Top 5 inforgraphic sites you need to register

Infographics can be useful for explaining business processes and logistics, or for explaining the size, scope, scale or nuance of a project or service. Here are five of the best tools for putting together your own business infographics.

Visual.ly

Visual.ly requires no special training and offers slick templates for putting together quick infographics. You can start using it for free to quickly and easily illustrate a business process. You could craft a diagram showing how a product gets manufactured, for example, or how a widget flows through a supply chain. You could even demonstrate how a small company is structured.

There are simple templates you can use to illustrate a Google analytics report or the life of a Twitter hashtag. Some people use Visual.ly to turn big batches of numbers into orderly graphics that convey a clear message, like this one by NowNovel.com on the booming market for ebooks.

If you’re unsure which template to use for your project, a process infographic created with Visual.ly explains what type of infographic to use for various purposes. In the marketplace section of the site, you can pay $999 for a professional infographic customized for your brand, or negotiate for a custom motion graphic or even an interactive infographic.

Infogr.am and Easel.ly
Infogr.am and Easel.ly are good alternatives to Visual.ly that are likewise easy to use. Infogr.am lets you import Excel data and add Vimeo or YouTube videos to make engaging graphics. One user imported survey data to create a graphic illustrating a survey of mobile app users. Nearly 150,000 visuals have already been created with Easel.ly, which offers well-designed starter templates, like this sleek U.S. map with a data overlay.

PiktoChart

An alternative site, PiktoChart.com, offers a small starter set of six templates for free. A pro account includes more than 100 templates and more than 1,000 icons and images to use in your graphics. That costs $29 monthly or $169 annually. If you want Piktochart to make a graphic for your brand, the startup charges $700 for a custom-designed finished product. The site emphasizes simple, clean design and even advises users how to create a story in their graphics — from comparing health costs by state to illustrating the four qualities of an effective startup pitch.

InfoActive

On the horizon is a cool new service called InfoActive, which just won a startup accelerator award at the March 2013 South by Southwest festival in Austin. The service allows users to customize an entire page with graphics, headlines, charts and more. InfoActive is looking for VIP beta testers as it prepares for a public launch.