plotnine
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 19 charting libraries by recommenders
A Python port of ggplot2's grammar of graphics, liked by people who know ggplot. One critic objects to using the '+' operator to build plots.
A Python port of ggplot2's grammar of graphics, liked by people who know ggplot. One critic objects to using the '+' operator to build plots.
24 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 92%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 11 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 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
Ggplot-style grammar of graphics
“Seaborn, altair, plotnine all take ggplot's GoG and bring it to Python and I'm really grateful for that.”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Python is not a great language for data science” “the grammar-of-graphics libraries — Altair, plotnine — may be the better tool for many people”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Plotnine” “If you want the admittedly very thoughtful design of ggplot in Python, use plotnine”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Python is not a great language for data science” - Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Plotnine”
- Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era”
- Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Gribouille 0.3.0: A Grammar of Graphics for Typst”
Natural, structured plot description
“it's much more natural way of describing plots, better composition and easier exploration”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Plotnine” “Its more a DSL with a structure rather than a jumble of API arguments.”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Plotnine” Among the best Python plotting libraries
“One of the best things to happen recently in data science is the plotnine library”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Python Data Science Handbook” “This is definitely one of the better Python plotting libraries out there”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Plotnine”
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 |
| plotnineThis page | 22 | 2 | 92% | 5 | — | Approved |
| ggsql | 19 | 2 | 90% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Matplotlib | 17 | 15 | 53% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
22 of the 26 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's made by the same people behind ggplot”
“This is definitely one of the better Python plotting libraries out there”
“It is great, but I have completely given up non-interactive plots since a while.”
“Its more a DSL with a structure rather than a jumble of API arguments.”
“the unusual (imho, great) API”
“the grammar-of-graphics libraries — Altair, plotnine — may be the better tool for many people”
“Love plotnine when I switched over to python”
“While it is good to have plotnine for python”
“Love your work on this, thanks for bringing the ggplot syntax to Python!”
“Even in a notebook it's a pain”
“Very cool will have to check this out more.”
“Nice one. On closer look you have already nailed the latter!”
“it's much more natural way of describing plots, better composition and easier exploration”
“the next release (v0.16.0) will bring nice capabilities”
“solid & performant (more than the R versions) Python version”
“I love the idea of a new python plotting library, but why is this anti-pattern so common with plotting libs?”
“Using operator overloading of "+" to configure the plot is... a choice.”
“it gives me a nice ggplot like API”
“One of the best things to happen recently in data science is the plotnine library”
“Seaborn, altair, plotnine all take ggplot's GoG and bring it to Python and I'm really grateful for that.”
“In fact it has, in plotnine.”
“If you want the admittedly very thoughtful design of ggplot in Python, use plotnine”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.