Highcharts vs Recharts

Overview

Highcharts

Stacks1.5K

Followers1.1K

Votes92

Recharts

Stacks232

Followers258

Votes36

GitHub Stars26.2K

Forks1.8K

Highcharts vs Recharts: What are the differences?

Highcharts and Recharts are two popular JavaScript libraries used for data visualization on websites. While they both serve the same purpose, there are several key differences between them that can impact developers' choices when it comes to selecting the appropriate library for their projects.

Supported Chart Types: Highcharts offers a wide range of chart types, including line, area, column, bar, pie, scatter, and more. On the other hand, Recharts provides a more limited selection of chart types, focusing primarily on line, area, bar, and scatter charts. This difference in supported chart types may influence the choice between the two libraries based on specific project requirements.
Customizability: Highcharts provides extensive customization options, allowing developers to modify various aspects of the charts, such as colors, labels, legends, tooltips, and more. Recharts, while still customizable, offers a more limited set of customization options compared to Highcharts. If a high level of customization is crucial for a project, Highcharts might be the better choice.
Documentation and Community Support: Highcharts has been around for a longer time and has a larger user base, resulting in a more extensive documentation and community support. Recharts, being relatively newer, may have a smaller community and documentation in comparison. The availability of comprehensive documentation and a strong community can greatly aid developers in troubleshooting issues and learning the libraries effectively.
Rendering Performance: Highcharts utilizes SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) for rendering the charts, which provides better scalability and responsiveness. Recharts, on the other hand, uses React components and leverages SVG under the hood, making it suitable for projects already utilizing React. The choice of library may depend on the specific performance requirements and existing technology stack of the project.
Animations: Highcharts includes built-in animation capabilities, allowing developers to create visually appealing and interactive charts. Recharts also supports animation but has a more limited range of animated effects compared to Highcharts. If creating dynamic and visually engaging charts with advanced animations is a priority, Highcharts may be the preferred option.
License: Highcharts is available under both commercial and free licenses, with certain limitations and restrictions for the latter. Recharts, on the other hand, is released under the MIT license, making it ideal for open-source and non-commercial projects. The choice of license may influence the decision between the two libraries based on project requirements and licensing preferences.

In summary, Highcharts offers a wider range of supported chart types, extensive customization options, and better documentation and community support, while Recharts leverages React components and has a simpler license. The choice between the two libraries ultimately depends on specific project requirements and trade-offs in terms of chart types, customization, performance, animation, and licensing preferences.

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Advice on Highcharts, Recharts

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	Recharts
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.	Quickly build your charts with decoupled, reusable React components. Built on top of SVG elements with a lightweight dependency on D3 submodules.
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 26.2K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 1.8K
Stacks 1.5K	Stacks 232
Followers 1.1K	Followers 258
Votes 92	Votes 36
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 11 Very intuitive API 8 Built for React, from scratch 7 Responsive 5 Composable chart elements 3 Easy to use Cons 2 Not considered time series charts
Integrations
No integrations available	React D3.js

What are some alternatives to Highcharts, Recharts?

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.

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.

ApexCharts

A modern JavaScript charting library to build interactive charts and visualizations with simple API.

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

Highcharts vs Recharts: What are the differences?

Supported Chart Types: Highcharts offers a wide range of chart types, including line, area, column, bar, pie, scatter, and more. On the other hand, Recharts provides a more limited selection of chart types, focusing primarily on line, area, bar, and scatter charts. This difference in supported chart types may influence the choice between the two libraries based on specific project requirements.
Customizability: Highcharts provides extensive customization options, allowing developers to modify various aspects of the charts, such as colors, labels, legends, tooltips, and more. Recharts, while still customizable, offers a more limited set of customization options compared to Highcharts. If a high level of customization is crucial for a project, Highcharts might be the better choice.
Documentation and Community Support: Highcharts has been around for a longer time and has a larger user base, resulting in a more extensive documentation and community support. Recharts, being relatively newer, may have a smaller community and documentation in comparison. The availability of comprehensive documentation and a strong community can greatly aid developers in troubleshooting issues and learning the libraries effectively.
Rendering Performance: Highcharts utilizes SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) for rendering the charts, which provides better scalability and responsiveness. Recharts, on the other hand, uses React components and leverages SVG under the hood, making it suitable for projects already utilizing React. The choice of library may depend on the specific performance requirements and existing technology stack of the project.
Animations: Highcharts includes built-in animation capabilities, allowing developers to create visually appealing and interactive charts. Recharts also supports animation but has a more limited range of animated effects compared to Highcharts. If creating dynamic and visually engaging charts with advanced animations is a priority, Highcharts may be the preferred option.
License: Highcharts is available under both commercial and free licenses, with certain limitations and restrictions for the latter. Recharts, on the other hand, is released under the MIT license, making it ideal for open-source and non-commercial projects. The choice of license may influence the decision between the two libraries based on project requirements and licensing preferences.

Highcharts vs Recharts

Overview