In many situations, presenting data in an engaging format that’s easy to digest can offer many benefits. Graphical widgets for WordPress let you transform raw numbers and statistics into a visual and informative display that appeals. Most often, this will come in the form of a plugin, which lets you work with that data within WordPress.

In this post, we’ll explore graphical widgets for WordPress, including the different types you can use, the situations you’d use them, and plenty more. In the second half of the article, we’ll round up some plugins that can help you implement graphical widgets and then show you how to use one for your own needs.

Understanding graphical widgets in WordPress

Websites (including those that use WordPress) use two types of widgets: graphical and text-based. Typical text widgets can be captivating, but graphical widgets will display information in a more engaging format.

A line graph showing data for cats and two blanket types over time periods A through N. The cat line peaks at around 8 units in period F before declining, while the blanket lines remain low and steady throughout.
A graphical widget of a line chart on the front end of a website.

These widgets will have dynamic components that use different visual representations—such as charts, graphs, maps, and progress bars—to convey complex information at a glance. This can help you communicate with your readers better, which in turn helps them comprehend and interpret your data quickly. It could also improve your user engagement and retention.

While there are different ways to present your data, graphical widgets have a few elements in common:

  • They will display data in a dynamic way.
  • You’ll be able to offer interactive elements to help users ‘dig into’ your data.
  • Regardless of your site’s design, you’ll be able to customize your widgets to match.
  • There are lots of cases where you could offer real-time updates to the data you present.

However, graphical widgets are not all about adding visual flair to your site. They’re a big part of visualizing and interacting with your raw data.

Why graphical widgets can help your on-site data presentation

There are plenty of benefits to using graphics to convey a message. On the whole, visual content is big business and super important to online marketing.

For you and your data, there are lots of other positives to note:

  • Enhanced data visualization. Complex datasets can be more accessible, letting users grasp trends and patterns quickly. They can also simplify how you deliver information by using versatile, adaptable, and digestible visual formats.
  • Improved user engagement. Interactive elements give users the opportunity to bolster their time on-site and overall engagement metrics.
  • Professional aesthetics. If you get the design right, widgets can elevate your site’s visual appeal. This polished and professional look can give your data presentation an edge.

Visual information often has the edge over text in any field, which means you can present key data points in a way that makes them ‘stick.’ As such, using them in the right way on your site is a top priority.

When to use graphical widgets on your WordPress website

Too much of a good thing will become repetitive and saturating. This means you’ll want to use graphical widgets with care and attention.

The good news is there are plenty of situations where you can use graphical widgets. The clearest time to break out the charts is when you need to simplify complex concepts for your readership. However, there are other niche cases:

  • Presenting complex data sets, where you need to showcase large amounts of data or intricate relationships between data points.
  • Highlighting trends over time and displaying changes or patterns in data across different time periods. You could even represent goals, milestones, or growth metrics.
  • Comparing multiple variables to illustrate the relationships or differences between various data categories.
  • Showcasing geographic data for specific locations or where your data requires spatial context.

You might even use graphical widgets where you need user interaction, such as for dynamic reports or other dashboards. The key is to decide whether displaying your data visually will enhance its understanding and engagement over other approaches.

In short, if the visual format provides value and clarity to your data, it’s likely going to be a good fit for a graphical widget.

The different types of graphical widgets for WordPress

Data visualization itself comes in various forms, and each display type will suit different data and presentation needs. We won’t go into the nuts and bolts of each way you can present your data here, although there are a few typical and standout options to note.

Typical charts and graphs such as bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, and area graphs are always a good shout for data visualization. These are staples of the approach:

The Wikipedia statistics dashboard shows total page views over the last two years. A search bar at the top lets users explore topics or browse questions. The main content displays a bar graph with green bars representing monthly page view data. Sidebar options include various metrics and filters. The total views indicated is 265 billion.
The Wikipedia site showing a bar chart for its total page views metric.

Scatter plots are a little more complex but will let you show the relationship between two variables:

A scatter plot graph showing box office report data for May, June, and July 2021. The x-axis ranges from 0 to 12, while the y-axis ranges from 0 to 20. Colored dots represent data points for each month, with an overall upward trend visible across all three months.
A scatter graph for box office metrics from the British Film Institute (BFI).

Maps can come in various guises. Heat maps have niche use cases but will use color gradients to display the intensity of datasets. An interactive world map can be good where you need interactivity based on locations:

A world map displaying yellow markers with numbers, indicating the locations of WordCamps across different countries and continents. The map shows a concentration of markers in North America, Europe, and parts of Asia.
The main WordCamp website marks all of the events across the globe on an interactive and embedded map.

Counters and progress bars are more for milestone achievements. Here, you’ll turn to number counters that use dynamic counting to a final value. Circular progress bars can help showcase percentage completions. You can also do this with a linear horizontal or vertical bar:

The GitHub repository page for WordPress showing the Community Standards section. The checklist indicates that the project has completed items for description, README, code of conduct, and license, with some items still pending such as contributing guidelines and security policy.
The Community Standards insight on the official WordPress GitHub page shows a public progress bar relating to a list of tasks underneath.

Even image galleries, lightboxes, and sliders can help you present your data in multiple slides, with overlays, or almost as a story-driven event. This is where timeline visualizations can come into play, as can process flows. A data visualization type you’ll see a lot on photography tutorial sites is a ‘Before/After comparison.’

Two contrasting urban scenes are presented vertically. The top image shows a daytime view of a crowded street with buildings and numerous hanging electrical wires and light bulbs. The bottom image depicts a dimly lit, wet alleyway at night with neon signs and vending machines visible in the distance.
Using a dynamic and interactive before and after slider can help you showcase differences between two otherwise similar images.

This lets you compare two versions of an image using a dynamic slider that drags across the image, revealing the other. It may not see much action for your use cases, but remember—every visualization type has an ideal application.

Where you’d use graphic widgets (including examples)

The type of visualization you use matters, but how you use it (and where) is also important. That is to say, there are different applications where using graphical widgets will have a great benefit.

You’ll spot that aside from typical use cases, there are also applications that you see often yet don’t associate with data visualization. Over the next few sections, we’ll cover a few of these uses.

Business applications

One of the ‘go-to’ implementations of graphical widgets is to essentially show off your key metrics. For businesses, this is a clear win in terms of presenting their data in an appealing way. A bar chart is easy to read with the right axis values and helps visualize sales trends over time or compare different products or services.

Target is one of the likely millions of companies that use this to showcase annual revenue growth:

Financial performance infographic for Target showing Total Revenue, Operating Income, Net Earnings, and Diluted EPS from 2018 to 2023. Bar charts show year-over-year growth across all metrics, with 2023 highlighted in red. Performance percentages and five-year CAGR are provided for each category.
Target uses bar charts to compare performance year-on-year across a number of data points.

This also showcases how these simple presentations can illustrate the relationship between different metrics, such as customer acquisition cost or lifetime value. Stacked bar charts can also display this type of comparison. WordPress uses this approach on the Plugin Directory to display the breakdown of which version of a plugin users install:

The Advanced screen for a WordPress plugin that shows active versions, downloads per day graph, and plugin details. Those details include the version number, active installations, and ratings. The plugin has over four million active installations and a 4.5-star rating.
The WordPress Plugin Directory uses stacked bar charts to show which versions users download.

Pie charts and donut charts are great if a business wants to show data about its customer base. Often, this will be segmented by age, location, or another relevant factor. Elementor uses a cool and unique particle visualization to highlight its largest user bases:

The Elementor website showing a particle visualization of the countries with the most users in its community. Three colored circles represent the United States (largest), Germany (medium), and United Kingdom (smallest). Decorative constellation-like lines connect the circles.
Particle effects can also work for data visualization. Elementor uses it to display information relating to its user base.

In other cases, you may choose to show off company milestones or project progression. Flourish uses a timeline to showcase its history, which can have an impact on brand loyalty:

A timeline showing the evolution of Flourish, a data visualization tool. Key milestones include the initial idea in 2016, developer SDK in 2017, and the Flourish editor launch in 2018. The timeline also shows struggles with data storytelling in 2016 and promotions to journalists in 2018.
The Flourish website uses an attractive timeline display to showcase its history.

In fact, e-commerce runs in parallel to general business applications, so everything here could apply to a store, too. Even so, there are specific ways this industry can visualize data, too.

E-commerce metrics

Purchasing decisions often involve a few seconds of deliberation, so it’s crucial to get the right information to customers quickly. Product comparisons using bar charts or radar charts help you compare features or specifications across different products, but that’s only the start.

For example, SRFACE uses an interactive style guide to explain the specifications of its wetsuits and visualize the look of each variant:

A GIF for a product page for a women's black wetsuit. It shows an image of the wetsuit, pricing information, size and thickness options, and product details such as shipping and warranty information. Throughout, the user navigates through the sizes, styles, and on-product information, which displays on-screen.
Interactive style guides can be a big benefit to e-commerce stores, as they give potential customers a more immersive experience.

It’s close to a business application, but you can also use charts and graphs to help visitors understand trends in product adoption. The WordPress Theme Directory does this using bar charts:

A bar graph showing daily downloads of a WordPress theme over time. The chart indicates active installations of over one million. Download numbers fluctuate, with several spikes reaching around 12,000 downloads per day, interspersed with periods of lower activity around 6,000-8,000 downloads daily. The x-axis spans from November 2023 to July 2024.
The WordPress Theme Directory includes a bar chart that shows the download figures for each theme over time.

You could fit graphical widgets anywhere you’d otherwise use text. For instance, many e-commerce stores use simple contrasting text for stock calculations. However, progress bars might be a better fit here, as it could also increase the urgency of a sale.

Real-time metric tracking

Real-time visualizations have an exciting feel because you see a live progression of the tracked metric. Charities and non-profits use these types of graphical widgets frequently.

GoFundMe is the biggest crowdfunding platform on the planet, and every fundraiser gets a thermometer or progress tracking bar that fills up as a goal nears:

A GoFundMe fundraising page for a girls' Little League softball team. The page shows a team photo of young girls in uniforms holding a Central Little League Softball Champions banner. The fundraiser has raised $2,450 of a $12,000 goal to help the team get to the Little League World Series.
Popular crowdfunding platform GoFundMe uses progress bars and thermometer visualization to show how close a fundraising effort is to completion.

Animated counters or infographics can help to showcase the real-time impact of your products and services. For example, the main WordPress.org website has a dedicated page to display the number of downloads of the core platform that updates every minute:

A dark-themed webpage that displays the number of WordPress 6.6 downloads, which is 44,316,991. The page has navigation links for Releases, Nightly, Counter, and Source at the top. After a few seconds, the number increases, which shows a real-time update of the number of downloads.
WordPress.org’s download counter updates every minute with a current running total.

Kinsta even uses a tally chart to help you monitor your site’s uptime across our different services:

An uptime report from the Kinsta Status page showing 100 percent uptime for the main Kinsta.com site and Affiliate Dashboard over 90 days. The MyKinsta Dashboard has 99.89 percent uptime with a few brief outages indicated by red and yellow bars.
Kinsta’s Status page offers a tally chart that shows any prolonged period of downtime.

This ‘live’ update strategy can have practical applications other than simply showboating and flair. In some cases, you’ll need to have up-to-date knowledge of certain metrics.

Internal analytics

Performance monitoring has a wide scope. It could be a frontline, KPI measurement strategy, or a personalized overview of a particular metric. Google Analytics is a good example of displaying a wealth of niche site data in a captivating way:

The Google Analytics dashboard showing real-time website traffic data. The interface displays a world map with user locations, active user counts, and graphs of user activity over time. Sidebars show various report categories and metrics such as user sources and page views.
Google Analytics crams many different data visualization types onto one page.

Google Lighthouse auditing app DeploymentHawk uses a number of different charts, graphs, counters, and more to crunch the numbers and visualize the results of a report:

The DeploymentHawk dashboard displaying website performance metrics, including scores for Performance (96), Accessibility (96), Best Practices (95), and SEO (100). Additional performance metrics such as First Contentful Paint and Largest Contentful Paint are also shown.
The DeploymentHawk app takes Google Lighthouse data and presents it using custom charts, graphs, and counters.

The Kinsta Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tool and MyKinsta dashboard do this also, using lots of different data visualization types depending on the metrics you need to see:

The MyKinsta Dashboard interface. It displays various metrics and charts including resource usage, bandwidth, visits, and CDN usage for WordPress sites. The left sidebar shows navigation options for different hosting services.
The MyKinsta dashboard showing various charts and graphs based on site data.

Gamification can always assist if you have completion targets to meet. Todoist does this using basic bar and line charts alongside its ‘karma’ points system:

The Todoist dashboard showing 4744 completed tasks. A circular progress indicator displays the weekly goal of 26/30 tasks completed. Additional metrics include streak information and a bar chart comparing task completion over the past 4 weeks.
The Todoist app uses gamification techniques to make sure you complete tasks with the greatest efficiency.

Finally, some nonprofits will publicize their internal findings. This creates a unique dichotomy between public-facing presentation and using data as an internal barometer. For example, The Gates Foundation takes its internal philosophy and vision, applies it to the future, and, in turn, creates an excellent example of predictive statistics:

A graph showing the opportunity to save millions of lives through innovation accessibility. The stacked area chart projects 2 million lives saved by 2030 and 6.4 million by 2040, broken down by region: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Other LMICs.
The Gates Foundation uses unique bar charts to help propel its philosophy and actions.

With this flexibility in visualization type and application, you can also harness the adaptability of graphical widgets. The rest of this post will show you how to do this within WordPress.

Plugins that help you display graphical widgets for WordPress

Of course, to implement graphical widgets for WordPress, you’ll use a plugin. Across the next couple of sections, we’ll look at some of the best options you have – in no particular order.

1. Visualizer: Charts and Graphs

ThemeIsle’s Visualizer is a solid choice for free graphical widget plugins. It supports a variety of chart types and is straightforward to use, as are its other themes and plugins.

The WordPress.org header banner image for the Visualizer plugin. The image showcases various chart types and data visualizations, emphasizing features such as 14+ charts, shortcodes, chart animations, and live editing capabilities.
The Visualizer plugin header image from WordPress.org.

It offers four different chart types, a data editor with a spreadsheet-like interface, and plenty of customization options. The plugin also integrates with Google Charts (and other Google APIs). However, while this plugin does have full functionality, you need to pay for the premium version ($199 per year) to access more chart and editing types.

The free version will suit most users, though, especially for basic yet gorgeous data visualization.

2. Data Tables Generator by Supsystic

At first glance, Data Tables Generator doesn’t seem like it fits this list of graphical widget plugins for WordPress. After all, as its name suggests, you can only create text data tables. This is true for the free version, but the premium edition includes a lot more functionality, including charts and graphs.

The Data Tables Generator plugin header image from WordPress.org. There is a set of icons and interface elements representing features of a data management system, including data types, formulas, search functionality, sorting, and table creation tools.
The Data Tables Generator plugin header image from WordPress.org.

The good news is that your creations can look fantastic out of the box. You have all sorts of visualization options, such as bar and line charts, donut charts, bubble graphs, and more. We also think the sorting and filtering options lead the field.

This means the plugin will be a great fit for sites that need a high level of interactivity, especially if they also need data tables and more visual data representations.

Despite this, there are no charts or graphs available in the free version. With a lifetime license costing $89, though, Data Tables Generator is a steal for the functionality you get.

3. amCharts: Charts and Maps

The amCharts plugin is unique in that it connects to an external Content Delivery Network (CDN) to deliver its library. As such, the plugin only helps you connect the JavaScript libraries to WordPress rather than create the charts directly.

The amCharts plugin header image from WordPress.org. It shows a white sinusoidal wave overlaid on gray vertical bar charts against a purple gradient background. The foreground shows a black silhouette of a mountainous or hilly landscape, creating a layered effect with the chart elements.
The amCharts header image from WordPress.org.

The functionality of amCharts is extensive, and it comes with a high level of customization. However, you need to use the amCharts interface to create your graphical widgets, which means switching between two platforms.

If you need a diverse set of chart types and are happy using the third-party interface, amCharts could work for you. However, there’s no free tier to access charts or graphs, so you’ll need a premium license that starts from $80 per year.

4. Graphina – Elementor Charts and Graphs

If you use Elementor, you already have some graphical widget options within the page builder. However, Graphina bolsters this with a lot of quality charts, graphs, and other visualization types.

The Graphina plugin header image from WordPress.org. The banner shows colorful examples of radial charts, line graphs, and other data visualizations on a dark background.
The Graphina header image from WordPress.org.

This plugin has the greatest number of chart types and designs in a free graphical widget plugin and has deep integration with Elementor and Divi. You also have some of the most comprehensive customization options available in any plugin, let alone a free one.

It seems unbelievable, but the premium version ramps up the functionality even further to make Graphina the most in-depth graphical widget plugin for WordPress. Of course, you’ll need Elementor (or Divi) to take advantage of the feature set, which could be a roadblock. For $49, though, it might be worth a switch to one of these popular page builders.

5. wpDataTables

Much like Data Tables Generator, wpDataTables doesn’t have a primary focus on charts and graphs. You can do it with the plugin though, and the results are quality. Sites that deal with large, complex datasets will want to take a look at this plugin.

The wpDataTables plugin header image from WordPress.org. The banner features a dark blue background with the plugin logo and text The Best Tables & Charts WordPress Table Plugin. Sample tables, charts, and pricing plans are displayed floating on the right side of the image.
The wpDataTables header image from WordPress.org.

As you’d expect, there are more options to create tables here, but there’s integration with both Google Charts and Charts.js to give you 15 different visualization types. It’s adept at handling large datasets, and the source import options are fantastic. You can bring in data from Excel, XML, CSV files, JSON, and even PHP arrays if you have development experience.

However, because of the secondary focus on charts, it’s not as straightforward to build them with wpDataTables. This learning curve, in addition to the amount of functionality hidden behind the premium edition (starting from $39 per year), might mean you look elsewhere.

6. Ninja Charts

The final plugin on our list is completely free, with no premium pricing tier. Ninja Charts could be the right solution if you’re new to data visualization, but offers the functionality to compete with the best.

The Ninja Charts plugin header image from WordPress.org. It shows a businessman sitting on geometric shapes while using a tablet, connected to icons representing spreadsheets, charts, and analytics. A rising bar graph and dashboard elements are shown on the right-hand side.
The Ninja Charts header image from WordPress.org.

It offers a great selection of chart types and gives you the ability to customize them to your needs. The interface is straightforward, and it offers deep integration with another plugin from the same developer, Ninja Tables.

Even so, there are limitations. Other users complain about the lack of basic functionality such as data aggregation, for example. You can’t beat the price, though, and we still believe it can suit lots of different sites with what it offers.

How to add graphical widgets for WordPress using the Visualizer plugin

Let’s quickly walk through the process of adding a graphical widget to your WordPress website. We’ll use Visualizer, given that we liked it enough to make it our favorite.

However, this isn’t meant as a Visualizer tutorial. As such, the steps we take here could differ from those of your chosen solution. With this in mind, install and activate your plugin of choice, and then create a new chart or graph.

In Visualizer, we get that option upon installation:

The Visualizer plugin start wizard. It shows options to select different chart types such as a pie/donut chart, bar chart, and line chart. The interface includes a progress indicator at the top and a Save and Continue button at the bottom.
The Visualizer plugin’s starting wizard.

Most likely, there will be an Add New Chart button somewhere within the plugin’s admin panel:

The WordPress admin dashboard displaying the Visualizer Library interface. A red-highlighted Add New button is prominent at the top. Below are drop-down filters for types, libraries, dates, and sources. The main content area shows the beginning of a line graph labeled #216 with a blue line representing Cats data.
Adding a new chart using the Visualizer plugin in WordPress.

Once you click the button and select your chart type, you’ll need to input your data. The free version of Visualizer only supports manual editing, but your plugin could offer integrations and import options for a variety of tools:

The data editing interface for Visualizer. The left-hand side shows a text area with comma-separated values, while the right-hand side offers options to import data from various sources such as files, URLs, and databases.
Editing the dataset for a chart within the Visualizer plugin.

Next, check out the customization options available to you. Visualizer includes these within the chart creation screen. You have settings for all manner of aspects, such as the title position, axis labels, grid lines, chart size and placement, and much more:

The Visualizer Settings tab, which shows a line graph interface with three data series labeled Cats, Blanket1, and Blanket2. The right-hand side shows the options to adjust General Settings, including a drop-down menu to set the position of the chart title.
Making design customizations within Visualizer.

The final step is to embed your chart or graph on your site. Many plugins use shortcodes for this, which means you have a simple copy and paste into your desired post or page:

A portion of the Visualizer plugin interface that shows chart settings and a shortcode. The shortcode appears in a text box with a Copy button beside it. Below, there are tabs for Source, Settings, and Help, with expandable sections for General Settings and Horizontal Axis Settings visible.
A shortcode for a Visualizer chart.

Visualizer also provides a Block for this, which is handy and in keeping with modern WordPress design.

Typical practices for displaying your graphical widgets

It’s important to consider a few aspects when presenting your charts and graphs. In a nutshell, treat them like the important and impactful content they are, and look to limit how many widgets you display. To get more in-depth, though, consider the following:

  • Placement. Your widgets should have a natural fit within your content flow, much like your images and videos do. Graphical widgets often straddle the line between media and content.
  • Loading speed. Make sure you monitor your site’s performance after you add widgets. Some could impact your site’s performance.
  • Accessibility. Although you are offering visual data, ensure you include appropriate alt text and are navigable via keyboard. This helps all users access your widgets, regardless of sight ability.

When it comes to performance, this is something to be mindful of. There are many facets that can affect your site’s speed, which makes sense, given the load from your additional graphics. Our advice is to use SVGs where possible. They’re more performant than raster images for simple charts and icons, with better scalability.

Lazy loading and caching can help here, too, as both restrict how your charts load in different ways. If you choose to pull data from external sources, ensure you choose efficient connections to minimize the number of HTTP requests you serve. The best and most optimal approach is to host that data on your site’s server, although the decision may not be one you have control over.

Summary

Graphical widgets for WordPress allow you to visualize your typical text data on your site. This method of data presentation and visualization can transform complex information into a more digestible format. You can display this data using charts, graphs, interactive maps, and more.

The right plugin for the job is crucial, and we cover a lot in this post. Visualizer is a great option, as is Graphina. However, the correct tool for the job relies on your own needs. It can undoubtedly have a huge, positive impact on your site and its engagement.

Are graphical widgets for WordPress important enough for you to implement? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!

Jeremy Holcombe Kinsta

Senior Editor at Kinsta, WordPress Web Developer, and Content Writer. Outside of all things WordPress, I enjoy the beach, golf, and movies. I also have tall people problems.