Plotly.rs vs Plotters
A data-driven comparison of two Rust plotting & visualization libraries: popularity, development activity, licensing and installation. Updated .
Key differences
- Plotters has 3.2× as many GitHub stars as Plotly.rs (4.6K vs 1.5K).
- Plotly.rs had more development activity over the last 12 months: 53 commits vs 23.
- Plotters is downloaded 90× as often on crates.io (53.4M vs 593K per 90 days).
- Both are released under the MIT license.
By the numbers
- Plotly.rs
- Plotters
Show data as a table
| Metric | Plotly.rs | Plotters |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 1,457 | 4,632 |
| crates.io downloads / 90 days | 593,016 | 53,422,084 |
| Commits, last 12 months | 53 | 23 |
| Contributors | 53 | 102 |
| Forks | 128 | 319 |
Development activity
Commits per month to each default branch, last 12 complete months.
- Plotly.rs
- Plotters
Show data as a table
| Month | Plotly.rs | Plotters |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2025 | 2 | 2 |
| Nov 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2025 | 5 | 2 |
| Jan 2026 | 4 | 13 |
| Feb 2026 | 7 | 5 |
| Mar 2026 | 0 | 1 |
| Apr 2026 | 1 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 4 | 0 |
| Jun 2026 | 3 | 0 |
| Jul 2026 | 27 | 0 |
| Aug 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2026 | 0 | 0 |
Side by side
| Attribute | Plotly.rs | Plotters |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Plotly.js-based interactive plotting library for Rust. | Drawing library for data plotting in Rust, with bitmap, SVG, WebAssembly and GUI backends. |
| Category | Rust plotting & visualization libraries | Rust plotting & visualization libraries |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Rust |
| Status | Active | Maintained |
| Latest release | 0.14.1 () | – |
| Last commit | ||
| Repository created | ||
| Open issues | 14 | 157 |
| Install | cargo add plotly | cargo add plotters |
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.