# Plotly

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Plotly and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source library for interactive charts in Python and the web, covering nearly every chart type. Critics say it is not the prettiest.

## Why people recommend it

- Interactive plots from data quickly (2 comments): "put into Plotly, and get an interactive plot. Neat stuff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46733390)) "get an interactive plot. Neat stuff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46733397))
- Pairs with Python and Markdown (2 comments): "I use Python with Polars, Plotly, and very occasionally SymPy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46924677)) "Md and plotly is all you need" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48072077))

## What people warn about

- Not the prettiest-looking charts (1 comments): "basically only plotly does everything, but it’s not the prettiest" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49131864))

## 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
- [Matplotlib](https://hackerapproved.com/p/matplotlib.md): 17 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Plotly", https://hackerapproved.com/p/plotly/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).