ggsql
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 19 charting libraries by recommenders
Lets you plot charts directly from SQL using a ggplot-style layered grammar. Main caveat: critics say the docs are thin and it adds little beyond R or Python.
Lets you plot charts directly from SQL using a ggplot-style layered grammar. Main caveat: critics say the docs are thin and it adds little beyond R or Python.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 90%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 9.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Plots charts directly from SQL
“Brings plotting to Sql instead of “transforming” sql for plotting.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL” “plotting directly from SQL would be great”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL” “There’s certainly some benefit in a declarative language for creating charts from SQL. Obviously this doesn’t do anything that you can’t also do easily in R or Python”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL” Useful for agents and dbt
“implements it as SQL user defined functions which is even more agent friendly”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era” “I think this could be incredible for agentic analytics.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL” “I like it. I can see a world where these visuals become my serving layer in dbt.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL” Fits ggplot and Posit ecosystem
“I love ggsql, the team behind it, ggplot and the tidyverse in general!”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Charts built for Chat” “ggsql looks great for Posit's ecosystem (ggplot2 and plotnine).”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL” Promising general visualization standard
“this is a very promising idea for the visualization standardisation”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL” “it has potential as a general solution for that space between data”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Documentation is incomplete
“A notable omission in the ggsql docs: I cannot find any mention of the possible outputs.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL” “Please just document the library itself before making a bunch of videos”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL”
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 | — | — |
| ggplot2 | 29 | 5 | 85% | 10 | — | Approved |
| plotnine | 22 | 2 | 92% | 5 | — | Approved |
| ggsqlThis page | 19 | 2 | 90% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Matplotlib | 17 | 15 | 53% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
20 of the 25 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!”
“implements it as SQL user defined functions which is even more agent friendly”
“ggsql looks great for Posit's ecosystem (ggplot2 and plotnine).”
“I completely agree, and I think this is also where I'm quite excited.”
“it has potential as a general solution for that space between data”
“this is a very promising idea for the visualization standardisation”
“Would be quite compelling if the CLI worked with nushell.”
“I like it. I can see a world where these visuals become my serving layer in dbt.”
“There’s certainly some benefit in a declarative language for creating charts from SQL. Obviously this doesn’t do anything that you can’t also do easily in R or Python”
“it's primarily useful in the context of exploratory analysis and makes iteration on a plot much slower”
“A notable omission in the ggsql docs: I cannot find any mention of the possible outputs.”
“This seems really cool, will try it out soon!”
“Please just document the library itself before making a bunch of videos”
“This is neat. I do wish there was a way for this to gracefully degrade in contexts without support for the grammar”
“Feels like something that should've been in there from the start!”
“This can replace a lot of Excel in the end.”
“plotting directly from SQL would be great”
“I think this could be incredible for agentic analytics.”
“Love the layering approach - that solves a problem I’ve had with other sql/visual hybrids as you move past the basics charts.”
“Brings plotting to Sql instead of “transforming” sql for plotting.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.