In today’s digital age, the visual representation of data has become an essential tool for businesses, organizations, and individuals to make informed decisions. Open-source chart libraries have emerged as a popular solution to create and display visualizations in web applications.
How To Choose The Best JavaScript Charting Library?
JavaScript charting libraries are essential for any data visualization project. With so many options available in the market, it can be challenging to choose the right one that meets your specific needs. In this blog, we will discuss how to choose the best JavaScript charting library.
Determine Your Requirements:
The first step to choosing the right JavaScript charting library is to determine your requirements. Ask yourself what kind of data you want to visualize, what type of chart you need, and what level of customization you require. This will help you narrow down your choices and choose the library that best meets your needs.
Check the Features:
The next step is to check the features of the library. Look for libraries that offer a wide range of chart types, customizable options, and responsive designs. You should also consider the ease of use and the ability to integrate with other frameworks and tools.
Evaluate the Performance:
The performance of the library is also an essential factor to consider. Choose a library that is lightweight and fast, so it doesn’t slow down your application. You can check the performance by looking at benchmarks and user reviews.
Look for Documentation:
Documentation is crucial for any library, and JavaScript charting libraries are no exception. Look for libraries with comprehensive documentation that includes code samples and tutorials. This will help you get up and running quickly and make it easier to troubleshoot any issues.
Consider Support and Community:
Finally, consider the support and community around the library. Look for libraries with an active community that offers support and answers questions. You should also check if the library has a dedicated support team that can help you with any issues you may encounter.
Top 12 Open Source Chart Library in 2023
1. js
D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS. D3’s emphasis on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework, combining powerful visualization components and a data-driven approach to DOM manipulation.
2. Chart.js
Chart.js is a Javascript library that allows designers and developers to draw all kinds of charts using the HTML5 canvas element.
Chart.js offers a great array of simple, clean charts including animated and interactive versions. It’s an easy way to include beautiful and engaging charts on your website for free.
3. Highcharts
Highcharts is a pure JavaScript-based charting library meant to enhance web applications by adding interactive charting capability. Highcharts provides a wide variety of charts. For example, line charts, spline charts, area charts, bar charts, pie charts, and so on.
Highcharts is a software library for charting written in pure JavaScript, first released in 2009. It was created by Highsoft in Vik, Norway, and has been regularly featured in the national media, such as Finansavisen and Dagsrevyen.
4. Google Charts
Google Charts provides a perfect way to visualize data on your website. From simple line charts to complex hierarchical tree maps, the chart gallery provides a large number of ready-to-use chart types. The most common way to use Google Charts is with simple JavaScript that you embed in your web page
5. Plotly.js
Built on top of the Plotly JavaScript library (plotly.js), Plotly enables Python users to create beautiful interactive web-based visualizations that can be displayed in Jupyter notebooks, saved to standalone HTML files, or served as part of pure Python-built web applications using Dash.
6. NVD3
NVD3. js is a JavaScript visualization library that is free to use and open source. It’s derived from the well-known d3. js visualization library. When used the right way, this library can be extremely powerful for everyday tasks and even business operations
7. C3.js
C3 is a JavaScript library that builds on top of D3. D3 is also a JavaScript library used to make complex visualizations. D3 is too advanced, often we just want to add a simple graph to a webpage to show some statistics. C3 allows us to do that without knowing all the complexity of D3 by wrapping it up into a simple API.
8. Chartist.js
Chartist. Js is a charting library. Provides a simple configuration override mechanism based on media queries, and simple responsive charts.
9. FusionCharts
FusionCharts is typically targeted to developers who wish to integrate interactive charts in their reports, dashboards, analytics, monitors, and surveys.
10. Taucharts
Taucharts is a JavaScript charting library. It is based on the D3 framework and Grammar of Graphics concepts. Taucharts has a perfect visual design, it is flexible and powerful, and can be extended with plugins.
11. ZingChart
ZingChart offers the flexibility and resources to create stunning visualizations. We offer over 100 chart types to fit your data. Our unique features like zooming and interactive legends help your users get interactive. And our CSS-like styling allows you to creatively customize your charts.
12. AMCharts
AmCharts JavaScript product lineup includes classic charts like Line, Area, Column, Bar, Pie, XY, Scatter, Candlestick, and OHLC as well as more “exotic” ones like Gauges, Funnels, GANTT, Stock Chart to display large amounts of financial and other date-based data, and fully interactive adaptive world or local country maps.
Fully functional products are available for free (with a small backlink) for any type of use, as well as in paid commercial form for all kinds of usage scenarios.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are many open-source chart libraries available in 2023, but we have explored the best 12 in this blog post. Each of these libraries has its unique features, advantages, and limitations, making them suitable for different data visualization needs.
If you’re looking for a react native chart library that offers advanced charting features, D3.js, and Plotly.js are excellent choices.
For interactive and dynamic charting, Chart.js and Highcharts are great options. If you want to create complex dashboards with a range of visualizations, you may want to consider Apache Superset or Grafana.
Other libraries like Google Charts, Chartist.js, and Frappe Charts offer simplicity, ease of use, and flexibility, making them ideal for small-scale projects or beginners. Additionally, OpenChart and MetricsGraphics.js are excellent options if you’re looking for a library specializing in creating charts for scientific and statistical data.
