head to head · open source
pixijs vs jfreechart
pixijs has 48,178 GitHub stars, 5,071 forks, 344 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. jfreechart has 1,392 stars, 672 forks, 162 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. pixijs leads on adoption by 3,361% (48,178 vs 1,392 stars). pixijs is written in TypeScript under MIT; jfreechart is written in Java under LGPL-2.1. pixijs has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, jfreechart 48%. pixijs was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (data-visualization), 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
| pixijs | jfreechart | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | MIT | LGPL-2.1 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-11-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 672 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pixijs if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick jfreechart if
- You want the jfreechart feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-2.1 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and jfreechart fits your workflow better
About pixijs
PixiJS is an open source 2D rendering library for the web, described in its README as the HTML5 Creation Engine. It ships WebGL and WebGPU renderers and is written in TypeScript, distributed under the MIT license from the pixijs/pixijs repository, which has been developed for fourteen years and holds roughly 48,000 stars across about 5,000 forks. The project lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem: it is installed through npm and driven from browser code, with GLSL shaders, canvas, canvas2d, and rendering engine listed among its topics. Its homepage is pixijs.com, and the repository carries the Data and …
read the full pixijs overview →
About jfreechart
JFreeChart is a free, open source 2D chart library for the Java platform that works in JavaFX and Swing clients or on the server side, and it is built for Java developers who need to render and export charts without depending on a commercial charting product.
read the full jfreechart overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pixijs or jfreechart more popular?
pixijs has 48,178 GitHub stars and jfreechart has 1,392. pixijs has the larger community by that measure.
Are pixijs and jfreechart free?
Both are open source. pixijs is licensed under MIT and jfreechart under LGPL-2.1. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pixijs and jfreechart?
pixijs is written in TypeScript and jfreechart in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, pixijs or jfreechart?
Choose pixijs if you want the larger community (48,178 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose jfreechart if its feature set, stack or LGPL-2.1 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.