Chart.js

Chart.js is the charting library that 67K+ stars worth of developers chose because it just works. Drop it in, give it data, get a responsive, animated chart. Bar, line, pie, radar, scatter, bubble — the standard chart types without a learning curve.

If you need charts in a web app and don't want to learn D3.js, Chart.js is the pragmatic choice. D3 gives you unlimited flexibility but requires understanding SVG, data joins, and enter-update-exit patterns. Recharts and Nivo wrap D3 for React. ECharts from Apache is the feature-rich alternative with more chart types and better large-dataset performance. Commercially, Highcharts offers polished charts with paid licensing.

The Canvas rendering is smooth, the responsive resizing works out of the box, and the plugin system adds features like zoom, annotations, and streaming data.

The catch: Canvas rendering means charts aren't individually selectable DOM elements — accessibility and interaction are limited compared to SVG-based libraries. Large datasets (10K+ points) can lag without downsampling. Customization beyond the built-in options requires plugins or hacking the internals. And if you need highly custom or interactive visualizations, you'll eventually outgrow Chart.js and end up learning D3 anyway.