recharts vs chart.js vs react-chartjs-2 vs react-apexcharts
Data Visualization Libraries Comparison
1 Year
rechartschart.jsreact-chartjs-2react-apexchartsSimilar Packages:
What's Data Visualization Libraries?

Data visualization libraries are essential tools in web development that allow developers to create interactive and visually appealing charts and graphs. These libraries simplify the process of displaying complex datasets in a user-friendly manner, enabling users to gain insights from data at a glance. They often come with a variety of chart types, customization options, and responsive designs, making them suitable for different applications, from dashboards to reports. The choice of library can significantly impact the performance, ease of use, and flexibility of the data visualization in your application.

Package Weekly Downloads Trend
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recharts9,191,56224,9564.64 MB4435 days agoMIT
chart.js4,410,61365,6524.95 MB4762 months agoMIT
react-chartjs-21,628,6606,76155.9 kB1023 months agoMIT
react-apexcharts495,628-18.8 kB-4 months agoMIT
Feature Comparison: recharts vs chart.js vs react-chartjs-2 vs react-apexcharts

Integration with React

  • recharts:

    Recharts is built from the ground up for React, allowing you to create charts using React components. It follows React's declarative approach, making it intuitive to use and integrate.

  • chart.js:

    Chart.js is a standalone library and does not have built-in support for React. You can use it with React, but you'll need to manage the integration manually, which may require additional effort.

  • react-chartjs-2:

    React-Chartjs-2 is a wrapper for Chart.js that allows you to use Chart.js charts as React components. This makes it easy to integrate and manage charts within your React application, leveraging React's features.

  • react-apexcharts:

    React-ApexCharts is designed specifically for React applications, providing a seamless integration experience. It utilizes React's component lifecycle, making it easy to manage state and props within your charts.

Customization and Flexibility

  • recharts:

    Recharts emphasizes composability and customization, allowing developers to create complex charts by combining simple components. This makes it highly flexible for building tailored visualizations.

  • chart.js:

    Chart.js offers a variety of chart types and basic customization options, but it may require more effort for advanced customizations. It is best suited for standard use cases where extensive customization is not needed.

  • react-chartjs-2:

    React-Chartjs-2 inherits the customization capabilities of Chart.js, allowing for a good level of customization. However, it may not be as flexible as some other libraries when it comes to advanced features.

  • react-apexcharts:

    React-ApexCharts provides extensive customization options, including themes, animations, and tooltips. It allows for a high degree of flexibility in how charts are displayed and interacted with, making it suitable for complex visualizations.

Performance

  • recharts:

    Recharts is designed to handle large datasets efficiently, utilizing React's rendering optimizations. It can manage complex charts without significant performance hits, making it suitable for data-intensive applications.

  • chart.js:

    Chart.js is lightweight and performs well for standard charting needs. However, performance may degrade with a large number of data points or complex charts, requiring optimization techniques.

  • react-chartjs-2:

    React-Chartjs-2 performs well for most use cases, but similar to Chart.js, it may require optimization for handling large datasets or frequent updates to the chart.

  • react-apexcharts:

    React-ApexCharts is optimized for performance and can handle large datasets efficiently. It provides features like lazy loading and dynamic updates to maintain performance even with complex visualizations.

Learning Curve

  • recharts:

    Recharts has a moderate learning curve, particularly for developers new to React. Its component-based architecture may take some time to master, but it is generally intuitive for those familiar with React.

  • chart.js:

    Chart.js has a relatively low learning curve, making it easy for beginners to get started with basic charts. However, more advanced features may require a deeper understanding of the library.

  • react-chartjs-2:

    React-Chartjs-2 is easy to learn for those already familiar with Chart.js, as it follows similar principles. However, beginners may need to grasp both Chart.js and React concepts.

  • react-apexcharts:

    React-ApexCharts is user-friendly and straightforward to learn, especially for those familiar with React. Its documentation provides clear examples, making it accessible for developers of all skill levels.

Community and Support

  • recharts:

    Recharts has a strong community, especially among React developers. Its documentation is thorough, and there are many examples available, making it easier to find help and resources.

  • chart.js:

    Chart.js has a large community and extensive documentation, providing ample resources for troubleshooting and learning. It is widely used, ensuring a wealth of examples and support.

  • react-chartjs-2:

    React-Chartjs-2 benefits from the popularity of both Chart.js and React, offering a supportive community and comprehensive documentation to assist developers.

  • react-apexcharts:

    React-ApexCharts has a growing community and good documentation, but it may not be as extensive as some other libraries. However, it benefits from the popularity of ApexCharts, which has a solid user base.

How to Choose: recharts vs chart.js vs react-chartjs-2 vs react-apexcharts
  • recharts:

    Choose Recharts if you are looking for a library built specifically for React that emphasizes composability and customization. It is particularly useful for building complex and interactive charts with a declarative approach.

  • chart.js:

    Choose Chart.js if you need a simple and lightweight library for creating responsive charts. It is ideal for projects that require basic chart types and straightforward implementation without extensive customization.

  • react-chartjs-2:

    Opt for React-Chartjs-2 if you prefer using Chart.js within a React application. It provides a simple wrapper around Chart.js, allowing you to leverage its capabilities while maintaining the React component lifecycle and state management.

  • react-apexcharts:

    Select React-ApexCharts if you want a powerful and flexible charting library that integrates seamlessly with React. It offers a wide range of chart types and advanced features like animations and tooltips, making it suitable for complex data visualizations.

README for recharts

Recharts

storybook Build Status Coverage Status npm version npm downloads MIT License

Introduction

Recharts is a Redefined chart library built with React and D3.

The main purpose of this library is to help you to write charts in React applications without any pain. Main principles of Recharts are:

  1. Simply deploy with React components.
  2. Native SVG support, lightweight depending only on some D3 submodules.
  3. Declarative components, components of charts are purely presentational.

Documentation at recharts.org and our storybook (WIP)

Please see the wiki for FAQ.

All development is done on the master branch. The current latest release and storybook documentation reflects what is on the release branch.

Examples

<LineChart width={400} height={400} data={data} margin={{ top: 5, right: 20, left: 10, bottom: 5 }}>
  <XAxis dataKey="name" />
  <Tooltip />
  <CartesianGrid stroke="#f5f5f5" />
  <Line type="monotone" dataKey="uv" stroke="#ff7300" yAxisId={0} />
  <Line type="monotone" dataKey="pv" stroke="#387908" yAxisId={1} />
</LineChart>

All the components of Recharts are clearly separated. The lineChart is composed of x axis, tooltip, grid, and line items, and each of them is an independent React Component. The clear separation and composition of components is one of the principle Recharts follows.

Installation

npm

NPM is the easiest and fastest way to get started using Recharts. It is also the recommended installation method when building single-page applications (SPAs). It pairs nicely with a CommonJS module bundler such as Webpack.

# latest stable
$ npm install recharts

umd

The UMD build is also available on unpkg.com:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/react/umd/react.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom/umd/react-dom.production.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/recharts/umd/Recharts.min.js"></script>

Then you can find the library on window.Recharts.

dev build

$ git clone https://github.com/recharts/recharts.git
$ cd recharts
$ npm install
$ npm run build

Demo

To examine the demos in your local build, execute:

$ npm run[-script] demo

and then browse to http://localhost:3000.

Storybook

We are in the process of unifying documentation and examples in storybook. To run it locally, execute

$ npm run[-script] storybook

and then browse to http://localhost:6006.

Releases

Releases are automated via GH Actions - when a new release is created in GH, CI will trigger that:

  1. Runs a build
  2. Runs tests
  3. Runs npm publish

Version increments and tagging are not automated at this time.

Release testing

Until we can automate more, it should be preferred to test as close to the results of npm publish as we possibly can. This ensures we don't publish unintended breaking changes. One way to do that is using yalc - npm i -g yalc.

  1. Make your changes in recharts
  2. yalc publish in recharts
  3. yalc add recharts in your test package (ex: in a vite or webpack reach app with recharts installed, imported, and your recent changes used)
  4. npm install
  5. Test a local run, a build, etc.

Module Formats

  • babel-plugin-recharts A simple transform to cherry-pick Recharts modules so you don’t have to. Note: this plugin is out of date and may not work with 2.x

Thanks

Chromatic

Thanks to Chromatic for providing the visual testing platform that helps us review UI changes and catch visual regressions.

License

MIT

Copyright (c) 2015-2023 Recharts Group.