Comparison of JavaScript Data Visualization Libraries

In my previous review Choice Free JavaScript Data Visualization Library was considered more also 20 popular among developers JavaScript solutions for charts. In addition to a short description and a graphic example each library was considered from a perspectives of the licensing, visualization technology, HTML5 support and capability of the integration with GWT. In this review for Clarity these and additional characteristics combine in a matrix.

The intention of this comparison is to show some examples of JavaScript Data Visualization libraries with their different features.

Another important aspect which should be considered in the comparison is the support from community (i.e. # of users/developers/commits in last month, etc.) for that JS charting library. Although it is hard to gather this kind of information, I think it is the most valuable for the final decision.

Table of Javascript Data Visualization Libraries

	Chart types by category	HTML5 canvas capable (fallback method)	Size	GWT support	Dependency on other js libs	Mobile friendly	Level of interactiveness	License	Can incorporate custom graphics (background images, icons)	Largest Sites currently using	Project health (mailing list traffic, Stack Overflow questions)	Formats supported	Interesting features
arcadiaCharts	line, area, pie, donut, bar, column, scatter, xy, logarithmic scale charts, time plot	Yes	variable JavaScript Version - 9,7 Mb GWT Version - 3,6 Mb	Yes	No	No	hovers and follows	ArcadiaCharts license	Yes		Latest realease Jan-13-2012	png	apply color and style, Axis types, CSV data import
Cubism.js	realtime series	Yes	78,5 Kb	No	D3	No	hovers and follows	Apache License	No		7 commits , 20 wiki messages in last month		scalable, effective (each pixel encodes a distinct point in time), data-source agnostic
D3	arc, polar area, gantt, timelines and timing, sankey, candlestick, data table, hypergraph	Yes	109 Kb	No	No	No	hovers and follows	BSD license	No		6 commits, 30 new wiki messages, 1796 search results and 179 new topics on stackoverflow in last month		a large number of solutions for data visualization
Dojo GFX	bar, line, pie, bubble, candleStick, area, scatter, high-low, column, stacked, clustered and spider	No	variable, from 31 Kb up to 3,7 Mb	Yes	No	Yes	hovers and follows	modified BSD license/ the Academic Free License version 2.1	No		16 search results on stackoverflow. Books: Dojo: The Definitive Guide, Practical Dojo Projects, Learning Dojo, etc.		supports gauges, openLayers maps and geo charting
dygraphs	area, bar, candlestick, line	Yes	69 Kb	No	No	Yes	hovers, follows and zooming	MIT	Yes	Integrated Space Weather Analysis System, Eutelsat, 10gen MongoDB Monitoring Service	34 search results and 1 new topics on stackoverflow  in last month	png	Supports error bands around data series, can intelligently chart fractions, customizable click-through actions
Flot	bars, lines, points, filled areas, time series, pie, stacked charts  any combinations of these, in the same plot and even on the same data series	Yes	core size is 37 Kb, plugins vary in size	Yes, gflot	jQuery	Yes,  all iOS and most Android devices	legends, hovers and drilldowns, panning, zooming, mouse tracking, automatically redraw when window is resized	MIT/BSD	Yes		873 search results and 39 new topics on stackoverflow and 25 new topics on groups in last month	jpg, png	using various symbols for points, multiple axis plotting prerendered images and many other
Flotr	histograms, lines, points, pie, candle sticks, radar, markers	No	67.4 Kb	No	Prototype Javascript Framework	No	hovers and follows	MIT	No		60 search results and 2 new topics on stackoverflow  in last month, available only alpha version	png	easy to learn syntax
Flotr2	bar, line, candlestick, area, scatter, whisker, bubbles, timeline, time, pie, radar	Yes, (IE support with FlashCanvas and excanvas)	variable, from 31 Kb up to 656 Kb	No	No	Yes, built for performance and includes touch events / multi touch	select, zoom, pointer tracking, hovers, robust internal event system	MIT	Yes		10 earch results and 2 new topics on stackoverflow  in last month	jpg, png	extensible plugin framework, tuned for performance. JSON api, programmable for interactivity
Google Chart Tools	pie, scatter, gauge, geo, combo, line, bar, area, candlestick	Yes	works on the principle "chart as service"	Yes	No	Yes	hovers and follows	Terms of Service.	No		135 search results and 8 new topics on stackoverflow  in last month
gRaphaël	pie, bar,line, dot	No	g.raphael.js - 10 Kb, g.pie.js - 4 Kb, g.bar.js - 8 Kb, g.line.js - 4 Kb, g.dot.js - 2.5 Kb	Yes	Raphaël	No	hovers and follows	MIT	No		108 search results and 5 new topics on stackoverflow  in last month		small JavaScript library
Highcharts	line, spline, area, areaspline, column, bar, pie and scatter	No	311 Kb	Yes	No	Yes	hovers, follows and zooming	highcharts license	Yes		1001 search results and 118 new topics on stackoverflow  in last month	jpg,png, pdf, svg	rich in its capabilities library
Humble Finance(library are no longer supported)	two 2d data sets which share an axis	Yes	up to 3.7 Mb	No	Prototype  and Flotr	No	hovers, follows and zooming	MIT	No		3 search results on stackoverflow		this tool lends itself well to the display of financial data
Envision.js	real-time, timeSeries, finance, custom (fractal)	Yes	up to 1.3 Mb	No	Flotr2	No	hovers, follows and zooming	MIT	No		5 new topics on groups in last month		Allows you to create dynamic and interactive HTML5 visualizations
JavaScript InfoVis Toolkit	area, bar, pie, treemap, sunburst, icicle, spaceTree, rGraph, hyperTree	Yes	308 Kb	Yes	No	Yes	hovers and follows	MIT	No		76 search results and 3 new topics on stackoverflow  in last month		a large number of solutions for data visualization
jqPlot	bar, line, area, xy, scatter, combo, pie, donut, column, logarithmic scale charts, time plot	Yes	variable. Core size is 172 Kb, with all additional plugins up to 493 Kb	No	jQuery	Yes. There are plugins for mobile support	hover, highlighting, legends, click to turn toggle series on/off, tooltips, etc	MIT/GPL v2	Yes	Wikimedia	active project with 73 forks.. 526 search results and 55 new topics on stackoverflow,   52 new topics on groups in last month	png	chart types like Mekko, bubble, pyramid, funnel and block charts.  Ability to drag and drop points.  Automatic trend line calculations
jQuery Sparklines	line, bar, tristate, discrete, pie charts, bullet graphs	No	up to 119 Kb	No	jQuery	No	form of tooltips, mouseover highlighting and click interaction	New BSD License	No		25 search results and 3 new topics on stackoverflow  in last month		plugin for generate sparklines (small inline charts)
jQuery Visualize	bar, area, pie, line	Yes	24,2 Kb	No	jQuery	Yes	hovers and follows	MIT	Yes		32 search results on stackoverflow		visualize is one of the 12 enhancement-driven widgets that accompanies on the book Designing with Progressive Enhancement
milkchart	bar, line, scatter, column, pie, donut	Yes	Minified is at 25 Kb	No	Mootools	Yes	legends	MIT	No		8 search results on stackoverflow	png	simple and small.  Takes a Table element or JSON data
RGraph	bar, bi-polar,line, pie, donut, Gantt, Funnel, Waterfall, gauge, progress bars, meter, radar, scatter radial scatter, rose	Yes	variable up to 830 Kb	No	No	Yes	tooltips, annotating, context, menus, resizing, zoom	RGraph license	Yes		Latest realease June-01-2012, 58 search results and 6 new topics on stackoverflow in last month	png	many interesting types of charts, good documentation
Rickshaw	area, lines, bars, scatterplot	No	variable up to 712 Kb	Yes	D3	No	renderers, legends, hovers, range selectors, etc.	MIT	No		9 search results and 2 new topics on stackoverflow  in last month		works with real-time data
Timeplot	time series	No	161 Kb	Yes	No	No	hovers and follows	BSD	No		16 search results and 1 new topics on stackoverflow  in last month		interactive time series plots and overlay Timeline event files over them