Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

D3.js VS Panel

Compare D3.js VS Panel 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.

Panel logo Panel

High-level app and dashboarding solution for Python
  • 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.

  • Panel Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-28

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.

Panel features and specs

  • Flexibility
    Panel provides a flexible framework for creating interactive web applications, dashboards, and complex visualizations using Python, allowing developers to leverage their existing Python code without needing to switch to JavaScript or another language.
  • Integration with HoloViz Ecosystem
    Panel integrates seamlessly with other HoloViz tools like HoloViews, GeoViews, and Datashader, enhancing its capabilities for building rich, data-visualization-centric applications.
  • Support for Multiple Backends
    It supports multiple backends, including Bokeh, Plotly, and Matplotlib, giving developers the flexibility to choose their preferred plotting library for rendering their visualizations.
  • Dynamic and Reactive Features
    Panel supports dynamic and reactive UI components that update automatically as data changes, facilitating the creation of interactive and live data applications.
  • Easy Deployment
    Applications built with Panel can be easily deployed on the web using various options, including deploying on Heroku, AWS, or with simple HTTP servers, which helps in transitioning from development to production.

Possible disadvantages of Panel

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For those unfamiliar with the HoloViz ecosystem or Python-based web development, there can be a steep learning curve associated with mastering Panel and its related tools.
  • Performance Limitations
    While Panel is powerful, it may not perform as well as JavaScript-native solutions for extremely high-frequency, real-time data updates due to the overhead of Python-to-JavaScript communication.
  • Limited Community and Resources
    Although growing, the community and resources are not as extensive as some other more-established frameworks like React or Angular, which may lead to a lack of readily available support or third-party plugins.
  • Complexity with Large Applications
    As applications grow in size and complexity, managing state and ensuring efficient communication between components can become challenging.
  • Dependency on Python Environment
    Panel applications require a running Python environment, which can complicate deployment or hosting compared to purely static or client-side applications.

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.

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)

Panel videos

Ready To Love S7 E8 PANEL REVIEW WITH SPECIAL GUEST #readytolove

More videos:

  • Review - Solar Panel Shenanigans Bluetti Review
  • Review - BLUETTI PV420 420w Water Resistant Portable Solar Panel Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to D3.js and Panel)
Charting Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Data Visualization
100 100%
0% 0
Web App
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using D3.js and Panel. 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 Panel

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...

Panel Reviews

We have no reviews of Panel yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, D3.js seems to be a lot more popular than Panel. While we know about 167 links to D3.js, we've tracked only 10 mentions of Panel. 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 / 5 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

Panel mentions (10)

  • Show HN: Manganite – Quickly turn Jupyter notebooks into web apps
    Manganite allows easy conversion of Jupyter notebooks into dashboards. Simply annotate existing notebooks with Jupyter magics and serve them as interactive web apps. Manganite has been created to empower master and doctoral students in econ and management to turn research notebooks into interactive dashboards. The students use Python for data analysis, math programming, and basic machine learning. Instead of... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • What python library you are using for interactive visualisation?(other than plotly)
    Https://panel.holoviz.org/ It's a web app framework for Python similar to what Dash does for plotly. It plays nicely with bokeh visuals and I think the front-end is built using bokeh css elements. Source: about 2 years ago
  • How to approach GIS and which language to use
    If you want to build Python dashboards, look at the solara (react-style lib, https://solara.dev/) and panel (https://panel.holoviz.org/). Source: about 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Fastest way to turn a Jupyter notebook into a website these days?
    My suggestion is https://panel.holoviz.org/ Fully open sourced, makes it easy to make reactive apps with small changes, can even configured as a graphical REPL. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Updating a page with MQTT
    I am doing something like this in a [panel](https://panel.holoviz.org/) dashboard, which I am currently converting to nicegui. Maybe I can provide an example in some days. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing D3.js and Panel, you can also consider the following products

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

Streamlit - Turn python scripts into beautiful ML tools

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

Dash by Plotly - Dash is a Python framework for building analytical web applications. No JavaScript required.

Plotly - Low-Code Data Apps

Turtle - New kind of anonymous messaging app