Charticulator vs Deneb, which is better?

[HamidBee]

Hi All,

Someone recently let me know about Deneb visuals. I understand like Charticulator visuals they too are fully interactive. I'm mindful of the fact that they require a coding language to create. I'm curious to know if anyone here has any experience using Deneb and if they could share their experiences and explain how it compares to Charticulator.

Thank you,

[mahoneypat]

Both are great, and I still expect to use both going forward. Most visuals can be created with either, but Deneb (based on Vega Lite) has more options/capabilities (e.g., input parameters, transforms, views, in-visual calculations like regression, etc.).

Pat

[HamidBee]

Thank you for shedding some more light on some of the things that Deneb could do. I have to say there is very limited information on Deneb online. I guess it's still relatively new. 

I only heard of vega and vega-lite today. Am I correct in saying that these are the languages that are used in Deneb?

How long does it take for one to learn one of the languages to the point where they could plot charts or understand code to a decent enough level whereby they could edit existing code?

Playing devil's advocate here, why would one use Deneb visuals over Power BI visuals? what are the key advantages here?

I actually spent some time learning Python to plot charts only to find out there were huge limitations to the level of interactivity the charts have. Then I heard about Charticulator. I actually created a chart last week, although I wasn't impressed with the UI, it was prone to many glitches, I got there in the end and I was really impressed with the level of interactivity. No code, relatively straight forward. Now I heard about Deneb so I'm really just trying to full understand what the standout features have where the other visuals can't compete in and contemplate whether or not to invest in learning how to use it really.

I appreciate any additonal information you could provide.

If anyone else in the community would like to share their thoughts on Deneb I'd welcome that too. 

@Burningsuit 

[KerKol]

Both visuals are useful. Deneb is easier in that it less buggy than Charticulator and is easier to iterate.

I find that charts that are polar, radial or have custom plots are quicker and easier to create in Charticulator. I would use Deneb for just about everything else. Deneb can be filtered by other visuals, have tooltips enabled and if you design for it, can have interactivity. Deneb can cross-highlight other Power BI visuals if you design for it, however there are some visual transforms that will prevent this.

In my own experience using Deneb, I was creating my own charts by customising other peoples templates within minutes. But, to get to a decent level of proficiency it took a bit of practice - an hour or two a week for a few weeks. 

To see how Deneb can be more useful than core or AppSource visuals I'd recommended checking out the #Deneb hashtags on LinkedIn and Twitter.

[HamidBee]

Thanks for your reply. I definitely plan on taking a close lookat Deneb as soon as I get the chance. Out of curiosity, did you begin using Deneb as a complete begginer to the Vega language?. I was put off initally because the language looked really complicated, maybe I'm not being fair. 

[KerKol]

Yes, complete beginner. I started with Vega-Lite