Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

D3.js VS CSS-Tricks

Compare D3.js VS CSS-Tricks and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

D3.js logo 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.

CSS-Tricks logo CSS-Tricks

CSS-Tricks is a website about websites.
  • D3.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-11

D3 allows you to bind arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), and then apply data-driven transformations to the document. For example, you can use D3 to generate an HTML table from an array of numbers. Or, use the same data to create an interactive SVG bar chart with smooth transitions and interaction.

D3 is not a monolithic framework that seeks to provide every conceivable feature. Instead, D3 solves the crux of the problem: efficient manipulation of documents based on data. This avoids proprietary representation and affords extraordinary flexibility, exposing the full capabilities of web standards such as HTML, SVG, and CSS. With minimal overhead, D3 is extremely fast, supporting large datasets and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation. D3’s functional style allows code reuse through a diverse collection of official and community-developed modules.

  • CSS-Tricks Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-02

D3.js features and specs

  • Powerful Visualization
    D3.js allows for the creation of highly customized and interactive data visualizations, harnessing the full power of web standards like SVG, Canvas, and HTML.
  • Data Binding
    It offers robust support for data-driven transformations and binding, enabling intuitive connections between data sets and DOM elements.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    A large and active community contributes to tutorials, plugins, and tools, which can significantly simplify the development process.
  • Flexibility
    D3.js is highly flexible, providing low-level manipulation capabilities without being tied to any specific chart types or patterns.
  • Performance
    It is highly optimized for performance, allowing for efficient rendering of complex visualizations even with large data sets.

Possible disadvantages of D3.js

  • Steep Learning Curve
    D3.js has a steep learning curve due to its low-level nature and requires a solid understanding of JavaScript, DOM manipulation, and data concepts.
  • Complexity
    Creating complex visualizations can be time-consuming and require a significant amount of custom code, making it less approachable for quick, simple tasks.
  • Browser Compatibility
    Although widely supported, some D3.js features may have inconsistent behavior across different browsers, requiring additional testing and debugging.
  • Documentation
    While extensive, D3.js documentation can be challenging for beginners to navigate and understand, causing misunderstandings and slower development times.
  • Dependency Management
    The library itself is modular, but managing dependencies and integrating D3.js with other JavaScript frameworks or libraries can sometimes be problematic.

CSS-Tricks features and specs

  • Comprehensive Content
    CSS-Tricks offers a wide array of tutorials, articles, and guides covering various aspects of CSS, web development, and design. This makes it a valuable resource for both beginners and advanced users.
  • Expert Authors
    Many articles are written by experienced professionals in the industry, ensuring high-quality and reliable information.
  • Community Engagement
    The site has an active community where users can interact, ask for advice, and share experiences. This fosters a collaborative learning environment.
  • Regular Updates
    CSS-Tricks frequently updates its content to reflect the latest trends and best practices in web development, making it a timely resource.
  • Diverse Topics
    In addition to CSS, the site covers a wide range of topics including JavaScript, tooling, design principles, and backend technologies.

Possible disadvantages of CSS-Tricks

  • Overwhelming for Beginners
    The sheer volume of content available can be overwhelming for beginners, making it difficult for them to know where to start.
  • Mixed Quality
    While many articles are written by experts, there's some variability in the quality of the content as it includes guest posts and community contributions.
  • Navigational Complexity
    The site can sometimes be difficult to navigate due to its extensive archive of articles, making it challenging to find specific information quickly.
  • Advertisements
    The site features advertisements, which can be distracting for some users.
  • Steeper Learning Curve
    Some of the content assumes a higher level of prior knowledge, which might intimidate less experienced development practitioners.

Analysis of D3.js

Overall verdict

  • Yes, D3.js is a highly regarded library for data visualization in the web development community.

Why this product is good

  • Flexibility: D3.js provides incredible flexibility in creating complex and interactive visualizations with web standards (SVG, HTML, and CSS).
  • Customization: It allows for high levels of customization, which lets developers create unique and detailed visualizations tailored to their specific needs.
  • Community and Ecosystem: D3.js has a large, active community and a rich ecosystem of plugins and extensions conducive to learning and integration.
  • Data Binding: Offers powerful ways to manipulate documents based on data; the data-driven approach simplifies dynamic interaction creation.
  • Performance: Efficiently manipulates DOM elements and performs well with large datasets if used correctly.

Recommended for

  • Data Scientists and Analysts looking to create custom, interactive visualizations.
  • Web Developers who need to incorporate complex data visualizations into applications.
  • Educators and Researchers presenting data in an engaging way.
  • Anyone needing to build bespoke visualizations that are not possible with off-the-shelf solutions.

Analysis of CSS-Tricks

Overall verdict

  • Yes, CSS-Tricks is considered a great resource for both beginner and experienced developers looking to deepen their understanding of CSS and modern web development techniques.

Why this product is good

  • CSS-Tricks is widely appreciated for its comprehensive tutorials, up-to-date articles on the latest CSS trends, and practical examples that help developers enhance their web design skills. The platform covers a wide range of topics not only in CSS but also related technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and web design best practices.

Recommended for

  • Web developers looking to learn CSS in depth
  • Designers wanting to keep up with the latest CSS trends
  • Front-end developers seeking practical examples and solutions
  • Students learning web design fundamentals

D3.js videos

Data Visualization with D3.js - Full Tutorial Course

More videos:

  • Review - Let's learn D3.js - D3 for data visualization (full course)

CSS-Tricks videos

No CSS-Tricks videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to D3.js and CSS-Tricks)
Charting Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
CSS
0 0%
100% 100
Data Visualization
100 100%
0% 0
Design Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using D3.js and CSS-Tricks. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare D3.js and CSS-Tricks

D3.js Reviews

6 JavaScript Charting Libraries for Powerful Data Visualizations in 2023
Depending on your requirements, the best JavaScript library is D3.js, as it’s by far the most customizable. However, it’s also really complex and difficult to master. Plus, it’s not as compatible with TypeScript as it is with JavaScript, which can be off-putting for some developers. If you’d prefer a less complex library that you can use with TypeScript, ECharts, and...
Source: embeddable.com
15 JavaScript Libraries for Creating Beautiful Charts
When we think of charting today, D3.js is the first name that comes up. Being an open source project, D3.js definitely brings many powerful features that were missing in most of the existing libraries. Features like dynamic properties, Enter and Exit, powerful transitions, and syntax familiarity with jQuery make it one the best JavaScript libraries for charting. Charts in...
Top 20 Javascript Libraries
D3 stands for Data-Driven Documents. With D3, you can apply data-driven transformations to DOM objects. The keyword with D3 is ‘data-driven,’ which means documents are manipulated depending on the data received. Data can be received in any format and bound with DOM objects. D3 is very fast and supports dynamic behavior for animation and interactions. There are plenty of...
Source: hackr.io
20+ JavaScript libraries to draw your own diagrams (2022 edition)
D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Right now, I would say is the most popular library of its kind.
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Another open source tool, D3.js is a JavaScript library for creating custom data visualizations in a web browser. Commonly known as D3, which stands for Data-Driven Documents, it uses web standards, such as HTML, Scalable Vector Graphics and CSS, instead of its own graphical vocabulary. D3's developers describe it as a dynamic and flexible tool that requires a minimum amount...

CSS-Tricks Reviews

We have no reviews of CSS-Tricks yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

D3.js might be a bit more popular than CSS-Tricks. We know about 167 links to it since March 2021 and only 136 links to CSS-Tricks. 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.

D3.js mentions (167)

  • IO Devices and Latency
    Do you mean something for data visualization, or tricks condensing large data sets with cursors? https://d3js.org/ Best of luck =3. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • 2024 Nuxt3 Annual Ecosystem Summary🚀
    Document address: D3.js Official Document. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    D3.js: One of the most popular JavaScript visualization libraries. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • What are npm Peer Dependencies and how to use them?
    A Dependency is an npm package that our code depends on in order to be able to run. Some popular packages that can be added as dependencies are lodash, D3, and chartjs. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Introducing RacingBars 📊
    RacingBars is an open-source, light-weight (~45kb gzipped), easy-to-use, and feature-rich javascript library for bar chart race, based on D3.js. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
View more

CSS-Tricks mentions (136)

View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing D3.js and CSS-Tricks, you can also consider the following products

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

Flexbox Froggy - A game for learning CSS flexbox

Plotly - Low-Code Data Apps

CodePen - A front end web development playground.

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

CSS Grid Garden - A game for learning CSS grid layout