vis-network vs cytoscape vs d3-graphviz
Graph Visualization Libraries
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Graph Visualization Libraries

Graph visualization libraries in JavaScript provide tools for creating interactive and visually appealing representations of data structures such as graphs, networks, and trees. These libraries are essential for applications that require the visualization of relationships between entities, such as social networks, organizational charts, and data flow diagrams. They offer features like customizable nodes and edges, various layout algorithms, and interactivity options, making it easier for developers to create dynamic and informative visualizations. cytoscape is a powerful library for graph theory and network visualization, offering extensive features for analyzing and visualizing complex networks. d3-graphviz integrates Graphviz with D3.js, allowing for the creation of directed and undirected graphs using the DOT language, with a focus on hierarchical layouts and customizable styling. vis-network is a versatile library for visualizing networks and graphs, providing a range of layout algorithms, interactive features, and easy-to-use API for creating dynamic and visually appealing network diagrams.

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vis-network583,8433,59682.7 MB3442 months ago(Apache-2.0 OR MIT)
cytoscape011,0875.7 MB13a month agoMIT
d3-graphviz01,8062.92 MB232 years agoBSD-3-Clause

Feature Comparison: vis-network vs cytoscape vs d3-graphviz

Graph Types

  • vis-network:

    vis-network supports various graph types, including directed, undirected, and weighted graphs. It provides multiple layout algorithms and allows for easy customization of nodes and edges, making it versatile for different types of network visualizations.

  • cytoscape:

    cytoscape supports a wide range of graph types, including directed, undirected, and weighted graphs. It is highly customizable, allowing for the creation of complex network visualizations with various node and edge styles.

  • d3-graphviz:

    d3-graphviz focuses on directed and undirected graphs, particularly those that can be represented using the DOT language. It excels at creating hierarchical and flowchart-style diagrams, making it ideal for visualizing structured data.

Interactivity

  • vis-network:

    vis-network is designed for interactivity, offering built-in support for zooming, panning, dragging, and selection. It also supports events and callbacks, making it easy to create interactive and responsive network visualizations.

  • cytoscape:

    cytoscape offers extensive interactivity features, including zooming, panning, and selection. It also supports event handling, allowing developers to create interactive visualizations with tooltips, context menus, and dynamic updates.

  • d3-graphviz:

    d3-graphviz leverages D3.js for interactivity, providing features like zooming, panning, and animated transitions. However, interactivity is more limited compared to cytoscape, and it may require additional coding to implement advanced features.

Layout Algorithms

  • vis-network:

    vis-network offers multiple built-in layout algorithms, including hierarchical, force-directed, and circular layouts. It allows for easy switching between layouts and provides customization options, making it user-friendly for various types of network visualizations.

  • cytoscape:

    cytoscape provides a variety of layout algorithms, including force-directed, circular, grid, and hierarchical layouts. It also supports custom layouts and allows for the integration of third-party layout algorithms, making it highly flexible for different visualization needs.

  • d3-graphviz:

    d3-graphviz primarily uses Graphviz's layout algorithms, such as dot (hierarchical), neato (force-directed), and circo (circular). These algorithms are well-suited for structured and hierarchical data, but the library is less flexible for custom layouts compared to cytoscape.

Integration

  • vis-network:

    vis-network is a standalone library but can be easily integrated with other JavaScript frameworks and libraries. It is designed to be lightweight and modular, making it easy to incorporate into existing projects.

  • cytoscape:

    cytoscape integrates well with other data analysis tools and libraries, including Cytoscape.js for web-based applications and Cytoscape desktop for more advanced analysis. It also supports integration with React, Angular, and Vue.js, making it versatile for modern web development.

  • d3-graphviz:

    d3-graphviz integrates seamlessly with D3.js, allowing for the combination of Graphviz's layout capabilities with D3's powerful data visualization features. This makes it ideal for developers who want to leverage both libraries for more complex and interactive visualizations.

Ease of Use: Code Examples

  • vis-network:

    Simple graph visualization with vis-network

    import { Network } from 'vis-network';
const nodes = new vis.DataSet([
  { id: 1, label: 'Node 1' },
  { id: 2, label: 'Node 2' },
  { id: 3, label: 'Node 3' }
]);
const edges = new vis.DataSet([
  { from: 1, to: 2 },
  { from: 2, to: 3 }
]);
const container = document.getElementById('network');
const data = { nodes, edges };
const options = {};
const network = new Network(container, data, options);
  • cytoscape:

    Simple graph visualization with cytoscape

    import cytoscape from 'cytoscape';
const cy = cytoscape({
  container: document.getElementById('cy'),
  elements: [
    { data: { id: 'a' } },
    { data: { id: 'b' } },
    { data: { id: 'ab', source: 'a', target: 'b' } }
  ],
  style: [
    { selector: 'node', style: { 'background-color': '#666', 'label': 'data(id)' } },
    { selector: 'edge', style: { 'width': 3, 'line-color': '#ccc' } }
  ],
  layout: { name: 'grid' }
});
  • d3-graphviz:

    Simple graph visualization with d3-graphviz

    import { graphviz } from 'd3-graphviz';
const graph = `
  digraph G {
    A -> B;
    B -> C;
    C -> A;
  }
`;
d3.select('#graph').graphviz().renderDot(graph);

How to Choose: vis-network vs cytoscape vs d3-graphviz

  • vis-network:

    Choose vis-network if you need a flexible and easy-to-use library for creating interactive network visualizations. It is suitable for applications that require quick setup and a variety of layout options, including hierarchical, circular, and force-directed layouts.

  • cytoscape:

    Choose cytoscape if you need a comprehensive solution for visualizing and analyzing complex networks. It is ideal for applications that require advanced features like clustering, filtering, and integration with other data analysis tools.

  • d3-graphviz:

    Choose d3-graphviz if you are familiar with the Graphviz DOT language and need to create hierarchical or flowchart-style diagrams. It is particularly useful for visualizing directed graphs and offers seamless integration with D3.js for added interactivity.

Similar Npm Packages to vis-network

vis-network is a dynamic, browser-based visualization library for creating interactive network graphs. It allows developers to easily visualize complex relationships between data points, making it an excellent choice for applications that require network analysis or data representation. With features like smooth animations, customizable nodes and edges, and support for large datasets, vis-network is well-suited for building interactive visualizations in web applications.

One notable alternative to vis-network is react-graph-vis. This library is a React wrapper for the vis-network library, enabling developers to integrate network visualizations seamlessly into their React applications. react-graph-vis provides a set of React components that simplify the process of creating and managing network graphs, making it easier to work with React's component lifecycle and state management. If you are already using React and want to leverage the capabilities of vis-network, react-graph-vis is a great choice as it combines the power of vis-network with the convenience of React.

For a detailed comparison between these two libraries, check out the following link: Comparing react-graph-vis vs vis-network.

Similar Npm Packages to cytoscape

cytoscape is a powerful graph theory library for visualizing and analyzing complex networks and graphs in web applications. It provides a rich set of features for creating interactive and customizable graph visualizations, making it a popular choice for applications that require sophisticated data representation. While cytoscape is a robust option for graph visualization, there are several alternatives worth considering:

  • d3-graphviz is a D3.js-based library that allows users to create visualizations of graphs using the DOT language. It leverages the capabilities of D3.js to render graphs and offers a straightforward way to integrate graph visualization into web applications. If you are already familiar with D3.js and prefer to work with the DOT language for defining graphs, d3-graphviz is a great choice for creating dynamic and interactive graph visualizations.
  • vis-network is part of the Vis.js library, which provides a set of tools for visualizing data in various formats, including networks. vis-network is specifically focused on network visualization and allows for the creation of interactive graphs with features like drag-and-drop, zooming, and customizable node and edge styles. If you are looking for a library that is easy to use and offers a range of interactive features for network visualization, vis-network is an excellent alternative.

To see how cytoscape compares with d3-graphviz and vis-network, check out the comparison: Comparing cytoscape vs d3-graphviz vs vis-network.

Similar Npm Packages to d3-graphviz

d3-graphviz is a powerful library that integrates Graphviz with D3.js, enabling developers to create and visualize graphs and diagrams in web applications. By leveraging the syntax of the DOT language, d3-graphviz allows users to define complex graphs easily and render them interactively using D3.js. This library is particularly useful for applications that require dynamic graph visualizations, such as network diagrams, flowcharts, and organizational charts.

While d3-graphviz offers a robust solution for graph visualization, there are alternative libraries that also provide capabilities for rendering graphs and diagrams. Here are a couple of notable alternatives:

  • dagre-d3 is a D3-based library that focuses on rendering directed graphs. It combines the layout capabilities of Dagre with the rendering power of D3.js, allowing developers to create visually appealing and well-structured graphs. Dagre-d3 is particularly useful for applications that need to display hierarchical data, such as dependency trees or flow diagrams. Its layout algorithms help ensure that the graphs are easy to read and understand, making it a great choice for visualizing complex relationships.
  • viz.js is a JavaScript port of Graphviz that enables rendering of graphs and diagrams directly in the browser. It supports the DOT language and can generate SVG or PNG images from DOT descriptions. Viz.js is particularly useful for applications that require server-side rendering of graphs or need to generate static images from graph definitions. Its ability to work independently of D3.js makes it a versatile choice for various graph visualization needs.

To explore how d3-graphviz compares with dagre-d3 and viz.js, check out the comparison: Comparing d3-graphviz vs dagre-d3 vs viz.js.

README for vis-network

vis-network

example chart

Network is a visualization to display networks and networks consisting of nodes and edges. The visualization is easy to use and supports custom shapes, styles, colors, sizes, images, and more. The network visualization works smooth on any modern browser for up to a few thousand nodes and edges. To handle a larger amount of nodes, Network has clustering support. Network uses HTML canvas for rendering.

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Install

Install via npm:

$ npm install vis-network

Example

A basic example on loading a Network is shown below. More examples can be found in the examples directory of the project.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>Network</title>
    <script
      type="text/javascript"
      src="https://unpkg.com/vis-network/standalone/umd/vis-network.min.js"
    ></script>
    <style type="text/css">
      #mynetwork {
        width: 600px;
        height: 400px;
        border: 1px solid lightgray;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="mynetwork"></div>
    <script type="text/javascript">
      // create an array with nodes
      var nodes = new vis.DataSet([
        { id: 1, label: "Node 1" },
        { id: 2, label: "Node 2" },
        { id: 3, label: "Node 3" },
        { id: 4, label: "Node 4" },
        { id: 5, label: "Node 5" },
      ]);

      // create an array with edges
      var edges = new vis.DataSet([
        { from: 1, to: 3 },
        { from: 1, to: 2 },
        { from: 2, to: 4 },
        { from: 2, to: 5 },
        { from: 3, to: 3 },
      ]);

      // create a network
      var container = document.getElementById("mynetwork");
      var data = {
        nodes: nodes,
        edges: edges,
      };
      var options = {};
      var network = new vis.Network(container, data, options);
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Build

To build the library from source, clone the project from github

$ git clone git://github.com/visjs/vis-network.git

The source code uses the module style of node (require and module.exports) to organize dependencies. To install all dependencies and build the library, run npm install in the root of the project.

$ cd vis-network
$ npm install

Then, the project can be build running:

$ npm run build

Test

To test the library, install the project dependencies once:

$ npm install

Then run the tests:

$ npm run test

Contribute

Contributions to the vis.js library are very welcome! We can't do this alone!

Backers

Thank you to all our backers! 🙏

Sponsors

Support this project by becoming a sponsor. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website.

License

Copyright (C) 2010-2018 Almende B.V. and Contributors Copyright (c) 2018-2021 Vis.js contributors

Vis.js is dual licensed under both

and

Vis.js may be distributed under either license.

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