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Matplotlib VS Bokeh

Compare Matplotlib VS Bokeh and see what are their differences

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Contents:
  1. ยป Base Details
  2. ยป Videos
  3. ยป Reviews
  4. ยป Alternatives

Matplotlib logo Matplotlib

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

Bokeh logo Bokeh

Bokeh visualization library, documentation site.
  • Matplotlib Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-14
  • Bokeh Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-01

Matplotlib features and specs

  • Versatility
    Matplotlib can generate a wide variety of plots, ranging from simple line plots to complex 3D plots. This versatility makes it a go-to library for many scientific and technical visualizations.
  • Customization
    It offers extensive customization options for virtually every element of a plot, including colors, labels, line styles, and more, allowing users to tailor plots to meet specific needs.
  • Integrations
    Matplotlib integrates well with other Python libraries such as NumPy, Pandas, and SciPy, making it easier to plot data directly from these sources.
  • Community and Documentation
    It has a large, active community and comprehensive documentation that includes tutorials, examples, and detailed references, which can help users solve problems and improve their plot-making skills.
  • Interactivity
    Matplotlib supports interactive plots, which can be embedded in Jupyter notebooks and GUIs, allowing for dynamic data exploration and presentation.
  • Publication-Quality
    The library is capable of producing high-quality, publication-ready graphics that meet the stringent requirements of academic journals and professional presentations.

Possible disadvantages of Matplotlib

  • Complexity
    While Matplotlib offers extensive customization, it can be complex and sometimes unintuitive for beginners, requiring a steep learning curve to master all its functionality.
  • Performance
    Rendering a large number of plots or handling very large datasets can be slow, making Matplotlib less suitable for real-time data visualization.
  • Modern Aesthetics
    Out-of-the-box plots from Matplotlib can look somewhat dated compared to those from newer plotting libraries like Seaborn or Plotly, requiring additional customization to achieve a modern look.
  • 3D Plots
    Although Matplotlib supports 3D plotting, its capabilities are relatively limited and less sophisticated compared to specialized 3D plotting libraries.
  • Size and Structure
    The package is relatively large and can be slow to import. Its extensive structure can make finding specific functions and understanding the overall architecture challenging.

Bokeh features and specs

  • Interactive Visualizations
    Bokeh is designed specifically for creating interactive and highly customizable visualizations, making it suitable for engaging data exploration.
  • Python Integration
    Bokeh integrates well with the Python ecosystem, allowing direct use of pandas, NumPy, and other Python libraries, facilitating seamless data manipulation and visualization.
  • Web Compatibility
    Bokeh generates plots that are ready to be embedded into web applications, making it a powerful tool for creating dashboards and interactive reports.
  • Server Functionality
    Bokeh provides a server component that allows users to build and deploy sophisticated interactive applications using just Python.
  • Variety of Plotting Options
    Bokeh offers a wide range of plotting capabilities including charts, maps, and streamgraphs, enabling users to create complex visual stories.

Possible disadvantages of Bokeh

  • Learning Curve
    Bokeh may have a steeper learning curve for users unfamiliar with JavaScript or those looking for a very simple or quick plotting tool.
  • Performance Issues
    When dealing with very large datasets, Bokeh might suffer from performance issues, as it is primarily client-side rendering.
  • Limited 3D Capabilities
    Bokeh's support for 3D plotting is limited compared to other visualization libraries like Plotly, potentially restricting its use for applications that require 3D visualizations.
  • Documentation and Community Size
    While Bokeh has good documentation, its user community is smaller compared to more mature libraries like Matplotlib, which can mean fewer resources and third-party support options.

Analysis of Matplotlib

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Matplotlib is a good library for data visualization, particularly for users who require a versatile and powerful plotting solution in Python.

Why this product is good

  • Matplotlib is highly regarded due to its extensive customization options, versatility in creating a wide range of static, animated, and interactive plots, and its large user community and support. It integrates well with other scientific libraries in Python, making it a staple for data visualization. The library is also open-source and frequently updated, ensuring it remains a reliable choice for users.

Recommended for

  • Data scientists and analysts needing to create detailed, customized visual representations of their data.
  • Researchers and engineers looking for a comprehensive plotting library that supports scientific and engineering formats.
  • Python developers who require integration with other scientific computing libraries like NumPy and Pandas.

Analysis of Bokeh

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Bokeh is a good choice for data visualization, particularly if you need to create interactive, high-quality plots that can be shared and displayed on the web.

Why this product is good

  • Bokeh is a powerful and interactive visualization library for Python that is known for its ability to create elegant, scalable, and versatile graphics. It is especially useful for creating web-ready, interactive plots that can be easily embedded into web pages or applications. Bokeh is praised for its intuitive and flexible interface, making it a great choice for both simple and complex visualizations.

Recommended for

  • Data scientists who need to create interactive visualizations for data exploration.
  • Web developers looking to incorporate dynamic plots into their applications.
  • Educators and researchers who need to present data interactively in a web-based format.
  • Anyone seeking a versatile tool compatible with various data formats and capable of producing real-time streaming plots.

Matplotlib videos

+ Add

Learn Matplotlib in 6 minutes | Matplotlib Python Tutorial

Bokeh videos

+ Add

"Bokeh" - Netflix Film Review

More videos:

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Matplotlib and Bokeh)

Matplotlib

Bokeh

Data Science And Machine Learning
100 100%
Data Science And Machine Learning
0% 0
Charting Libraries
0 0%
Charting Libraries
100% 100
Technical Computing
100 100%
Technical Computing
0% 0
Data Dashboard
66 66%
Data Dashboard
34% 34

User comments

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Reviews

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

Matplotlib Reviews

25 Python Frameworks to Master
Matplotlib is a widely used tool for data visualization in Python. It provides an object-oriented API for embedding plots into applications.
Source: kinsta.com
5 Best Python Libraries For Data Visualization in 2023
You can use this library for multiple purposes such as generating plots, bar charts, histograms, power spectra, stemplots, pie charts, and more. The best thing about Matplotlib is you just have to write a few lines of code and it handles the rest by itself. Metaplotilib focuses on static images for publication along with interactive figures using toolkits like Qt and GTK.
Source: www.technotification.com
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Matplotlib is an open source Python plotting library that's used to read, import and visualize data in analytics applications. Data scientists and other users can create static, animated and interactive data visualizations with Matplotlib, using it in Python scripts, the Python and IPython shells, Jupyter Notebook, web application servers and various GUI toolkits.
Source: searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com
Top Python Libraries For Image Processing In 2021
Matplotlib is primarily used for 2D visualizations such as scatter plots, bar graphs, histograms, and many more, but we can also use it for image processing. It is effective to get information out of an image. It doesnโ€™t support all file formats.
Source: www.analyticsvidhya.com
Top 8 Python Libraries for Data Visualization
Matplotlib is a data visualization library and 2-D plotting library of Python It was initially released in 2003 and it is the most popular and widely-used plotting library in the Python community. It comes with an interactive environment across multiple platforms. Matplotlib can be used in Python scripts, the Python and IPython shells, the Jupyter notebook, web application...
Source: www.geeksforgeeks.org

Bokeh Reviews

Top 8 Python Libraries for Data Visualization
Pygal is a Python data visualization library that is made for creating sexy charts! (According to their website!) While Pygal is similar to Plotly or Bokeh in that it creates data visualization charts that can be embedded into web pages and accessed using a web browser, a primary difference is that it can output charts in the form of SVGโ€™s or Scalable Vector Graphics. These...
Source: www.geeksforgeeks.org

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Matplotlib seems to be a lot more popular than Bokeh. While we know about 114 links to Matplotlib, we've tracked only 5 mentions of Bokeh. 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.

Matplotlib mentions (114)

  • The soul file
    In February, an AI agent named MJ Rathbun submitted a pull request to matplotlib โ€” the Python plotting library used by half the scientific computing world. Scott Shambaugh, a volunteer maintainer, rejected it. Standard code review. Nothing unusual. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • How to Analyze CSV Files with Python and Pandas
    Numbers are useful, but sometimes itโ€™s easier to spot patterns when you can actually see your data. Pandas works seamlessly with Matplotlib, a popular Python library for creating visualizations. Together, they make it easy to turn raw numbers into clear charts. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • libmalloc, jemalloc, tcmalloc, mimalloc - Exploring Different Memory Allocators
    We are storing the results in JSON files, which we combine, analyze and visualize using matplotlib in Python. Here's the structure of a benchmark result file:. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Building an AI Scoring Agent: Step-By-Step
    NetworkX and Matplotlib were used to visualize the graph structure of the agent. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Top 5 GitHub Repositories for Data Science in 2026
    The book introduces the core libraries essential for working with data in Python: particularly IPython, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Scikit-Learn, and related packages Familiarity with Python as a language is assumed; if you need a quick introduction to the language itself, see the free companion project, Aโ€ฆ. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
View more

Bokeh mentions (5)

  • [OC] Chemical Diversity of The GlobalChem Common Chemical Universe
    Visualization: https://docs.bokeh.org/en/latest/. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Profiling workflows with the Amazon Genomics CLI
    Now that we can get task timing information in a consistent manner, letโ€™s do some plotting. For this, Iโ€™m going to use Bokeh which generates nice interactive plots. - Source: dev.to / over 4 years ago
  • 10 Python Libraries For Data Visualization
    Bokeh The Bokeh library is native to Python and is mainly used to create interactive, web-ready plots, which can be easily output as HTML documents, JSON objects, or interactive web applications. Like ggplot, its concepts are also based on the Grammar of Graphics. It has the added advantage of managing real-time data and streaming. This library can be used for creating common charts such as histograms, bar plots,... - Source: dev.to / over 4 years ago
  • Graphic library Bokeh is underrated and underdocumented
    It's not in the least bit "underrated" and it's documentation is extensive. Source: about 5 years ago
  • Help with Bokeh Interactive Plot
    Hi guys! I am currently working on a project to enrich my Master thesis with some interactive plots. I have been using the Bokeh library to make a standalone application, which I was then planning to deploy in Heroku. You can find the code in this repository. But I will also add it at the bottom of the post. Source: over 5 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Matplotlib and Bokeh, you can also consider the following products

Pandas - Pandas is an open source library providing high-performance, easy-to-use data structures and data analysis tools for the Python.

Plotly - Low-Code Data Apps

NumPy - NumPy is the fundamental package for scientific computing with Python

RAWGraphs - RAWGraphs is an open source app built with the goal of making the visualization of complex data...

Seaborn - Seaborn is a Python data visualization library that uses Matplotlib to make statistical graphics.

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.

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