What are custom visuals in Power BI?

Custom visuals in Power BI refer to third-party visualizations that enhance the representation of data beyond the built-in visuals provided by Power BI. These custom visuals can be developed using the Power BI Developer Tools and offer unique functionalities or aesthetic options that are not available in the standard library. This allows users to cater specific visual needs based on their data storytelling requirements or to provide more tailored insights to their audience.

While built-in standard visualizations are useful for a wide range of common data representations, custom visuals expand the possibilities significantly. Users can access these custom visuals from the Microsoft AppSource marketplace, making it easy to discover and integrate new visualization types into their reports. This flexibility is particularly valuable for organizations seeking to differentiate their reports or require specialized visualizations for unique datasets.

On the other hand, standard visuals are those included by default in Power BI; they do not require additional downloads. The notion that custom visuals are only available for paid subscriptions is misleading, as many custom visuals are completely free to use regardless of the subscription level. Lastly, static charts are contrary to the design of most custom visuals in Power BI, which are specifically intended to provide interactive experiences to users, allowing them to drill down into data or make selections that change the information displayed.