There are many factors to consider when choosing an embedded analytics tool for your application, including the range of charts and chart customisation options available.
To accurately show certain data points and tell a story, you need the right visualization type, but not all tools provide all chart types.
In this article, we’ve rounded up some of the most popular embedded analytics tools in the market to see how much variation they have in terms of chart types.
But before we get into the tools, let’s see why having a large chart variety matters in the first place.
Why does chart variety matter in an embedded analytics tool?
When you embed analytics into your product, charts are the front line. They’re what your users see first, and if those charts can’t match their expectations or data needs, the whole experience falls flat.
1. Different data needs different charts
A pie chart won’t explain churn. A bar chart won’t show financial flows. Depending on the data, you may need, for example:
- Waterfall charts to show cost breakdowns
- Scatter plots for correlation
- Heatmaps to visualize density
- Funnel charts for user journeys
If your tool can’t support these, your users are stuck or forced to use another product.
2. The lack of chart variety limits your roadmap
If a certain chart does not exist in the embedded analytics tool you’re using, then it’s simply not possible to use it. It’s common for your charting and dashboarding needs to evolve over time, and customers won’t hesitate to ask you for more. You’ll eventually get requests like:
- “Can we show a Pareto chart here?”
- “Can we break this down into a Sankey?”
- “Can we do a multi-series area chart with stacking?”
If your dashboarding tool doesn’t provide the charts you need, you either have to tell the customer no, or take a completely different approach: either replacing it with another tool or rebuilding the charts manually. Neither is ideal.
3. It’s not just about the chart type
Plenty of tools offer a bar chart. But:
- Can you add a secondary axis?
- Can you show threshold lines, custom tooltips, or dynamic color rules?
- Can you turn off labels, reposition legends, or link to external actions?
Without control over these details, the chart might technically work, but it won’t feel right inside your product.
4. Your users don’t all want the same data visualisations
A finance team wants KPIs and variance analysis. A product manager wants retention curves and cohort analysis. A supply chain user might want Gantt charts.
If your embedded tool only supports basic bar and line charts, it won’t scale across different teams or industries.
5. Custom charts = product differentiation
When you can import or build your own chart types, you’re not just embedding BI. You’re creating data features that match your app’s UI and UX, not someone else’s idea of a dashboard.
Embedded analytics tools with the widest variety of charts
Embeddable (developer‑first, headless embedded analytics)
Embeddable is a purpose‑built embedded analytics platform designed for maximum developer flexibility. It integrates quickly via web components or React/Vue SDKs and emphasizes infinite extensibility in code, with the ability to import and extend custom charts, including importing charts from any charting library.
Which charts are included
- A default-styled set of built‑in chart components are provided in React (column, bar, line, area, pie, scatter, KPI cards, tables, etc.) and control components like dropdowns, data pickers, and a range of filter types that can be extended/modified in code.
- Full support for importing or extending open‑source or commercial charting libraries such as D3.js, Chart.js, or custom visual code
- Developers can override or replace any visual component entirely
What’s missing
- There is no chart that you cannot use with Embeddable.
- Requires developer effort upfront to integrate and customize chart types, but delivers infinite future extensibility
In short, the choice of charts in Embeddable is practically infinite and only limited by your imagination. Also, if you don’t need a chart type now but you may need it at some point, Embeddable is an excellent way to future-proof your data visualization options.
Learn more about Embeddable.
ThoughtSpot Everywhere (Embedded)
ThoughtSpot provides 25 native chart types out of the box and supports further chart variation via its new Muze feature.. That allows for more flexibility with custom chart configurations, including box plot, bullet chart, Gantt, sunburst, and combination visuals.
Which charts are included
- Column/bar charts, stacked variants
- Line charts, area, stacked area
- KPI and sparkline views
- Pie and donut charts
- Scatter and bubble charts
- Pareto, waterfall, funnel
- Treemap, heatmap
- Geo views: geo bubble, heatmap, area maps
- Sankey, radar, candlestick
- Pivot tables
- Chart customization via Muze
What’s missing
While native support is strong, there can be gaps if you want specific chart types. You rely on Muze skills to build custom visuals. Some users also report that embedded dashboards feel less polished compared to tools designed purely for embedding.
Sisense (Embedded / Compose SDK)
Sisense includes a robust collection of standard visual types in addition to its Compose SDK to enable more freedom.
Which charts are included by default
- Column/bar charts (including stacked and 100 % stacked)
- Line charts (including rolling average and sparkline variants)
- Area charts
- Pie and donut charts
- Scatter and bubble charts
- KPI overlays and gauge visuals
- Heatmaps and choropleth maps
- Geospatial map visualizations
- Table and pivot grid views
- Cohort grid chart types
Customization and extensibility
- Built on Highcharts or D3.js, allowing styling via APIs
- Compose SDK allows embedding external JS chart libraries or replacing visuals in code
What’s missing
- Rare visuals, such as Sankey or parallel‑coordinate charts, are not included out of the box.
- Developer effort and learning the Compose SDK is required to build advanced or customized chart types
Qlik Sense (Embedded Analytics)
Qlik Sense delivers a rich native chart collection, plus extensions for more specialized visual types.
Which charts are included natively
- Bar and column charts
- Line charts
- Combo charts (bar + line)
- Box plots
- Distribution plots and histograms
- Gauge and KPI visuals
- Scatter and bubble plots
- Pie charts
- Waterfall (variance) charts
- Funnel charts
- Treemap charts
- Pivot tables and straight tables
- Word clouds
- Sankey charts
- Map visualizations
Extension capability
- Limited extensions via TrueChart, Vizlib or AnyChart unlock additional chart types
What’s missing in Qlik
- Some niche or experimental visuals rely on extensions only
- Native set is strong but not unlimited
- No ability to import charting libraries like HighCharts, MUI, Chart.js etc.
Tableau Embedded
Tableau provides an extensive visual catalog out of the box, including advanced chart types often supplied through community creations or extensions.
Which charts are included
- Text tables and crosstabs
- Heat maps and highlight tables
- Symbol maps and filled maps
- Horizontal, stacked, and side‑by‑side bar charts
- Circle and packed bubble charts
- Line charts (continuous, discrete, dual‑axis)
- Area charts (continuous and discrete)
- Gantt charts
- Bullet graphs
- Box plots
- Histograms and density plots
- Treemaps
- Scatter and circle plots
- Motion charts, slope, lollipop, small multiples (via community or extensions)
What’s missing
- Some industry-specific chart types are not available. If you need something specific, it might not be possible.
- Control over the charting components is limited, meaning it may restrict you in your ability to match your application's visual design system.
Power BI Embedded
Power BI Embedded is a general-purpose BI tool with embedding features - it contains a broad set of built‑in visuals, and enables you to use additional visuals via Microsoft Visuals Marketplace.
Which charts are included
- Line and area charts (basic, stacked, 100 %)
- Bar and column charts (standard and stacked)
- Combo charts (bar + line)
- Pie and doughnut charts
- Funnel charts
- Waterfall charts
- Scatter and bubble charts
- KPI cards and scorecards
- Gauge and bullet charts
- Matrix and table visuals
- Decomposition tree and breakdown visuals
- Map visuals (shape maps, bubble, choropleth)
What’s missing
- No ability to import custom charts or extend them in code.
- It’s not possible to apply your application’s full design system to charts.
- Some flow, statistical or advanced chart types require marketplace add‑ins or custom visuals.
Looker Embedded
Looker Embedded is Google Cloud’s enterprise platform for embedding Looker dashboards or individual components into your applications. It offers embedding via iframe or component embedding and supports a wide variety of visualization types natively, plus custom visuals when needed.
Which charts are included
- Bar and column charts
- Line and progression charts
- Pie and donut charts
- Text blocks and tables (pivot and regular)
- Maps and geo visualizations
- Histograms and heatmap‑style plots
- Scatter and bubble charts
- Waterfall charts
- Pivot tables and tabular views
- Scorecard and single‑metric tiles
- Support for custom visualizations when built or imported
What’s missing
- Looker does not allow you to import custom charts
- Customization on charts is limited to the built-in customization features - meaning it is almost impossible to fully match your application's design system and aesthetic.
- Very rare or specialized formats may need custom visual code
Summary
Still not sure which embedded analytics tool to choose for your data visualization needs? Here’s a quick recap.
- Use Embeddable if you want complete developer control over chart types, styles and behavior, with the ability to import or build any visual needed now or in the future for true future‑proof extensibility.
- ThoughtSpot Embedded provides 25 built‑in chart types, plus the ability to customize further via its new Muze engine.
- Use Sisense if you want a solid range of standard visuals (bar, line, pie, scatter, heatmap, maps, KPIs, etc.), with the option to create more customized charts with the Compose SDK.
- Use Qlik Sense if you need a platform with broad native support, including bar, line, box plot, Sankey, waterfall, distribution, and maps, plus access to a limited set of community-created extension frameworks..
- Use Tableau Embedded if you want the widest range of charts (tables, maps, Gantt, bullet, box, histogram, scatter, etc.) - and don’t mind if the dashboards won’t fit neatly into the visual design language of your application.
- Use Power BI Embedded if you value deep Microsoft stack integration, access to a wide range of built‑in visuals (line, bar, waterfall, decomposition, KPI, gauge, map, custom visuals via marketplace), and don’t mind the ‘Microsoft look and feel’ being embedded in your app.
- Use Looker Embedded if you want Google Cloud’s enterprise-grade embedded analytics platform with the most common chart types, and you don’t mind having limited customisability/extensibility. Your dashboards will have a ‘Google feeling’ when embedded in your application.
Frequently asked questions
Which embedded analytics tool offers the most flexibility in chart variety?
Embeddable provides the ultimate flexibility for developers. You can import or build any visualization using open‑source libraries or custom code for full future extensibility.
Why does chart variety really matter in embedded analytics tools?
Having a broad variety of chart types ensures you can choose the best visualization for each data story, from funnels and waterfall to heatmaps and Sankey, ensuring accurate communication. Charts without flexibility or customization can limit your users’ ability to interpret and act on insights. When your tool lets you adjust axes, labels, tooltips, coloring, or import new visuals, your embedded analytics layer becomes future‑proof.
