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As a customer, having few fancy charts isn't that important. But the ease with which allows customizations and the support it provides is more important. D3.js,

As a customer, having few fancy charts isn't that important. But the ease with which allows customizations and the support it provides is more important. D3.js, GoogleCharts, Flotr2, etc. are too complex to customize. When it comes to building a product and not care about how to get your charts done, Highcharts is the best solution.

bunkat 14y ago
I think this is a common misconception. Once you wrap your head around d3, building charts is just about as easy as figuring out the required configuration for a Highcharts chart (even complex charts are generally only 30 lines of code). If you really don't care how it is done, there are solutions like nvd3.js that have created prepackaged charts. Based on the extremely limited customizations available and poor performance characteristics, along with the pricing model, I don't think I can agree that Highcharts is ever the best solution.
- Cthulhu_ 14y ago
  > Once you wrap your head around d3 Key point here. Highcharts' customers are companies and website builders that don't have, get, or take the time to wrap their heads around D3, they just need to chuck a graph or two on their site(s), then move on to the next thing. It's not idealistic, but it's the reality. I'm personally surprised there's not a lot more commercial JS libraries like Highcharts out there, seems to me there's a big market for those.
  - chenster 14y ago
    phpChart (http://phpchart.net http://phpchart.net) is a commercial charting solution but based on jqplot, a FOSS. FusionCharts (http://fusioncharts.com http://fusioncharts.com) is another successful commercial product for charts.
  - jmelloy 14y ago
    Also, D3.js doesn't work on IE, which is a non-started for our app. We're currently evaluating and will probably end up using Highcharts.
- mturmon 14y ago
  Thanks for the link to nvd3. I'm in the not-enough-time-to-understand-d3 camp, but maybe that will change. In the meantime, I've found it easy to get something going fast with the highcharts tools.
mamcx 14y ago
I think highcharts have better support for touch devices (ie iOS) than the open source options, as far I know...
bwilliams18 14y ago
I just spent the past two months building an advanced dashboard revolving around complicated charts. After looking at both high charts and d3, it became clear that d3 was the better solution, as it allowed an order of magnitude of increased flexibility.

bunkat 14y ago

I think this is a common misconception. Once you wrap your head around d3, building charts is just about as easy as figuring out the required configuration for a Highcharts chart (even complex charts are generally only 30 lines of code). If you really don't care how it is done, there are solutions like nvd3.js that have created prepackaged charts. Based on the extremely limited customizations available and poor performance characteristics, along with the pricing model, I don't think I can agree that Highcharts is ever the best solution.

Cthulhu_ 14y ago
> Once you wrap your head around d3 Key point here. Highcharts' customers are companies and website builders that don't have, get, or take the time to wrap their heads around D3, they just need to chuck a graph or two on their site(s), then move on to the next thing. It's not idealistic, but it's the reality. I'm personally surprised there's not a lot more commercial JS libraries like Highcharts out there, seems to me there's a big market for those.
- chenster 14y ago
  phpChart (http://phpchart.net http://phpchart.net) is a commercial charting solution but based on jqplot, a FOSS. FusionCharts (http://fusioncharts.com http://fusioncharts.com) is another successful commercial product for charts.
- jmelloy 14y ago
  Also, D3.js doesn't work on IE, which is a non-started for our app. We're currently evaluating and will probably end up using Highcharts.
mturmon 14y ago
Thanks for the link to nvd3. I'm in the not-enough-time-to-understand-d3 camp, but maybe that will change. In the meantime, I've found it easy to get something going fast with the highcharts tools.

mamcx 14y ago

I think highcharts have better support for touch devices (ie iOS) than the open source options, as far I know...

bwilliams18 14y ago

I just spent the past two months building an advanced dashboard revolving around complicated charts. After looking at both high charts and d3, it became clear that d3 was the better solution, as it allowed an order of magnitude of increased flexibility.