Comparison of Adobe Flex charts

The following comparison of Adobe Flex charts provides charts classification, compares Flex chart products for different chart type availability and for different visual features like 3D versions of charts.

Classification

• 

  Bar/Column charts

• 

  Line charts

• 

  Pie charts

• 

  Area charts

• 

  Scatter plot charts

• 

  Circular charts

• 

  Accumulation charts

• 

  Tree/Heat map charts

• 

  Gauge charts

• 

  Cartogram charts

• 

  Gantt charts

• 

  Dependency graphs

• 

  Nomograms

• 

  Organizational charts

• 

  Flow charts

This gallery shows:

• Bar/Column chart - uses bars/columns to show frequencies or values for different categories.
• Line chart - two-dimensional Scatterplot of ordered observations where the observations are connected following their order.
• Pie chart - shows percentage values as a slice of a pie.
• Area chart - line chart which displays graphically quantitive data. The area between axis and line are commonly emphasized with colors, textures and hatchings.
• Scatter plot - type of mathematical diagram using Cartesian coordinates to display values as collection of points for two variables for a set of data.
• Circular charts - Radar chart (Spider chart) or Polar chart is a two-dimensional chart of three or more quantitative variables represented on axes starting from the same point.
• Accumulation charts - Pyramid (Cone) or Funnel chart displays data that, when combined, equals 100%.
• Tree/Heat map - chart where the areas of the rectangles correspond to values. Other dimensions can be represented with colour or hue.
• Finance chart - stock market prices are often depicted with an open-high-low-close chart with a traditional bar chart of volume at the bottom.
• Cartogram chart is a map in which some thematic mapping variable – such as population, economic etc. – is substituted for land area.
• Gantt chart - helps in scheduling complex projects.
• Dependency graph is a directed graph representing dependencies of several objects towards each other.
• Nomogram - a two-dimensional diagram designed to allow the approximate graphical computation of a function: it uses a coordinate system other than Cartesian coordinates.
• Organizational chart is a diagram that shows the structure of an organization and the relationships and relative ranks of its parts and positions/jobs.
• Flow chart - a diagram, that represents an algorithm or process, showing the steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order by connecting these with arrows.

Flex Chart products

Chart type / Framework		Adobe Flex built-in charts	Axiis	BirdEye	Flare	Flexmonster	IBM ILOG Elixir	Kap IT Labs	yFiles	amCharts	AnyChart	LiveGap Chart
Cost		Free	Free	Free	Free	Non-free contact vendor for prices	Non-free £556 (for EULA), contact vendor for OEM	Free for non-commercial, €2'500 (VAT excluded) for full 1-developer package	Non-free contact vendor for prices	Free (with link to amCharts) link-free from €85}	Free (with link to AnyChart) Team license available}	Free
License		MPL	MIT	MIT	BSD	Proprietary	Proprietary	Proprietary	Proprietary	Proprietary	Proprietary	Free
Open source		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Bar/Column charts	Simple	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Stacked	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Floating (Range)	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Waterfall	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
	Layered	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Line charts	Simple	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Spline (Curve)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Step	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pie charts	Simple	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Doughnut (Ring)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Exploded	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
	Stacked	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Area charts	Simple	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Spline (Curve)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Stacked	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Floating (Range)	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Histogram (Step)	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Scatter plot charts	Simple	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
	Bubble	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Circular charts	Radar	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Polar	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Accumulation charts	Pyramid	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
	Funnel	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Tree/Heat map charts	Tree map	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
	Heat map	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Finance charts	OHLC	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
	Candlestick	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
	Kagi	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Gauge charts		No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Cartogram charts		No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Gantt charts		No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Dependency graphs		No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Nomograms	Smith chart	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Organizational charts		No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Flow charts		No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

Flex Chart features

Feature / Framework	Adobe Flex built-in charts	Axiis	BirdEye	Flare	Flexmonster	IBM ILOG Elixir	Kap IT Labs	yFiles	amCharts
3D charts	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Rotate, zoom chart in 3D	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Show-up & other animation effects	Yes	No	Partial (only for Dependency Graph)	Yes	Partial (only for Pie Chart)	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Interactive legend	Via customization	No	No	No	No	Via customization	Yes	No	Yes
Show total values over the bars	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
String formater for labels	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	?	?	Yes
Ability to define custom color for each bar (chart item)	Yes	?	?	?	?	Yes	?	?	Yes
Combined charts	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Multiple axis	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes

See also

• Tom Gonzalez about IBM ILOG Elixir (January 2008)
• Josh Tynjala TreeMap component at GitHub