Technologies are described herein for ranking visualization types. In order to rank the visualization types, visualization metadata is generated for each of the visualization types and data set metadata is generated for the data set. A suitability score is then computed based upon the visualization metadata and the data set metadata through the use of data mapping rules and chart selection rules. The visualization types are then ranked according to the computed scores. A user interface may then be displayed that includes visual representations corresponding to the visualization types that are ordered according to the ranking. One of the visual representations may then be selected to apply the corresponding visualization type to the data set.