# ggplot2 vs patchwork

## Key differences

- ggplot2 has 2.7× as many GitHub stars as patchwork (7K vs 2.6K).
- ggplot2 had more development activity over the last 12 months: 86 commits vs 0.
- ggplot2 is downloaded 6.3× as often on CRAN (471.1K vs 74.8K per week).
- Both are released under the MIT license.
- ggplot2 is the older project: its repository was created in 2008, patchwork's in 2017.
- patchwork has had no commits since Aug 25, 2025.

| | ggplot2 | patchwork |
|---|---|---|
| Description | A plotting system based on the grammar of graphics. | Composes multiple ggplot2 plots into a single figure. |
| GitHub stars | 7,005 | 2,615 |
| Commits (12 months) | 86 | 0 |
| Contributors | 354 | 17 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | R | R |
| Status | Active | Inactive |
| Install | `install.packages("ggplot2")` | `install.packages("patchwork")` |

Source: https://awesomedataviz.com/compare/ggplot2-vs-patchwork/ · Data updated 2026-10-04 · Content: CC BY 4.0, Awesome Dataviz (https://awesomedataviz.com).