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Add to SafariWhen comparing Raphael vs ZingChart, the Slant community recommends Raphael for most people. In the question“What are the best JavaScript libraries for creating visualisations of data as charts/graphs?” Raphael is ranked 6th while ZingChart is ranked 17th. The most important reason people chose Raphael is:
Because Raphael supports rendering VML + SVG, it is one of the few drawing libraries that is backwards compatible with older browsers that do not support canvas.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Works with older browsers
Because Raphael supports rendering VML + SVG, it is one of the few drawing libraries that is backwards compatible with older browsers that do not support canvas.
Pro Built in animations
Several built-in animations (such as ways of easing) are provided for you out of the box, but Raphael also allows cubic beziers for more complicated easing functions. Any drawing object property can be modified making it similar to css animations in jQuery.
Pro Every object is interactive with events
Everything that is drawn in Raphael is an object which means it is easy to manipulate any part of the rendered image after it is processed. It uses an event handler system for user inputs which makes it easy to learn for JavaScript developers used to event based libraries.
This style of handling objects makes Raphael a good fit for rendering interactive diagrams and charts that can also interact with other parts of the page.
Pro Easy creation of charts with extension
gRaphael is a Raphael extension to help you easily create graphs and charts.
Pro Tons of styling options
You can get extremely granular with the styling (which is very CSS-like). You can customize pretty much any aspect of a chart, so they can match your application or website perfectly.
Pro Robust API
The advantage of using a JavaScript charting library is that you can make interactive charts. The API here lets you make the most of this advantage.
Pro Easy to try
ZingChart hosts the full version of the library for evaluation on their CDN for you to try in just a matter of minutes.
Pro Angular wrapper
Pro Free branded version
There is a free version available, however it's branded. Licenses start at $249.
Pro jQuery wrapper
ZingChart has a well-built and excellently documented jQuery wrapper, making it easier to integrate ZingChart into your jQuery code.
Pro Handles large data sets without bogging down
Cons
Con Complicated, confusing documentation
The documentation is often not clear and lacks practical examples.
Con Can be difficult to get support
Online communities for Raphael are small and inactive compared to other drawing libraries, and many issues opened on github are never addressed.
Con Not open source
Con The free version inserts a watermark on all charts
Either their watermark is on all the charts or you have to pay expensive license fees.
