Next Generation Clustered Heat Maps (NG-CHMs) are not the only software package that allows interactive access to the data in clustered heat maps. Other popular interactive heat map packages include ClusterGrammer2, Java Treeview 3, and Morpheus.
They share many of the features available in NG-CHMs, but none of them have all of the features that are included in NG-CHMs nor provide as many alternatives for building or customizing the heatmaps.
| Category | Feature | NG-CHM Viewer | NG-CHM Builder | NG-CHM R Package | ClusterGrammer2 | Java Treeview 3 | Morpheus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project Activity | Last Updated | May 2023 | May 2023 | Nov 2022 | Sept 2021 | May 2020 Dev Stopped | July 2022 |
| Map Navigation | Pan | Y | Y | Window scrollbar only | Window scrollbar only | ||
| Zoom | Y | Y | Buttons only | +/- keys or fit to window | |||
| Other integrated modules/tools | Dimensionality reductions plots | Y | N | N | Y | ||
| Pathway visualization modules | Y | N | N | N | |||
| Matrix Layers | Maximum Cells | Limited by RAM | 12250000 | Limited by RAM | ~1,000,000 | Limited by RAM | Not specified |
| Support for Multiple Data Layers | Y | N | Y | N | N | Y, via matrix overlays | |
| Grid Controls | Y | Y | Y | N | N | Y | |
| Gap Controls | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | |
| Matrix Data Histogram | Y | ? | N | N | N | ||
| Matrix History Undo Feature | Y | N | N | N | N | ||
| Can import matrix containing covariates/categories | Y | ? | Y | N | N | ||
| Ordering / Clustering / Filtering | Row/Column Ordering | Y | Y | Y | Restricted | Y | |
| Order map by original matrix order | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | ||
| Row/Column Clustering | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Dendrogram display options (Visibility and Height) | Y | Y | Y | Only one slice | N | Y | |
| Filter data | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | ||
| Covariates / Categories | Support for discrete or continuous covariates | Y | Y | Y | Y | Calculated only | |
| Show/Hide Covariates | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | ||
| Reorder Covariates | Y | Y | Y | Via API only | N | ||
| Covariate plot types supported | color, bar, scatter | color, bar, scatter | color, bar, scatter | color bar | color | ||
| Coloring | User Defined Breakpoints | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y |
| User Defined Colors For Map | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | |
| User Defined Colors For Covariates | Y | Y | Y | N | N | ||
| Predefined Color Palettes | Y | Y | N | N | Y | Y | |
| Color Histogram | Y | Y | N | N | N | N | |
| Set Selection Color | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | |
| Labels | Label Controls for Trimming Labels | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N |
| Column Label Types (e.g. samples, cells) | configurable | configurable | configurable | Y | N | Y | |
| Support non-visible fields attached to labels | Y | Y | N | N | N | ||
| Search for labels | Y | Y | Y | Y | |||
| Copy Selected Labels to clipboard | Y | N | N | Y | |||
| Top Items (Highlight certain items on map) | Y | Y | Y | N | N | N | |
| Missing Data | Missing Data Handling | Y | Y | Y | ? | Y | Y |
| Set missing data color | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | |
| Data Selection | Select Area by mouse drag | Y | Y | Rows only | N | ||
| Select Area by dendrogram portion | Y | by cluster | Y | N | |||
| Select Area by range of labels | Y | N | Y | Y | |||
| Select non-congruent sections by labels | Y | N | N | Y | |||
| Select Area by covariate value | Y | N | N | Y | |||
| Data Download or Images | Download Matrix | Y | Y | N | Y | ||
| Download values of selected area to a file | Y | Y | N | Y | |||
| Copy Bar data for selected labels | Y | N | N | Y | |||
| Copy Bar data for entire covariate/category | Y | N | N | N | |||
| Zip download of heatmap | Y | N | N | N | |||
| Download SVG or PNG | N | N | N | Y | N | N | |
| Download PDF | Y | N | N | Y | |||
| Interactivity With Other Systems | Embeddable in other systems | Y | Y | Y | N | Possibly, no examples | |
| Dynamic Link Outs / Plug-in Architecture for Labels | Y (dozens) | Y | N | N | N | ||
| Dynamic Link Outs / Plug-in For Covariates/Categories | Y | Y | Y | N | N | ||
| Performance | Matrix Load Speed - Builder | fast | fast | fast | fast | Slow for large maps | |
| Map Load Speed - Viewer | fast | medium-fast | fast | Slow for large maps | |||
| How builder limits map size | By matrix size, rows, or columns | By available RAM | By total matrix size | By available RAM | Out of memory errors for some large maps | ||
| Error message quality | High | High | Medium | High | ? | Low |