Best Chart Libraries for React Projects in 2026
Last week at Weavelinx, we were planning our next SaaS product.
We were deep in the weeds considering which chart libraries to use alongside our Material Design system to improve the user experience. Honestly, selecting the right one was a headache.
There are so many new, modern libraries popping up, and on the other hand, you have the old, reliable options that have been around forever. We read a dozen blogs trying to find the optimal, free, modern, and reliable option, but most of them just listed the same tools we already knew or pushed expensive paid licenses.
So, we did our own thorough research. We found some gems that actually fit the modern web stack of 2026, and we thought we should share them with you.
In this article, we’ve categorized these libraries by “niche” and focused mainly on open-source (free) tools.
Let’s just start.
The Modern & Trending (Top Recommendations)
Use these for new projects in 2026 where you want the latest tech and modular architecture.
1. Unovis (via @unovis/react)
Best For: Minimalist, highly modular dashboards.
We love Unovis because it solves the “bloat” problem. It’s a modular visualization framework that separates data logic from visual logic. It’s lightweight, works beautifully with TypeScript, and because it relies on CSS variables for styling, it handles “Dark Mode” switching instantly without re-rendering the whole chart.
Why Use It: Framework-agnostic with a thin, effective React wrapper. Very clean architecture.
Verdict: Use this for a clean, professional SaaS UI.
Example Usage: Unovis is modular, so you import only what you need.
// App.jsx
import React from 'react';
import { VisXYContainer, VisLine, VisAxis } from '@unovis/react';
const App = () => {
const data = [
{ x: 0, y: 10 },
{ x: 1, y: 25 },
{ x: 2, y: 40 },
{ x: 3, y: 35 },
{ x: 4, y: 60 }
];
return (
<div style={{ height: '400px', width: '100%' }}>
<h3>Unovis Modular Chart</h3>
<VisXYContainer data={data} height={400}>
<VisLine x={d => d.x} y={d => d.y} color="#4F46E5" />
<VisAxis type="x" label="Days" />
<VisAxis type="y" label="Revenue" />
</VisXYContainer>
</div>
);
};
export default App;2. Lightweight Charts (by TradingView)
Best For: Crypto, Stock Market, and Real-Time data apps.
If performance is your #1 metric, this is the winner. It renders via HTML5 Canvas and stays buttery smooth (60fps) even when you are streaming live data to it on a mobile device. Because it relies on Canvas rather than the DOM, it’s incredibly battery-efficient for mobile applications—your phone won’t heat up even with a live Bitcoin ticker running.
Why Use It: Unbeatable performance for time-series data, especially on mobile devices where hardware resources are limited.
Why Avoid It: Limited chart types (Candlestick, Line, Area). No Pie or Radar charts here.
Verdict: Use this ONLY for time-series financial data.
Alternative: uPlot. It’s even smaller (~20KB) and faster, but the documentation is very sparse (“Spartan”) compared to TradingView.
Quick Demo: You can load this via CDN for a quick test.
import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';
import { createChart } from 'lightweight-charts';
const CryptoChart = () => {
const chartContainerRef = useRef(null);
useEffect(() => {
if (!chartContainerRef.current) return;
const chart = createChart(chartContainerRef.current, {
width: chartContainerRef.current.clientWidth,
height: 400,
layout: { backgroundColor: '#ffffff', textColor: '#333' },
grid: { vertLines: { color: '#f0f3fa' }, horzLines: { color: '#f0f3fa' } },
});
const areaSeries = chart.addAreaSeries({
topColor: 'rgba(33, 150, 243, 0.56)',
bottomColor: 'rgba(33, 150, 243, 0.04)',
lineColor: 'rgba(33, 150, 243, 1)',
lineWidth: 2,
});
areaSeries.setData([
{ time: '2025-10-10', value: 20.01 },
{ time: '2025-10-11', value: 24.32 },
{ time: '2025-10-12', value: 22.05 },
{ time: '2025-10-13', value: 28.91 },
{ time: '2025-10-14', value: 30.12 },
]);
chart.timeScale().fitContent();
return () => {
chart.remove();
};
}, []);
return (
<div ref={chartContainerRef} style={{ position: 'relative', width: '100%' }} />
);
};
export default CryptoChart;3. Carbon Charts (via @carbon/charts-react)
Best For: Enterprise, Government, and Accessibility (a11y).
This comes from IBM’s massive Carbon Design System. It stands out because of its commitment to accessibility—screen reader support and keyboard navigation are built-in, not afterthoughts. It looks very “corporate” out of the box, which is perfect if you are building B2B tools.
Why Use It: Top-tier accessibility and a cohesive design system feel.
Verdict: Use this for corporate/B2B dashboards where compliance matters.
import React from 'react';
import { SimpleBarChart } from '@carbon/charts-react';
import '@carbon/charts/styles.css';
const CarbonExample = () => {
const data = [
{ group: 'Qty', value: 65000 },
{ group: 'More', value: 29123 },
{ group: 'Sold', value: 35213 },
{ group: 'Restocking', value: 51213 },
{ group: 'Misc', value: 16932 }
];
const options = {
title: 'Simple Bar (Discrete)',
axes: {
left: { mapsTo: 'value' },
bottom: { mapsTo: 'group', scaleType: 'labels' }
},
height: '400px'
};
return (
<div className="p-8 bg-white">
<h3>Carbon Charts (React Native)</h3>
<SimpleBarChart data={data} options={options} />
</div>
);
};
export default CarbonExample;4. Observable Plot
Best For: Data Science, Analytics, and “Journalism” style charts.
This is the “shorthand” for D3, created by the same author (Mike Bostock). It allows you to create complex statistical visuals—like dot plots or box plots—with incredibly short code. It focuses on analyzing data rather than just drawing shapes.
Why Use It: You can write complex visualizations in very few lines of code.
Why Avoid It: No native React wrapper; you use it as raw JavaScript inside a
useRefhook.Verdict: Use this for internal analytics tools or data-heavy reports.
Alternative: Vega-Lite. A JSON-based grammar of graphics. Highly portable, but the syntax is more verbose than Plot.
import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';
import * as Plot from "@observablehq/plot";
const ObservableExample = () => {
const containerRef = useRef();
const data = [
{ horsepower: 130, weight: 3500, cylinders: 8 },
{ horsepower: 165, weight: 4300, cylinders: 8 },
{ horsepower: 90, weight: 2200, cylinders: 4 },
{ horsepower: 100, weight: 2500, cylinders: 6 },
{ horsepower: 80, weight: 2100, cylinders: 4 }
];
useEffect(() => {
const chart = Plot.plot({
grid: true,
marks: [
Plot.dot(data, { x: "horsepower", y: "weight", stroke: "cylinders" })
]
});
// Append the native DOM element generated by Plot
containerRef.current.append(chart);
return () => chart.remove();
}, []);
return <div ref={containerRef}></div>;
};The Reliable Standards (Safe Bets)
These are battle-tested and used by thousands of companies. You won’t get fired for choosing these.
5. Apache ECharts
Best For: “I need to chart EVERYTHING.”
ECharts is the kitchen sink of visualization. It’s huge, but it’s powerful. It uses a dual rendering engine, meaning you can choose between Canvas (for performance with 100k+ points) or SVG (for crisp scaling) depending on your user’s device. It supports specialized visuals like 3D globes, heatmaps, and complex drill-downs that other libraries simply can’t handle.
Why Use It: It handles virtually any chart type you can imagine. If your product manager asks for a 3D scatter plot next month, you won’t have to switch libraries.
Why Avoid It: It is massive. If you are just building a simple admin panel with a few bar charts, including ECharts is overkill—it’s like renting a semi-truck to move a single sofa.
Verdict: Use this if you need complex features (Heatmaps, 3D) for free.
import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';
import * as echarts from 'echarts';
const EChartsExample = () => {
const chartRef = useRef(null);
useEffect(() => {
const myChart = echarts.init(chartRef.current);
const option = {
title: { text: 'ECharts Example' },
tooltip: {},
legend: { data: ['Sales'] },
xAxis: { data: ['Shirts', 'Cardigans', 'Chiffons', 'Pants', 'Heels', 'Socks'] },
yAxis: {},
series: [{
name: 'Sales',
type: 'bar',
data: [5, 20, 36, 10, 10, 20]
}]
};
myChart.setOption(option);
const handleResize = () => myChart.resize();
window.addEventListener('resize', handleResize);
return () => {
window.removeEventListener('resize', handleResize);
myChart.dispose();
};
}, []);
return <div ref={chartRef} style={{ width: '100%', height: '400px' }}></div>;
};6. Billboard.js (The Modern C3)
Best For: Developers who want D3 power without D3 difficulty.
This was a crucial finding in our research. Billboard.js is a modern D3 v4+ wrapper that preserves that classic, simple interface. It’s actively maintained, supports TypeScript natively, and allows you to spin up standard charts in seconds without learning D3’s complex math.
Why Use It: It bridges the gap between simplicity and power. You get the stability of D3 under the hood with an API that a junior dev can understand in 5 minutes.
Verdict: Use this for a simple, standard “Line/Bar/Pie” library that is easy to configure.
import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';
import bb, { spline } from "billboard.js";
import "billboard.js/dist/billboard.css";
const BillboardExample = () => {
const chartRef = useRef(null);
useEffect(() => {
const chart = bb.generate({
data: {
columns: [
["data1", 30, 200, 100, 400, 150, 250],
["data2", 50, 20, 10, 40, 15, 25]
],
type: spline()
},
bindto: chartRef.current
});
}, []);
return <div ref={chartRef}></div>;
};
export default BillboardExample;7. Recharts
Best For: React Purists.
This is the standard for React developers. Much like NGX-Charts is for Angular, Recharts is built specifically for React. It doesn’t wrap an external JS library; it uses React components to render SVGs directly. This is great for developer experience (DX) because you can style the chart using standard CSS or styled-components, and it follows the natural React component lifecycle.
Why Use It: Seamless integration. It uses a declarative approach (
<BarChart>,<XAxis>,<Tooltip>) that feels exactly like writing normal React code.Why Avoid It: Performance ceiling. Because it renders everything as SVG nodes, a chart with 5,000+ points creates 5,000+ DOM elements. This causes “layout thrashing” and will freeze the browser.
Verdict: Use this for low-density, high-fidelity dashboards (e.g., “Monthly Revenue”) where you have < 100 data points.
import React from 'react';
import { BarChart, Bar, XAxis, YAxis, Tooltip, Legend, ResponsiveContainer } from 'recharts';
const RechartsExample = () => {
const data = [
{ name: "Germany", value: 8940000 },
{ name: "USA", value: 5000000 },
{ name: "France", value: 7200000 }
];
return (
<div style={{ height: 400 }}>
<ResponsiveContainer width="100%" height="100%">
<BarChart data={data}>
<XAxis dataKey="name" />
<YAxis />
<Tooltip />
<Legend />
<Bar dataKey="value" fill="#8884d8" />
</BarChart>
</ResponsiveContainer>
</div>
);
};
export default RechartsExample;8. Chart.js (via react-chartjs-2)
Best For: Simple, generic websites.
The “old reliable” has reinvented itself. With Version 4, Chart.js became fully tree-shakable. It has a massive ecosystem of plugins (like chartjs-plugin-zoom) that extend its functionality without you writing custom code. For React, we use the react-chartjs-2 wrapper, which is the industry standard.
Why Use It: The community is massive. Every error you face has a solution on Google.
Why Avoid It: While flexible, the configuration object can get extremely verbose for complex charts, leading to “config soup.”
Verdict: Use this for a quick prototype or basic dashboard where you need a “safe” choice.
import React from 'react';
import {
Chart as ChartJS,
CategoryScale,
LinearScale,
BarElement,
Title,
Tooltip,
Legend,
} from 'chart.js';
import { Bar } from 'react-chartjs-2';
ChartJS.register(CategoryScale, LinearScale, BarElement, Title, Tooltip, Legend);
const ChartJSExample = () => {
const options = {
responsive: true,
plugins: {
legend: { position: 'top' },
title: { display: true, text: 'Chart.js Bar Chart' },
},
};
const data = {
labels: ['Red', 'Blue', 'Yellow', 'Green', 'Purple', 'Orange'],
datasets: [
{
label: '# of Votes',
data: [12, 19, 3, 5, 2, 3],
backgroundColor: 'rgba(54, 162, 235, 0.5)',
},
],
};
return <Bar options={options} data={data} />;
};9. Cytoscape.js
Best For: Network graphs & Relationships (Nodes & Edges).
This isn’t for your standard bar or line charts; it’s a graph theory engine. If you need to visualize how users are connected in a social network or map out IT infrastructure, this is the industry standard.
Verdict: Use this ONLY for network data.
import React, { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';
import cytoscape from 'cytoscape';
const CytoscapeExample = () => {
const cyRef = useRef(null);
useEffect(() => {
const cy = cytoscape({
container: cyRef.current,
elements: [
{ data: { id: 'a' } },
{ data: { id: 'b' } },
{ data: { id: 'ab', source: 'a', target: 'b' } }
],
style: [
{
selector: 'node',
style: { 'background-color': '#666', 'label': 'data(id)' }
},
{
selector: 'edge',
style: { 'width': 3, 'line-color': '#ccc', 'target-arrow-shape': 'triangle' }
}
],
layout: { name: 'grid', rows: 1 }
});
return () => cy.destroy();
}, []);
return <div ref={cyRef} style={{ width: '100%', height: '400px', background: '#f9f9f9' }} />;
};The "Avoid" List (Paid or Dead)
Save yourself the technical debt. Don’t use these.
10. AnyChart / CanvasJS / Flot
AnyChart / CanvasJS: They often confuse developers because the source code is visible, but they are NOT free. They require commercial licenses. There is zero technical justification to pay for these in 2026 when libraries like Apache ECharts and Chart.js offer superior performance and features for free (Apache 2.0 / MIT licenses).
Flot: It is dead technology. It hasn’t been updated meaningfully in years and relies on jQuery, which has no place in a modern Angular 19+ application.
Recommendation: Use Apache ECharts or Billboard.js instead.
The "Hard" Mode (Last Resort)
11. D3.js
Best For: Visualizations that defy standard categories.
D3 isn’t really a chart library; it is a DOM manipulation library driven by data. It gives you infinite control—if you can draw it on a screen, D3 can build it. But you have to build everything (axes, ticks, scales, animations) from scratch.
- Why Avoid It: The “React Conflict.” D3 wants to control the DOM, and React wants to control the DOM. To make them play nice in 2026, you often have to use a “Black Box” pattern—running D3 code outside of React’s zone (runOutsideAngular) to prevent performance issues. It’s high effort.
- Recommendation: Avoid unless you are a data viz expert or need a completely bespoke “Hero Visualization.” Use Observable Plot or Billboard.js to get the benefits of D3 logic without the implementation pain.
Final Thoughts from Weavelinx
Choosing a library in 2026 isn’t just about looks; it’s about architecture and specific use cases.
Building a crypto or financial tool? Go Lightweight Charts.
Need a robust, maintainable SaaS dashboard? Go Unovis.
Need strict accessibility compliance? Go Carbon.
Just want a quick, standard chart? Chart.js or Billboard.js.
We hope this deep dive saves you the weeks of research we spent!
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