# patchwork vs plotly (R)

## Key differences

- plotly (R) and patchwork have a similar number of GitHub stars (2.7K vs 2.6K).
- plotly (R) had more development activity over the last 12 months: 19 commits vs 0.
- patchwork is downloaded 1.2× as often on CRAN (74.8K vs 59.9K per week).
- Both are released under the MIT license.
- plotly (R) is the older project: its repository was created in 2013, patchwork's in 2017.
- patchwork has had no commits since Aug 25, 2025.

| | patchwork | plotly (R) |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Composes multiple ggplot2 plots into a single figure. | Interactive charts (including adding interactivity to ggplot2 output), cartograms and simple network diagrams |
| GitHub stars | 2,615 | 2,682 |
| Commits (12 months) | 0 | 19 |
| Contributors | 17 | 57 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | R | R |
| Status | Inactive | Active |
| Install | `install.packages("patchwork")` | `install.packages("plotly")` |

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