Charming vs Plotters
A data-driven comparison of two Rust plotting & visualization libraries: popularity, development activity, licensing and installation. Updated .
Key differences
- Plotters has 1.8× as many GitHub stars as Charming (4.6K vs 2.6K).
- Plotters had more development activity over the last 12 months: 23 commits vs 12.
- Plotters is downloaded 183× as often on crates.io (53.4M vs 292.1K per 90 days).
- Charming is licensed under Apache-2.0; Plotters under MIT.
- Plotters is the older project: its repository was created in 2019, Charming's in 2023.
By the numbers
- Charming
- Plotters
Show data as a table
| Metric | Charming | Plotters |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 2,600 | 4,632 |
| crates.io downloads / 90 days | 292,114 | 53,422,084 |
| Commits, last 12 months | 12 | 23 |
| Contributors | 25 | 102 |
| Forks | 119 | 319 |
Development activity
Commits per month to each default branch, last 12 complete months.
- Charming
- Plotters
Show data as a table
| Month | Charming | Plotters |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2025 | 0 | 2 |
| Nov 2025 | 7 | 0 |
| Dec 2025 | 0 | 2 |
| Jan 2026 | 3 | 13 |
| Feb 2026 | 0 | 5 |
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 1 |
| Apr 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2026 | 2 | 0 |
Side by side
| Attribute | Charming | Plotters |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Chart rendering library for Rust powered by Apache ECharts. | Drawing library for data plotting in Rust, with bitmap, SVG, WebAssembly and GUI backends. |
| Category | Rust plotting & visualization libraries | Rust plotting & visualization libraries |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Rust |
| Status | Active | Maintained |
| Latest release | – | – |
| Last commit | ||
| Repository created | ||
| Open issues | 15 | 157 |
| Install | cargo add charming | cargo add plotters |
Which should you choose?
Popularity and activity are only part of the story. Consider which ecosystem you work in, the chart types and interactions you need, how much data you render, and whether the license fits your project. Both tool pages list alternatives if neither is quite right.