silx
silx settles into maintenance a release after its PySide6 migration
Comparison · Analytics
ApexCharts vs textplot
A side-by-side editorial comparison of ApexCharts and textplot — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
ApexCharts vs textplot: 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 textplot?
A bnosac plotting utility in maintenance mode, shipping once every few years
textplot is the visualisation member of the bnosac NLP family, providing plot methods for dependency parses, biterm topic clusters, co-occurrence graphs, correlation lines and word embeddings. The function surface has been stable since 0.2.0 added textplot_embedding_2d in 2021. The 2026 release touches only documentation links and a vignette guard.
ApexCharts vs textplot: 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.
textplot
0.0ANALYTICS
A bnosac plotting utility in maintenance mode, shipping once every few years
◆ Current state
textplot is the visualisation member of the bnosac NLP family, providing plot methods for dependency parses, biterm topic clusters, co-occurrence graphs, correlation lines and word embeddings. The function surface has been stable since 0.2.0 added textplot_embedding_2d in 2021. The 2026 release touches only documentation links and a vignette guard.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a settled package, not a developing one. Releases since 0.2.0 have been reactive: a topic-assignment bug, a layout argument, and now cleanup after the archival of a dependency it linked to. The cadence — four years between 0.2.2 and 0.2.3 — tracks CRAN housekeeping on the wider bnosac stack rather than any roadmap of its own.
◆ Prediction
Expect the same pattern: the next release will most likely be another CRAN-compliance pass triggered by a change in udpipe, BTM or another sibling package, rather than a new textplot_* function.
Alternatives to ApexCharts and textplot
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 textplot.
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 textplot alternatives →
Recent activity from ApexCharts and textplot
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 ⚡
- 6mo agotextplotDrop link to archived ggalt, guard vignette model download
- 4y agotextplotDependency-parse plots gain a layout argument
- 4y agotextplotFix biterm topic assignment in cluster plots
- 5y agotextplotAdds 2D embedding plots
- 5y agotextplotMake example conditional on udpipe availability
- 6y agotextplotPlot functions become generic; igraph moved to Suggests
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ApexCharts and textplot?
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 textplot?
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 textplot?
Top textplot alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "textplot alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/textplot for the full list with editorial commentary on each.