Britecharts vs Chart.js

Chart.js and Britecharts both draw finished charts from plain JavaScript, with no framework needed. The main difference is what they draw on: Chart.js draws pixels on a canvas, and Britecharts draws an svg. That decides what screen readers get, how you style a chart, and how many points it can draw quickly.

As of October 2026, from each library's documentation.

At a glance

	Britecharts	Chart.js
Draws on	svg	canvas
Screen readers	a name and the data as a table, by default	the canvas is not accessible; you add aria-label, role or fallback content
Keyboard through the data	on by default, 8 charts	no
Styling	CSS, with --bc-* custom properties	the chart's options; canvas ignores CSS
Dark mode	follows the page's color-scheme	set colours in the options
Export	PNG and svg, exportChart('chart.svg')	PNG or JPEG data URL, toBase64Image()
Chart types	bar, grouped bar, stacked bar, line, stacked area, donut and pie, heatmap, treemap, scatter plot, bullet, sparkline, brush	bar, line and area, pie and doughnut, scatter, bubble, radar, polar area, mixed, plus community chart types
Frameworks	plain JavaScript, React	plain JavaScript; React, Vue, Svelte and Angular through community wrappers
License	Apache 2.0	MIT

Choose Chart.js when

• You draw thousands of points. A canvas draws large datasets faster than an svg with one element per point.
• You need radar, polar area or bubble charts. Britecharts has none of these.
• You want its ecosystem. Chart.js is one of the most used chart libraries, with many plugins and answers to most questions online.

Choose Britecharts when

• Your charts must be accessible. A canvas is one image to a screen reader, and Chart.js leaves its text alternative to you. Britecharts names every chart and renders its data as a table that screen readers can read. It also lets keyboards move through the data. See accessible JavaScript charts.
• You style with CSS. Every colour around the data is a CSS custom property, and the charts switch to dark mode with your page.
• You need vector output. exportChart saves an svg with its styles inlined. The svg stays sharp in a document or a design tool.
• You use React. Britecharts ships its own React components, and a shadcn registry.

Move a bar chart

A Chart.js bar chart takes labels and datasets:

new Chart(document.getElementById('uses'), {
    type: 'bar',
    data: {
        labels: ['Shiny', 'Blazing', 'Radiant'],
        datasets: [{ label: 'Uses', data: [12, 31, 24] }],
    },
});

A Britecharts bar chart takes one object per bar and draws into any element:

import { bar, tooltip } from '@britecharts/core';
import '@britecharts/core/dist/styles/bundle/britecharts.min.css';

const data = [
    { name: 'Shiny', value: 12 },
    { name: 'Blazing', value: 31 },
    { name: 'Radiant', value: 24 },
];
bar()
    .width(600)
    .height(300)
    .a11yTitle('Uses of each word')
    .tooltip(tooltip())
    .render('#uses', data);

Chart.js shows a tooltip by default. In Britecharts, the chart's tooltip setting adds one, as above: see how to add a tooltip. To try both on a page with no build step, use the CDN bundle, or open an example in your browser.

Sources: Chart.js accessibility, Chart.js introduction, Chart.js API, Chart.js integration.