# Matplotlib 17 Hacker News commenters recommended Matplotlib and 15 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Free Python plotting library that people rely on for charts and data visualization; critics find its API verbose and slow with large data. ## Why people recommend it - Standard tool for Python data work (3 comments): "Pair it with numpy and matplotlib (two external dependencies that personally I consider part of Python itself)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46262853)) "Pandas and Matplotlib and SciPy all used via an ipython notebook were almost a replacement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46173034)) "start with a conjecture, visualize it with matplotlib, then prove it formally" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383455)) - Popular, versatile, mature library (2 comments): "why does it make sense to pay for a bunch of AI agents to re-invent what matplotlib does and fix bugs that matplotlib has already fixed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46927065)) "I had the best success with popular and versatile packages like matplotlib and ggplot2" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49133425)) - Dependable and suits my needs (2 comments): "matplotlib still suits me just fine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46927398)) "the open source ecosystem is great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48234044)) - Gets pretty charts made (2 comments): "Once I saw someone do the same thing with Python and matplotlib, I never looked back." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45984078)) "python and matplotlib then drew pretty pictures for management" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49516446)) ## What people warn about - Verbose, clunky, unintuitive API (5 comments): "The amount of boilerplate for a simple scatterplot in matplotlib is ridiculous" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47834991)) "Matplotlib is even worse, possibly the worst API I've ever used." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46281225)) "I find matplotlib to be clunky and verbose compared to ggplot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48600842)) - Slow with large data or animations (2 comments): "I constantly have to work around the slowness of matplotlib when creating animated sequences" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49087274)) "anytime Matplotlib is way too slow or just crashes under the weight of too much data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45812158)) - Defaults need tedious tweaking (2 comments): "I spend way too much time tweaking Matplotlib and Seaborn defaults" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47406129)) "I can't be bothered anymore to wrestle with matplotlib everytime" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50090163)) - Maintainer's ban on AI contributions (2 comments): "the maintainer enforced a blanket ban on contributions from AI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47003216)) "made a mistake in terms of blanket banning AI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46987832)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [ChartGPU](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chartgpu.md): 35 recommend - [ggplot2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ggplot2.md): 29 recommend - [plotnine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/plotnine.md): 22 recommend - [ggsql](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ggsql.md): 19 recommend - [Flint visualization language](https://hackerapproved.com/p/flint.md): 15 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Matplotlib", https://hackerapproved.com/p/matplotlib/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).