# plotly (R) vs Shiny

## Key differences

- Shiny has 2.1× as many GitHub stars as plotly (R) (5.7K vs 2.7K).
- Shiny had more development activity over the last 12 months: 63 commits vs 19.
- Shiny is downloaded 3.2× as often on CRAN (192.4K vs 59.9K per week).
- Both are released under the MIT license.
- Shiny is the older project: its repository was created in 2012, plotly (R)'s in 2013.

| | plotly (R) | Shiny |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Interactive charts (including adding interactivity to ggplot2 output), cartograms and simple network diagrams | Framework for creating interactive applications/visualisations |
| GitHub stars | 2,682 | 5,694 |
| Commits (12 months) | 19 | 63 |
| Contributors | 57 | 92 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | R | R |
| Status | Active | Active |
| Install | `install.packages("plotly")` | `install.packages("shiny")`, `npm install @posit/shiny` |

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