When it comes to visualizing data, choosing the right chart can make all the difference. The right visual not only makes your data easy to understand but also helps convey the insights more effectively.  

In this article, we’ll explore when to use pie charts and when to opt for stacked column charts, using a simple example of sales data segmented by product and country. We’ll show you why pie charts might not always be the best choice for complex data, and how stacked column charts can provide a more streamlined view.

This comparison was inspired by Thomas Martins, whose thoughtful insights on visualizations continue to guide my understanding of chart choices. Check out his excellent post here.


Pie Chart vs. Stacked Column Chart: A Comparison
When visualizing data in Power BI, both Pie Charts and Stacked Column Charts have their strengths and weaknesses. Understanding when to use each one can make a significant difference in how clearly your data story is communicated.

Pie charts work well for simple cases – like visualizing one field over values. However, as soon as the data becomes more complex, such as adding more fields, it quickly loses effectiveness by becoming overcrowded, making it difficult to compare contributions or even distinguish between slices due to color limitations.

In this demonstration, we compared two products, “Paseo” and “VTT”, and segmented their sales by country. For each product, we created a separate pie chart because the pie chart is already sliced by country. So, to display multiple products, you need multiple pie charts—one per product. If we had sliced the pie by product, we would need separate pies for each country. This quickly becomes inefficient as the number of products or countries increases.

In contrast, the Stacked Column Chart simplifies this. We used a single visual to show both products, with each column representing a product and segmented by country. This approach is much cleaner, especially when dealing with more products, allowing for clear comparisons within a single chart, without the need for multiple visuals.