Free Online Sunburst Chart Maker
Make a sunburst chart free online, no signup. Visualize multi-level hierarchies as concentric rings with interactive drill-down, then export PNG, SVG.
Create Your Sunburst Chart Now — It's FreeWhat Is a Sunburst Chart?
Each segment's angular size is proportional to its value relative to its parent, offering an intuitive radial view of nested relationships. Sunburst charts are visually striking and effective for exploring nested category structures. Key components include the concentric ring layers, colored segments within each ring, proportional angular sizing, labels on each segment, and interactive drill-down capability for deeper exploration.
What Data You Need for a Sunburst Chart
A sunburst chart needs hierarchical data: one label column where each row is the full path "Parent > Child" (separators >, /, or | all work) plus one numeric value column for the leaf. Parent ring totals are summed automatically from their children, so you supply a number only at the deepest level. Example rows: "Videos > Raw footage" 4200, "Videos > Rendered exports" 1800, "Photos > RAW" 2400.
When to Use a Sunburst Chart
Sunburst charts are popular in data exploration tools and interactive dashboards. They work best with 2-4 hierarchy levels; more than 4 makes outer rings too thin. Choose sunburst charts over treemaps when the hierarchical relationships and nesting structure are the primary message. Choose them over pie charts when you need multiple levels of detail. The interactive drill-down capability makes them especially useful for exploratory data analysis. They are also commonly found in business intelligence tools for visualizing budget allocations broken down by division, team, and project.
Where a Sunburst Chart Works Best
- Auditing disk or cloud storage from top folders down through subfolders and file types to spot what's eating space.
- Breaking a company budget into nested rings — division, then department, then line item — to show where money is allocated.
- Mapping website traffic by channel (Organic, Paid, Social) and the campaign or source nesting beneath each channel.
- Visualizing a product category taxonomy or org structure where the nesting itself is the message and viewers need to drill into branches.
Sunburst Chart Example: Cloud Storage Audit
A media studio audits 9.4 TB of cloud storage to decide what to archive. The inner ring shows three top folders (Videos, Photos, Documents); the outer ring splits each into file types so the team can see exactly where space is going.
Sample data: Videos>Raw footage=4200, Videos>Rendered exports=1800, Photos>RAW=2400, Photos>JPEG=600, Documents>PDFs=300, Documents>Spreadsheets=100 (GB)
Videos alone consume 6,000 GB — 63.8% of all storage and over half the total — while Documents take just 400 GB (4.3%). The single Raw footage leaf is 4,200 GB, 70% of the Videos ring and 44.7% of everything, making it the clear archive target. Videos and Photos together account for 95.7% of usage, so trimming media is the only change that moves the needle.
How to Create a Sunburst Chart Online
- Step 1: Open ChartLoad and select the Sunburst chart type from the chart picker on the main page
- Step 2: Enter your hierarchical data with parent-child relationships defined in the data editor
- Step 3: Inner rings automatically represent top-level categories while outer rings display their subcategories
- Step 4: Click on any segment to drill down into that branch and explore deeper levels of the hierarchy
- Step 5: Customize the segment colors, label fonts, ring thickness, and title for a polished presentation
- Step 6: Click Export and download your sunburst chart as PNG, PDF, SVG, JPEG, or WebP
Sunburst Chart Best Practices & Tips
- Limit hierarchy depth to 2-4 levels — outer rings become too thin to read or interact with beyond that.
- Use the interactive drill-down feature to let viewers explore deeper levels without cluttering the overview.
- Choose a color palette that distinguishes parent segments clearly since children inherit similar hues.
- Label only the inner rings directly and rely on hover tooltips for the narrow outer rings.
- Sunburst charts are ideal when the hierarchical nesting structure itself is the main insight to communicate.
- Export the static sunburst as SVG for reports and use the interactive version in dashboards for drill-down.
- Consider providing a table view alongside the sunburst chart for audiences who prefer tabular data.
- Use breadcrumb navigation alongside the sunburst chart to show the current drill-down path and let users navigate back to parent levels easily without losing their exploration context.
Common Sunburst Chart Mistakes to Avoid
- Stacking more than about 4 levels deep — outer rings become razor-thin slivers with unreadable labels, which defeats the whole point of a sunburst.
- Supplying values at both parent and leaf levels so children don't sum to the parent total; this breaks the part-of-whole math and produces arc widths that misrepresent the real proportions.
- Reaching for a sunburst when categories are flat and non-hierarchical — with only one level, a pie or bar chart shows the same data more clearly and a sunburst just adds visual noise.
- Giving every segment a distinct random color instead of tinting children from their parent's hue, which destroys the visual grouping that lets viewers read the hierarchy at a glance.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a sunburst chart used for?
A sunburst chart visualizes hierarchical, part-of-whole data as concentric rings, with the inner ring as the top level and each outer ring a deeper level. It's used for things like budgets, file-system storage, sales by region/country/product, and any nested categories where you want to see how the whole breaks down across 2-4 levels.
Is the ChartLoad sunburst chart generator free?
Yes. The sunburst chart maker is 100% free with no signup, no watermark, and no usage limits. You can build an interactive chart and export it as PNG, SVG, PDF, JPEG, or WebP at no cost.
How do I make a sunburst chart in Excel?
Excel has a built-in sunburst (Insert > Charts > Hierarchy > Sunburst), but it lacks interactive drill-down and offers limited styling and export options. ChartLoad runs in your browser, adds click-to-zoom drill-down, and exports vector SVG, so it's faster for sharing and embedding without owning Excel.
What's the difference between a sunburst chart and a treemap?
Both show hierarchical part-of-whole data, but a sunburst uses radial concentric rings while a treemap uses nested rectangles. Choose a sunburst when the ring-by-ring nesting structure is the story and you want interactive drill-down; choose a treemap when you need to compare exact area sizes of many leaf nodes in a compact space.
Can I make an interactive sunburst chart with drill-down online?
Yes. ChartLoad's online sunburst chart is interactive by default — click any segment to zoom into that subtree and explore deep hierarchies branch by branch, then click back out. No code or install required; it runs entirely in your browser.
Related Chart Types
Ready-Made Sunburst Chart Templates
Skip the blank canvas — open a free, editable Sunburst Chart template, swap in your own data, and export. Browse all templates.
Ready to Create Your Sunburst Chart?
No signup. No watermark. 100% free.
Start Creating Now