Sigma.js vs VOSviewer
Sigma.js
sigmajs.orgVOSviewer
vosviewer.comSide by side
| Figure | Sigma.js | VOSviewer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Graph Visualization Tools Software | 8.0 (#8) | 7.4 (#9) |
| Data sources | Graphology graph data; CSV can be processed with Graphology before rendering | The software supports data from Web of Science, Scopus, Dimensions, Lens, PubMed, Crossref, Europe PMC, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, OpenCitations, and WikiData. |
| Purpose | Sigma.js is a WebGL-powered JavaScript library for interactive graph visualization in the browser. | VOSviewer constructs and visualizes bibliometric networks and can visualize co-occurrence networks of terms extracted from scientific literature. |
| Support resources | The project links to documentation, GitHub, and Stack Overflow, and its documentation includes guides and an API reference. | The site provides a manual with detailed and up-to-date functionality information, along with a video, book chapter, and paper. |
Plans
In their own words
VOSviewer
VOSviewer constructs and visualizes bibliometric networks, including networks of terms found together in scientific literature. It supports networks based on citation, bibliographic coupling, co-citation and co-authorship, drawing on sources including Web of Science, Scopus, Dimensions, Lens, PubMed, Crossref, Europe PMC, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, OpenCitations and WikiData. Analysis tools include network layout and clustering, English-language text mining, fractional counting and thesaurus-based data cleaning. Visualizations include density and overlay views, with zooming and scrolling; high-resolution screenshots can be saved as bitmap or vector files. VOSviewer Online runs in a browser, opens JSON and map and network files, and shares visualizations through links, QR codes or embeddable HTML. The stand-alone version can share through Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox. The software is available for Windows, macOS, Linux and the web; the download page also offers a JAR version for other systems. Running it requires Java 8 or higher. The maker describes its analyses as useful to research institutions and research funders. VOSviewer can be used freely for any purpose.