Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ApexCharts VS Plotly.js

Compare ApexCharts VS Plotly.js and see what are their differences

ApexCharts logo ApexCharts

Open-source modern charting library ๐Ÿ“Š

Plotly.js logo Plotly.js

Open-source JavaScript charting library behind Plotly and Dash - plotly/plotly.js
  • ApexCharts Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-08

ApexCharts is a modern charting library that helps developers to create beautiful and interactive visualizations for web pages.

  • Plotly.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-26

ApexCharts

$ Details
Platforms
Web Browser JavaScript
Release Date
2018 July

ApexCharts features and specs

  • Interactive Charts
    ApexCharts provides visually appealing and interactive charts that enhance user experience through intuitive data visualization.
  • Wide Range of Chart Types
    It supports an extensive variety of chart types including line, bar, area, pie, and radar, allowing developers to choose the best representation for their data.
  • Customization Options
    ApexCharts offers extensive customization options enabling developers to adjust colors, labels, grids, and other chart elements to fit their needs.
  • Responsive Design
    Charts created with ApexCharts are responsive, which means they adjust elegantly to different screen sizes and devices.
  • Easy Integration
    ApexCharts can be easily integrated with popular front-end frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular, making it a versatile solution.
  • Detailed Documentation
    Comprehensive documentation is available to help developers quickly get up to speed and utilize all features effectively.
  • Performance
    ApexCharts is optimized for performance, ensuring that charts load efficiently even with large datasets.

Possible disadvantages of ApexCharts

  • Licensing Cost
    While ApexCharts offers a free version, advanced features and additional support come under a paid licensing model, which might be a constraint for some users.
  • Limited Free Feature Set
    The free tier offers a limited set of features compared to the paid plans, which could restrict functionality for organizations not looking to invest.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite good documentation, leveraging advanced features and customizations can have a steep learning curve for new users.
  • Dependency
    ApexCharts requires dependency on JavaScript and frameworks which might be a limitation if your project has restrictions against external libraries.
  • Community Support
    While there is community support available, it may not be as extensive or active compared to some other charting libraries.
  • Browser Compatibility
    Although generally compatible with modern browsers, some features may not perform consistently across all older browser versions.

Plotly.js features and specs

  • Interactive Visualizations
    Plotly.js provides highly interactive charting capabilities, allowing users to hover, zoom, and pan easily within charts, enhancing the user experience.
  • Wide Range of Chart Types
    The library supports a comprehensive variety of chart types, from simple line and bar charts to more complex types like histograms, scatter plots, and even 3D and geographic plots.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Plotly.js works seamlessly across different platforms and browsers, ensuring consistent chart rendering and functionality whether used on desktops or mobile devices.
  • Customizable
    Users have a high degree of control over the appearance and behavior of plots, with numerous options to customize colors, legends, tooltips, and more.
  • Integration with Dash
    Plotly.js integrates well with the Dash framework, enabling the creation of interactive web applications that are highly visual and data-driven.

Possible disadvantages of Plotly.js

  • Performance Concerns
    Rendering very large datasets can be slow, potentially impacting the performance of the application, particularly in resource-constrained environments.
  • Complexity
    For users new to the library, the learning curve can be steep due to the extensive options and configurations available.
  • Size of Library
    Plotly.js has a relatively large file size, which can be a concern for web applications where minimizing load times and data transfer is critical.
  • Limited Free Features
    Certain advanced features and functionalities may require a paid subscription to Plotly's services, which may not be ideal for all users or projects.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies and ensuring compatibility with other JavaScript libraries can sometimes pose challenges, especially in complex applications.

Analysis of ApexCharts

Overall verdict

  • ApexCharts is a reputable and reliable choice for developers looking for a versatile charting library. Its ease of use and comprehensive feature set make it a solid option for both beginners and experienced developers.

Why this product is good

  • ApexCharts is a popular JavaScript charting library known for its simplicity, flexibility, and responsiveness. It offers a wide range of chart types and is highly customizable, making it suitable for various data visualization needs. The library is well-documented, has an active community, and integrates easily with popular frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular.

Recommended for

    Developers and data scientists who need to create interactive and responsive charts quickly. It's also suitable for teams working on projects that require visually appealing and highly customizable data visualizations.

ApexCharts videos

This week on Github Filament, Taskbook, Docz, Apexcharts, Mint Lang | #CodingPhase

Plotly.js videos

[Beginner] Simple Bar Chart | React Plotly.js

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Create Real-time Chart with Javascript | Plotly.js Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ApexCharts and Plotly.js)
Data Dashboard
100 100%
0% 0
Charting Libraries
81 81%
19% 19
Libraries
0 0%
100% 100
Data Visualization
89 89%
11% 11

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare ApexCharts and Plotly.js

ApexCharts Reviews

6 JavaScript Charting Libraries for Powerful Data Visualizations in 2023
ApexCharts was first released in 2018. Itโ€™s one of the least โ€œmatureโ€ and yet most easy to use options on the list. Thanks to being open source and exceptionally user-friendly, ApexCharts has boomed in popularity in recent years and gets far more weekly downloads than more established tools like Plotly or FusionCharts.
Source: embeddable.com

Plotly.js Reviews

15 JavaScript Libraries for Creating Beautiful Charts
Plotly.js is the first scientific JavaScript charting library for the web. It has been open-source since 2015, meaning anyone can use it for free. Plotly.js supports 20 chart types, including SVG maps, 3D charts, and statistical graphs. Itโ€™s built on top of D3.js and stack.gl.
Top 10 JavaScript Charting Libraries for Every Data Visualization Need
Plotly.js is a high-level JavaScript library, free and open-source. It is built on D3.js and WebGL, so can be used to create many different chart types including 3D charts to statistical graphs.
Source: hackernoon.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ApexCharts should be more popular than Plotly.js. It has been mentiond 15 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

ApexCharts mentions (15)

  • How to Make Large Time-Series Charts Smooth in Vue.js + ApexCharts (and fix Zoom & Scroll behavior issues)
    ApexCharts is an excellent library for creating interactive charts, and integrating it in [Vue.js (https://vuejs.org) is really a piece of cake. However, when it comes to displaying a time-series chart with thousands of points, the performance can suffer, sometimes causing the page to freeze during the rendering or when the user zooms or navigates through the data. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Gathering Hyrox Race Insights with Python
    If you wanted to take this one step further, you could instead export the data and build an entire app around it using something like ApexCharts or D3 to create more interactive visualisations. You could even build a dashboard that tracks your performance over time across multiple races. Lots of interesting possibilities here as the data set is pretty rich. I highly recommend checking out the pyrox-client... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Building a financial dashboard with HTML5, TailwindCSS v4, and Vanilla JavaScript
    This is a basic HTML structure that includes Google Fonts, ApexCharts (for placeholder charts), and links to your compiled CSS and JavaScript files. The body includes classes for light and dark modes. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Optimizing Line Chart Performance with LTTB Algorithm
    When working with large datasets, rendering all points in a line chart can cause significant performance issues. For example, plotting 50,000 data points directly can overwhelm the browser and make the chart unresponsive. Tools like amCharts and ApexCharts struggle with such datasets, while ECharts performs better but still isn't optimized for extremely large datasets. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Level Up Your Web App with Stunning React Charts: Introducing the Top 10 React Charts Libraries
    ApexCharts is a modern charting library that helps developers to create beautiful and interactive visualizations for web pages. It is an open-source project licensed under MIT and is free to use in commercial applications. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
View more

Plotly.js mentions (4)

  • Weekly JavaScript Roundup: Friday Links 17, February 07, 2025
    Plotly.js - Open-source JavaScript charting library behind Plotly and Dash. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: What packages can be used to create interactive mathematics simulations?
    Well, MathML[1] support is (nearly) everywhere now, and as the docs say: MathML Core is a subset with increased implementation details based on rules from LaTeX and the Open Font Format. It is tailored for browsers and designed specifically to work well with other web standards including HTML, CSS, DOM, JavaScript. I don't have a lot of experience working with this stuff (yet) but if you can script your... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • What's new in Matplotlib 3.7.0 (Feb 13, 2023)
    Plotly offers multiple options (python, R, javascript). The weby stuff is done with plotly.js and uses d3.js underneath - https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • How to decide between Dash versus Flask + React + Plotly.js?
    So you didn't use Django DRF as the backend? I'm just curious how Dash communicated with Django - did it communicate via plain HTTP calls? I guess you ran non-React Plotly.js (https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js)? Source: about 5 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing ApexCharts and Plotly.js, you can also consider the following products

Chart.js - Easy, object oriented client side graphs for designers and developers.

D3.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.

Highcharts - A charting library written in pure JavaScript, offering an easy way of adding interactive charts to your web site or web application

nivo - nivo provides a rich set of dataviz components

Vizzu - Vizzu lets you use animated charts to share insights in complex data sets as self-explanatory stories.

Matplotlib - matplotlib is a python 2D plotting library which produces publication quality figures in a variety...