Chartkick vs YouPlot
A data-driven comparison of two Ruby charting libraries: popularity, development activity, licensing and installation. Updated .
Key differences
- Chartkick has 1.3× as many GitHub stars as YouPlot (6.5K vs 4.9K).
- YouPlot had more development activity over the last 12 months: 40 commits vs 10.
- Both are released under the MIT license.
- Chartkick is the older project: its repository was created in 2013, YouPlot's in 2020.
By the numbers
- Chartkick
- YouPlot
Show data as a table
| Metric | Chartkick | YouPlot |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 6,528 | 4,857 |
| Commits, last 12 months | 10 | 40 |
| Contributors | 24 | 11 |
| Forks | 561 | 73 |
Development activity
Commits per month to each default branch, last 12 complete months.
- Chartkick
- YouPlot
Show data as a table
| Month | Chartkick | YouPlot |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2025 | 2 | 0 |
| Nov 2025 | 0 | 2 |
| Dec 2025 | 3 | 0 |
| Jan 2026 | 1 | 2 |
| Feb 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2026 | 2 | 0 |
| Apr 2026 | 0 | 11 |
| May 2026 | 0 | 24 |
| Jun 2026 | 1 | 1 |
| Jul 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2026 | 1 | 0 |
| Sep 2026 | 0 | 0 |
Side by side
| Attribute | Chartkick | YouPlot |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Create charts with one line of Ruby. | Command-line tool that draws plots in the terminal from piped data. |
| Category | Ruby charting libraries | Ruby charting libraries |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | Ruby |
| Status | Active | Maintained |
| Latest release | – | v0.5.0 () |
| Last commit | ||
| Repository created | ||
| Open issues | 6 | 13 |
| Install | gem install chartkick | gem install youplot |
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.