silx
silx settles into maintenance a release after its PySide6 migration
Comparison · Analytics
ApexCharts vs nswgeo
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ApexCharts and nswgeo — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
ApexCharts vs nswgeo: at a glance
What is ApexCharts?
Licensing settled, ApexCharts is back to changing what a chart can take as input.
ApexCharts is deep into a fast v6 line, shipping roughly weekly. The licensing arc that dominated 6.5 through 6.7 — trial watermarks, the first premium-gated chart type, then entitlement checks — has settled, and the last three releases are library work again. 6.9.0 is the largest of them: a histogram type that bins raw samples, a morph engine that conserves marks across chart types, and the end of the library's dependency-free packaging.
What is nswgeo?
NSW boundary data for R, refreshed as the official sources move
nswgeo packages New South Wales geographic boundaries for R — suburbs, postcodes, local government areas, Primary Health Networks and Local Health Districts — as ready-to-plot sf datasets. The 0.6.0 release refreshes nearly all of them against new upstream sources, moving postcodes to 2021 ABS boundaries and taking LHD boundaries from a new official feed. It is maintained by cidm-ph alongside the mapping packages that consume it, including ggmapinset.
ApexCharts vs nswgeo: editorial side-by-side
ApexCharts
10.0ANALYTICS
Licensing settled, ApexCharts is back to changing what a chart can take as input.
◆ Current state
ApexCharts is deep into a fast v6 line, shipping roughly weekly. The licensing arc that dominated 6.5 through 6.7 — trial watermarks, the first premium-gated chart type, then entitlement checks — has settled, and the last three releases are library work again. 6.9.0 is the largest of them: a histogram type that bins raw samples, a morph engine that conserves marks across chart types, and the end of the library's dependency-free packaging.
◆ Where it's heading
The through-line now is input and arrangement rather than catalogue size. Charts increasingly accept the measurements a team actually has instead of pre-aggregated values, and the seams that let you hand a chart its own layout — plotOptions.unit.positions, the pluggable layout hook — are being filled in with kits rather than hard-coded options. The premium boundary has stopped moving; the free catalogue keeps growing around it.
◆ Prediction
Expect the raw-observation pattern to reach another chart type now that the bar pathway handles binning, and expect the remaining pluggable seams to get companion kits the way positions just did.
nswgeo
0.0ANALYTICS
NSW boundary data for R, refreshed as the official sources move
◆ Current state
nswgeo packages New South Wales geographic boundaries for R — suburbs, postcodes, local government areas, Primary Health Networks and Local Health Districts — as ready-to-plot sf datasets. The 0.6.0 release refreshes nearly all of them against new upstream sources, moving postcodes to 2021 ABS boundaries and taking LHD boundaries from a new official feed. It is maintained by cidm-ph alongside the mapping packages that consume it, including ggmapinset.
◆ Where it's heading
Every release is dictated by an upstream release calendar rather than a roadmap: the 2023 ASGS, then 2024, then the 2021 ABS postcode boundaries and the new LHD source. That makes field-name churn the package's defining hazard — LGA_NAME_2021 to LGA_NAME_2023 to LGA_NAME_2024, and now lhd_name carrying a Local Health District suffix. The maintainer's habit of registering compatibility aliases through cartographer shows an awareness that these renames break downstream code silently.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to track the following ASGS edition with another round of field renames, and any new content to stay in the health-geography area the package's users work in.
Alternatives to ApexCharts and nswgeo
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either ApexCharts or nswgeo.
Plotly
Plotly is turning its cloud into a metered compute platform with an enterprise on-ramp.
aniread
aniread stops asking you to know which tracker wrote the file
Rho
Rho's release machinery finally produced a stable build — and it shipped no new product.
Usermaven
Usermaven closed the loop: data comes in from anywhere, and now it goes back out.
OpenCTI
OpenCTI spends a release unblocking queues and hardening upserts
See all ApexCharts alternatives → · See all nswgeo alternatives →
Recent activity from ApexCharts and nswgeo
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoApexChartsUnit charts get a 39-shape companion kit
- 2d agoApexChartsHistogram bins raw samples; charts morph between types ⚡
- 9d agoApexChartsPer-data-point label offsets land as functions
- 10d agoApexChartsPie and donut slice clicks work again after a 6.7.0 regression
- 16d agoApexChartsSunburst charts arrive; premium features now need an entitled plan ⚡
- 22d agoApexChartsUnit chart is the first premium-gated chart type ⚡
- 4mo agonswgeoSuburb, postcode, PHN and LHD boundaries all refreshed
- 7mo agonswgeonswgeo 0.5.1
- 1y agonswgeoUpdated to the 2024 ASGS release
- 2y agonswgeoTerritories, PHN maps and the outline() helper added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ApexCharts and nswgeo?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ApexCharts is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 10.0 vs 0.0), with 3 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is ApexCharts better than nswgeo?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ApexCharts is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 10.0 vs 0.0), with 3 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to ApexCharts?
Top ApexCharts alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ApexCharts alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/apexcharts for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to nswgeo?
Top nswgeo alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "nswgeo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nswgeo for the full list with editorial commentary on each.