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Highcharts vs JFreeChart: What are the differences?
Highcharts vs JFreeChart
Highcharts and JFreeChart are both popular charting libraries that offer a variety of features for creating interactive and visually appealing charts. However, there are several key differences between the two:
Implementation Language: Highcharts is primarily developed using JavaScript and offers seamless integration with web technologies like HTML and CSS. On the other hand, JFreeChart is a Java-based library, making it more suitable for desktop applications or server-side rendering.
Chart Types and Customizability: Highcharts offers a wide range of chart types, including line, bar, pie, scatter, and more. It also provides extensive customization options for styling and configuring the charts. In contrast, JFreeChart supports a limited set of chart types, although it allows for fine-grained customization through various APIs and interfaces.
Interactivity and Animation: Highcharts places a strong emphasis on interactivity, providing features like tooltips, drilldowns, and responsive design out of the box. It also supports smooth animations to enhance the user experience. JFreeChart, while offering basic interactivity, may require additional programming to achieve similar effects.
Accessibility and Internationalization: Highcharts prioritizes accessibility and internationalization, providing built-in support for multiple languages and keyboard navigation. JFreeChart, being a more traditional Java library, may require manual implementation of accessibility features.
Licensing: Highcharts is a commercial library and requires a valid license for commercial use. However, it offers a free version for non-commercial and personal use. JFreeChart, on the other hand, is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) and can be used freely in both commercial and non-commercial projects.
Community and Support: Highcharts has a large and active community, with regular updates and responsive support. It provides extensive documentation, examples, and online forums. JFreeChart also has an active community, but its development pace and support may not be as rapid as Highcharts.
In summary, Highcharts and JFreeChart differ in terms of implementation language, chart types and customization, interactivity and animation, accessibility and internationalization, licensing, and community/support. The choice between the two depends on the specific requirements of the project and the preferred programming language.
I have used highcharts and it is pretty awesome for my previous project. now as I am about to start my new project I want to use other charting libraries such as recharts, chart js, Nivo, d3 js.... my upcoming project might use react js as front end and laravel as a backend technology. the project would be of hotel management type. please suggest me the best charts to use
I've used Highcharts with both Angular Js Reactive applications (render as ReactJs) and also a bit of D3. Personally I found Highcharts to be the easiest to use but, with still quite a good level of customisability if you need it. graphs and charts then give D3 a try.
Pros of Highcharts
- Low learning curve and powerful34
- Multiple chart types such as pie, bar, line and others17
- Responsive charts13
- Handles everything you throw at it9
- Extremely easy-to-parse documentation8
- Built-in export chart as-is to image file5
- Easy to customize color scheme and palettes5
- Export on server side, can be used in email1
Pros of JFreeChart
- Easy to use1
- Very, very customizable1
- Easy to user0
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Cons of Highcharts
- Expensive9
Cons of JFreeChart
- Lots of code1
