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  1. Stackups
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  3. UI Components
  4. Javascript UI Libraries
  5. D3.js vs Plotly vs React

D3.js vs Plotly vs React

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

React
React
Stacks182.6K
Followers147.0K
Votes4.1K
GitHub Stars240.3K
Forks49.7K
D3.js
D3.js
Stacks2.0K
Followers1.7K
Votes653
GitHub Stars111.7K
Forks22.9K
Plotly.js
Plotly.js
Stacks399
Followers694
Votes69
GitHub Stars17.9K
Forks1.9K

D3.js vs Plotly vs React: What are the differences?

## Introduction
When choosing between D3.js, Plotly, and React for data visualization on a website, it's important to understand the key differences between these powerful tools.

1. **Data Handling**: D3.js requires the user to manage data loading and manipulation manually, offering greater control but requiring more coding. Plotly, on the other hand, simplifies data handling by providing built-in functions for data visualization. React does not have data visualization capabilities out of the box but can be combined with D3.js or Plotly for dynamic data visualization.

2. **Customizability**: D3.js stands out for its high degree of customization, allowing users to create complex and unique visualizations tailored to specific needs. Plotly offers a collection of pre-built chart types and styles, making it easier to create professional-looking visualizations quickly. React, being a UI library, focuses more on component-based development, allowing for customization through reusable components.

3. **Learning Curve**: D3.js has a steep learning curve, requiring a solid understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to leverage its full potential. Plotly, with its simpler syntax and built-in functions, is more accessible to beginners and those looking to create visualizations quickly. React, while not focused solely on data visualization, has a gentler learning curve for creating interactive user interfaces.

4. **Interactivity**: D3.js is renowned for its ability to create interactive and dynamic data visualizations, allowing users to explore and analyze data in real-time. Plotly also offers interactive features but may have limitations compared to the flexibility of D3.js. React, being a UI library, provides interactivity through state management and component updates for a seamless user experience.

5. **Community and Support**: D3.js has a strong community of developers who actively contribute to the library and provide support through forums and documentation. Plotly offers comprehensive documentation and support, making it easier for users to troubleshoot issues and find resources. React, being maintained by Facebook, has a large user base and active community, with resources and documentation readily available.

6. **Performance**: D3.js provides optimal performance for handling large datasets and complex visualizations, making it a preferred choice for data-intensive applications. Plotly, while efficient in most scenarios, may have limitations in performance when dealing with extremely large datasets or complex interactions. React's performance can vary depending on the complexity of the UI components and the usage of virtual DOM for rendering.

In Summary, understanding the key differences between D3.js, Plotly, and React can help in making an informed decision based on data handling, customizability, learning curve, interactivity, community support, and performance considerations.

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Advice on React, D3.js, Plotly.js

Yucen
Yucen

Feb 23, 2021

Decided

We choose React for our client-side implementation because of React's virtual DOM implementation and component rendering optimization. It can help our app to be more stable and easier to debug. Also, react has strong support from the dev community. There is an enormous amount of reacting libraries we could use, which will speed up our development process.

109k views109k
Comments
GnsBeldaran
GnsBeldaran

Jul 10, 2019

ReviewonReactReact

I use React because I think it is the one that embraces the most the functional component design.

New versions of React are on the right track.

Having to work with Vue or Angular is a lot of pain for me, especially because I'm used to the simplicity of React (which comes with the great price of a high learning curve). Also, the use of the Flux Pattern is so much easier with React, being designed as a one way data flow, than with its two foremost competitors.

Cheers to the React Team, and thank you very much !

2.99k views2.99k
Comments
Michael
Michael

CEO at asencis Ltd

Jan 5, 2021

Decided

What a debate to wade into - React vs. Vue.js. Prototyping of applications is much, much faster in Vue.js. React, I believe, has a much heavier developer learning experience - so hiring pure Javascript developers allows us to work in a much more framework agnostic way. However, React still has a place within our application stack - it's much more performant out of the box.

98.2k views98.2k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

React
React
D3.js
D3.js
Plotly.js
Plotly.js

Lots of people use React as the V in MVC. Since React makes no assumptions about the rest of your technology stack, it's easy to try it out on a small feature in an existing project.

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.

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.

Declarative; Component-based; Learn once, write anywhere
Declarative Approach for Individual Nodes Manipulation; Functions Factory; Web Standards; Built-in ELement Inspector to Debug; Uses SVG, Canvas, and HTML; Data-driven approach to DOM Manipulation; Voronoi Diagrams; Maps and topo.
Feature parity with MATLAB/matplotlib graphing; Online chart editor; Fully interactive (hover, zoom, pan); SVG and WebGL backends; Publication-quality image export
Statistics
GitHub Stars
240.3K
GitHub Stars
111.7K
GitHub Stars
17.9K
GitHub Forks
49.7K
GitHub Forks
22.9K
GitHub Forks
1.9K
Stacks
182.6K
Stacks
2.0K
Stacks
399
Followers
147.0K
Followers
1.7K
Followers
694
Votes
4.1K
Votes
653
Votes
69
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 837
    Components
  • 674
    Virtual dom
  • 579
    Performance
  • 509
    Simplicity
  • 442
    Composable
Cons
  • 41
    Requires discipline to keep architecture organized
  • 30
    No predefined way to structure your app
  • 29
    Need to be familiar with lots of third party packages
  • 13
    JSX
  • 10
    Not enterprise friendly
Pros
  • 195
    Beautiful visualizations
  • 103
    Svg
  • 92
    Data-driven
  • 81
    Large set of examples
  • 61
    Data-driven documents
Cons
  • 11
    Beginners cant understand at all
  • 6
    Complex syntax
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
Integrations
No integrations available
JavaScript
JavaScript
React Native
React Native
AngularJS
AngularJS
Bootstrap
Bootstrap
Python
Python
MATLAB
MATLAB
Jupyter
Jupyter
Julia
Julia

What are some alternatives to React, D3.js, Plotly.js?

jQuery

jQuery

jQuery is a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML.

AngularJS

AngularJS

AngularJS lets you write client-side web applications as if you had a smarter browser. It lets you use good old HTML (or HAML, Jade and friends!) as your template language and lets you extend HTML’s syntax to express your application’s components clearly and succinctly. It automatically synchronizes data from your UI (view) with your JavaScript objects (model) through 2-way data binding.

Vue.js

Vue.js

It is a library for building interactive web interfaces. It provides data-reactive components with a simple and flexible API.

jQuery UI

jQuery UI

Whether you're building highly interactive web applications or you just need to add a date picker to a form control, jQuery UI is the perfect choice.

Svelte

Svelte

If you've ever built a JavaScript application, the chances are you've encountered – or at least heard of – frameworks like React, Angular, Vue and Ractive. Like Svelte, these tools all share a goal of making it easy to build slick interactive user interfaces. Rather than interpreting your application code at run time, your app is converted into ideal JavaScript at build time. That means you don't pay the performance cost of the framework's abstractions, or incur a penalty when your app first loads.

Flux

Flux

Flux is the application architecture that Facebook uses for building client-side web applications. It complements React's composable view components by utilizing a unidirectional data flow. It's more of a pattern rather than a formal framework, and you can start using Flux immediately without a lot of new code.

Famo.us

Famo.us

Famo.us is a free and open source JavaScript platform for building mobile apps and desktop experiences. What makes Famo.us unique is its JavaScript rendering engine and 3D physics engine that gives developers the power and tools to build native quality apps and animations using pure JavaScript.

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.

Riot

Riot

Riot brings custom tags to all browsers. Think React + Polymer but with enjoyable syntax and a small learning curve.

Chart.js

Chart.js

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

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