ggplot2
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 19 charting libraries by recommenders
People recommend it for a consistent grammar-of-graphics approach that makes almost any chart, but critics find extensive customization hairy.
People recommend it for a consistent grammar-of-graphics approach that makes almost any chart, but critics find extensive customization hairy.
34 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 29
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 85%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 29 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Grammar of graphics approach
“I would rather learn a unique syntax for a package that is based on the grammar of graphics (ggplot2) than use a package with standard syntax and some other foundation.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Too many R packages: CRAN is inundated with submissions” “get familiar with grammar of graphics libraries like Vega-Lite, Observable Plot, ggplot2, Altair”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Microsoft releases Flint, a visualization language for AI agents” “I've always liked the ggplot2 and the Grammar of Graphics approach to plotting”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Plotnine” - Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Plotnine”
- Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL”
Powerful, versatile plotting library
“ggplot2 is probably the most powerful plotting library I've seen, while being fairly accessible”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “R packages for data science” “very cohesive way to make (I think almost) any kind of graph”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Gribouille 0.3.0: A Grammar of Graphics for Typst” “the undisputed best graphical visualization system”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Python is not a great language for data science” - Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL”
- Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era”
Large ecosystem of extensions
“I love ggsql, the team behind it, ggplot and the tidyverse in general!”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Charts built for Chat” “ggplot2 in R has this whole ecosystem of packages/extensions”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Plotnine” “Graphing is probably better in R within the ggplot universe”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Python is not a great language for data science” Intuitive and accessible syntax
“Unlike others, I find tidyverse (especially ggplot2 and dplyr, which reminds me a lot of pandas) to be quite intuitive.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Too many R packages: CRAN is inundated with submissions” “ggplot2 is probably the most powerful plotting library I've seen, while being fairly accessible”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “R packages for data science” “ggplot is more intuitive IMHO than say matplotlib”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Plotnine”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard to customize
“extensive customization can get a bit hairy”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Microsoft releases Flint, a visualization language for AI agents” “The only problem, and the only reason I ever leave ggplot2 for visualizations, is how difficult it is to do anything”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL” Extra syntax to learn
“they struggle quite a bit with creating basic plots since they now have to learn two things instead of one”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Too many R packages: CRAN is inundated with submissions” “does not have enough functionality to justify the departure from standard R conventions”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “R packages for data science”
Other charting libraries people recommend
The four most recommended other charting libraries, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChartGPU | 35 | 25 | 58% | 1 | — | — |
| ggplot2This page | 29 | 5 | 85% | 10 | — | Approved |
| plotnine | 22 | 2 | 92% | 5 | — | Approved |
| ggsql | 19 | 2 | 90% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Matplotlib | 17 | 15 | 53% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
33 of the 39 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I love ggsql, the team behind it, ggplot and the tidyverse in general!”
“appreciate how that is better than other alternatives for their use case”
“I had the best success with popular and versatile packages like matplotlib and ggplot2”
“GGPlot's API is still the best charting API”
“get familiar with grammar of graphics libraries like Vega-Lite, Observable Plot, ggplot2, Altair”
“extensive customization can get a bit hairy”
“Unlike others, I find tidyverse (especially ggplot2 and dplyr, which reminds me a lot of pandas) to be quite intuitive.”
“they struggle quite a bit with creating basic plots since they now have to learn two things instead of one”
“I would rather learn a unique syntax for a package that is based on the grammar of graphics (ggplot2) than use a package with standard syntax and some other foundation.”
“Good, that ggplot2 can run inside in WASM”
“ggplot2 in R has this whole ecosystem of packages/extensions”
“Hadley Wickam’s masterpiece frameworks”
“I've always liked the ggplot2 and the Grammar of Graphics approach to plotting”
“ggplot is more intuitive IMHO than say matplotlib”
“Learning the grammar of graphics was like a super power.”
“there's a lot that's quirkily (but avoidably) named about ggplot”
“very cohesive way to make (I think almost) any kind of graph”
“in ggplot instead you can stack layers, each with different properties, variables, shapes”
“one of the most respected grammar for plotting”
“it just blows everything else out of the water”
“ggplot solves quite a lot of this already”
“What makes ggplot great is that it allows manual adjustments AND has a nice declerative grammar.”
“The only problem, and the only reason I ever leave ggplot2 for visualizations, is how difficult it is to do anything”
“Maybe do that in ggplot2 or matplotlib if you want to show you can write code”
“I don't have performance problems with ggplot so that's what I tend to lean to”
“I love ggplot but it is slow, as all of R is.”
“does not have enough functionality to justify the departure from standard R conventions”
“ggplot (and this is directly related to why I don't use ggplot and instead use base plotting)”
“ggplot2 is probably the most powerful plotting library I've seen, while being fairly accessible”
“using this for plotting (ggplot2)”
“I equally don't like matplotlib and R's ggplot.”
“the undisputed best graphical visualization system”
“Graphing is probably better in R within the ggplot universe”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.