How to Make a Comparison Chart in Google Sheets

Making a clear, compelling comparison chart in Google Sheets doesn't require a data science degree. When you need to see how two products stack up, which marketing campaign performed better, or whether this month's sales beat last month's, a simple chart often tells the story better than a table full of numbers. This tutorial will walk you through exactly how to prepare your data, choose the right chart, and build a great-looking comparison chart in Google Sheets, step-by-step.

First, Choose the Right Chart for a Fair Comparison

Before you even touch your data, it's helpful to know which type of chart will best communicate your comparison. Throwing your numbers into the wrong chart type can obscure your point or even be misleading. Here are the most common chart types used for comparisons and when to use them.

Column Charts and Bar Charts

These are the go-to visuals for making direct comparisons between different categories. They use rectangular bars of varying lengths to show the value of each category.

• Use a Column Chart (vertical bars) when: You're comparing a small number of categories. They are great for showing things like quarterly sales results for two different product lines or feature ratings for competing services.
• Use a Bar Chart (horizontal bars) when: You have long category labels that would be hard to read if they were slanted on a vertical axis, or when you have a larger number of categories to compare. For example, comparing the website traffic driven by ten different bloggers.

Best for: Comparing distinct items against each other on a specific metric (e.g., Price, Speed, Number of Sales).

Line Charts

Line charts are perfect for comparing trends over a continuous period, like time. Each data series is plotted as a line, making it easy to spot trends, spikes, and dips between two or more items.

Best for: Comparing the performance of two or more metrics over time (e.g., Website Sessions from Google vs. Facebook over the last year, revenue from two different stores month-over-month).

Pie Charts

A pie chart is best used to show how individual parts make up a whole. While you can place two pie charts side-by-side for comparison, it's often difficult for the human eye to accurately compare the sizes of the slices. A bar chart or stacked bar chart is usually a much clearer and more effective alternative for comparison.

Use them sparingly for comparisons, but if you must: Use them to compare the composition of two different wholes (e.g., Comparing the percentage breakdown of marketing budgets for Q1 vs. Q2).

Organizing Your Data for Comparison

The secret to a great chart is well-organized data. Google Sheets needs your data structured in a specific way to understand what you want to compare. If your chart looks weird or jumbled, the problem usually starts here.

Follow these simple rules:

• Use clear headers: Your first row should contain descriptive headers for each column.
• First column is for labels: The first column (column A) should list the categories you are comparing (e.g., months, product features, campaign names).
• Subsequent columns for data series: Each column after the first one should contain the numerical data for one of the things you're comparing (e.g., "Product A," "Product B," "2022 Sales," "2023 Sales").

Example Data Structure for a Column Chart

Imagine you're comparing the customer satisfaction scores (out of 5) for two versions of your software across several key features.

Feature,         Version 1.0,  Version 2.0
Ease of Use,     3.8,          4.5
Speed,           3.2,          4.8
Reliability,     4.1,          4.2
Support,         4.0,          4.6

Example Data Structure for a Line Chart

Here you're comparing monthly traffic from two different sources over the first quarter.

Month,      Facebook Ads,    Google Search
January,    1200,            1800
February,   1500,            2100
March,      1350,            2500

By arranging your data this way, you're telling Google Sheets exactly what to plot on the X-axis (the labels in column A) and what data series to compare on the Y-axis (the numbers in columns B, C, etc.).

Step-by-Step: How to Make a Comparison Chart in Google Sheets

Let's build a column chart using our software version comparison data. This process is very similar for other chart types.

Step 1: Select Your Data

Click and drag your mouse to highlight the entire data set, including the headers. In our example, you’d select the cells from A1 to C5.

Step 2: Insert Chart

With your data selected, go to the menu and click Insert > Chart. Google Sheets will automatically analyze your data and create what it thinks is the best chart type, which is often a pretty good guess. A Chart Editor pane will appear on the right side of your screen.

Step 3: Choose the Right Chart Type

If Google Sheets didn't pick the chart you want, you can easily change it. In the Chart Editor pane, under the Setup tab, find the "Chart type" dropdown. Select the "Column chart" (or "Bar chart" if you prefer horizontal bars).

Your basic chart is now created. It should show the features along the bottom and have separate colored bars for "Version 1.0" and "Version 2.0" for each feature.

Customizing Your Comparison Chart for Maximum Clarity

A default chart is a good start, but a few tweaks can make it much easier to read and understand. All customization options are found in the Chart Editor pane under the Customize tab.

1. Add a Strong Title and Axis Labels

Don't stick with the default titles. Give your chart a title that explains exactly what the viewer is looking at.

• Go to the Customize tab.
• Click on Chart & axis titles.
• For "Title text," enter something descriptive, like "Customer Satisfaction: Version 1.0 vs. 2.0."
• You can also add or edit the horizontal (X-axis) and vertical (Y-axis) axis titles here. For our chart, a vertical axis title like "Rating (out of 5)" would be helpful.

2. Adjust Colors for Better Readability

Good color choices can make your comparison pop. You can use brand colors or just a simple, contrasting palette.

• Under the Customize tab, click on Series.
• Use the dropdown to select one of your data series (e.g., "Version 1.0").
• Change its color using the "Color" picker. Repeat this for your second data series ("Version 2.0"). It's often effective to make the "old" or "baseline" version a more neutral color (like grey) and the "new" or "focus" version a brighter, more prominent color.

3. Edit the Legend

The legend tells the viewer what each color represents. You can change its position to declutter your chart area.

• Under the Customize tab, click on Legend.
• Use the "Position" dropdown to move it to the Top, Bottom, Left, Right, or inside the chart. Often, placing it at the top or bottom is cleaner than on the side.

4. Add Data Labels

Sometimes, it's useful to see the exact value of each bar without having to guess based on the axis. Data labels place the number directly on the chart.

• Go to the Series section within the Customize tab.
• Scroll down and check the box for Data labels. Once checked, you can customize the font, color, and position of the labels.

Pro Tip: Adjust the Vertical Axis

To avoid misrepresenting your data, it's almost always a good idea to start your vertical axis at zero. To check this:

• Under the Customize tab, go to Vertical axis.
• Make sure the "Min" value is set to 0. If your values are all very close together (e.g., all between 4.1 and 4.5), Google Sheets might zoom in automatically. Forcing the minimum to 0 ensures you're showing an honest comparison and not exaggerating small differences.

Final Thoughts

Creating a side-by-side comparison chart in Google Sheets is a simple process of organizing your data clearly, selecting it, and using the chart editor to customize the visualization. By choosing the right chart type - like a column chart for categories or a line chart for trends - and polishing the titles and colors, you can turn a lifeless spreadsheet of numbers into a clear, convincing visual story.

Of course, the first step is always getting your data into one place, which can become tedious if you're trying to compare performance across different platforms. We found ourselves constantly downloading CSVs from tools like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Facebook Ads just to manually build these exact comparison reports. That’s why we built Graphed . It connects to all your data sources automatically and lets you build real-time, cross-platform comparison dashboards just by asking a question in plain English, saving you hours of manual reporting work.