Charting libraries turn arrays of numbers into bars, lines, maps and gauges inside a web page, and the licence decides who may ship them.
This guide ranks small independent maintainers ahead of portfolio owners, then weighs rendering method, framework fit, large-data behaviour, and what commercial use costs once a product has paying users.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What charting libraries software does
A charting library is a JavaScript package that draws interactive charts in the browser from supplied data, using SVG or Canvas, and is licensed either openly or per developer seat.
Setup effort, true cost, data portability, exit options and buyer fit are the five tests, applied in that order to every charting libraries tool here. A separate rule reserves the first three places for challengers and moves the household names to place 4 and below. The reasoning behind the five tests, and behind having no score out of ten, is set out on the how we work page.
Free of charge with no paid tier shown; usage follows the general Google API terms
Yes
Quick internal pages needing standard pie and bar charts with no budget
Products that need a vendor commitment or offline operation
We list the country the vendor operates from or contracts through. That is not the same as the hosting region, and any difference is spelled out in the entry.
Canvas-first charts, maps and stock charts sold per seat or app
Ranked #1 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Charts draw on HTML5 Canvas by default, and a setting renders the same chart as SVG. Listed frameworks are React, Vue, Angular, Svelte and React Native.
The store prices Basic, Single App or SaaS website, and OEM per year or as a perpetual licence, with Maps, Stock Chart and Gantt at a discount on the Charts price. A no-code Pro tool is listed separately by the month. The logo disappears only on paid tiers.
What stands out
Per-seat licences
Canvas by default
Logo on unpaid use
Where it costs you
The home page and the store disagree about a free version, so the licence you actually hold needs confirming in writing.
Support on the Basic seat is a separate yearly charge.
Right for
Teams wanting one vendor for charts, maps, stock and Gantt with clear licence tiers
Wrong for
Buyers who need one unambiguous free licence for commercial work
LithuaniaPublished per-seat and per-app prices; the home page shows a logo-carrying free version that the store never lists
Per-developer charting licences with add-ons for stock, maps and Gantt
Ranked #2 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
The shop prices Highcharts Core per developer seat, with Stock, Maps and Gantt as add-ons, plus Dashboards and Grid Pro as separate products. Official integrations cover React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, TypeScript, Flutter, Python and Node.js.
Advantage, the optional update and support extra, renews every 12 months by default and needs 60 days notice to opt out. An Educational License is linked, though its terms were not read.
What stands out
Source available
Per-developer seats
Add-on modules
Where it costs you
Exceeding the developer count named in the licence statement is a material breach.
Public websites and SaaS need a different licence from internal tools, so the cheapest line rarely covers a customer-facing product.
Right for
Companies shipping customer-facing dashboards that want paid support and many official wrappers
Wrong for
Hobby projects or startups that cannot budget per-developer seats
Not stated by the vendorPublished per-seat prices for each module; OEM by custom quote; trial reached through the download page
Community-maintained charts drawn on canvas under the MIT licence
Ranked #3 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
Rendering is Canvas rather than SVG, and the site claims good performance across modern browsers back to IE11. The integration documentation names React, Angular and Vue and links community integrations.
Animation and customisation are advertised, as are logarithmic and date-time scales. The catch is the short list of eight chart types, so heatmaps, treemaps or financial charts mean looking elsewhere or writing a plugin.
What stands out
MIT licence
HTML5 Canvas
Tree-shakeable
Where it costs you
Nobody is named as a vendor, so there is no contract to lean on for support.
Controllers must be registered by hand unless the larger auto bundle is used.
Right for
Developers who need ordinary bar, line and pie charts with no licence fee
Wrong for
Teams needing dozens of specialised chart types out of the box
Not stated by the vendorOpen source, MIT licence, with no prices or plans on the site
Canvas or SVG charts governed by the Apache Software Foundation
Ranked #4 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
Chart descriptions and decal patterns are generated automatically, which helps accessibility work. Dataset transforms cover filtering, clustering and regression, and a dozen components sit alongside the 20-plus chart types.
Switching between Canvas and SVG is a configuration choice, and progressive rendering streams large data. Governance by a foundation removes the single-vendor risk, but it also means there is no sales contact or paid support line on the pages read.
What stands out
Apache 2.0
Canvas and SVG
Large datasets
Where it costs you
No framework integrations are named on the home page.
The licence file records BSD 3-Clause code from d3.js in four source files, which a legal review should note.
Right for
Dashboards with large datasets, dataset transforms and generated accessibility descriptions for charts
Wrong for
Teams wanting a ready-made React component API with wrappers
Not stated by the vendorOpen source under Apache License 2.0; no prices on the site
Tiny canvas chart for fast time series and OHLC data
Ranked #5 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
The renderer is Canvas 2D only, and no SVG output is described. The licence file is MIT with a personal copyright holder, and the README lists wrappers for React, Vue.js and Svelte by another developer, plus a Python wrapper.
The speed claim is the author's own and was not measured here. The README presents it as an interactive chart, but a time series library of this size leaves everything beyond lines, areas, OHLC and bars to other tools.
What stands out
~50 KB minified
Canvas 2D
Time series
Where it costs you
Chart types are limited to time series, lines, areas, OHLC and bars.
Framework wrappers come from third parties, not the author.
Right for
Monitoring and trading screens plotting very large time series quickly
Wrong for
Product teams wanting pie, map or hierarchy charts
Not stated by the vendorMIT licensed and distributed on GitHub; no prices exist on the repository pages
Revenue-gated community licence with paid commercial and OEM tiers
Ranked #6 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
The pricing card shows Pro and Premium per developer per year, with the number of support incidents rising between them, and an OEM line priced per app on top of a developer licence.
The home page lists React, Vue, Angular and Blazor, 15-plus further chart types, and separate Gantt, Sankey, Tree and Grid products. Purchase orders, wire transfers and custom terms go through sales. Rendering technology is not stated on the pages read.
What stands out
Dual licence
Revenue threshold
React, Vue, Angular
Where it costs you
Growth past the revenue threshold converts a free licence into a paid one.
Redistribution in toolkits, SDKs or platforms is excluded from the commercial licence.
Right for
Small companies below the threshold wanting React, Vue or Angular charts
Wrong for
Platform builders reselling charts inside their own SDK
Not stated by the vendorPublished per-developer prices; community licence free below a revenue threshold; OEM on contact
Scientific and statistical charts, including 3D, from Plotly Technologies
Ranked #7 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The library page lists scatter, box, histogram, contour, heatmap, ternary, candlestick, funnel, choropleth and 3D surface charts. Dash, also MIT licensed, and a React tutorial cover app building.
Some map tile providers need their own API key. Dash Enterprise, Plotly Studio and Plotly Cloud are the paid products, and their prices live on other pages, so budget questions leave the library page.
What stands out
MIT licence
SVG and WebGL
40+ chart types
Where it costs you
Most graphs are SVG, so very large scatter plots need the separate WebGL scattergl type.
Only a React tutorial is linked for frameworks, so Angular and Vue teams get no guidance.
Right for
Analysts who need statistical, 3D and contour charts in a browser
Wrong for
Teams wanting a minimal bundle for simple bar charts
Not stated by the vendorLibrary is MIT licensed and open source; paid products carry their own pricing pages
Composable React chart components drawn as SVG elements
Ranked #8 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The old recharts.org address now only redirects to the new site. The home page offers a guide, API reference, examples and Storybook pages.
Being built on SVG elements keeps charts styleable but, for the same reason, thousands of points are a rendering burden. Teams upgrading from 2.x should read the 3.0 migration guide first, since the major version change is flagged by the project itself.
What stands out
React components
SVG
D3 submodules
Where it costs you
It is React only, so other frameworks need another library.
Capabilities have to be checked in the API pages, since the front page lists no chart types.
Right for
React teams who prefer chart building blocks written as JSX
Wrong for
Projects outside React or plotting canvas-scale data volumes
Not stated by the vendorMIT-licensed open source with nothing to buy on the site
React dataviz components built on D3 with SVG and canvas variants
Ranked #9 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The chart list includes line, bar, pie, radar, voronoi, tree map, swarm plot, marimekko, radial bar, icicle and circle packing. React is a hard requirement, since the components are built on it.
The sole funding route on the pages read is a Donate link to Open Collective. The licence file names an individual as copyright holder, which suits hobby and product use but gives no service-level promise.
What stands out
React and D3
19 chart types
SVG or canvas
Where it costs you
No imprint, terms or about page was found, so nobody is named to contact for commercial support.
Only the line chart page was checked for a canvas variant, so confirm each type you need.
Right for
React teams wanting unusual chart types such as sankey or chord diagrams
Wrong for
Buyers needing a named vendor, contract or support line
Not stated by the vendorOpen source released as MIT; support is voluntary donations via Open Collective
Low-level data-driven DOM toolkit rather than ready-made charts
Ranked #10 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
The module list reads like a parts shelf: d3-selection for DOM updates and animation, d3-scale, d3-shape, d3-brush for panning, zooming and brushing, d3-hierarchy for treemaps and force-directed graphs, d3-geo for map projections, and d3-array for CSV parsing and statistics.
The page names neither SVG nor Canvas as the output. Quick charts are the job of Observable Plot, so D3 itself rewards experienced developers.
What stands out
ISC licence
Modular toolkit
No virtual DOM
Where it costs you
It is a toolkit, not a chart library, so even a bar chart means writing code.
Framework support is not mentioned on the site.
Right for
Developers building custom visualisations that no packaged library offers off the shelf
Wrong for
Teams needing standard business charts delivered within a sprint
Not stated by the vendorFree JavaScript under the ISC licence; the home page shows no plans
Composable React components for charting, with a React Native sibling
Ranked #11 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
The page promises an identical API on Android and iOS, yet the repository points React Native users to Victory Native XL, so check which package you actually install.
The footer carries a Nearform copyright from 2013 to 2026. The pages read gave no licence name, price or country, so a buyer must look at the repository licence before any commercial use and should not assume terms.
What stands out
React components
npm install
React Native
Where it costs you
Victory 38 needs React 18 or above, so older apps must stay on Victory 37.
Mobile users are sent to Victory Native XL, as the older package is frozen.
Right for
React teams that want one API across web and mobile charts
Wrong for
Anyone working outside React or needing licence details
Not stated by the vendorInstalled from npm; pricing is not stated on the pages read
JavaScript charts sold per site, internal app, SaaS or OEM
Ranked #12 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
The buy page prices Website with three months of upgrades and Internal with one year, plus SaaS annual or perpetual with ten developers. React, Angular, Ember, Meteor, Node.js and jQuery are listed; Vue is not.
The site calls its product JavaScript or HTML5 charts and does not say whether it draws SVG or Canvas. No legal entity name or owner appears on the company page.
What stands out
Tiered licences
Charts for HTML5
Non-commercial licence
Where it costs you
Enterprise and OEM prices are hidden, so large deployments cannot be budgeted from the page.
The terms of the free licence sit behind a link, not on the buy page.
Right for
Small commercial sites and internal tools that fit a listed licence tier
Wrong for
Buyers wanting to confirm free-licence terms without contacting the vendor
United StatesPublished tiered licence prices; enterprise and OEM by quote; free licence for non-commercial use
Suite licences for charts and maps, owned by Idera
Ranked #13 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingNorth America
The home page promises every product in one licence and framework-agnostic delivery, with React, Angular, Vue, Svelte and plain JavaScript listed, plus jQuery, PHP and ASP.NET in the footer.
Discounted prices are shown beside list prices, and Platinum Support is a separate yearly add-on. The master licence agreements were not read, so redistribution rights beyond the tier descriptions are unverified.
What stands out
Idera-owned
Annual or perpetual
14-day trial
Where it costs you
Auto-renewal needs written notice 30 days before the licence expires.
A licence is required before using the 14-day trial download in products.
Right for
Enterprises that want one suite licence for charts and maps with support add-ons
Wrong for
Independent-minded buyers who avoid portfolio owners and auto-renewing terms
United StatesPublished annual and perpetual prices; 14-day trial download; enterprise tier by quote
Free browser charts loaded from a Google-hosted script
Ranked #14 of 14 in Best Charting Libraries in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Charts load at runtime from a Google-hosted script, so a page depends on that address being reachable. The quick start builds PieChart and BarChart through the corechart package.
The terms page names no cost, quotas or contracting entity. Ranked last because the scope is narrow, the service is hosted by a very large company, and the terms give a buyer less than a licence with a named counterparty would.
What stands out
Google product
Hosted loader script
HTML5 and SVG
Where it costs you
Google reserves the right to announce discontinuation or backwards-incompatible changes.
The quick start shows plain HTML and JavaScript only, with no framework support stated.
Right for
Quick internal pages needing standard pie and bar charts with no budget
Wrong for
Products that need a vendor commitment or offline operation
Not stated by the vendorFree of charge with no paid tier shown; usage follows the general Google API terms
A charting library is a JavaScript package that draws interactive charts in the browser from supplied data, using SVG or Canvas, and is licensed either openly or per developer seat. Work through these questions in order; they separate the products better than a feature matrix does.
01
Work out how much a sales call is worth to you
Prices are public at 7 products (amCharts, Highcharts, ApexCharts, D3, AnyChart, FusionCharts, Google Charts) and on request at the remaining 7, so budget time for quotes if your favourite is in that second group.
02
Weigh the vendor's home jurisdiction
3 regions are represented (Elsewhere 11, North America 2, Europe 1). A vendor outside your own legal area is not a problem as such, but it changes who can compel it to hand over data.
03
Check the open source options
Source code is available for Chart.js, Apache ECharts, Plotly.js, Recharts, Nivo. Running it yourself swaps the licence fee for your own upkeep.
How to choose between charting libraries by licence
Open source and paid charting libraries answer different questions. Chart.js, Apache ECharts and Recharts publish an open licence and show no prices, while Highcharts and AnyChart sell per-developer or per-use licences. ApexCharts sits in between with a free community licence that stops at a revenue line, and amCharts shows two stories, a free version on its home page and a store with none.
Read the licence document, not the headline, because internal tools, SaaS and OEM redistribution are priced differently. Ask who counts as a developer, whether parent companies are included, and what happens when your team grows or when a customer asks for the library inside their own installation.
Read the licence text for internal, SaaS and OEM use separately
Check whether parent companies count toward any revenue threshold
Confirm how many developers one seat covers
Canvas or SVG in a charting library
Rendering decides how many points a chart can hold. uPlot and Chart.js draw on Canvas, which stays quick with large series but gives you pixels instead of elements to style. Recharts works with SVG, so every mark can be styled and inspected, but thousands of elements slow a page, and Plotly.js moves heavy scatter work to WebGL.
Apache ECharts, Nivo and amCharts let you choose between SVG and Canvas for a given chart, and Plotly.js adds WebGL for three-dimensional work. D3 leaves the choice to you. Test with your own largest dataset before the licence is signed, rather than trusting a vendor's speed claim, because uPlot's 166,650-point figure and ECharts' 10 million figure are their own statements.
Run your biggest dataset through a shortlist of two or three libraries
Check whether an SVG chart can be exported for print
Confirm tooltips and legends work in the renderer you pick
Framework fit for React-first charting libraries
Several libraries here are tied to one framework. Recharts and Victory are React components, and Nivo is built on D3 and React, so a Vue or Angular team cannot use them. Highcharts, amCharts and ApexCharts list wrappers for several frameworks, and FusionCharts calls itself framework-agnostic. uPlot and Apache ECharts leave framework glue to third parties or to you.
Check the version requirements before choosing, since Victory 38 needs React 18 and older projects stay on Victory 37. Ask every vendor which framework versions the current release supports. A wrapper maintained by a stranger can lag behind a major release, so look at its recent activity and open issues before committing to it.
List the framework versions in your application today
Look at the maintainers of any wrapper you would depend on
Check how often wrappers followed major releases
Ready-made charts versus building with D3
D3 is a toolkit for scales, shapes, hierarchies and map projections, not a finished chart component, so a bar chart takes real code. That freedom fits custom visualisations that Chart.js or AnyChart cannot produce, and Observable Plot offers a quicker route from the same team.
For standard dashboards a packaged library such as Chart.js or ApexCharts is cheaper in engineering hours than a D3 build, even after paying any licence fee. Plan for axes, legends, resize handling, accessibility and tests as work you will own, because none of them arrives with the module list. If the design is unusual, D3 pays off; if it is a sales dashboard, it rarely does.
Estimate the hours to build axes, legends and resizing yourself
Compare your design with the chart types a packaged library lists
Decide who will maintain custom chart code after launch
What goes wrong most often when buying charting libraries software
Reading the free badge on amCharts or ApexCharts as permission for any commercial use, without checking the licence terms and the logo or revenue conditions.
Picking an SVG library such as Recharts for a chart that must show tens of thousands of points, then discovering the page stalls.
Choosing Highcharts or FusionCharts on the cheapest line, then finding a public SaaS product needs a different and costlier licence.
Depending on Google Charts or an unmaintained wrapper for a product that must run for years, when the terms allow discontinuation.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What is the best charting libraries in 2026?
amCharts takes first place among the 14 we reviewed. amCharts gives a company address in Neringa, Lithuania, and no parent company appears on the pages read.
Its home page says use is free even for commercial projects with the logo shown, yet the store lists no free tier at all, so ask which applies before you ship. Basic seats pay extra for support, while Single App and OEM include it.
Which charting libraries tools publish their pricing?
7 of the 14, with the pricing model each one publishes:
amCharts: Published per-seat and per-app prices; the home page shows a logo-carrying free version that the store never lists.
Highcharts: Published per-seat prices for each module; OEM by custom quote; trial reached through the download page.
ApexCharts: Published per-developer prices; community licence free below a revenue threshold; OEM on contact.
D3: Free JavaScript under the ISC licence; the home page shows no plans.
AnyChart: Published tiered licence prices; enterprise and OEM by quote; free licence for non-commercial use.
FusionCharts: Published annual and perpetual prices; 14-day trial download; enterprise tier by quote.
Google Charts: Free of charge with no paid tier shown; usage follows the general Google API terms.
7 vendors do not print a price.
Is there a free charting libraries tool?
D3, Google Charts offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these charting libraries vendors established?
In 3 countries across 3 regions: Elsewhere 11, North America 2, Europe 1.
Which charting libraries tools can you host yourself?
FusionCharts. The other 13 are hosted by the vendor only.
What should you use instead of amCharts?
The next in line are Highcharts, aimed at companies shipping customer-facing dashboards that want paid support and many official wrappers, and Chart.js, aimed at Developers who need ordinary bar, line and pie charts with no licence fee.
Who should not buy amCharts?
Buyers who need one unambiguous free licence for commercial work. The home page and the store disagree about a free version, so the licence you actually hold needs confirming in writing..
Vendors who think their charting libraries product should be here can tell us about it: what it does, who it is for. The call is ours, and software advice sets out what being listed means.
