Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Plotly VS Bokeh

Compare Plotly VS Bokeh and see what are their differences

Plotly logo Plotly

Low-Code Data Apps

Bokeh logo Bokeh

Bokeh visualization library, documentation site.
  • Plotly Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-31
  • Bokeh Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-01

Plotly features and specs

  • Interactivity
    Plotly offers highly interactive plots that allow users to pan, zoom, and hover over data points for more information. This enhances the user experience and provides deeper insights.
  • High-quality visualizations
    It provides aesthetically pleasing and highly customizable charts, making it suitable for publication-quality visuals.
  • Versatility
    Plotly supports multiple chart types including line charts, scatter plots, bar charts, and 3D plots, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.
  • Python integration
    Plotly is well-integrated with Python and works seamlessly with other popular data science libraries like Pandas, NumPy, and Scikit-learn.
  • Web-based
    The plots can be easily embedded in web applications or dashboards, making it ideal for sharing insights over the internet.
  • Open-source
    Plotly offers an open-source version, which allows users to create and share visualizations without any cost.

Possible disadvantages of Plotly

  • Performance
    Rendering very large datasets can sometimes be slow, which may not be suitable for real-time data visualization requirements.
  • Learning curve
    Even though the library is well-documented, the extensive range of features can have a steep learning curve for beginners.
  • Cost for advanced features
    While the basic functionality is free, more advanced features, such as export to certain formats and additional customizable options, require a paid subscription.
  • Dependency management
    Plotly has a number of dependencies that need to be managed properly, which can sometimes complicate the setup process.
  • Complexity
    For simple visualizations, Plotly might be overkill and simpler libraries like Matplotlib or Seaborn could be more appropriate.

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.

Plotly videos

Create Real-time Chart with Javascript | Plotly.js Tutorial

More videos:

  • Review - Introducing plotly.py 3.0
  • Review - Is Plotly The Better Matplotlib?
  • Tutorial - Plotly Tutorial 2021
  • Review - Data Visualization as The First and Last Mile of Data Science Plotly Express and Dash | SciPy 2021

Bokeh videos

"Bokeh" - Netflix Film Review

More videos:

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Plotly and Bokeh)
Data Visualization
88 88%
12% 12
Charting Libraries
77 77%
23% 23
Data Dashboard
87 87%
13% 13
Business Intelligence
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Plotly Reviews

Best 8 Redash Alternatives in 2023 [In Depth Guide]
Plotly is specifically designed for companies who want to build and deploy analytic applications like dashboards using Python, Julia, or R without needing DevOps or Javascript developers.
Source: www.datapad.io
5 Best Python Libraries For Data Visualization in 2023
Plotly is a web-based data visualization toolkit that comes with unique functionalities such as dendrograms, 3D charts, and also contour plots, which is not very common in other libraries. It has a great API offering scatter plots, line charts, bar charts, error bars, box plots, and other visualizations. Plotly can even be accessed from a Python Notebook.
Top 8 Python Libraries for Data Visualization
Plotly is a free open-source graphing library that can be used to form data visualizations. Plotly (plotly.py) is built on top of the Plotly JavaScript library (plotly.js) and can be used to create web-based data visualizations that can be displayed in Jupyter notebooks or web applications using Dash or saved as individual HTML files. Plotly provides more than 40 unique...
5 top picks for JavaScript chart libraries
Plotly is a graphing library that’s available for various runtime environments, including the browser. It supports many kinds of charts and graphs that we can configure with a variety of options.

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 SVG’s or Scalable Vector Graphics. These...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Plotly should be more popular than Bokeh. It has been mentiond 33 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.

Plotly mentions (33)

  • Python for Data Visualization: Best Tools and Practices
    Plotly is perfect for interactive visualizations. You can create interactive charts and graphs that allow users to hover, click, and zoom in. Plotly is also great for web-based visuals, making it easy to share your findings online. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Generative AI Powered QnA & Visualization Chatbot
    Front End: A React application that leverages React-Chatbotify library to easily integrate a chatbot GUI. It also uses the Plotly library to display the charts/visualizations. The generative AI implementation and details are entirely abstracted from the front end. The front-end application depends on a single REST endpoint of the backend application. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Build a Stock Dashboard in less than 40 lines of Python code!🤓
    In this tutorial, Mariya Sha will guide you through building a stock value dashboard using Taipy, Plotly, and a dataset from Kaggle. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Essential Deep Learning Checklist: Best Practices Unveiled
    How to Accomplish: Utilize visualization libraries like Matplotlib, Seaborn, or Plotly in Python to create histograms, scatter plots, and bar charts. For image data, use tools that visualize images alongside their labels to check for labeling accuracy. For structured data, correlation matrices and pair plots can be highly informative. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Python equivalent to power bi/power query?
    For dashboards: - https://plotly.com/ is probably my favourite, but there are others like streamlit, voila and others... Source: over 1 year ago
View more

Bokeh mentions (5)

  • [OC] Chemical Diversity of The GlobalChem Common Chemical Universe
    Visualization: https://docs.bokeh.org/en/latest/. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Profiling workflows with the Amazon Genomics CLI
    Now that we can get task timing information in a consistent manner, let’s do some plotting. For this, I’m going to use Bokeh which generates nice interactive plots. - Source: dev.to / about 3 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 3 years ago
  • Graphic library Bokeh is underrated and underdocumented
    It's not in the least bit "underrated" and it's documentation is extensive. Source: almost 4 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: about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Plotly and Bokeh, 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.

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

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

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

NVD3 - This project is an attempt to build re-usable charts and chart components for d3.

Google Charts - Interactive charts for browsers and mobile devices.