What do you like best about Highcharts?
- Ease of Use
Highcharts is incredibly intuitive. You can get a basic chart up and running with just a few lines of code, and the documentation is thorough and beginner-friendly.
- Wide Range of Chart Types
From simple line and bar charts to more complex heatmaps, treemaps, and stock charts, Highcharts covers a broad spectrum of visualization needs.
- Interactive Features
Zooming, tooltips, dynamic updates, and drilldowns are built-in and easy to configure. These features make charts more engaging and informative.
- Responsive Design
Charts adapt well to different screen sizes, which is a must for modern web applications.
- Export Options
Users can download charts as PNG, PDF, SVG, or even print them directly. This is great for reports and presentations.
- Accessibility Support
Highcharts includes features to make charts accessible to screen readers and keyboard navigation, which is a big plus for inclusive design.
- Solid Performance
Even with large datasets, Highcharts handles rendering efficiently, especially with its boost module.
- Commercial Support & Licensing
For enterprise use, Highcharts offers professional support and flexible licensing options, which can be reassuring for business-critical applications. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What do you dislike about Highcharts?
- Commercial Licensing Costs
Unlike open-source libraries like Chart.js or D3.js, Highcharts requires a paid license for commercial use. This can be a dealbreaker for startups or budget-conscious teams.
- Limited Customization Compared to D3.js
While Highcharts offers a lot of built-in features, it’s not as flexible as D3.js when it comes to creating highly customized or unconventional visualizations.
- Heavy for Simple Use Cases
For basic charts, Highcharts might feel like overkill. The library size and feature set can be more than needed, especially if performance or load time is a concern.
- Learning Curve for Advanced Features
While basic charts are easy to set up, more complex configurations (like dynamic updates, drilldowns, or custom events) can get tricky and require digging into the documentation.
- Dependency on JavaScript
Highcharts is JavaScript-centric. If you're working in environments that prefer declarative charting (like React or Angular), integration can be a bit clunky unless you use wrappers or additional libraries.
- Styling Limitations
Customizing chart aesthetics beyond what's provided in the API sometimes requires workarounds or manual DOM manipulation, which isn't ideal.
- Accessibility Requires Extra Effort
Although Highcharts supports accessibility, making charts truly usable for all users (especially those relying on screen readers) can require additional configuration Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.