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Ask HN: What are the best free and pay web charting libraries?

17 points by matthodan 17y ago

What are the best free and pay web charting libraries?

alexjmann 17y ago
I've used the free version of AM Charts. They look nice and work well. http://amcharts.com/ http://amcharts.com/
staunch 17y ago
Open Flash Chart http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/ http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/
- nopassrecover 17y ago
  Wish I could find pictures on that site somewhere.
  - staunch 17y ago
    http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/area-hollow.php http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/area-hollow.php The navigation is in the top right...it's pretty badly designed. The charts themselves are very customizable though, so you can mimic almost any nice chart you've seen by tweaking.
nfriedly 17y ago
I've used the charts widget from YUI 2 more than once. It's not amazing, but if you have a small amount of data it gets the job done. Large data sets can take a while to render and then be hard to read once they do render. http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/charts/ http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/charts/
kilian 17y ago
I built Grafico, a free (MIT licenced) javascript and SVG charting library. it's fast in most browsers and should see a ridiculous speedup with ie9. Also it makes really pretty charts :) http://grafico.kilianvalkhof.com/ http://grafico.kilianvalkhof.com/
- fun2have 17y ago
  Grafico is really good but lacks pie charts. You have to use http://g.raphaeljs.com/ http://g.raphaeljs.com/ for Pie's. But that is not so bad as Grafico uses raphaeljs.
  - kilian 17y ago
    Not having pie charts is by design. Grafico attempts to adhere to the chart design principles by Stephen Few, amongst others, who has this to say about pie charts: http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/save_the_pies_for_dessert.pdf http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intel...
mark_story 17y ago
If you like SVG, or even if you don't. http://g.raphaeljs.com/ http://g.raphaeljs.com/ has some sweet graphing. I wouldn't recommend it for huge data sets, but for small to large datasets its quite nice.
quinto42 17y ago
Hah, such bad replies. http://www.highcharts.com/ http://www.highcharts.com/ No questions.
yish 17y ago
Protovis out of stanford (http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/) seems to be incredibly comprehensive while also being really slick and interactive. Haven't had the chance to use it on a project but have it bookmarked since it would be the first thing I would try when I do. Also, seems to be updated regularly. I know they didn't support IE for a long time as they are SVG based, but not sure if that has changed.
- og1 17y ago
  There's also the flash based version called flare: http://flare.prefuse.org/ http://flare.prefuse.org/ which I've found to work well.
rmanocha 17y ago
I've been using the Google Chart Tools (http://code.google.com/apis/charttools/index.html http://code.google.com/apis/charttools/index.html) and have been pretty happy with it. Haven't used it on a major project though, so your mileage may vary.
- ig1 17y ago
  I'm working on a project that does analytics on universities, and Google Chart is the only decent package I've found that meets my requirements. A lot of these charting libraries use javascript or flash which is fine for user-specific data, but unsuitable for public data. I need charts to be jpg/gif/png so people can easily copy them to blogs/forums/facebook. If I use javascript or flash charts I'll lose a huge amount of viral traffic.
fadeddata 17y ago
I've used Highcharts with good results... http://www.highcharts.com/ http://www.highcharts.com/
graham_king_3 17y ago
Flot. JS / Canvas library, supports excanvas for IE. Good looking, straightforward. http://code.google.com/p/flot/ http://code.google.com/p/flot/ I have been using it for a while in production, am happy with it.
dmpayton 17y ago
I've had good experience with ChartDirector. It can create many different kinds of charts and graphs, is very customizable, and comes with support for several languages. Their website isn't much to look at, but the software is solid. http://www.advsofteng.com/ http://www.advsofteng.com/
- brisance 17y ago
  Another vote for ChartDirector. The support forum is really active and the library itself has been licensed for use in a large number of commercial software.
revorad 17y ago
Hi matthodan, I'm building Pretty Graph (http://prettygraph.com http://prettygraph.com), which is more of a complete web-based data visualisation app, not just a charting library. But we are also building an API, which might be of use to you. We also offer PDF downloads of graphs. Drop me an email (see profile) if you're interested.
atlantic 17y ago
I had some good experiences with DotNetCharting - for the .net framework, obviously. Easy to set up, charts are very classy, but a bit expensive. http://www.dotnetcharting.com/ http://www.dotnetcharting.com/
pkc 17y ago
I have used fusioncharts and found it to be pretty awesome. http://www.fusioncharts.com/ http://www.fusioncharts.com/

17 points by matthodan 17y ago

What are the best free and pay web charting libraries?

alexjmann 17y ago

I've used the free version of AM Charts. They look nice and work well. http://amcharts.com/ http://amcharts.com/

staunch 17y ago

Open Flash Chart http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/ http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/

nopassrecover 17y ago
Wish I could find pictures on that site somewhere.
- staunch 17y ago
  http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/area-hollow.php http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/area-hollow.php The navigation is in the top right...it's pretty badly designed. The charts themselves are very customizable though, so you can mimic almost any nice chart you've seen by tweaking.

nfriedly 17y ago

I've used the charts widget from YUI 2 more than once. It's not amazing, but if you have a small amount of data it gets the job done. Large data sets can take a while to render and then be hard to read once they do render. http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/charts/ http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/charts/

kilian 17y ago

I built Grafico, a free (MIT licenced) javascript and SVG charting library. it's fast in most browsers and should see a ridiculous speedup with ie9. Also it makes really pretty charts :) http://grafico.kilianvalkhof.com/ http://grafico.kilianvalkhof.com/

fun2have 17y ago
Grafico is really good but lacks pie charts. You have to use http://g.raphaeljs.com/ http://g.raphaeljs.com/ for Pie's. But that is not so bad as Grafico uses raphaeljs.
- kilian 17y ago
  Not having pie charts is by design. Grafico attempts to adhere to the chart design principles by Stephen Few, amongst others, who has this to say about pie charts: http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/save_the_pies_for_dessert.pdf http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intel...

mark_story 17y ago

If you like SVG, or even if you don't. http://g.raphaeljs.com/ http://g.raphaeljs.com/ has some sweet graphing. I wouldn't recommend it for huge data sets, but for small to large datasets its quite nice.

quinto42 17y ago

Hah, such bad replies. http://www.highcharts.com/ http://www.highcharts.com/ No questions.

yish 17y ago

Protovis out of stanford (http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/) seems to be incredibly comprehensive while also being really slick and interactive. Haven't had the chance to use it on a project but have it bookmarked since it would be the first thing I would try when I do. Also, seems to be updated regularly. I know they didn't support IE for a long time as they are SVG based, but not sure if that has changed.

og1 17y ago
There's also the flash based version called flare: http://flare.prefuse.org/ http://flare.prefuse.org/ which I've found to work well.

rmanocha 17y ago

I've been using the Google Chart Tools (http://code.google.com/apis/charttools/index.html http://code.google.com/apis/charttools/index.html) and have been pretty happy with it. Haven't used it on a major project though, so your mileage may vary.

ig1 17y ago
I'm working on a project that does analytics on universities, and Google Chart is the only decent package I've found that meets my requirements. A lot of these charting libraries use javascript or flash which is fine for user-specific data, but unsuitable for public data. I need charts to be jpg/gif/png so people can easily copy them to blogs/forums/facebook. If I use javascript or flash charts I'll lose a huge amount of viral traffic.

fadeddata 17y ago

I've used Highcharts with good results... http://www.highcharts.com/ http://www.highcharts.com/

graham_king_3 17y ago

Flot. JS / Canvas library, supports excanvas for IE. Good looking, straightforward. http://code.google.com/p/flot/ http://code.google.com/p/flot/ I have been using it for a while in production, am happy with it.

dmpayton 17y ago

I've had good experience with ChartDirector. It can create many different kinds of charts and graphs, is very customizable, and comes with support for several languages. Their website isn't much to look at, but the software is solid. http://www.advsofteng.com/ http://www.advsofteng.com/

brisance 17y ago
Another vote for ChartDirector. The support forum is really active and the library itself has been licensed for use in a large number of commercial software.

revorad 17y ago

Hi matthodan, I'm building Pretty Graph (http://prettygraph.com http://prettygraph.com), which is more of a complete web-based data visualisation app, not just a charting library. But we are also building an API, which might be of use to you. We also offer PDF downloads of graphs. Drop me an email (see profile) if you're interested.

atlantic 17y ago

I had some good experiences with DotNetCharting - for the .net framework, obviously. Easy to set up, charts are very classy, but a bit expensive. http://www.dotnetcharting.com/ http://www.dotnetcharting.com/

pkc 17y ago

I have used fusioncharts and found it to be pretty awesome. http://www.fusioncharts.com/ http://www.fusioncharts.com/