ApexCharts vs amCharts: What are the differences?

ApexCharts and amCharts are two popular JavaScript charting libraries that provide powerful visualization capabilities for websites. Here are the key differences between the two:

1. Customizability: ApexCharts offers a high level of customizability, allowing developers to modify various aspects of the charts including colors, fonts, tooltips, and animation effects. On the other hand, amCharts provides a wide range of pre-built themes and templates that can be easily applied to create visually appealing charts without much effort.

2. Supported Chart Types: ApexCharts supports a diverse range of chart types including line, bar, pie, area, scatter, and candlestick charts, providing flexibility in choosing the most suitable visualization for different data sets. In contrast, amCharts offers an extensive collection of over 90 chart types which include more specialized options such as Sankey, TreeMap, Stock, and Sunburst charts.

3. Data Handling: ApexCharts provides robust data manipulation capabilities, allowing developers to easily sort, filter, and perform calculations on the data before rendering the chart. It also supports live updating of data, making it ideal for real-time data visualization. In comparison, amCharts provides limited data manipulation features and focuses more on data presentation and visualization.

4. Accessibility: ApexCharts has a strong focus on accessibility, providing features like keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and support for WCAG 2.0 guidelines. This ensures that the charts can be easily accessed and understood by users with disabilities. amCharts also supports some accessibility features, but it may require additional customization to meet specific accessibility requirements.

5. Community and Documentation: ApexCharts benefits from a growing community of users and developers, which has resulted in comprehensive documentation, active forums, and regular updates. This helps in finding solutions to common issues and staying updated with the latest features. amCharts also has a supportive community and offers detailed documentation, but it may not have the same level of activity and resources as ApexCharts.

6. Licensing: ApexCharts is released under the MIT license, which allows for both personal and commercial use without any restrictions. This makes it suitable for a wide range of projects, including commercial websites and applications. On the other hand, amCharts follows a dual license model, with different licenses for open-source and commercial use. This means that commercial use may require purchasing a license, making it more restrictive for certain projects.

In Summary, ApexCharts offers high customizability, supports a wide range of chart types, provides robust data handling capabilities, focuses on accessibility, and benefits from an active community. In contrast, amCharts offers a collection of visually appealing pre-built themes, supports a larger number of specialized chart types, and follows a dual license model.