recharts vs chart.js vs echarts vs apexcharts | Data Visualization Libraries Comparison

Package	Downloads	Stars	Size	Issues	Publish	License

recharts	7,515,612	24,999	4.64 MB	447	12 days ago	MIT
chart.js	4,441,848	65,711	4.96 MB	474	15 minutes ago	MIT
echarts	1,152,320	63,221	53.2 MB	2,136	4 months ago	Apache-2.0
apexcharts	1,039,937	14,721	4.94 MB	305	2 months ago	MIT

Chart Types

recharts:
Recharts focuses on providing a set of composable chart components for React applications. It supports common chart types such as line, bar, pie, area, and scatter charts, but it is not as extensive as some other libraries in terms of specialized chart types.
chart.js:
Chart.js provides support for 11 different chart types, including line, bar, radar, doughnut, polar area, bubble, and scatter charts. It also allows for the creation of mixed charts by combining multiple chart types in a single canvas.
echarts:
ECharts is known for its extensive support for complex and specialized chart types, including tree diagrams, sunburst charts, heatmaps, and more. It also supports 3D charts and custom visualizations, making it one of the most versatile libraries for data representation.
apexcharts:
ApexCharts supports a wide variety of chart types, including line, bar, area, pie, radial bar, and more. It also offers mixed charts, which allow you to combine different types of charts in a single visualization.

Customization

recharts:
Recharts allows for customization of chart components through props and CSS. Since it is built with React, developers can easily create reusable and customizable components, but it may require more effort to achieve deep customization compared to other libraries.
chart.js:
Chart.js is highly customizable, allowing developers to modify almost every aspect of the chart, including scales, legends, tooltips, and animations. It also supports plugins, which can be used to extend the functionality and add custom features.
echarts:
ECharts provides extensive customization options, including the ability to style charts using JSON configuration. It supports dynamic data updates, custom themes, and even allows for the creation of interactive visualizations using JavaScript.
apexcharts:
ApexCharts offers a high level of customization for its charts, including the ability to modify colors, labels, tooltips, and animations. It also supports custom SVG rendering and provides a straightforward API for configuring chart properties.

Performance

recharts:
Recharts is optimized for performance in React applications, but its performance can be affected by the number of rendered components and the complexity of the charts. It is best suited for small to medium-sized data sets.
chart.js:
Chart.js is lightweight and performs efficiently with small to medium-sized data sets. It may experience performance issues with very large data sets or highly complex charts, but these can often be mitigated with optimizations.
echarts:
ECharts is designed to handle large data sets and complex visualizations efficiently. It uses a canvas-based rendering approach, which helps maintain performance even with thousands of data points and intricate chart types.
apexcharts:
ApexCharts performs well with moderate data sets and provides smooth interactions. However, performance may degrade with extremely large data sets, especially if multiple charts are rendered on the same page.

Interactivity

recharts:
Recharts provides good interactivity, especially for React applications. It supports tooltips, legends, and event handling, allowing developers to create interactive charts with relative ease.
chart.js:
Chart.js supports basic interactivity out of the box, such as tooltips and hover effects. Developers can add more interactive features using plugins and custom JavaScript code, but it may require additional effort.
echarts:
ECharts excels in interactivity, offering advanced features like dynamic data updates, draggable elements, and customizable tooltips. It also supports event handling and allows for the creation of highly interactive and engaging visualizations.
apexcharts:
ApexCharts provides a range of interactive features, including tooltips, zooming, panning, and data point selection. These features are easy to implement and enhance the user experience without requiring extensive configuration.

Ease of Use: Code Examples

recharts:

Simple Area Chart with Recharts

import React from 'react';
import { AreaChart, Area, XAxis, YAxis, Tooltip, CartesianGrid, ResponsiveContainer } from 'recharts';

const data = [
  { name: 'Page A', uv: 4000, pv: 2400, amt: 2400 },
  { name: 'Page B', uv: 3000, pv: 1398, amt: 2210 },
  { name: 'Page C', uv: 2000, pv: 9800, amt: 2290 },
  { name: 'Page D', uv: 2780, pv: 3908, amt: 2000 },
  { name: 'Page E', uv: 1890, pv: 4800, amt: 2181 },
  { name: 'Page F', uv: 2390, pv: 3800, amt: 2500 },
  { name: 'Page G', uv: 3490, pv: 4300, amt: 2100
};

const Example = () => (
  <ResponsiveContainer width="100%" height={400}>
    <AreaChart data={data}>
      <CartesianGrid strokeDasharray="3 3" />
      <XAxis dataKey="name" />
      <YAxis />
      <Tooltip />
      <Area type="monotone" dataKey="pv" stroke="#8884d8" fill="rgba(136, 132, 216, 0.2)" />
    </AreaChart>
  </ResponsiveContainer>
);

export default Example;

chart.js:

Simple Bar Chart with Chart.js

<canvas id="myChart" width="400" height="200"></canvas>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/chart.js"></script>
<script>
var ctx = document.getElementById('myChart').getContext('2d');
var myChart = new Chart(ctx, {
  type: 'bar',
  data: {
    labels: ['Red', 'Blue', 'Yellow', 'Green', 'Purple', 'Orange'],
    datasets: [{
      label: '# of Votes',
      data: [12, 19, 3, 5, 2, 3],
      backgroundColor: ['rgba(255, 99, 132, 0.2)',
                      'rgba(54, 162, 235, 0.2)',
                      'rgba(255, 206, 86, 0.2)',
                      'rgba(75, 192, 192, 0.2)',
                      'rgba(153, 102, 255, 0.2)',
                      'rgba(255, 159, 64, 0.2)'],
      borderColor: ['rgba(255, 99, 132, 1)',
                    'rgba(54, 162, 235, 1)',
                    'rgba(255, 206, 86, 1)',
                    'rgba(75, 192, 192, 1)',
                    'rgba(153, 102, 255, 1)',
                    'rgba(255, 159, 64, 1)'],
      borderWidth: 1
    }]
  },
  options: {
    scales: {
      y: {
        beginAtZero: true
      }
    }
  }
});
</script>

echarts:

Simple Pie Chart with ECharts

<div id="main" style="width: 600px;height:400px;"></div>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/echarts/dist/echarts.min.js"></script>
<script>
var myChart = echarts.init(document.getElementById('main'));
var option = {
  title: {
    text: 'ECharts Entry Example',
    subtext: 'Fake Data',
    left: 'center'
  },
  tooltip: {
    trigger: 'item'
  },
  legend: {
    orient: 'vertical',
    left: 'left'
  },
  series: [{
    name: 'Access From',
    type: 'pie',
    radius: '50%',
    data: [
      {value: 1048, name: 'Search Engine'},
      {value: 735, name: 'Direct'},
      {value: 580, name: 'Email'},
      {value: 484, name: 'Union Ads'}
    ],
    emphasis: {
      itemStyle: {
        shadowBlur: 10,
        shadowOffsetX: 10,
        shadowColor: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5)'
      }
    }
  }]
};
myChart.setOption(option);
</script>

apexcharts:

Simple Line Chart with ApexCharts

<div id="chart"></div>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/apexcharts"></script>
<script>
var options = {
  chart: {
    type: 'line'
  },
  series: [{
    name: 'Sales',
    data: [30, 40, 35, 50, 49, 60, 70]
  }],
  xaxis: {
    categories: ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun', 'Jul']
  }
};
var chart = new ApexCharts(document.querySelector('#chart'), options);
chart.render();
</script>

Chart Types

Customization

Performance

Interactivity

Ease of Use: Code Examples

Recharts

Introduction

Examples

Installation

npm

umd

dev build

Demo

Storybook

Releases

Release testing

Module Formats

Thanks

License