In 2018 I collated an in-depth article on the best data visualization and charting libraries available for JavaScript. In this new 2021 edition, I will be re-rounding up the best, latest, and up-and-coming charting libraries and going into detail about their chart type availability, features, and in addition, demonstrating various examples. For the record, this list isn’t in any particular order.
1. NVD3.js
First and foremost is a library I’ve used frequently in industry and it never fails to please. NVD3 is a library that sits on top of the d3.js JavaScript library utilizing many of the usual traits.
NVD3 is now in version 1.8.6 which is up from its initial release of 0.9 back in 2013. The library doesn’t have every single chart imaginable but has all the most popular core ones. For example, scatter, bar, line. The rendered charts have a very easy-on-the-eye style with pastel-like colours that go well with any dashboard.
Notable Feature List
- Completely responsive
- User-friendly tooltips
- Customizable tooltips
- Easy to work with JSON
- Series turn on / turn off
- Legends
- Dual-axis capability
- Quick and easy to download and use
- Plenty of examples
- Live chart playground
Chart Availability Table
Demo
See the Pen
NVD3.JS Examples by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
NVD3 is released and licensed with the Apache 2.0 license meaning it’s completely free to use for both personal and commercial practices.
CDN Links
NVD3 is hosted on various CDN networks as listed below
GitHub Repo
Documentation
2. Dygraphs
Dygraphs is probably one of the fastest rendering charts I have come across, especially when the data set is vast. This library can handle data sets going into the tens of thousands and still deliver a great user experience.
The one drawback to all this glory is that it’s completely based on line graphs. No bars, pies, or anything that you would usually see in a JavaScript charting library. Not to worry though, it’s still an epic package, and here’s why.
Notable Feature List
- Can handle huge data sets and is superior in this department when compared to other libraries
- Cross chart synchronization
- Annotations, and highly customizable annotations at that
- Range/Viewfinder
- Very simple to get develop with
- Perfect for real-time data visualization
- Extremely fast data point feedback with off-chart data display
- Zoom in and out functionality
- Plenty of examples with links to JSFiddles
- Easy to work with data, simple arrays, or load from text or CSV files
Chart Availability Table
Demo
See the Pen
Dygraphs Example by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
Dygraphs is licensed under the MIT License which offers usage, modification, and distribution by both personal and commercial parties.
CDN Links
Dygraphs can be delivered directly to your own project by the following CDN networks
GitHub Repo
Documentation
3. Vis.js
Vis.js is a very versatile parent library of other sub-libraries including networking, timeline, 2d, and 3d visualization capabilities. This library offers 3d charts which are pretty rare amongst most charting libraries which definitely gives it an edge.
Vis.js has some stunning visualizations in both 2d and 3d forms but of course, all will serve specific purposes. Personally, I’ve never come across the need to use 3d charts but if your working in some type of scientific data analysis background, I could imagine it would be useful.
Notable Feature List
- 3D Charts
- 2D Charts
- Multi-chart capability
- Optional tooltips
- 3D interactivity on relevant charts
- Chart playgrounds demonstrating many of its features
- Flawless animations
Chart Availability Table
In addition to the above, surface charts are available including network type visualizers and timeline visualizers.
Below is a demo of one of the types of timeline charts the library offers.
Demo
See the Pen
Vizjs Example by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
The Viz.js library is dual-licensed under both Apache 2.0 and MIT licenses. Both of these licenses enable usage, modification, and distribution by both personal and commercial parties.
CDN Links
VizJS can be delivered directly to your own project by the following CDN networks
GitHub Repo
Documentation
4. ChartJS
Next at number four is another one of my personal favorites. If you want a chart visualization library that always looks great, then this is the one. Somehow, the creator of ChartJS got the default colors absolutely perfect and they go so well within any website. It’s again another library that doesn’t have a massive selection of charts but does it very well with the ones it does offer.
Notable Feature List
- Very easy to work with without the knowledge of JSON markup.
- Mixed chart types, build bars and lines onto the same visualization.
- Beautiful animations
- Tooltips
- Renderable on all major browsers including IE11+
- Completely responsive
- Thorough user documentation and sample base
- Includes one of the only free-to-use radar charts that actually works correctly and visualizes data properly.
Chart Availability Table
Demo
See the Pen
Radar Chart Example With ChartJS by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
ChartJS is released under the MIT license and therefore is freely available to use in your own personal and commercial projects. It
CDN Links
ChartJS is hosted on various CDN networks as listed below
GitHub Repo
Documentation
5. ApexCharts.js
ApexChart.js comes with a variety of elegant features to bring beautiful data analysis to your web pages. On paper, this library ticks nearly all the boxes you would usually want it for. With annotation capability which is relatively rare in free-to-use packages. Responsiveness and animations and to top all that off, it looks pretty great too.
Notable Feature List
- Beautiful visual annotations
- Completely responsive
- Flexible interactivity including pan, scroll, zoom in and out.
- Tooltips
- Vast user documentation
- Preset color themes you can easily switch between
- Lot’s of demos and source code to get your hands on
- Offers paid upgrades to include some of FusionChart’s add-on packages.
- Works flawlessly with vanilla JS, VueJS, React, and Angular, documentation included.
Chart Availability Table
Note: With the ApexChart FusionChart premium package, further visualizations are available such as funnel, Marimekko, maps, and bullet-style charts.
Demo
See the Pen
ApexChart Demo by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
ApexChart.js is released under the MIT license and therefore is freely available to use in your own personal and commercial projects. Considering how many features this library offers, it’s hard to believe it’s free to use!
CDN Links
ApexCharts is hosted on various CDN networks as listed below
GitHub Repo
Documentation
6. Billboard.js
In what feels like a very minimalist library, billboard.js comes with a good set of charts for data visualization. It’s based on D3 version 4 and has similarities to c3.js charts. Billboard has a stacked list of charts to use and a huge load of configurable assets such as the legend, axis, and tooltips.
Notable Feature List
- Vast customization allowing you to get the exact visualization for the job at hand
- Completely responsive
- Tooltips and dual chart linked tooltips
- Manual Zoom, drag zoom, and sub-charts with viewfinder zoom
- Easily added labeled Y lines which are great for added analysis
- Gradient chart area fills
Chart Availability Table
Demo
See the Pen
Billboard.js Demo by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
Another project that has been released under the MIT license. Billboard.js is therefore freely available to use in your own personal and commercial projects. Considering how many features this library offers, it’s hard to believe it’s free to use!
CDN Links
Billboard.js is hosted on various CDN networks as listed below
GitHub Repo
Documentation
7. FrappeCharts
If you’re a keen developer, then you’ll probably feel familiar with the way that Frappe Charts look and feel. That’s because the charts designs are inspired by charts you find on GitHub. You will recognize the heatmap straight away if you’ve been making plenty of commits lately.
Notable Feature List
- Rapid export an SVG capability which is basically an instant export to image (SVG) file.
- Annotations
- GitHub theme inspired which is extremely clean
- Beautiful animations during chart updates
- Mixed chart capability
- Epic looking tooltips when using multi/mixed charts
- Fully responsive
- Zero dependencies
Chart Availability Table
Demo
See the Pen
FrappeCharta Demo by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
Frappe Charts are completely open-sourced and released under the MIT license. This gives the rights for both personal project and commercial project use alike.
CDN Links
Frappe Charts is hosted on various CDN networks as listed below
GitHub Repo
Documentation
8. ToastUI
ToastUI is a very visual, modernized library that not only offers pretty much all the common charts but looks brilliant too. Each chart has the capability to be exported in a variety of ways including .xls (data), .jpg (image). This of course is very handy for the end-user, especially the ability to export the data behind the chart for further analysis.
Notable Feature List
- Multi export functionality which includes .xls, .csv, .jpg and .png
- Completely responsive for the modern web
- Nice animations during real-time data updates
- Beautiful animations during chart updates
- Deselectable/selectable data series
- Zero dependencies
Chart Availability Table
The ToastUI library also features boxplot charts and the ability to mix charts such as line bar, line, scatter, and line area.
Demo
See the Pen
ToastUI Demo by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
ToastUI has been released under the MIT license. This gives the rights for both personal project and commercial project use alike.
CDN Links
ToastUI is hosted on various CDN networks as listed below
Or
GitHub Repo
Documentation
9. RoughViz
RoughViz is certainly one to look at in 2021, built upon d3.js version 5, brings very unique visualizations to your front end. The rendered charts are almost like crayon drawings, with rough borders and coloring, it actually really pleases the eye. The library is super-easy to work with utilizing array-based data sets and various options easily modified.
Notable Feature List
- Very unique, nothing else around like it
- Plenty of customizable options
- Tooltips
- Built upon d3.js version 5
Chart Availability Table
Demo
See the Pen
RoughViz Demo by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
RoughViz is another library that can be used in both commercial and personal projects free of charge. The library is released under the MIT license.
CDN Links
NVD3 is hosted on various CDN networks as listed below
GitHub Repo
10. AmCharts
AmCharts is a massive library with pretty much every chart you could possibly imagine including the ability to customize in some really cool ways. AmCharts is a ‘freemium’ library so-to-speak, anyone can use the charts or maps, etc if they don’t mind a small attribution logo being displayed under the visualizations. And to be fair, the attribution is barely noticeable and certainly non-intrusive. AmCharts have a bunch of high-profile clients such as Microsoft, Amazon, Nasa, eBay, and more.
Notable Feature List
- Maps, charts, timelines, you name it, AmChart have it
- Incredible animations
- Vastly customizable
- Ability to nest charts within charts such as a pie chart within each bar of a bar chart
- Pictorial chart capability
- Huge documentation base with hundreds of demonstrations to explore
- Examples demonstrated in both Vanilla JS and TypeScript/ES6
Chart Availability Table
Demo
See the Pen
AmCharts Demo by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
AmCharts has a freemium license model which means anyone can use the chart packages for free as long as the attribution logo is visible. If not, then you can buy the premium, no-attribution license which starts from $180 for the general charting package and $180 for the map & timeline package. As you can see in the demo above, the attribution logo (bottom left) is pretty reasonable for what you are getting for free.
CDN Links
AmCharts is hosted on various CDN networks and has its own CDN source links too.
GitHub Repo
Documentation
11. C3.js
C3.js deserves its place in this list of the best JS libraries available in 2021. The library has been around a long time, is super-clean, customizable to suit many needs, and has a good range of charts to work with. Built upon the renowned D3.js charting engine, C3.js offers a maintained, up-to-date visualization experience that is perfect for most use-cases.
Notable Feature List
- ‘Zoomable’ sub-charts
- Appealing animations
- Highly customizable
- Tooltips
- Excellent documentation with code examples and demonstrations
Chart Availability Table
Demo
See the Pen
C3.js Demo by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
C3.js is an open-source library free to use for both personal and commercial projects alike. C3.js is released under the MIT license.
CDN Links
AmCharts is hosted on various CDN networks and has its own CDN source links too.
GitHub Repo
Documentation
12. HighCharts
When it comes to having the full package, HighCharts is one of these contenders, having basically every chart type you could possibly need. Not only does HighCharts offer general charts like Line, bar, pie but also has additional Map-focused libraries, stock market-style libraries, and much more. Although having all this greatness, does come with one downside, it’s not 100% free.
Notable Feature List
- Everything you could possibly need for data visualizations. Maps, charts, timeline (Gant), and much more.
- Comes with a vast documentation base with demos and code examples
- Modern design with excellent tooltip visuals
- Commercially focused with 24-hour tech support available with licenses
- Chart annotations
Chart Availability Table
Demo
Note: Static demo image incase of license breach.
Licensing
HighCharts is mainly a premium licensed model with the ability for personal use with attribution using the Creative Commons license. Commercial licenses start from $535 for a single developer.
CDN Links
HighCharts has its own hosted content delivery network links which can be found using the following link
GitHub Repo
Documentation
13. GoogleCharts
Google charts is a very long-standing charting package that pretty much has it all. With an excellent documentation base and examples to support. Google Charts have an almost semi-modern style with the instant visual realization that it’s a Google brand, especially by the default color scheme.
Notable Feature List
- A massive feature of this package is that it’s completely free for commercial use, which is pretty awesome considering the size of the brand
- Extremely detailed documentation base with many examples to learn from
- Tooltips
- Annotations
- All charts are zoomable
- Some of the best visual chart gauges on the web (In my opinion)
Chart Availability Table
Demo
See the Pen
Google Charts Demo by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
GoogleCharts is completely free to use across the board giving personal and commercial the rights to use it.
CDN Links
Google Charts has its own hosted content delivery network links which can be found using the following link
GitHub Repo
Not applicable
Documentation
14. SmoothieCharts
SmoothieCharts is another very unique, one-purpose charting library. Bringing excellently animated line charts to the table for fast updated data. The library is perfect for manufacturing PLC data or as demonstrated in the examples a CPU monitor. Animations are flawlessly smooth and you wouldn’t expect anything less considering the name.
Notable Feature List
- Superior smooth chart updates
- Geared towards fast-updating data or ‘Streaming data’
- Very easy to set up
- Fully responsive
- Colour customization
- Line & multi-line capability
- Chart configuration builder that outputs code snippets ready to go
Chart Availability Table
Demo
See the Pen
Smoothie Charts Demo by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
SmoothieCharts has been released under the MIT license and so is free to use for both personal and commercial projects.
CDN Links
GitHub Repo
Documentation
15. AnyChart
Say hello to AnyChart, a very popular charting library among the commercial world with customers using it such as Bosch, Ford, Nokia, and many more. Boasting 70+ chart types this library has everything you could possibly need in terms of charting visualization. Offers huge customization to enable the most beautiful dashboard designs.
Notable Feature List
- Both 2d and 3d charts available
- Beautiful default styles, tooltips, and animations
- Load data from CSV and even export data to CSV & Excel
- Fully responsive
- Ready for essentially any platform
- Pareto charts
- Also offers additional ‘AnyMaps’ ‘AnyStocks’ ‘AnyGant’ packages
- Prepared for ‘Big Data’ with the ability to render seamlessly
- On canvas drawing tools, the ability to complete add your own info points/annotations
- Export rendered charts as an SVG, PNG, JPG, or PDF
- 70+ Chart types to choose from
Chart Availability Table
AnyChart has even more charts than in this generic availability table above. They can be viewed here.
Demo
Note: Static demo image incase of license breach.
Licensing
AnyCharts offers a range of licensing which are mainly catered for commercial usage. Although having said this, they do provide a custom free license for non-profit and educational use. Commercial licenses start from as little as $49 which is pretty amazing with the size of the package you get.
CDN Links
AnyCharts have their own content delivery network which can be found with the following link
GitHub Repo
Documentation
16. MuzeJS
If you’ve ever used Tableau data analytical software before, then this charting library will feel familiar. MuzeJS offers Tableau style charts in a package ready for the web. With a large array of chart types to choose from, this completely free-to-use package is a great contender in the data visualization world.
Notable Feature List
- In-built cross-filter helper
- Lasoo selection tool
- Zoom and pan
- Drill down functionality
- Big data capability, after rendering, interactivity is second to none
- Powered by Web Assembly
Chart Availability Table
Further charts that are not in the above generic availability table can be found on the demo page.
Demo
See the Pen
MuzeJS Demo Chart by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
From what I can interpret on the MuzeJS website, is that the license is a custom one. Although having said this, it still gives full flexibility between the usage of personal and commercial projects alike.
CDN Links
GitHub Repo
Documentation
17. ZingChart
Add a little zing to your analytical apps with Zing Chart a freemium charting library that has plenty of great features and lots of chart types. ZingChart offers a modern, highly visual set of charts with features including horizontal style tooltips which to be fair are pretty unique and work very well. It also comes with pan and zoom interactivity straight out the box.
Notable Feature List
- Zoom, Pan, Select interactivity
- 2d & 3d charts
- Unique ‘Crosshair’ tooltips
- Drill down capability out of the box
- On-chart image rendering
Chart Availability Table
Further charts that are not in the above generic availability table can be found on the ZingChart chart types web page.
Demo
See the Pen
ZingChart Demo Chart by Danny Englishby (@DanEnglishby)
on CodePen.
Licensing
ZingChart has a freemium licensing model; This means that you can use it for both personal and commercial purposes as long as you show the small attribution link (this can be seen in the demo above). Alternatively, you can buy a full license which starts from as little as $99 per year.
CDN Links
ZingChart provides a content delivery network to use the JavaScript library which can be found on the following link.
GitHub Repo
Documentation
Summary
There are clearly many very versatile and feature-packed libraries available to use on the web. I will continue to add to this list as I discover newly released libraries or even hidden gems.
I would love to hear which is your favorite, and it doesn’t have to be on this list either. Send me in the direction of some great libraries and I could well list them on here too.
Check the overall comparison table below which compares all chart libraries and the chart types they offer.
Chart Library Chart Type Comparison Table
Source link
