on how to create and use infographics effectively.
This blog is a valuable resource worth following if you’re fascinated by infographics.
DataQuest Blog
The DataQuest Blog is a treasure trove of up-to-date articles dedicated to data science and career paths. You can get here the essential knowledge required to become a skilled data scientist, reveal new ways of working with data and discover scholarships. Whether you are a Python or R programmer, you’ll find something beneficial for yourself. At your service, there are career tips that help sharpen both technical and soft skills, student stories and courses which are divided into missions for convenience – such a breaking a big task into smaller ones help you feel less overwhelmed with studying new things.
The blog gives you the feeling that the content is created with the care of learning experience and keeping students motivated and deeply engaged in what they are studying.
Here you have an opportunity to learn the building concepts of data science and choose your own path you want to excel at.
Gitconnected
One more valuable source for staying up-to-date with the latest news and trends in software development and technologies. Here, you can explore insightful articles that review the functionalities of different frameworks, find great tutorials and many other educational materials While this website not focused on data visualization, it still serves as a valuable source of practical knowledge that you can apply to your data visualization projects.
In addition, Gitconnected has a blog – the LevelUP Coding. That is a great resource for learning about the features, advantages, and disadvantages of different JavaScript data visualization libraries. You can use this information to choose the library that best suits your data visualization project needs. Do you want to be the first to test the grid with your data?
The Economist: Graphic detail
The Economist: Graphic Detail is a blog that showcases the best of data journalism and data storytelling from The Economist magazine. It is run by the magazine’s talented graphics team, who create high-quality infographics and data visualizations on various topics, such as economics, business, politics, and social issues. The blog is updated every weekday and features daily charts that reflect the expertise and interests of the journalists. If you are interested in data-driven insights and compelling visuals, The Economist: Graphic Detail is a blog worth following.
Tableau Blog
The Tableau Public Blog is a must-follow resource for anyone using Tableau for data visualization. It is a blog that teaches you how to use Tableau for data visualization. It has tutorials, case studies, and tips from Tableau experts around the world. Here you’ll find not only product updates, news, and useful tips, but also lets you see’ll how other data analysts use data to make a difference. Here you can dive into experiences of like-minded people from all over the world, learn about the social impact of data and become motivated to start new data visualization projects.
Data Visualization Communities on Reddit
Blogs are great for structured, expert advice, but sometimes, the best way to learn is by actually talking to other people who are figuring things out too. That’s when Reddit comes in. It’s a great place where you can find communities to share projects, ask questions, discuss tools, get inspired, and more.
Subreddits for Data Visualization
r/dataisbeautiful
This is probably the first subreddit you’ll come across. r/dataisbeautiful is dedicated to showcasing polished and interesting visualizations on a wide range of topics, from global economics to pop culture trends. It’s a goldmine for inspiration and a good place to see what types of visuals catch people’s attention and make complex data easy to grasp.
r/dataviz
While r/dataisbeautiful is mostly about finished projects, r/dataviz is where the behind-the-scenes conversations happen. Here, people talk about how to build visualizations, which tools to use, what makes a chart misleading or effective, and so on.
r/visualization
This one leans a bit more toward theory and research. This subreddit explores the why behind effective visual communication, things like perception, cognition, and design principles. It’s a good place if you’re curious about the science behind what makes visualizations work (or fail), or if you enjoy discovering new open-source tools and tutorials.
Final words
We hope you enjoyed this article and found some data visualization blogs that suit your interests and needs. These blogs are excellent sources of inspiration, learning, and insight for anyone who wants to create engaging and effective data visualization. They show you how to use data visualization tools, techniques, and best practices to communicate your data clearly and persuasively.
We hope that these blogs will inspire you to explore different data visualization methods and styles. Data visualization is a powerful way to communicate your business data effectively. You can also check out this article with the resources for developers to read, which can help you improve and polish your skills in data visualization and other areas.
So, don’t hesitate and start your data visualization adventure today!
Are you ready for Halloween?
In celebration of this spooky holiday, we’ve decided to pick top WebDataRocks samples dedicated to Halloween. Not only you’ll play with fun demos but also learn how to create analytical reports based on any kind of data.
Let’s start!
A dashboard for analysis of pumpkin prices
See the Pen Halloween demo with WebDataRocks and Highcharts: pumpkin prices analysis by WebDataRocks (@webdatarocks) on CodePen.
More than 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkin are grown in the US each year. What are their prices? In this demo, you’ll see how to analyze the prices of pumpkins that are grown in different cities of the US and varied by size, color, package, and grade. You may even notice the trends in how the prices change depending on the season.
The only tools you need to create such an interactive dashboard are WebDataRocks and Highcharts – JavaScript libraries for reporting and data visualization. With WebDataRocks, you can pre-process data before further visualization. Simply load it into the pivot, arrange the fields on the grid, aggregate the data, sort it and highlight important cells. With Highcharts, you can build custom charts based on the summarized data retrieved from WebDataRocks Pivot.
The entire process is as simple as a pumpkin pie – you can find all the instructions in the guide and learn how to make the pivot table and charts work together swiftly.
As a result, you get a ready-to-use tool for generating insightful reports in PDF, HTML, or Excel.
Analysis of IMDB Horror Movie Dataset with WebDataRocks and FusionCharts
See the Pen WebDataRocks: Analysis of IMDB Horror Movie Dataset by WebDataRocks (@webdatarocks) on CodePen.
What’s your favorite way to celebrate Halloween? If you’re searching for a creepy movie to watch on All Hallows Eve – great news! We did it for you!
The next demo is built using WebDataRocks and FusionCharts. With it, you’ll find the movies with the highest rankings grouped by genres and release dates.
The last but not least – the dashboard is dark-themed, meaning you can apply dark styles both to WebDataRocks and FusionCharts.
What else can match the mood of Halloween if not the black color?
Candy Power Ranking Analysis with WebDataRocks Pivot
See the Pen WebDataRocks Pivot: Analysis of Candy Power Ranking by WebDataRocks (@webdatarocks) on CodePen.
Not a big fan of pumpkins and horror movies? Looking forward to Halloween just for the sake of Halloween candies?
If you have a sweet tooth, this demo is for you.
With the Candy Power Ranking data set and WebDataRocks Pivot, you’ll discover the most and the least popular Halloween candies, as well as the sweetest and the most expensive ones. Try rearranging the report’s fields to group the candies by constituents and extract new insights from the data.
Explore Pivot Table’s features
If you’d like to take a closer look at the out-of-the-box features of WebDataRocks Pivot, you are welcome to see our comprehensive UI guide that covers every piece of functionality available to the end-users.
If you are more interested in how to configure the reporting tool with code, check out our API reference and get hands-on experience with demos on CodePen.
References
All the demos mentioned in the blog post are based on the data from Kaggle.
Feel free to download the full data sets, connect them to the pivot table and come up with your own way of the report’s layout. Take the full advantage of filtering, aggregating, sorting, drag-and-drop, and drill-down features – they are designed exactly for bringing your reporting to new heights.
What else to read?
As you may have already noticed, we love participating in CodePen Challenges! This time, the topic was “food”, so we decided to use a dataset that is familiar to everyone — McDonald’s menu items. You can find McDonald’s almost everywhere, and their burgers? Loved by lots of people. We thought it’d be fun to turn their menu data into an insightful visual report.
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Data Warehouse is a single repository to store all the data from an organization’s databases and related sources in one place. All the forms of structured and unstructured data in different formats and visualizations are extracted from the organization and transformed. Depending upon an organization’s approach, data could be transformed before or after loading into the Warehouse.
Besides acting as a single source of truth for your organization, Data Warehouse services offer storing large amounts of data, finding correlation patterns, and recognition for business decision-making. It effectively helps in data analytics, visualizations, and reporting.
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This is a hyper-competitive era for mobile app development as startups and well-established enterprises are looking to transform their business digitally. Building human-centric custom mobile apps provides them with the ability to offer their services more creatively and conveniently.
Consequently, companies that want to enhance their digital focus with a data-driven app strategy hire a reliable mobile app development company. Their expertise enables the digital transformation of complex and conventional businesses to achieve quantifiable success and ROI.
Do you have a growth-accelerating app idea that you want to convert into a full-functioning mobile application? Read this blog to learn the comprehensive guide on mobile app development, including its process, trends, costs, etc.
What Does it Mean by Mobile App Development?
A mobile application or app is software built to run on a smartphone or tablet. The process of making this software for a mobile app, web app, online app, iPhone app, smartphone app, or hand-held device is called mobile app development.
Based on the nature of the application, this software can be preinstalled on the device (utility app), downloaded from the App Store/Play Store, or accessed via a mobile web browser.
Quality of the app development process and speed-to-market are critical for business success when the competition is at an all-time high. Therefore, the Agile development methodology is widely accepted for mobile app development due to its wide range of benefits, such as pragmatic and comprehensive processes, efficiency, improved quality, adaptability, flexibility, etc.
Mobile App Development: A Market Overview
The number of mobile applications is increasing with every passing year. With 1.8 million apps available on the App Store and 3.7 million Android apps on the Google Play Store, mobile apps are becoming a lucrative business opportunity.
In terms of revenue, Apple iOS is winning the race with $83 billion in revenue generated in 2022 and is expected to generate $125 billion by the end of 2027. Hence, if you are an entrepreneur or own a startup, you can look for a business opportunity in the mobile app market. Moreover, an enterprise can also build an app to expand its revenue stream or benefit from an increased audience.
When we talk about the monetization strategy, premium apps, in-app purchases, and subscriptions are turning out to be some of the most revenue-generating streams. It is forecasted that $233 billion of app spending can be seen by the end of 2026 based on the given monetization methods. Therefore, you must carefully consider your strategy to generate incremental value from your mobile apps.
The number of subscriptions for smartphone mobile networks is increasing rapidly. It is expected to reach 7.7 billion by 2028 when countries like China, India, and the United States are at the top. This states why businesses focus on mobile app development to leverage an extended customer base. Given the stats, it is no wonder mobile apps have such a profound impact on businesses as well as our daily lives.
Top Mobile App Categories Popular in the Market
It is possible that some of you have already come up with a basic idea or concept. Those who are starting from scratch may have no idea where to begin. Competitive analysis is one of the crucial parts of building a successful mobile app. You can take inspiration from the various apps available in the market to find out the features integrated, technology used, monetization methods, etc.
Get inspired by the best mobile app ideas given below:
| App Category | Essential Features and Popular App Examples |
| eLearning App for the EdTech Industry |
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| On-demand Grocery Delivery App |
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| eCommerce Mobile App |
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| On-demand Food Delivery App |
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| Courier Delivery App |
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| Healthcare and Fitness App |
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| Mental Health and Wellness App |
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| Social Media App |
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| Cab/Taxi Booking App |
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| Online Video Streaming App |
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| Digital Wallet App |
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Types of Mobile App Development
The types of mobile app development can be typically divided into 3 categories:
- Native App Development: Generally divided into iOS and Android App Development, where the app is built for both mobile platforms separately using their Native app development technologies.
- Hybrid/Cross-platform App Development: Here, the app is built using cross-platform app development frameworks like React Native, Flutter, Ionic, etc. Hybrid apps are also developed using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Web App Development: Web applications are accessed using mobile web browsers. These types of applications are famous, too, because they ensure that the application developed for the web offers a fast and responsive experience to mobile users.
Step-by-Step Guide to Mobile App Development
Remember that mobile app development is an iterative process, meaning you can move from one or two steps back and forth to generate a quality result.
Here are the steps to build a mobile app:
| Planning | This is the first phase of the app development, which includes requirement gathering. |
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| Designing | In this step, building the UI/UX design of the app is included. |
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| Development | This is the actual building part of the app development process, including coding. |
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| Testing | Here, QA engineers will be checking the quality and performance of the application. |
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| Deployment | After the app is developed and tested, it will be deployed on the App Store/ Play Store or the client-server as per their request. |
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Refine the Mobile App Idea With MVP Development
Do you have an app idea but don’t know whether it will succeed in the market? What if you can launch it in the market with less budget to gauge the response from potential audience or target users?
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development is an approach to building a software product or, in this case, a mobile app with essential features that represent your core idea or functionalities. This is a launch-ready version of the app; consider it as the first step towards ensuring the success of a mobile app.
Once you get a positive response from the audience and gain enough traction, you can start with the scaling of the application. It minimizes the risk and expenditure before the full-fledged mobile application development.
Tech Stack Used in Mobile App Development
Here are the frameworks, platforms, and technologies used in building mobile applications.
| Android App Development | Swift, Java |
| iOS App Development | Objective-C, Swift |
| Hybrid App Development Framework | React Native, Flutter, Ionic |
| App SDK | Xcode, Android Studio |
| UI Frameworks | UIKit (iOS), Android XML Layouts (Android) |
| Server-side Languages | Node.js, Python, Ruby, Java, etc. |
| Databases | MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL |
| Payment Gateway Integration | Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, and Square |
| Cloud Services | Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud |
| Notifications and Messages | Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), Apple Push Notification Service (APNs), In-App Messaging (real-time chat), Firebase Realtime, Socket.io |
| GPS Tracking | Core Location (iOS), Google Location Services (Android), Google Maps API |
Top Mobile App Development Service Providers
Here are the top companies providing mobile app development services:
- Successive Digital
It is a CMMI-3 certified next-gen digital solutions provider with over a decade of experience. With their domain expertise on various industry verticals, cloud consulting services, and commitment to delivering value-driven solutions, you can build scalable mobile apps.
- Clutch Ratings: 4.9 (77 Reviews)
- Hourly Rate: $25 – $49 / hr
- Number of Employees: 1,000 – 9,999
- Founded: 2012
- Naked Development
It is one of the most creative app development agencies you can find to hand over your app development project. You can get end-to-end app development solutions from them, including planning, designing, development, testing, and maintenance.
- Clutch Ratings: 4.9 (28 Reviews)
- Hourly Rate: $100 – $149 / hr
- Number of Employees: 10 – 49
- Founded: 2018
- Mercury Development
One of the oldest companies on our list is Mercury Development, making it a reliable source for app development services. From startups to enterprises, it provides its services catering to the needs of a wide variety of business sizes.
- Clutch Ratings: 5.0 (25 Reviews)
- Hourly Rate: $50 – $99 / hr
- Number of Employees: 50 – 249
- Founded: 1999
- CodigoDelSur
It is one of the best-known mobile app development companies with more than 15 years of experience. Moreover, this company has won many awards and accreditations for their exceptional services.
- Clutch Ratings: 4.8 (40 Reviews)
- Hourly Rate: $50 – $99 / hr
- Number of Employees: 50 – 249
- Founded: 2007
- Utility
This specialized company has a team of experienced and skilled professionals crafting custom mobile and web applications. They have experience working with various industry sectors, creating successful applications catering to users’ needs.
- Clutch Ratings: 4.8 (25 reviews)
- Hourly Rate: $100 – $149 / hr
- Number of Employees: 50 – 249
- Founded: 2013
What is the Total Cost of Building a Mobile App?
When you select an app idea and decide to build it, your next concern must be how much mobile app development costs. The total cost of developing a mobile app depends on its complexity— a simple app with basic functionality can cost you anywhere from 30,000 to $60,000. When you increase the complexity, the cost can range anywhere between $60,000 and $150,000. However, an advanced mobile app with a high level of complexity, features, API integration, and ample storage can cost you as much as $300,000 or more.
Other factors influence the mobile app development cost, such as app category, platform selection, app design, app security, testing cost, selected features and functionality, the cost of hiring mobile app developers, and more. Therefore, it is challenging to find out the exact cost of mobile app development. To give you an idea, the average cost of building a mobile app can range from $40,000 to $300,000 (or more as per the complexity).
How to Generate Revenue With Mobile Apps
As a business owner, you must be looking to make it a source of income. Fortunately, there are many methods to generate revenue through your mobile app, and you can select any one of them or use a combination of two or more methods.
- Freemium: This model allows your users to access and utilize your application for free while keeping the selected features paid.
- Subscription Model: You can set the price of the paid subscription tiers with various features and functionalities for your user.
- In-app Purchases: In this type of model, you offer certain services or content to users for a set amount of price. This is one of the widely used revenue models combined with other ones.
- Advertisements: This is a simple trick of monetizing your application by approving ads in your application. However, your application must already be popular and have a set customer base to ensure this revenue stream works for your business.
- Affiliate Marketing: You can offer some affiliate links inside your application via advertisements to earn money. The benefit of this model is that you can negotiate with the brand you are affiliated with on how much commission you want.
- Collaboration With Brands: This model requires you to have marketing skills, as you have to be careful with brand positioning. You can build an app in collaboration with some brands or collaborate with them if you find your application niche.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to unpack regarding mobile app development, including budget, goals, timeline, technical skills, and app complexity. Moreover, it is essential to partner with a reliable and experienced company that you can trust to get custom mobile app development services. Ensure the company you hire has a proven track record of delivering best-in-class mobile apps for a wide range of industry verticals. Moreover, make sure to judge them based on competitive pricing, quality assurance, and maintenance services that can fulfill all your mobile app development needs.
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- Best Mobile App Development Tools for iOS & Android
- Mobile App Frameworks That Define Business Success in 2021
- What is the difference between React.js and React Native?
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Data is one of the core components of every business. Data helps to improve the efficiency in problem solving, decision making, generating an ability to function proactively, and focus on sustainability. It is the backbone of customer service, marketing, sales, accounting, etc. Earlier, businesses managed with just static data from spreadsheets and other documents to analyze their performance and suggest relevant improvements. With the innovative technologies like AI, analytics etc, businesses can now transform the static data and use them to optimize customer experiences.
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