What Is a Radar Chart?

A radar chart plots three or more quantitative variables on axes that radiate outward from a shared center point, spaced evenly around a circle. Each variable — a skill, a criterion, a score category — gets its own axis, and a dataset's value on that axis is marked as a point along it. Connecting every point for one dataset draws a closed polygon, and that polygon's overall shape is the whole point: a radar chart lets you read "how balanced is this thing across every criterion at once" in a single glance, which a bar chart or table can't do nearly as directly.

The parts of a radar chart

• Axes (also called spokes) — one straight line per variable, radiating from the center. This tool places axis i of N total axes at angle 2π × i / N, walking clockwise starting straight up, so the axes are always evenly spaced regardless of how many you add.
• Rings (gridlines) — concentric circles or polygons marking scale increments, like rings on a target. This tool lets you pick 3–6 gridlines; more rings give finer-grained reading, fewer keep the chart visually cleaner.
• The polygon — the shape formed by connecting one dataset's plotted point on every axis. A dataset strong in every category draws a shape that fills most of the chart; a dataset strong in a few categories and weak in others draws a lopsided, spiky shape — that asymmetry is the signal radar charts are built to show.
• The scale — how far out from center a given value sits. It can auto-scale to your highest entered value (the default, so the chart always fills the available space) or use a manual fixed max you set yourself.

Also called: spider chart, web chart, star chart

These are all the same chart type under different common names — none is more "correct" than another, they're just different communities' preferred term. "Spider chart" and "web chart" both reference the visual resemblance to a spider's web once several polygons overlap; "star chart" references the pointed shape a single lopsided dataset draws. See radar chart vs spider chart for more on the terminology.

When a radar chart is genuinely the right choice

Radar charts do one job well: comparing a handful of items (ideally 2–4) across several shared criteria (ideally 4–8) where every criterion is measured on the same or a comparable scale. That covers a specific, recurring set of real use cases: skill or attribute comparisons (an RPG character sheet, a personal skills self-assessment), product or vendor comparisons across specs, performance-review competency scores, and survey results broken into categories. See worked examples on the templates and examples page.

When it's the wrong choice

Radar charts get misused often enough that it's worth naming the failure modes directly. They're a poor fit for time-series data (a line or bar chart shows a trend over time far more clearly than a radar chart ever will). They struggle past roughly 8–10 axes, since labels start to crowd and the polygon becomes hard to read — see how many axes is too many. And they can visually mislead when the axes don't share a comparable scale or meaning — stacking "revenue in millions" and "customer satisfaction out of 10" on the same radar chart produces a shape that looks meaningful but isn't, because the two axes aren't measuring anything comparable. If your data doesn't have at least 3 genuinely comparable criteria and at least 2 things to compare across them, a bar chart or a plain table is usually the more honest choice.

Building one

Using this tool: add an axis row for each criterion, name up to 4 datasets to compare, enter one value per axis per dataset, and the chart draws itself live as you type — no chart-library setup, no spreadsheet menu-hunting. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you enter is uploaded or stored. Export the result as a free PNG or SVG (small watermark) when you're done.

What's the minimum number of axes for a radar chart?

Three — fewer than that doesn't form a closed polygon shape, which is the entire visual point of the chart.

Can a radar chart show just one dataset?

Yes — a single polygon on its own is still readable and useful (it shows that one item's balance across criteria), though radar charts earn their keep most clearly when 2 or more overlapping polygons are being compared directly.

Is a radar chart the same as a pie chart?

No — a pie chart shows parts of a single whole (shares that add up to 100%); a radar chart shows independent values across separate axes that don't need to sum to anything.

→ Build a chart (free)