Datawrapper or Flourish: which is better for Substack?

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Datawrapper vs Flourish for Substack charts

Checked 2026-10-21 on the vendors' sites and Substack's help center · Independent, no affiliate relationship with either tool

The short answer: Pick Datawrapper if you want interactive charts inside your Substack posts: it's the only one of the two that Substack embeds natively, and its free plan is unlimited. Pick Flourish only if you need animated or scrollytelling visuals and are happy to link out to them from a static image.

Side by side

	Datawrapper	Flourish
Embeds in Substack posts	Yes, officially supported. Paste the chart's share link ("Visualization only" URL) into your draft and it loads automatically.	Not in Substack's list of supported embeds. Writers report that pasting the link or embed code doesn't work.
Interactive for readers	On the web and in the Substack app. Static in the email version (clicking opens the chart in a browser).	Only if readers click through to the Flourish-hosted version.
Free plan	Create, publish and embed charts, maps and tables without limits; PNG download. Charts carry a "Created with Datawrapper" credit.	Public publishing and embedding with attribution; unpublished projects stay private.
Image export	PNG on the free plan; PDF and SVG on Pro.	Image and SVG export are listed under the paid Presenter plan.
Paid plans	Pro $21/user/mo excl. VAT (removes the credit); Business $39/user/mo excl. VAT.	Presenter via a Canva Business or Enterprise plan; Publisher and Enterprise on request.
Best at	Clean, accurate line, bar and table charts and maps that read at a glance.	Animated, interactive and scrollytelling visuals.

Why embedding matters on Substack

Substack doesn't allow custom HTML or scripts in the post editor. It supports a short list of embeds instead, and Datawrapper is on it. That single fact decides most of this comparison: a Datawrapper chart sits inside your post and readers on the web or in the app can hover, zoom and scroll it. A Flourish visual has to live somewhere else, with a picture of it in your post.

Remember the email version

Most of your readers meet a post in their inbox, where no chart is interactive. Datawrapper embeds show up as a static image in email, and clicking opens the live chart. Whatever tool you use, design the chart so its main point is readable without hovering: a clear title that states the takeaway, labeled lines and few colors.

When Flourish is still worth it

If your story depends on motion, such as a bar chart race, an animated map or a step-by-step scrollytelling piece, Flourish does things Datawrapper doesn't try to do. Publish it on Flourish, put a screenshot in your Substack post, and link the image to the interactive version. On the free plan, Flourish lists image export under its paid Presenter plan, so expect to take that screenshot yourself.

Our pick

For almost every Substack writer, Datawrapper. It's free without limits, it's the native option, and its defaults produce honest, readable charts. Consider paying for Pro only if the small credit line under each chart bothers you.

Our verdicts

Datawrapper: Newsroom-quality charts for free, and the one chart tool Substack embeds natively: paste the chart's share link into your draft. Interactive on the web and in the app; static in the email version.
Flourish: More dramatic visuals than Datawrapper, but Substack doesn't list Flourish among its supported embeds and pasted embed code doesn't work, so plan on a static image linked to the interactive version.

Sources

Prices change; confirm on each vendor's site. See how we verify tools. More tools like these: Embeds & Interactive.