ECharts

ECharts is the charting library you reach for when Chart.js can't handle your data volume. Built for 100k+ data points, it renders on Canvas (not SVG), supports everything from basic bar charts to 3D visualizations and geographic maps, and powers dashboards at Alibaba, Amazon, and GitLab.

Chart.js is simpler with the gentlest learning curve — perfect for basic charts. D3.js gives you total creative freedom but requires building everything from primitives — weeks of work for what ECharts does with config objects. Highcharts is enterprise-grade but commercial ($590+/developer).

Use ECharts if you're building data-heavy dashboards, need geographic visualizations, or your dataset exceeds what Chart.js handles gracefully. The declarative config API means you're tweaking properties, not writing rendering code.

The catch: the bundle is heavy — 1MB+ for the full library (tree-shakeable, but still). The documentation is extensive but originated in Chinese, and English docs can feel translated. For simple charts on a landing page, ECharts is overkill. Chart.js at 60KB will do the job.