head to head · open source
echarts vs c3
echarts has 67,348 GitHub stars, 19,819 forks, 1,501 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. c3 has 9,350 stars, 1,360 forks, 771 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. echarts leads on adoption by 620% (67,348 vs 9,350 stars). echarts is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; c3 is written in JavaScript under MIT. echarts has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, c3 15%. echarts was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (data-visualization, svg), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| echarts | c3 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 20K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick echarts if
- You weight community size — 67K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick c3 if
- You want the c3 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and c3 fits your workflow better
About echarts
Apache ECharts is a free, interactive charting and data visualization library that runs in the browser. It is written in pure JavaScript and built on top of zrender, a lightweight canvas library that handles rendering and interaction under the hood. The project lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem, is distributed through npm as the echarts package, and is developed under the Apache Software Foundation with an Apache 2.0 license. Its source is written in TypeScript, and the repository has been maintained for more than a decade.
read the full echarts overview →
About c3
c3 is a D3 based reusable chart library that lets developers embed configurable, interactive SVG charts into web applications by describing each chart as a configuration object instead of writing D3 code directly.
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Frequently asked questions
Is echarts or c3 more popular?
echarts has 67,348 GitHub stars and c3 has 9,350. echarts has the larger community by that measure.
Are echarts and c3 free?
Both are open source. echarts is licensed under Apache-2.0 and c3 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between echarts and c3?
echarts is written in TypeScript and c3 in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, echarts or c3?
Choose echarts if you want the larger community (67,348 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose c3 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.