Libraries - methnen/m-chart GitHub Wiki

Starting with Version 1.7 M Chart supports two graphing libraries.

Chart.js

Chart.js is the default library and is fully GPL compatible and licensed under an MIT license which is the same license M Chart is licensed under.

Highcharts

Highcharts is an optional library you can activate by installing the M Chart Highcharts Library plugin.

Highcharts was the original default library and thus anyone with previous charts will need to install it in order for their old charts to continue working.

Note: Highcharts is now licensed under their own Commercial/Non Commercial license. Essenetially this means it's free to use for non commercial purposes if approved by them. Otherwise it requries you to purchase a license from them.

Chart.js vs. Highcharts

The Chart.js support in M Chart starting with version 1.8 supports all of the same chart types that are supported in Highcharts.

Further, as of version 1.9 M Chart now supports all of the same features as Highcharts does inside of M Chart with the sole exception being the source/attribution fields.

Big strides have been made to Chart.js since it was released and in more recent versions many of the limitations it had, including performance with large data sets, are now gone.

Because the Highcharts licensing has become increasingly strict and expensive, I strongly recommend sticking with default library unless you really need Highcharts.

Further, going forwards I cannot promise to support all new M Chart features in the Highcharts library though I do plan to do my best to keep the Highcharts library at least functional in new versions of the core plugin.