The difference between d3 and highcharts is like a paint brush vs. a coloring book. If you're davinci, you can make masterpieces with a paint brush. However,

The difference between d3 and highcharts is like a paint brush vs. a coloring book. If you're davinci, you can make masterpieces with a paint brush. However, even davinci (probably) started off drawing little stick figures. A coloring book defines the basic shapes you want, you just need to fill in the colors and add your personal touch. Highcharts is neat because it's a high-level api around charting. If you want to make charts, it's one of the most customizable and well-documented API's out there. If you want to build a custom visualization, highcharts offers a good amount of customizability, but sometimes you just gotta drop down into assembly.