Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Vis.js VS Bokeh

Compare Vis.js VS Bokeh and see what are their differences

Vis.js logo Vis.js

A dynamic, browser based visualization library.

Bokeh logo Bokeh

Bokeh visualization library, documentation site.
  • Vis.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-22
  • Bokeh Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-01

Vis.js features and specs

  • Interactive Visualization
    Vis.js allows for the creation of interactive and dynamic data visualizations, enhancing user engagement and making data exploration intuitive.
  • Wide Range of Visual Options
    It supports various types of visualizations, including 2D/3D graphs, timelines, networks, and charts, providing flexibility for different use cases.
  • Customization
    Users can extensively customize the appearance and behavior of visualizations, allowing for tailor-made solutions that match specific needs.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source library, Vis.js is free to use and allows for community contributions, fostering continuous improvement and transparency.
  • Ease of Integration
    Vis.js can be easily integrated into various web projects, thanks to its compatibility with modern JavaScript frameworks and libraries.

Possible disadvantages of Vis.js

  • Performance Issues with Big Data
    Handling very large datasets can lead to performance bottlenecks, resulting in slow rendering times and reduced interactivity.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its powerful features, new users might face a steep learning curve, especially when dealing with advanced customization and configuration.
  • Limited Documentation
    The documentation, while helpful, can be sparse or outdated at times, making it challenging for users to find detailed information on certain features or issues.
  • Browser Compatibility
    Some advanced visualizations may not render consistently across all browsers, particularly older versions, which can limit accessibility.
  • Dependency Management
    Keeping track of dependencies and ensuring compatibility with other libraries and frameworks can be cumbersome, especially in larger projects.

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.

Vis.js videos

Twitter data visualisation into the browser with vis.js

Bokeh videos

"Bokeh" - Netflix Film Review

More videos:

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Vis.js and Bokeh)
Charting Libraries
39 39%
61% 61
Diagrams
100 100%
0% 0
Data Visualization
46 46%
54% 54
Data Dashboard
49 49%
51% 51

User comments

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Reviews

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

Vis.js Reviews

20+ JavaScript libraries to draw your own diagrams (2022 edition)
Vis.js is a dynamic, browser-based visualization library. The library is designed to be easy to use, handle large amounts of dynamic data, and enable manipulation of the data. This project is also abandoned.

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, Vis.js should be more popular than Bokeh. It has been mentiond 12 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.

Vis.js mentions (12)

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 Vis.js and Bokeh, you can also consider the following products

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

Plotly - Low-Code Data Apps

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

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

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.

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.