Comparison of open-source software for producing directed acyclic graphs

TL;DR

This paper compares five popular open-source software packages for creating directed acyclic graphs, evaluating their features, usability, and suitability for different research needs.

Contribution

It provides a systematic comparison of five DAG software tools through practical examples and offers guidance on their optimal use cases.

Findings

DAGitty and igraph handle complex structures well.

ggdag offers user-friendly visualization options.

TikZ is flexible but less user-friendly for non-programmers.

Abstract

Many software packages have been developed to assist researchers in drawing directed acyclic graphs (DAGs), each with unique functionality and usability. We examine five of the most common software to generate DAGs: TikZ, DAGitty, ggdag, dagR, and igraph. For each package, we provide a general description of the its background, analysis and visualization capabilities, and user-friendliness. Additionally in order to compare packages, we produce two DAGs in each software, the first featuring a simple confounding structure, while the second includes a more complex structure with three confounders and a mediator. We provide recommendations for when to use each software depending on the user's needs.