The five best FREE word cloud generators of 2024
Ray Poynter
Word clouds are a popular way of visualizing text information. Most word clouds display the most frequently occurring words in larger fonts and less frequent words in smaller fonts. Word clouds have a long history, dating back to the now-discontinued Wordle.net, and even further to a method of visualizing information called tag clouds.
In this post, I will highlight five excellent free word cloud generators, each suited to different needs and situations. There isn't a single "best" free word cloud generator because different people and situations have different needs. The term "free" can be slightly ambiguous. Some of the tools I will discuss are completely free, while others offer both free and premium options.
The first word cloud generator I'll discuss is our own Word Cloud Plus, which focuses on linking word clouds with insights. Following that, I'll cover two generators that create striking images: Josh Davies and WordArt. MonkeyLearn provides a free word cloud generator and is also a gateway to a wide range of text analytic options. Lastly, OpenAI’s ChatGPT can also produce word clouds.
Word Cloud Plus
Word Cloud Plus creates word clouds for free with a wide range of options to help users uncover insights in their text. It allows users to focus on single words or phrases, manually format words, manually re-arrange words and phrases, and drill down into the phrases that underpin the words and phrases in the cloud.
While the free version is fully featured, a paid-for version with additional extras is also available.
The word cloud below was created from responses to the question, “What makes a good presenter?”
Josh Davies
If you are looking for a replacement for the long-lost Wordle.net, word clouds from Josh Davies offers a good alternative. The site is free to use and is supported by ads. It provides a range of choices in terms of colors, angles, and the number of words to display. However, one limitation is that it treats every word as a separate entity. For example, “Big Data” will be treated as two words, “Big” and “Data”. This is a common limitation among most word cloud generators.
The word cloud below is generated from a test set of data based on open-ended responses to a question about what makes a good presenter.
Word Art
Word Art focuses on the visual impact of its word clouds. Options include the ability to remove common words (i.e., stop words), remove numbers, and use stemming.
A key feature of Word Art is that it allows you to specify an image to contain your word cloud, as shown in the example below. The word cloud is based on the same test data used in the Josh Davies example, describing what makes a good presentation.
Word Art is free to use, but downloading a high-quality image requires a small fee (although the standard download quality is good). Word Art also monetizes by selling items like mugs and t-shirts with your word cloud on them.
MonkeyLearn
MonkeyLearn provides a free word cloud generator capable of working with word combinations rather than just single words. However, MonkeyLearn is more than just a word cloud generator; it links to a wide range of text analytics options, which are paid for. MonkeyLearn has a range of formatting options, including themes, colors, and fonts. The paid version includes sentiment analysis and a keyword extractor.
The cloud below is produced from a smaller set of test data based on mentions of popular soft drinks.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT
ChatGPT is a powerful Generative AI tool that comes in free and paid-for options and can be used for a wide range of tasks. The word clouds it produces can be tricky or limited to edit, but they can be integrated into various analyses. For example, you could upload a document, ask ChatGPT to summarize it, and then add a word cloud to the summary. In the example below, I uploaded the text of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," asked it to summarize it in 100 words, and then produced a word cloud showing the 30 most common phrases, excluding stop words.
Here is the 100-word summary:
"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum is a classic tale following the journey of Dorothy, a young girl from Kansas, who is transported to the magical Land of Oz by a cyclone. Alongside her dog Toto, she befriends the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, each seeking something they lack—brains, a heart, and courage, respectively. They travel to the Emerald City to ask the Wizard of Oz for help. Throughout their journey, they overcome various obstacles and eventually discover that the power to return home was within Dorothy all along. She clicks her silver shoes together and returns to Kansas, wiser for her adventures.
And here is the word cloud it produced:
Do you know of other good word cloud generators?
When we created Word Cloud Plus, we thoroughly reviewed the market and found that Josh Davies, Word Art, and MonkeyLearn were the best options available at that time. We designed Word Cloud Plus to meet unmet needs. Since then, we have added ChatGPT to our list of recommendations for word cloud generation.
However, we might have missed some other word cloud generators, or new ones might have emerged since our review. If you know of other good word cloud generators (especially free ones), please email us.