Highcharts vs Victory: What are the differences?

1. 1. Development and Documentation: Highcharts has been around for a longer time and has a more established community, resulting in better documentation and a larger number of examples and tutorials available for developers. On the other hand, Victory is a newer library with less extensive documentation and fewer community resources. Developers may find it easier to get started with Highcharts due to its well-documented nature.

2. 2. Chart Types and Customization: Highcharts offers a wide range of chart types out of the box, including line charts, bar charts, pie charts, and more. It also provides extensive customization options for these chart types, allowing developers to fine-tune the appearance and behavior of the charts. Victory, while also offering various chart types, may have fewer out-of-the-box options and may require more custom coding for advanced customization.

3. 3. Rendering Performance: Highcharts is known for its fast rendering performance, especially for large datasets. It utilizes optimized SVG rendering and provides options for data drilldown and streaming, allowing smooth interactivity even with a vast amount of data. Victory, although performant in most scenarios, may not offer the same level of optimization for rendering large datasets and may require additional performance tuning for such cases.

4. 4. React Integration: Victory is built specifically for React applications, providing seamless integration with React components and workflows. It leverages React's virtual DOM for efficient updates and employs a declarative approach for building charts. Highcharts, on the other hand, is not inherently tied to React and requires extra effort to integrate into React applications. It may not fully align with React's component-based architecture and may necessitate additional manual handling for integrating chart data and updates with React components.

5. 5. Licensing: While Highcharts offers a free for non-commercial use license, it requires a commercial license for use in commercial projects or applications. On the contrary, Victory is an open-source library released under the MIT license, allowing unrestricted usage for both non-commercial and commercial purposes. This difference in licensing terms may impact the choice of library based on the project's commercial requirements and budget.

6. 6. Industry Adoption: Highcharts has gained significant popularity and enjoys a large user base across various industries, making it a trusted and widely recognized charting solution. It has been extensively used by companies and organizations worldwide, and its long-standing presence gives it a proven track record. Victory, being relatively newer, may have a lower level of industry adoption and may not have the same level of community support and backing.

In summary, Highcharts provides comprehensive documentation, supports a wide range of chart types, excels in rendering large datasets, requires additional effort for React integration, has commercial licensing, and enjoys significant industry adoption. Victory, on the other hand, is built specifically for React, offers customization options, may require additional performance tuning, has an open-source license, and may have a comparatively lower level of industry adoption.