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Best WordPress Plugins

wpDataTables Plugin Review: Build Responsive Tables And Charts

Last Updated on: November 26, 2018 Brenda Barron 25 Comments

wpDataTables Plugin Review: Build Responsive Tables And Charts

Need a way to display data, tables, or charts on your WordPress site?

wpDataTables is the best-selling table and charts plugin at CodeCanyon, where it’s racked up 19,000+ sales and maintained a 4.67-star rating.

Though the plugin was originally launched back in 2013, it received a complete makeover with wpDataTables 2.0. Beyond new functionality, it also got a brand new interface that really is a joy to use.

In my wpDataTables review, I’ll take you through this latest release and show you what all it can do.

wpDataTables Review: A Quick Look At The Features

First off, all the tables and charts that you create with wpDataTables are responsive. I know – “responsive” isn’t really something sexy in 2018. But you’d be surprised by the number of table plugins that don’t handle responsive design well, so that’s actually a pretty big benefit. You’re able to set up your own custom breakpoints and hide specific columns on tablets/mobile devices.

Another thing you’ll like about wpDataTables is how many ways it gives you to create tables and/or import content. You can:

  • Create tables from scratch
  • Link a table to an external source, like Excel, Google Sheets, JSON, SQL query, PHP array, etc. The data will update as you change the source file.
  • Import from an external source, like Excel or Google Sheets. Unlike the previous one, this is a one-time import. The data does not sync.
  • Use a database query builder to add WordPress content to your table, like posts, taxonomies, postmeta, etc.
  • Use a MySQL query to pull data from your own external database.

While I’m not sure how to test it, wpDataTables claims that it’s able to handle large tables, even into the millions of rows.

To edit your table data, you can either use an Excel-like editor where you just click and type into fields. Or, you can use a “standard” editor that lets you edit entire rows in a popup.

You get tons of settings for controlling how your tables look and function, including:

  • Conditional formatting
  • Front-end table editing
  • Sort options
  • Filter functionality (including a dedicated widget)
  • Search option
  • Front-end options to export tables to Excel or CSV
  • Front-end options to print a table

And oh yeah, wpDataTables isn’t just for tables! You can also use it to turn any one of your tables into a great-looking chart.

If you want to see the tables and charts in action, you can check out some demos here.

Hands-on With wpDataTables: 7 Things That You’ll Like

Ok, now let’s go hands-on with wpDataTables and I’ll show you how those features actually work.

1. Table Constructor Wizard

To help you create your tables, wpDataTables gives you a well-designed Table Constructor Wizard.

First, you’ll choose where you want to get your table data from. You can see the 5 options that I mentioned above:

wpdatatables review of the import options

I chose to Import from a data source. In my case, that’s a published Google Sheets table.

For this method, you just paste in the URL:

paste in sheets URL

wpDataTables then gives you a summary of the columns that it found. If desired, you can change the data type of each column (for example, you could make a column a number or a date):

column types

Once you’re happy with how things look, you tell wpDataTables to import the table and it will bring in all the data.

2. Two Different Table Editors, Including Excel-Like Editor

To work with table data in your WordPress dashboard, wpDataTables gives you two different editors:

  • Excel-like editor – this is what it sounds like. You can edit data in your browser just like you would type in Excel cells.
  • Standard editor – you can’t just click and type in cells. Instead, you’ll work in popups for each row.

Here’s how the Excel-like editor works:

excel-like editor

For non-text fields, you’ll get other selectors. For example, you can open a date picker for columns with the date data type:

date picker

And here’s how it works to use the standard editor:

Standard Editor

The Excel-like editor is helpful when you’re actually working with data. But the benefit of the Standard editor is that it makes it easy to access the detailed column controls. Speaking of…

3. Detailed Column Settings

In the Standard editor, you can access detailed settings for each column that let you control things like:

  • Data types
  • Custom CSS classes
  • Whether to allow sorting
  • Whether to allow filtering. If so, how to use the filtering
  • Conditional formatting. For example, you can add a custom CSS class based on the cell’s data (it’s indeed a lot like conditional formatting in Excel or Google Sheets)

column options

4. Detailed Overall Table Settings

Above the table data, you get a collection of overall settings for your table.

Here, you can control:

  • Table-wide settings for filters, sorting, and search.
  • Front-end editing – whether or not people can edit the table from the front-end.
  • Table tools – these let users print your table or export it to Excel/CSV.

And this is also where you can turn on responsive mode:

When you turn responsive mode on, you get new column settings that let you hide individual columns on mobile or tablet devices:

5. Create Chart From Table

Beyond the table functionality, wpDataTables also includes pretty powerful chart functionality that lets you turn any one of your tables into various types of charts powered by a few different chart engines.

When you go to create a chart, you’ll first choose which render engine to use. Your options are:

  • Google Charts
  • HighCharts
  • Chart.js

Then, you can choose what type of chart to create from the types supported by your chosen render engine:

chart types

Once you select the chart type, you can choose one of your existing tables to act as the data source for your chart:

Then, you can choose exactly what data in that table to use.

For example, you could pick out just two or three specific columns.

You can also enter a range for which rows to include and choose whether to follow the table filtering options (this is cool because the chart will actually re-render itself if one of your visitors changes their filter options on the front-end of your site):

choose chart data

Once you select what data to use, wpDataTables will give you a live preview of your chart, as well as options to control:

  • Responsive chart width
  • Grouping
  • Colors
  • Borders
  • Labels
  • Some other smaller settings

chart previews

Once you’re happy with your settings, wpDataTables spits out a shortcode that you can use anywhere on your site.

6. Dedicated Filter Widget

If you don’t want to include filter options above the table, wpDataTables also comes with its own dedicated filter widget that you can place in any widget area.

When you add the widget, it will include filter controls for the active table:

7. Lots Of Global Settings

Beyond the table/chart-specific settings, wpDataTables also gives you tons of options in the wpDataTables → Settings area. Here, you can configure things like:

  • Whether or not to parse shortcodes in tables
  • Responsive breakpoints
  • Colors
  • Fonts
  • Custom CSS and JavaScript
  • Separate database connections

A Quick Look At The Other Methods For Importing Chart Data

Above, I showed you how to import data from a Google Sheets table. But one of the great things about wpDataTables is how flexible it is when it comes to importing data.

So before I finish out this wpDataTables review, let me take you through the other ways that you can get data into your tables.

Query Builder

The query builder lets you query:

  • Data from your WordPress site’s database (posts, taxonomies, etc.)
  • Any data from an external MySQL database

If you choose your WordPress site’s database, wpDataTables gives you this really helpful query builder where you can go through your various post types and create a targeted filter:

Similarly, wpDataTables can help you generate queries to an external database using the same visual interface.

Sync With An External Source

Another neat option is to sync with an external source. With this method, the plugin will automatically update the table for each page reload (or each time the cache is cleared if you’re using a caching plugin).

Here, you can choose from a range of sources:

  • SQL query
  • CSV file
  • Excel file
  • Google Spreadsheet
  • XML file
  • JSON file
  • Serialized PHP array

Manual Table Creation

Finally, you can always create a table from scratch. When you go that route, you’ll first set up the columns to use as well as their associated data types:

table data

Then, you can enter your data using either the Excel-like editor or the standard editor.

wpDataTables Pricing: Limited Free Version Or $45

There is a limited version of wpDataTables at WordPress.org. With that being said, I haven’t made any mention of that version because it is indeed limited. Just a few things that you’re missing are:

  • Responsive mode
  • Excel-like editing and front-end editing
  • Table Constructor Wizard

And oh yeah, it’s also limited to 150 rows.

For that reason, I wouldn’t really recommend the free version.

It’s a different story with the Pro version, though. You get a lot more functionality for just $45, which I think is quite fair.

Final Thoughts On wpDataTables

After having used a lot of the WordPress table plugins, I feel pretty confident in saying that wpDataTables is definitely one of the best solutions out there.

It’s flexible in how you import your table data. And the interface makes what could be a complicated process surprisingly simple.

Beyond that, it’s easy to edit your tables thanks to the two different editors. And you have plenty of control over your entire tables or individual columns across the various settings areas.

Finally, being able to create charts from the same plugin is handy and the charts functionality is really easy to use.

If you’re willing to pay for the Pro version, this is definitely one that you should consider. And if you want to see some other options for working with tables in WordPress, check out our TablePress tutorial.

Get wpDataTables

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Disclosure

Brenda Barron

Brenda is a professional writer and WordPress enthusiast from Huntington Beach, California. You can find out more about her at Digital Inkwell.

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25 Comments Leave a Reply
  1. samantha says

    August 28, 2014 at 8:03 am

    Awesome post very informative I will have to pass along to my WordPress blogger pals, very easy to understand…. great work

    Reply
  2. Samantha Angell says

    August 28, 2014 at 9:55 am

    Wow, that does sound like a great plugin! I don’t really do too much with tables, but I can see how it would benefit a ton of other bloggers.

    Reply
  3. Nolie says

    August 28, 2014 at 1:06 pm

    I Can see how this can be handy but I am getting really fed up of all the pay plugins when if you search you can more than likely find one for free that does the same job.

    Reply
  4. Britney says

    August 28, 2014 at 1:57 pm

    I can’t believe how many ways to make a table that this will do! Thanks for the info!

    Reply
  5. HilLesha says

    August 28, 2014 at 3:46 pm

    This may not benefit me since I’m not that advanced with WordPress, but I can see how it be beneficial for other WordPress users. By the way, fantastic review!

    Reply
  6. Michelle F. says

    August 28, 2014 at 3:49 pm

    That looks like a great plugin. What an easy way to organize your data.

    Reply
  7. Tina Truelove says

    August 28, 2014 at 4:05 pm

    There is a lot of great information here. I don’t have an active WordPress blog but those who do will certainly find this helpful.

    Reply
  8. Catherine S says

    August 28, 2014 at 4:33 pm

    This looks like a great plugin. I will share it with my friends that use WordPress.

    Reply
  9. Mary Green says

    August 28, 2014 at 4:36 pm

    Thank you for sharing this, I’ve always wanted an easy-to-use table like this in my site but hadn’t found one I liked.

    Reply
  10. celebbabylaundry says

    August 28, 2014 at 5:27 pm

    I never knew about doing this, I might need to grab this plugin for myself.

    Reply
  11. Ben @ Cheap is the New Classy says

    August 28, 2014 at 6:27 pm

    Most of this looks like Greek to me, but I can see how useful it would be. At least on WordPress, plugins are a pretty much painless process.

    Reply
  12. Liz Mays says

    August 28, 2014 at 6:28 pm

    What a great plugin! This would be really useful for me.

    Reply
  13. Debi - Travel Blogger says

    August 28, 2014 at 6:53 pm

    This looks like a great plugin. Super useful.

    Reply
  14. Mehmet Hakan says

    August 28, 2014 at 7:08 pm

    It is really great, I was looking a plugin like this for a long time. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  15. lisa jones says

    August 28, 2014 at 8:10 pm

    Sounds Like A Great Plug In I Must Do This For My Business!!

    Reply
  16. Melissa Smith says

    August 28, 2014 at 11:30 pm

    This sounds like an awesome plugin! I’m really starting to regret going the Blogger route instead.

    Reply
  17. Rebecca Swenor says

    August 29, 2014 at 11:04 am

    Great information for bloggers. This sounds like a great plugin for the wordpress users. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  18. Tanya Coffman says

    August 29, 2014 at 12:20 pm

    Good tips for those WordPress users.

    Reply
  19. FamiGami says

    August 29, 2014 at 5:29 pm

    What a super cool and useful plugin! It is so robust and perfect for a CMS!

    Reply
  20. Vanessa says

    August 29, 2014 at 5:48 pm

    I like that with this plugin you could use any input source. I appreciate the extensive review!

    Reply
  21. Ann BAcciaglia says

    August 29, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    Thanks for this information. I am in the process of redesigning my site and have been looking for plug in recommendations. I am going to take a look at this plug in.

    Reply
  22. Danielle says

    August 30, 2014 at 4:16 am

    I am not sure I understand all of this. I am sure as time goes on, I would understand it more.

    Reply
  23. Ashley Nicholas says

    August 31, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    I’ll have to make sure mine are working properly! I’ll check with my web designer!

    Reply
  24. Rachael says

    September 1, 2014 at 11:58 pm

    Thanks for sharing this. It will certainly come in handy one of these days! I love wordpress, but still have so much to learn.

    Reply
  25. angele @shoeboxbegone says

    September 2, 2014 at 2:30 am

    sorry – cat stepped on keyboard. thanks for sharing, I love incorporating tables 🙂

    Reply

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