HoloViews vs plotnine
A data-driven comparison of two Python grammar of graphics & declarative plotting libraries: popularity, development activity, licensing and installation. Updated .
Key differences
- plotnine has 1.6× as many GitHub stars as HoloViews (4.8K vs 2.9K).
- plotnine had more development activity over the last 12 months: 514 commits vs 326.
- plotnine is downloaded 2.1× as often on PyPI (408.6K vs 190.5K per week).
- HoloViews is licensed under BSD-3-Clause; plotnine under MIT.
- HoloViews is the older project: its repository was created in 2014, plotnine's in 2017.
By the numbers
- HoloViews
- plotnine
Show data as a table
| Metric | HoloViews | plotnine |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 2,915 | 4,780 |
| PyPI downloads / week | 190,546 | 408,564 |
| Commits, last 12 months | 326 | 514 |
| Contributors | 151 | 105 |
| Forks | 420 | 261 |
Development activity
Commits per month to each default branch, last 12 complete months.
- HoloViews
- plotnine
Show data as a table
| Month | HoloViews | plotnine |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 2025 | 21 | 4 |
| Dec 2025 | 22 | 3 |
| Jan 2026 | 12 | 35 |
| Feb 2026 | 4 | 6 |
| Mar 2026 | 37 | 20 |
| Apr 2026 | 11 | 24 |
| May 2026 | 31 | 40 |
| Jun 2026 | 40 | 49 |
| Jul 2026 | 24 | 31 |
| Aug 2026 | 41 | 156 |
| Sep 2026 | 59 | 119 |
| Oct 2026 | 24 | 27 |
Side by side
| Attribute | HoloViews | plotnine |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Complex and declarative visualizations from annotated data. | Grammar of graphics for Python, based on R's ggplot2. |
| Category | Python grammar of graphics & declarative plotting libraries | Python grammar of graphics & declarative plotting libraries |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Status | Active | Active |
| Latest release | v1.23.2 () | v0.15.8 () |
| Last commit | ||
| Repository created | ||
| Open issues | 991 | 73 |
| Install | pip install holoviews | pip install plotnine |
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.