Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Highcharts VS Backtrader

Compare Highcharts VS Backtrader 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.

Highcharts logo Highcharts

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

Backtrader logo Backtrader

Backtrader is a complete and advanced python framework that is used for backtesting and trading.
  • Highcharts Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-16
  • Backtrader Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-30

Highcharts features and specs

  • Customization
    Highcharts provides extensive options to customize chart appearance and functionality, allowing for a tailored and specific data visualization experience.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility
    Highcharts ensures compatibility across a wide range of browsers, making charts accessible to users regardless of their browser preferences.
  • Wide Range of Chart Types
    Offers a broad spectrum of chart types, including line, bar, pie, scatter, and more, catering to various data visualization needs.
  • Interactive Features
    Includes numerous interactive features such as tooltips, zooming, and clickable points, enhancing user engagement with the data.
  • Strong Community and Support
    Has an active community and provides extensive documentation, forums, and professional support options to assist users in overcoming challenges.
  • Performance
    Optimized for high performance, allowing for the rendering of large datasets without significant lag or performance issues.
  • Exporting and Sharing
    Built-in options for exporting charts to various formats (PNG, JPEG, PDF, etc.) and sharing them easily.

Possible disadvantages of Highcharts

  • Cost
    Highcharts is not free for commercial use, which may be a drawback for small businesses or individual developers with limited budgets.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Despite comprehensive documentation, the abundance of features and customization options can result in a steeper learning curve for new users.
  • Dependency on JavaScript
    As a JavaScript library, Highcharts requires a solid understanding of JavaScript, making it less accessible for developers not familiar with the language.
  • Limited Free Support
    While there is a free support forum, professional support options are paid, which can be a limitation for users needing urgent assistance without extra costs.
  • Mobile Responsiveness
    Although Highcharts provides some support for mobile responsiveness, achieving optimal performance and displays on all device types may require additional customization.

Backtrader features and specs

  • Versatility
    Backtrader supports a wide variety of data sources and formats, as well as different types of financial instruments, allowing for extensive backtesting and live trading capabilities.
  • Community and Documentation
    The platform has a strong community and comprehensive documentation, making it easier for new users to get started and for experienced users to troubleshoot and optimize their strategies.
  • Python Integration
    Written in Python, Backtrader allows users to leverage Python's extensive ecosystem of libraries for data analysis, machine learning, and other financial computations.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, users can modify and extend the platform to meet their specific trading and testing needs without restrictions, and contribute to its development.
  • Flexibility in Strategy Design
    Backtrader offers a flexible and intuitive framework to design complex trading strategies, enabling users to test multiple strategies with different parameters efficiently.

Possible disadvantages of Backtrader

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Despite its flexibility, new users may find Backtrader's extensive features and options overwhelming, requiring a significant amount of time to learn and effectively utilize.
  • Performance Issues
    For very large datasets, Backtrader might experience performance bottlenecks or require additional optimization, as Python is not the fastest language for high-frequency backtesting.
  • Limited Technical Support
    As a community-driven open-source project, Backtrader might lack the formal technical support and customer service that comes with commercial trading platforms.
  • Complexity in Live Trading
    Transitioning from backtesting to live trading can require significant additional setup and potential custom development, especially in integrating broker APIs.
  • Outdated Resources
    Some educational materials and tutorials may be outdated, leading to confusion due to interface or feature updates that are not well-documented.

Analysis of Highcharts

Overall verdict

  • Highcharts is a strong choice for those seeking a robust and feature-rich charting library. Its popularity among developers and businesses stems from its reliability and comprehensive feature set.

Why this product is good

  • Highcharts is considered good because it offers a wide range of chart types and is highly customizable. It is known for its detailed documentation, ease of use, and cross-platform compatibility. Additionally, Highcharts provides extensive support and a variety of integrations with popular frameworks, making it a versatile choice for developers.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking for a user-friendly and customizable charting library.
  • Projects that require extensive interactive data visualizations.
  • Businesses that need a reliable and professionally supported charting solution.
  • Teams using web technologies and frameworks like Angular, React, or Vue for front-end development.

Highcharts videos

Angular 2 & HighCharts Quick-Tip: Dynamic Data & Draggable Points (2016)

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to define the custom colors for Highcharts?
  • Review - Data Visualization HighCharts

Backtrader videos

Backtrader Python Review

More videos:

  • Review - Algorithmic Trading with Python and Backtrader (Part 1)
  • Review - Backtrader Live Forex Trading with Interactive Brokers (Part 1)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Highcharts and Backtrader)
Data Dashboard
100 100%
0% 0
Finance
0 0%
100% 100
Data Visualization
100 100%
0% 0
Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Highcharts and Backtrader

Highcharts Reviews

6 JavaScript Charting Libraries for Powerful Data Visualizations in 2023
However, you might need to pay for additional packages to get exactly what you’re looking for. The Highcharts Core package includes all the essentials (like line, bar, area, and pie charts) but Maps, Gantt, and Stock chart packages are all extra. In terms of cost, this makes Highcharts somewhat less scalable, depending on the budget available for your project.
Source: embeddable.com
15 JavaScript Libraries for Creating Beautiful Charts
Highcharts is another very popular library for building graphs. It comes loaded with many different types of cool animations that are sufficient to attract many eyeballs to your website. Just like other libraries, Highcharts comes with many pre-built graphs like spline, area, areaspline, column, bar, pie, scatter, etc. The charts are responsive and mobile-ready. Besides,...
Best Data Visualization Tools
For companies that want to embed interactive visualizations in their online content, look no further than Datawrapper. Highcharts is another great option for embedding interactive content into your sites, though it’s not as easy for non-specialists as Datawrapper.
Source: neilpatel.com
Top 10 JavaScript Charting Libraries for Every Data Visualization Need
Highcharts is one of the most comprehensive and popular JavaScript charting libraries based on HTML5, rendering in SVG/VML. It is lightweight, supports a wide range of diverse chart types, and ensures high performance.
Source: hackernoon.com
The Best Data Visualization Tools - Top 30 BI Software
Highcharts is a battle-tested SVG-based, multi-platform charting library that has been actively developed since 2009. Its JavaScript API integrates easily, and features robust documentation, advanced responsiveness and industry-leading accessibility support. You can add interactive, mobile-optimized charts to your web and mobile projects. Charts are rendered in SVG and a VML...
Source: improvado.io

Backtrader Reviews

We have no reviews of Backtrader yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Backtrader seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 3 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.

Highcharts mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Highcharts yet. Tracking of Highcharts recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Backtrader mentions (3)

  • My reality of trading and how i wish i had never started.
    I do like what I see and hear about backtrader.com. I would say they are a notable exception to my general rule of not trusting or using backtesting frameworks. However, I still think it is important to understand how the framework you are using works. So if you are using backtrader for backtesting you still need to put in the time to understand the backtesting engine. Source: about 2 years ago
  • My reality of trading and how i wish i had never started.
    What about backtrader.com? And I feel like it would be step 2 after you at least have something to backtrade and test haha. Source: about 2 years ago
  • I need to know what can go wrong with my 'masterplan'
    Backtesting is basically applying your strategy on historical price data to see if it makes money. I've used Backtrader it works decently well: https://backtrader.com/. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Highcharts and Backtrader, you can also consider the following products

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.

quantra - A public API for quantitative finance made with Quantlib

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

Quantopian - Your algorithmic investing platform

Google Charts - Interactive charts for browsers and mobile devices.

QuantConnect - QuantConnect provides a free algorithm backtesting tool and financial data so engineers can design algorithmic trading strategies. We are democratizing algorithm trading technology to empower investors.