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HQChart vs Lightweight Charts

A data-driven comparison of two JavaScript financial charting libraries: popularity, development activity, licensing and installation. Updated .

HQChart

K-line and stock charts with a technical indicator scripting engine, for web pages and WeChat mini programs.

Lightweight Charts

Performant HTML5 canvas financial charts, from TradingView.

Key differences

  • Lightweight Charts has 5.1× as many GitHub stars as HQChart (17.5K vs 3.4K).
  • Lightweight Charts had more development activity over the last 12 months: 331 commits vs 106.
  • Lightweight Charts is downloaded 254× as often on npm (1.4M vs 5.4K per week).
  • Both are released under the Apache-2.0 license.
  • HQChart is written primarily in JavaScript, Lightweight Charts in TypeScript.
  • HQChart is the older project: its repository was created in 2018, Lightweight Charts's in 2019.

By the numbers

  • HQChart
  • Lightweight Charts
GitHub stars
3.4K 17.5K
npm downloads / week
5.4K 1.4M
Commits, last 12 months
106 331
Contributors
6 58
Forks
837 2.6K
Show data as a table
MetricHQChartLightweight Charts
GitHub stars3,41017,476
npm downloads / week5,3761,368,014
Commits, last 12 months106331
Contributors658
Forks8372,632

Development activity

Commits per month to each default branch, last 12 complete months.

  • HQChart
  • Lightweight Charts
0100200300 Oct 2025 Nov Dec Jan 2026 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug SepHQChartLightweight…
0100200300 Oct 2025 Jan 2026 Apr Jul HQChartLightweight…
Show data as a table
MonthHQChartLightweight Charts
Oct 20251113
Nov 202558
Dec 20251117
Jan 202688
Feb 2026316
Mar 2026122
Apr 20261021
May 20261512
Jun 2026713
Jul 2026166
Aug 2026811
Sep 20260204

Side by side

HQChartLightweight Charts
DescriptionK-line and stock charts with a technical indicator scripting engine, for web pages and WeChat mini programs.Performant HTML5 canvas financial charts, from TradingView.
CategoryJavaScript financial charting librariesJavaScript financial charting libraries
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageJavaScriptTypeScript
StatusActiveActive
Latest releasev1.11464 ()v5.2.1 ()
Last commit
Repository created
Open issues13112
Install
npm install hqchart
npm install lightweight-charts

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.

  • HQChart

    K-line and stock charts with a technical indicator scripting engine, for web pages and WeChat mini programs.

    3.4K starsJavaScriptApache-2.0

  • Lightweight Charts

    Performant HTML5 canvas financial charts, from TradingView.

    17.5K starsTypeScriptApache-2.0

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