ApexCharts vs Highcharts

Overview

Highcharts

Stacks1.5K

Followers1.1K

Votes92

ApexCharts

Stacks135

Followers238

Votes16

GitHub Stars15.0K

Forks1.4K

ApexCharts vs Highcharts: What are the differences?

Introduction

ApexCharts and Highcharts are both powerful charting libraries used to visualize data on websites. They offer various features and capabilities to create interactive and visually appealing charts. However, there are some key differences between these two libraries that distinguish them from each other. In this article, we will explore these differences in detail.

Chart Types: ApexCharts provides a wide range of chart types including line charts, area charts, bar charts, column charts, pie charts, and scatter charts. On the other hand, Highcharts offers an extensive collection of chart types including all the ones provided by ApexCharts, plus additional types like bubble charts, heatmaps, polar charts, and 3D charts. This gives Highcharts an edge over ApexCharts in terms of chart variety.
Customization Options: ApexCharts allows extensive customization of charts by providing an easy-to-use API for modifying elements such as colors, fonts, labels, tooltips, legends, and animations. Highcharts, on the other hand, offers a more comprehensive set of customization options, allowing developers to fine-tune every aspect of the chart's appearance and behavior. With Highcharts, developers have more control over styling and can create highly customized charts for their specific needs.
Cross-Browser Compatibility: Both ApexCharts and Highcharts are compatible with all major web browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. However, Highcharts has a longer history and a larger user base, which means it has been tested more extensively across different browser versions and platforms. This gives Highcharts a slight advantage in terms of cross-browser compatibility and ensures a more consistent charting experience across various environments.
Documentation and Community Support: Highcharts has been around for a longer time and has a vast and well-established user community. As a result, it has extensive documentation, tutorials, and a vibrant support community. ApexCharts, although relatively new compared to Highcharts, also has good documentation and support available. However, the community support for ApexCharts might not be as extensive as that of Highcharts due to its relatively smaller user base.
License and Pricing: ApexCharts is an open-source library that is available for free under the MIT license. It can be used in both personal and commercial projects without any cost. Highcharts, on the other hand, offers a dual-licensing model. It provides a free version for non-commercial use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License, but for commercial use, a license needs to be purchased. This difference in licensing models might be a consideration for developers depending on their project requirements and budget.
Performance and Rendering: Both ApexCharts and Highcharts are well-optimized for performance and can handle large datasets without any significant performance issues. However, Highcharts has been around for longer and has a more mature codebase, which might result in slightly better performance in some cases. For extremely large datasets or complex charts, Highcharts might have a slight edge in terms of rendering speed and responsiveness.

In summary, ApexCharts and Highcharts are both powerful charting libraries with their own strengths and capabilities. The choice between the two depends on factors such as the desired chart types, customization requirements, cross-browser compatibility needs, documentation and support preferences, licensing considerations, and performance requirements.

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Advice on Highcharts, ApexCharts

Shaik

Feb 18, 2020

Needs advice

I have used highcharts and it is pretty awesome for my previous project. now as I am about to start my new project I want to use other charting libraries such as recharts, chart js, Nivo, d3 js.... my upcoming project might use react js as front end and laravel as a backend technology. the project would be of hotel management type. please suggest me the best charts to use

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Highcharts	ApexCharts
Highcharts currently supports line, spline, area, areaspline, column, bar, pie, scatter, angular gauges, arearange, areasplinerange, columnrange, bubble, box plot, error bars, funnel, waterfall and polar chart types.	A modern JavaScript charting library to build interactive charts and visualizations with simple API.
It works in all modern mobile and desktop browsers including the iPhone/iPad and Internet Explorer from version 6;Free for non-commercial;One of the key features of Highcharts is that under any of the licenses, free or not, you are allowed to download the source code and make your own edits;Pure Javascript - Highcharts is solely based on native browser technologies and doesn't require client side plugins like Flash or Java.	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 15.0K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 1.4K
Stacks 1.5K	Stacks 135
Followers 1.1K	Followers 238
Votes 92	Votes 16
Pros & Cons
Pros 34 Low learning curve and powerful 17 Multiple chart types such as pie, bar, line and others 13 Responsive charts 9 Handles everything you throw at it 8 Extremely easy-to-parse documentation Cons 9 Expensive	Pros 4 Interactive charts 4 Provides zooming capabilities 3 Graphs renders in SVG 3 Open source with MIT license 2 Multiple chart types such as pie, bar, line and others Cons 4 Slow rendering
Integrations
No integrations available	Vue.js React Angular

What are some alternatives to Highcharts, ApexCharts?

D3.js

It is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Emphasises on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework.

Plotly.js

It is a standalone Javascript data visualization library, and it also powers the Python and R modules named plotly in those respective ecosystems (referred to as Plotly.py and Plotly.R). It can be used to produce dozens of chart types and visualizations, including statistical charts, 3D graphs, scientific charts, SVG and tile maps, financial charts and more.

Chart.js

Visualize your data in 6 different ways. Each of them animated, with a load of customisation options and interactivity extensions.

Recharts

Quickly build your charts with decoupled, reusable React components. Built on top of SVG elements with a lightweight dependency on D3 submodules.

ECharts

It is an open source visualization library implemented in JavaScript, runs smoothly on PCs and mobile devices, and is compatible with most current browsers.

ZingChart

The most feature-rich, fully customizable JavaScript charting library available used by start-ups and the Fortune 100 alike.

amCharts

amCharts is an advanced charting library that will suit any data visualization need. Our charting solution include Column, Bar, Line, Area, Step, Step without risers, Smoothed line, Candlestick, OHLC, Pie/Donut, Radar/ Polar, XY/Scatter/Bubble, Bullet, Funnel/Pyramid charts as well as Gauges.

CanvasJS

Lightweight, Beautiful & Responsive Charts that make your dashboards fly even with millions of data points! Self-Hosted, Secure & Scalable charts that render across devices.

AnyChart

AnyChart is a flexible JavaScript (HTML5) based solution that allows you to create interactive and great looking charts. It is a cross-browser and cross-platform charting solution intended for everybody who deals with creation of dashboard, reporting, analytics, statistical, financial or any other data visualization solutions.

Bokeh

Bokeh is an interactive visualization library for modern web browsers. It provides elegant, concise construction of versatile graphics, and affords high-performance interactivity over large or streaming datasets.

Related Comparisons

ApexCharts vs Highcharts: What are the differences?

Introduction

Chart Types: ApexCharts provides a wide range of chart types including line charts, area charts, bar charts, column charts, pie charts, and scatter charts. On the other hand, Highcharts offers an extensive collection of chart types including all the ones provided by ApexCharts, plus additional types like bubble charts, heatmaps, polar charts, and 3D charts. This gives Highcharts an edge over ApexCharts in terms of chart variety.
Customization Options: ApexCharts allows extensive customization of charts by providing an easy-to-use API for modifying elements such as colors, fonts, labels, tooltips, legends, and animations. Highcharts, on the other hand, offers a more comprehensive set of customization options, allowing developers to fine-tune every aspect of the chart's appearance and behavior. With Highcharts, developers have more control over styling and can create highly customized charts for their specific needs.
Cross-Browser Compatibility: Both ApexCharts and Highcharts are compatible with all major web browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. However, Highcharts has a longer history and a larger user base, which means it has been tested more extensively across different browser versions and platforms. This gives Highcharts a slight advantage in terms of cross-browser compatibility and ensures a more consistent charting experience across various environments.
Documentation and Community Support: Highcharts has been around for a longer time and has a vast and well-established user community. As a result, it has extensive documentation, tutorials, and a vibrant support community. ApexCharts, although relatively new compared to Highcharts, also has good documentation and support available. However, the community support for ApexCharts might not be as extensive as that of Highcharts due to its relatively smaller user base.
License and Pricing: ApexCharts is an open-source library that is available for free under the MIT license. It can be used in both personal and commercial projects without any cost. Highcharts, on the other hand, offers a dual-licensing model. It provides a free version for non-commercial use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License, but for commercial use, a license needs to be purchased. This difference in licensing models might be a consideration for developers depending on their project requirements and budget.
Performance and Rendering: Both ApexCharts and Highcharts are well-optimized for performance and can handle large datasets without any significant performance issues. However, Highcharts has been around for longer and has a more mature codebase, which might result in slightly better performance in some cases. For extremely large datasets or complex charts, Highcharts might have a slight edge in terms of rendering speed and responsiveness.

ApexCharts vs Highcharts

Overview

ApexCharts vs Highcharts: What are the differences?