Competitor Comparison
How Radiant Compares
An honest, feature-by-feature comparison of Radiant with other popular charting and grid libraries for React and JavaScript.
| Feature | Radiant Core (Free) | Radiant Pro | AG Charts | Highcharts | FusionCharts | SciChart | LightningChart JS | MUI X | KendoReact | Recharts | Chart.js | Apache ECharts | ApexCharts | VisX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | ||||||||||||||
| License | MIT | Commercial | MIT (Community) / Commercial (Enterprise) | Commercial (free for non-commercial) | Commercial | Commercial | Commercial | MIT (Charts) / Commercial (Pro) | Commercial | MIT | MIT | Apache 2.0 | MIT | MIT |
| Free Tier | ||||||||||||||
| Charts Library | ||||||||||||||
| Data Grid | ||||||||||||||
| Dashboard Designer | ||||||||||||||
| Rendering | Canvas | Canvas + WebGL | Canvas | SVG / Canvas | SVG + Canvas | WebGL | WebGL | SVG | SVG | SVG | Canvas | Canvas + SVG | SVG | SVG |
| React-First | ||||||||||||||
| TypeScript | ||||||||||||||
| Zero Dependencies | ||||||||||||||
| Declarative + Imperative API | ||||||||||||||
| Bundle Size | ~25 KB gzipped | ~120 KB gzipped | ~180 KB gzipped | ~90 KB gzipped (core) | ~200 KB gzipped | ~500 KB gzipped | ~600 KB gzipped | ~50 KB gzipped (charts) | ~200 KB gzipped (charts+grid) | ~45 KB gzipped | ~65 KB gzipped | ~300 KB gzipped (full) | ~130 KB gzipped | ~15 KB gzipped (per package) |
| Pricing | ||||||||||||||
| Pricing Model | Free | Per-developer subscription | Per-developer subscription | Per-developer perpetual + subscription | Per-developer | Per-developer perpetual | Per-developer subscription | Per-developer subscription | Per-developer subscription | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Free Price | $0 / forever | N/A | $0 (Community) | $0 (non-commercial) | $0 (non-commercial) | N/A | N/A | $0 (Community) | N/A | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Pro Charts | – | $249/dev/year | $499/dev/year | $590/dev/year | $1519/ 5 devs/year | 385.21/dev/month | – | – | $749/dev/year | – | – | – | – | – |
| Pro Grid | – | $249/dev/year | $999/dev/year | $550/dev/year | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Pro Bundle (Charts + Grid) | – | $399/dev/year | $1,498/dev/year | $1,140/dev/year | – | – | – | $599/dev/year | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Chart Types | ||||||||||||||
| Basic (Bar, Line, Area, Pie) | ||||||||||||||
| Scatter / Bubble | ||||||||||||||
| Financial (Candlestick, OHLC) | ||||||||||||||
| Statistical (Box, Violin, KDE) | ||||||||||||||
| Hierarchical (Treemap, Sunburst) | ||||||||||||||
| Network (Sankey, Chord, Force) | ||||||||||||||
| Geo / Maps | ||||||||||||||
| Gantt / Timeline | ||||||||||||||
| Gauge / Bullet | ||||||||||||||
| Funnel / Pyramid | ||||||||||||||
| Word Cloud | ||||||||||||||
| Performance | ||||||||||||||
| Max Data Points (practical) | ~50K | 1M+ | ~50K | ~100K | ~50K | 10M+ | 1B+ | ~10K | ~100K | ~3K | ~10K | ~100K | ~10K | ~5K |
| WebGL Acceleration | ||||||||||||||
| Worker Processing | ||||||||||||||
| Real-time Streaming API | ||||||||||||||
| Virtual Scrolling (Grid) | ||||||||||||||
| Grid Features | ||||||||||||||
| Included Data Grid | ||||||||||||||
| Sorting / Filtering | ||||||||||||||
| Grouping / Pivot | ||||||||||||||
| Cell Editing | ||||||||||||||
| Export (CSV / Excel) | ||||||||||||||
| Virtual Scrolling | ||||||||||||||
| Column Pinning | ||||||||||||||
| Tree Data | ||||||||||||||
| Enterprise | ||||||||||||||
| Theming (CSS Variables) | ||||||||||||||
| Dark Mode | ||||||||||||||
| Accessibility (WCAG) | ||||||||||||||
| Localization / i18n | ||||||||||||||
| Commercial Support / SLA | ||||||||||||||
| SSR / Next.js Compatible | ||||||||||||||
Detailed Comparisons
Radiant vs Chart.js
Both MIT-licensed and Canvas-based. Radiant is React-first with declarative JSX components; Chart.js is framework-agnostic with imperative config objects (requires a wrapper like react-chartjs-2). Radiant includes a built-in data grid in the same ecosystem. Chart.js has a larger plugin ecosystem. Radiant Pro extends to 100+ chart types; Chart.js tops out at ~8 types without third-party plugins.
Radiant vs Apache ECharts
ECharts is feature-rich and free (Apache 2.0) but not React-first — it requires a wrapper component. ECharts ships a large monolithic bundle (~300KB gzipped). Radiant is React-native with a smaller core (~25KB). ECharts has extensive map support; Radiant Pro has maps and a growing chart portfolio. For React teams, Radiant offers a more idiomatic developer experience.
Radiant vs ApexCharts
Both offer free tiers. ApexCharts is SVG-based, which becomes slow beyond ~10K data points. Radiant is Canvas-based with significantly better rendering performance at scale. ApexCharts has more built-in chart types in its free tier (~15 types). Radiant Core has 6, but Radiant Pro has 100+. Unlike ApexCharts, Radiant includes a data grid component.
Radiant vs VisX
Both are React-first and MIT-licensed. VisX (by Airbnb) is a collection of low-level D3-based SVG primitives — more flexible but requires significantly more code to build charts. Radiant is high-level and declarative (less code, faster to ship). VisX has no grid component. Radiant includes a full data grid. VisX is ideal for custom, bespoke visualizations; Radiant is ideal for shipping standard charts fast.
Radiant vs SciChart
SciChart is WebGL-first, specializing in scientific and financial real-time visualization with support for millions of data points at high frame rates. Radiant Pro has WebGL via GL2D, but SciChart is more mature for extreme-scale scientific data. SciChart is commercial-only with no free tier. Radiant offers a free MIT core for standard use cases and Pro for advanced ones.
Radiant vs LightningChart JS
LightningChart is the highest-performance WebGL charting library on the market, capable of rendering billions of data points. Purely commercial with no free tier (starting at $1,250/dev/year). Radiant offers a free MIT core for standard use cases. For extreme real-time scientific/IoT data, LightningChart is purpose-built. For general-purpose web apps, Radiant provides better value.
Radiant vs MUI X
MUI X Charts (MIT) and MUI X Data Grid (MIT community / Pro commercial) are closest in model to Radiant — both offer open-core with paid tiers. MUI X uses SVG for charts (Radiant uses Canvas for better performance). MUI X Data Grid is more mature. Radiant Grid is newer but includes a Canvas rendering mode for 250K+ rows. Both are React-first with TypeScript.
Radiant vs KendoReact
KendoReact is a full commercial UI suite by Telerik — no free tier for charts or grid (starting at $999/dev/year). Mature, well-documented, and enterprise-grade with 100+ UI components. Radiant offers a free entry point with MIT core that KendoReact does not. For teams that only need charts and grid (not an entire UI library), Radiant is more focused and cost-effective.
Radiant vs FusionCharts
FusionCharts is a legacy commercial library with 100+ chart types and a free tier restricted to non-commercial use (with watermark). SVG + Canvas rendering. Radiant's free tier is MIT — commercial use is allowed without restrictions. FusionCharts has more chart types in its free tier but the non-commercial restriction limits its utility for professional projects.
Radiant vs Recharts
Recharts is a popular React charting library (MIT, SVG-based). It is simple and well-integrated with the React ecosystem but limited to ~8 basic chart types and struggles with more than 3,000 data points due to SVG rendering. Radiant's Canvas engine handles 50,000+ points at 60fps, offers 6 free chart types (100+ with Pro), and includes a data grid.
Radiant vs AG Charts
AG Charts (part of the AG Grid ecosystem) is also Canvas-based with good performance. AG Charts Community (MIT) is limited; the Enterprise tier ($499/dev/year) unlocks advanced features. Radiant's MIT core is more complete (includes grid with virtual scrolling). Radiant Pro pricing ($249–$399/dev/year) is lower than AG Grid Enterprise ($999/dev/year for grid alone).
Radiant vs Highcharts
Highcharts is a mature, feature-rich library with 50+ chart types, strong documentation, and widespread enterprise adoption. Its free tier is restricted to non-commercial use. Commercial licenses start at $1,140/dev/year. Radiant offers a genuinely free MIT core for commercial use, Canvas-based performance, and a React-first API (Highcharts requires a wrapper).
Why Choose Radiant?
- Free MIT core — no strings attached, commercial use allowed
- Canvas-first performance — no SVG overhead
- React-native — not a wrapper around a vanilla JS library
- Charts + Grid in one ecosystem — unified theming, licensing, and API patterns
- Clear upgrade path — Community → Pro → Team → Enterprise
- TypeScript-first with full IntelliSense
- Active development roadmap (WebGL v2, Dashboard Designer)