Developer tools · charting library
Plotly
Hacker Approved
Free, open-source library for interactive charts in Python and the web, covering nearly every chart type. Critics say it is not the prettiest.
Summarized from 13 comments.
Free, open-source library for interactive charts in Python and the web, covering nearly every chart type. Critics say it is not the prettiest.
- recommend
- 10
- criticize
- 1
- months recommended
- 6 of 13
Why people love it
Interactive plots from data quickly · 2
put into Plotly, and get an interactive plot. Neat stuff.
Jan 2026 · commentget an interactive plot. Neat stuff.
Jan 2026 · commentPairs with Python and Markdown · 2
I use Python with Polars, Plotly, and very occasionally SymPy
Feb 2026 · commentMd and plotly is all you need
May 2026 · comment
What people warn about
Not the prettiest-looking charts · 1
basically only plotly does everything, but it’s not the prettiest
Aug 2026 · comment
What hackers pick instead
- ChartGPUFast WebGPU charting library that renders a million points smoothly in the browser. Critics say sampling can hide peaks and that sliders and zoom controls misbehave.35recommend
- ggplot2People recommend it for a consistent grammar-of-graphics approach that makes almost any chart, but critics find extensive customization hairy.29recommend
- plotnineA Python port of ggplot2's grammar of graphics, liked by people who know ggplot. One critic objects to using the '+' operator to build plots.22recommend
- ggsqlLets 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.19recommend
- MatplotlibFree Python plotting library that people rely on for charts and data visualization; critics find its API verbose and slow with large data.17recommend
Every quote
The 10 most detailed of 13 comments. Each links to the original.
basically only plotly does everything, but it’s not the prettiest
Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era”
I use Python with Polars, Plotly, and very occasionally SymPy
Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “France's homegrown open source online office suite”
put into Plotly, and get an interactive plot. Neat stuff.
Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Why DuckDB is my first choice for data processing”
get an interactive plot. Neat stuff.
Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Why DuckDB is my first choice for data processing”
Md and plotly is all you need
Recommends · May 2026 · in “Using Claude Code: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of HTML”
For a hierarchical view with expand/collapse capability, Icicle charts can be helpful
Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Flame Graphs vs. Tree Maps vs. Sunburst (2017)”
you can setup a nice webserver with plotly and do something similar
Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “IPlotCSV: CSV Data, Visualized Beautifully”
make a html page and graph this data using plotly
Mixed · May 2026 · in “Leave Me Behind”
Plotly for statistical and analytical traces
Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era”
needs a sandbox to execute the JS or Python code
Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era”
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