head to head · open source
plotly.js vs deck.gl
plotly.js has 18,378 GitHub stars, 2,074 forks, 769 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. deck.gl has 14,728 stars, 2,297 forks, 532 open issues and last shipped yesterday. plotly.js leads on adoption by 25% (18,378 vs 14,728 stars). plotly.js is written in JavaScript under MIT; deck.gl is written in TypeScript under MIT. plotly.js has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, deck.gl 16%. deck.gl was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (data-visualization, visualization, webgl), 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
| plotly.js | deck.gl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick plotly.js if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick deck.gl if
- You want the deck.gl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and deck.gl fits your workflow better
About plotly.js
Plotly.js is a standalone JavaScript data visualization library, and it also powers the Python and R modules named plotly in those respective ecosystems (referred to as Plotly.py and Plotly.R). Plotly.js can be used to produce dozens of chart types and visualizations, including statistical charts, 3D graphs, scientific charts, SVG and tile maps, financial charts and more. Contact us for Plotly.js consulting, dashboard development, application integration, and feature additions. Table of contents Load as a node module Load via script tag Bundles Alternative ways to load and build plotly.js Documentation Bugs and…
read the full plotly.js overview →
About deck.gl
deck.gl Website GPU powered, highly performant large scale data visualization deck.gl is designed to simplify high performance, WebGL2/WebGPU based visualization of large data sets. Users can quickly get impressive visual results with minimal effort by composing existing layers, or leverage deck.gl's extensible architecture to address custom needs. deck.gl maps data (usually an array of JSON objects) into a stack of visual layers e.g. icons, polygons, texts; and look at them with views : e.g. map, first person, orthographic. deck.gl handles a number of challenges out of the box: Performant rendering and updating…
read the full deck.gl overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is plotly.js or deck.gl more popular?
plotly.js has 18,378 GitHub stars and deck.gl has 14,728. plotly.js has the larger community by that measure.
Are plotly.js and deck.gl free?
Both are open source. plotly.js is licensed under MIT and deck.gl under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between plotly.js and deck.gl?
plotly.js is written in JavaScript and deck.gl in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, plotly.js or deck.gl?
Choose plotly.js if you want the larger community (18,378 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose deck.gl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.