# patchwork vs Shiny

## Key differences

- Shiny has 2.2× as many GitHub stars as patchwork (5.7K vs 2.6K).
- Shiny had more development activity over the last 12 months: 63 commits vs 0.
- Shiny is downloaded 2.6× as often on CRAN (192.4K vs 74.8K per week).
- Both are released under the MIT license.
- Shiny is the older project: its repository was created in 2012, patchwork's in 2017.
- patchwork has had no commits since Aug 25, 2025.

| | patchwork | Shiny |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Composes multiple ggplot2 plots into a single figure. | Framework for creating interactive applications/visualisations |
| GitHub stars | 2,615 | 5,694 |
| Commits (12 months) | 0 | 63 |
| Contributors | 17 | 92 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | R | R |
| Status | Inactive | Active |
| Install | `install.packages("patchwork")` | `install.packages("shiny")`, `npm install @posit/shiny` |

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