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  1. Stackups
  2. Business Tools
  3. UI Components
  4. Charting Libraries
  5. Lightweight Charts vs Plotly

Lightweight Charts vs Plotly

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Plotly.js
Plotly.js
Stacks399
Followers694
Votes69
GitHub Stars17.9K
Forks1.9K
Lightweight Charts
Lightweight Charts
Stacks5
Followers26
Votes0
GitHub Stars12.8K
Forks2.0K

Lightweight Charts vs Plotly: What are the differences?

  1. Customization Options: Lightweight Charts provide a high level of customization options for technical analysis, such as custom markers, labels, and tooltips. On the other hand, Plotly offers a wide range of customization for data visualization, including plot styling, legends, and annotations, making it versatile for different types of graphs and charts.
  2. Performance: Lightweight Charts focus on rendering financial charts with high performance and smooth interactions, optimized for large datasets commonly found in financial markets. In contrast, Plotly, being a general-purpose visualization library, may not be as optimized for high-frequency data and intense calculations as Lightweight Charts.
  3. Community Support: Plotly has a larger and more active community compared to Lightweight Charts, which results in frequent updates, bug fixes, and a plethora of user-generated resources such as templates and tutorials. Lightweight Charts, being more specialized, might have a smaller community but can provide more tailored support for financial charting needs.
  4. User Interface Design: Lightweight Charts are specifically designed for financial applications, offering features like studies, overlays, and events that cater to traders and analysts. Plotly, on the other hand, focuses on creating visually appealing and interactive charts for a wide range of industries and purposes, with features like animations and interactivity.
  5. Pricing and Licensing: Lightweight Charts are open-source and free to use under the Apache 2.0 license, making them accessible for both personal and commercial projects. Plotly, while offering an open-source version, also has paid plans for advanced features and dedicated support, which may be more suitable for enterprise users with specific needs.
  6. Integration and Compatibility: Lightweight Charts can be seamlessly integrated with popular front-end frameworks like React and Angular, simplifying the process of incorporating financial charts into web applications. Plotly, being a more universal tool, offers compatibility with various programming languages such as Python and R, allowing for diverse data sources and integrations.

In Summary, Lightweight Charts excel in customization, performance, and financial-specific features, while Plotly offers broader versatility, community support, and integration options for a wide range of visualization needs.

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Detailed Comparison

Plotly.js
Plotly.js
Lightweight Charts
Lightweight Charts

It is a standalone Javascript data visualization library, and it also powers the Python and R modules named plotly in those respective ecosystems (referred to as Plotly.py and Plotly.R). It can be used to produce dozens of chart types and visualizations, including statistical charts, 3D graphs, scientific charts, SVG and tile maps, financial charts and more.

The library displays financial data as an interactive chart on your web page without affecting your web page loading speed and performance.

Feature parity with MATLAB/matplotlib graphing; Online chart editor; Fully interactive (hover, zoom, pan); SVG and WebGL backends; Publication-quality image export
Open source; Responsive across devices; Touch-optimized; Zoom through scales; Mouse-wheel zoom; Chart scroll; Candlesticks & Bars; Baseline; Several price series overlay; Custom S/M/H/D/W/Mo/Y; Custom chart colors
Statistics
GitHub Stars
17.9K
GitHub Stars
12.8K
GitHub Forks
1.9K
GitHub Forks
2.0K
Stacks
399
Stacks
5
Followers
694
Followers
26
Votes
69
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 16
    Bindings to popular languages like Python, Node, R, etc
  • 10
    Integrated zoom and filter-out tools in charts and maps
  • 9
    Great support for complex and multiple axes
  • 8
    Powerful out-of-the-box featureset
  • 6
    Beautiful visualizations
Cons
  • 18
    Terrible document
Pros
  • 0
    Open Source
Integrations
Python
Python
React
React
MATLAB
MATLAB
Jupyter
Jupyter
Julia
Julia
TypeScript
TypeScript
Node.js
Node.js
ES6
ES6
HTML5
HTML5

What are some alternatives to Plotly.js, Lightweight Charts?

D3.js

D3.js

It is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Emphasises on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework.

Highcharts

Highcharts

Highcharts currently supports line, spline, area, areaspline, column, bar, pie, scatter, angular gauges, arearange, areasplinerange, columnrange, bubble, box plot, error bars, funnel, waterfall and polar chart types.

Chart.js

Chart.js

Visualize your data in 6 different ways. Each of them animated, with a load of customisation options and interactivity extensions.

Recharts

Recharts

Quickly build your charts with decoupled, reusable React components. Built on top of SVG elements with a lightweight dependency on D3 submodules.

ECharts

ECharts

It is an open source visualization library implemented in JavaScript, runs smoothly on PCs and mobile devices, and is compatible with most current browsers.

ZingChart

ZingChart

The most feature-rich, fully customizable JavaScript charting library available used by start-ups and the Fortune 100 alike.

amCharts

amCharts

amCharts is an advanced charting library that will suit any data visualization need. Our charting solution include Column, Bar, Line, Area, Step, Step without risers, Smoothed line, Candlestick, OHLC, Pie/Donut, Radar/ Polar, XY/Scatter/Bubble, Bullet, Funnel/Pyramid charts as well as Gauges.

CanvasJS

CanvasJS

Lightweight, Beautiful & Responsive Charts that make your dashboards fly even with millions of data points! Self-Hosted, Secure & Scalable charts that render across devices.

AnyChart

AnyChart

AnyChart is a flexible JavaScript (HTML5) based solution that allows you to create interactive and great looking charts. It is a cross-browser and cross-platform charting solution intended for everybody who deals with creation of dashboard, reporting, analytics, statistical, financial or any other data visualization solutions.

ApexCharts

ApexCharts

A modern JavaScript charting library to build interactive charts and visualizations with simple API.

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