Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PlantUML VS C3.js

Compare PlantUML VS C3.js and see what are their differences

PlantUML logo PlantUML

PlantUML is an open-source tool that uses simple textual descriptions to draw UML diagrams.

C3.js logo C3.js

D3-based reusable chart library that enables deeper integration of charts into web applications
  • PlantUML Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-22
  • C3.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-01-08

PlantUML features and specs

  • Simple Syntax
    PlantUML uses a plain text language that is easy to learn, making it accessible for both technical and non-technical users.
  • Quick Diagram Creation
    Due to its straightforward text-based syntax, diagrams can be created and modified quickly without the need for a graphical interface.
  • Version Control Friendly
    Diagrams are stored as text files, making them easy to manage with version control systems like Git.
  • Integrations
    PlantUML integrates well with many other tools and platforms including IDEs (e.g., IntelliJ, VSCode), documentation generators (e.g., Doxygen, Sphinx), and project management tools.
  • Wide Range of Diagrams
    PlantUML supports a variety of UML and non-UML diagrams, including sequence diagrams, use case diagrams, class diagrams, and more.
  • Open Source
    PlantUML is an open-source tool, which makes it free to use and allows for community contributions and extensions.

Possible disadvantages of PlantUML

  • Learning Curve
    While the syntax is simple, users unfamiliar with text-based diagramming may need time to become proficient.
  • No GUI
    PlantUML lacks a graphical user interface (GUI), which might be a disadvantage for users who prefer drag-and-drop diagram creation.
  • Complex Diagrams
    For very complex diagrams, the text-based syntax can become cumbersome and hard to manage.
  • Rendering Limitations
    The style and formatting options are less flexible compared to some dedicated graphical diagramming tools.
  • Performance
    For large diagrams, the text-to-diagram rendering process can be slow.
  • Security Concerns
    Using PlantUML with remote server options might raise security issues, particularly when dealing with sensitive information.

C3.js features and specs

  • Easy to Use
    C3.js provides a simple and convenient way to create charts. Its API is designed to be easy to understand, making it accessible for both novice and experienced developers.
  • Customization
    The library offers a high degree of customization options, allowing developers to tweak the appearance and behavior of charts to meet specific requirements.
  • Integration with D3.js
    C3.js is built on top of D3.js, enabling it to leverage the extensive capabilities of D3.js while providing a more user-friendly API.
  • Responsiveness
    C3.js charts are responsive by default, meaning they automatically adjust to different screen sizes, which is essential for modern web applications.
  • Documentation
    Comprehensive documentation and a variety of examples make it easier for developers to get started and effectively use the library.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source project, C3.js is freely available, and the community can contribute to its development, ensuring continuous improvements and updates.

Possible disadvantages of C3.js

  • Performance
    For complex visualizations and large datasets, C3.js may not perform as fast as other specialized charting libraries.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    While offering a good range of basic chart types, C3.js lacks some of the advanced features and chart types found in more comprehensive charting libraries.
  • Dependency on D3.js
    As C3.js is built on top of D3.js, it inherits some of D3.js's complexity. Developers sometimes need to understand D3.js to fully utilize C3.js's capabilities.
  • Maintenance and Updates
    The pace of updates and new releases is slower compared to some other libraries, which can be an issue for projects requiring the latest features and bug fixes.
  • Size
    C3.js, along with its dependency D3.js, can add significant size to the project, which may impact the performance of web applications, especially on slower networks.

PlantUML videos

PlantUML - beautiful quick diagrams to explain your models

More videos:

  • Review - Folge16 - PlantUML und IntelliJ
  • Tutorial - PlantUML Gizmo Tutorial: Google Docs Add-on
  • Review - Mermaid vs PlantUML vs HackerDraw: Which One Is Best For You?
  • Review - Using PlantUML For Diagrams In A GitLab Wiki

C3.js videos

No C3.js videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PlantUML and C3.js)
Diagrams
96 96%
4% 4
Charting Libraries
0 0%
100% 100
Flowcharts
100 100%
0% 0
Data Dashboard
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 PlantUML and C3.js

PlantUML Reviews

Top 7 diagrams as code tools for software architecture
PlantUML is a tool that allows you to write diagrams such as sequence, object, component, usecase, class diagrams and more.
5 great diagramming tools for enterprise and software architects
PlantUML is an open source tool and syntax that allows you to make sequence, use case, class, object, and other diagrams from code. It also supports non-UML diagrams like JSON and YAML. In addition, it enjoys support from ArchiMate, ERD, Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), and other common notation styles. Its simple, plain-text definitions make creating, sharing, and...
Source: www.redhat.com
Software Diagrams - Plant UML vs Mermaid
For C4 Models, Mermaid support is still experimental. This shows as you have little control over the way the diagram is rendered, and some parts are unreadable (i.e., arrows over nodes). PlantUML works as you would expect and has support for more advanced setup like sprites. Not even close on this one. Winner: PlantUML
9 Best UML Software For Mac & PC
PlantUML is another free open source sequence diagram software that uses text input to build UML charts. PlantUML requires using a specific PlantUML Language to construct sequence charts but once learned it’s very flexible.
Source: machow2.com
40 Open Source, Free and Top Unified Modeling Language (UML) Tools
PlantUML is a component that allows users to quickly write sequence diagrams, usecase diagrams, class diagrams, activity diagrams, component diagrams, state diagrams, deployment diagrams, object diagrams and wireframe graphical interfaces. Diagrams are defined using a simple and intuitive language. Images can be generated in PNG, SVG or LaTeX format and it is also possible...

C3.js Reviews

5 top picks for JavaScript chart libraries
C3.js is another easy-to-use JavaScript library for creating charts. It uses the D3 graphics library, so to create a chart with it, we’ll need both D3 and the C3 library itself.

Social recommendations and mentions

PlantUML might be a bit more popular than C3.js. We know about 12 links to it since March 2021 and only 11 links to C3.js. 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.

PlantUML mentions (12)

  • Owning my own data, part 1: Integrating a self-hosted calendar solution
    That particular diagram seems to have been generated by https://plantuml.com according to the image's metadata. - Source: Hacker News / 28 days ago
  • Common Mistakes in Architecture Diagrams (2020)
    I have to confess I am guilty of this — I used to just draw some unstructured circles and arrows on a whiteboard and call it enough. Lately I've been trying to work my way through lots of different diagram types from https://plantuml.com/, and it does help to wrap my mind around the existing options. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • LLM + Mermaid: How Modern Teams Create UML Diagrams Without Lucidchart
    Today, tools like Mermaid and PlantUML have taken center stage, thanks to their ability to generate diagrams with text-based commands. Even better, AI-powered assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, and GitHub Copilot have made generating diagrams even easier. These tools work directly within a developer's environment, creating diagrams that are version-controlled and integrated seamlessly into workflows. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Blockdiag – simple diagram images generator – blockdiag 1.0 documentation
    While inactive blockdiag was small and nice for automatically annotating documentation. As you can see it hasn't been maintained for a few years. https://github.com/blockdiag/blockdiag With complex diagrams, I find good old PlantUML diagrams more useful if not as initially pretty as mermaid. Plus it will output archimate without having to touch that UI https://plantuml.com/ But really it is horses for courses.... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Introduction to Haskell Diagrams
    Use a high-level language like Plant UML, D2, Graphviz which are good for the purpose they are designed for, but not for generic purpose diagramming. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
View more

C3.js mentions (11)

  • Tracking Real-time GitHub Dashboard Commits
    The dashboard is a mashup of GitHub, the PubNub Data Stream Network, and D3 chart visualizations powered by C3.js. When a commit is pushed to GitHub, the commit metadata is posted to a small Heroku instance which publishes it to the PubNub network. We’re hosting on dashboard page on GitHub pages. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Graph libraries
    I've been using https://c3js.org/ forever with vue. Works with v3 just fine. However, I'm very interested to see what others are using. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Teclis – Non-commercial web search
    Yes! I found https://c3js.org/ which is exactly what I want for my personal project. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • [OC] I spent the last 18 months of lockdown pouring my soul into a website that allows you to visualize virtually every U.S. company's international supply chain. E.g. What products, how much, which factories and where does Walmart import from? (Just type a company in the search box)
    C3.js is actually something that I like to use on top of D3, specifically for POC's and things like that. It wraps the D3 code in something a little more semantic, provides an API for updating the chart/data, and makes the UI easier to style after the chart is generated. Purely a preference thing, but might be useful in some cases. Source: over 3 years ago
  • [C3.js][TypeScript] Draw line charts 1
    C3.js | D3-based reusable chart library. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing PlantUML and C3.js, you can also consider the following products

draw.io - Online diagramming application

UMLGraph - UMLGraph is a professional automated drawing tool that allows the designers the declarative specification and drawing of UML class and sequence diagram.

yEd - yEd is a free desktop application to quickly create, import, edit, and automatically arrange diagrams. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix/Linux.

Dia - Dia is a GTK+ based diagram creation program for GNU/Linux, MacOS X, Unix, and Windows, and is released under the GPL license.

LucidChart - LucidChart is the missing link in online productivity suites. LucidChart allows users to create, collaborate on, and publish attractive flowcharts and other diagrams from a web browser.

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.