Algorithm Visualizer
Free website that animates algorithms and data structures from code you write.
- Stars
- 49.4k
- Forks
- 7.6k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- JavaScript
- Last update
- 2.4 years ago
- Type
- App
No commits in over a year — check for forks or alternatives before adopting.
What it is
Algorithm Visualizer is an interactive web platform that turns algorithm code into step-by-step animations. You write or pick code in a supported language, and the site shows how the algorithm's data changes as it runs. People use it to learn how sorting, searching and other algorithms behave, since watching the steps is often easier than reading them.
- Open the live site and step through a sorting algorithm's animation
- Browse the algorithm collection in the side menu of the website
- Read the tutorials, articles and videos listed as learning resources
- Explore visualization libraries for other languages in the tracers repositories
Great for
- Students learning sorting, searching, or data structures for the first time
- Teachers who want a visual aid for explaining algorithm behavior
- Developers who want to see how a familiar algorithm moves its data
- Anyone who prefers seeing an algorithm in motion over reading pseudocode
Not ideal for
- People who only need to run or deploy code, since the README describes it as a learning platform (reason: its focus is visualization, not production tooling)
- Users who need a fully offline tool, since the README presents it as an online platform (reason: the main experience is the hosted website)
How to get it
- 1
Use it in the browser (or self-host)
Clone the main repository
git clone https://github.com/algorithm-visualizer/algorithm-visualizer - 2
Run it
- Open https://algorithm-visualizer.org/ in a web browser
- Choose an algorithm from the side menu
- Run the animation and step through its actions
- Read the linked tutorials or articles for more background
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Use the side menu to browse the algorithm collection, which the README says is maintained in a separate algorithms repository
- Read the tutorials, articles and videos the README links to for learning context
- Check the tracers repositories if you want visualization libraries for other programming languages
- See CONTRIBUTING.md if you want to add or fix visualizations
Downloads
Strengths
- Free to use on the hosted website, with an interactive visual view of algorithm steps
- Open source under the MIT license, so the code can be read and reused
- Includes learning resources alongside the visualizations
Trade-offs
- The README is short and does not document how to run the project locally, so setup details are unclear
- Depends on the hosted site and a multi-repository ecosystem, which can make the full setup harder to follow
- Last push in the metadata is June 2024 and there are no published releases, so activity status is uncertain
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| algorithm-visualizer (this) | 49.4k | App | beginner | 2.4 years ago | Students learning sorting, searching, or data structures for the first time |
| algorithms | 25.6k | Library | beginner | 1 months ago | Students studying data structures and algorithms |
| motion-canvas | 19.6k | Framework | intermediate | 4 months ago | Developers who are comfortable with TypeScript and want code-driven animation |
| G2 | 12.7k | Library | intermediate | 8 days ago | Front-end developers adding charts to a web dashboard |
| Python | 226k | Learning resource | beginner | 17 days ago | Students learning algorithms and data structures |
| javascript-algorithms | 197k | Learning resource | beginner | 3 months ago | Students learning core computer science concepts in JavaScript |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.