Plotly Reviews

“dashboards look fantastic”

Pros

Building attractive visualizations with it has been really easy. I can put together charts and dashboards with drag and drop instead of writing code which saves a lot of time. The layout looks polished and is easy to work with. It also supports SQL for data processing which makes the dashboards more efficient compared to other tools.

Cons

At this point, I really haven't run into any noticeable drawbacks and any small issues that came up were resolved quickly.

“makes app building fun”

Pros

Getting started with it has been a pleasure. It's very user-friendly so building interactive web apps doesn't take long to figure out. Since it runs on Python, I can rely on the skills I already use every day which is a huge advantage. The visualizations look excellent and being able to refresh data in real time still feels impressive every time I use it. It has completely changed how I share insights with my team. On top of that the Dash community is incredibly supportive whenever I hit a roadblock. I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone working in data science.

Cons

Using it has been really enjoyable overall but the layout system can feel somewhat limiting sometimes. Getting the exact design I have in mind isn't always simple especially when I want a very specific look for an app. I have also run into some slowdown as projects become more complex which can be frustrating. Mobile responsiveness isn't fully polished out of the box either so I usually need to spend extra time making sure apps behave well across different screen sizes and devices.

“best for algorithms and apps”

Pros

It's really good that a single person can handle both the algorithm side and the application development side without needing separate roles.

Cons

There aren't many examples or sample apps that show how to build machine learning-based applications which makes that part harder to explore.

“Powerful Python analytics toolkit”

Pros

Working with Plotly has been really convenient. It stays entirely within Python, is quick to use and gives me a lot of flexibility to build highly customizable interactive data analytics tools. The documentation is also good, the community support is strong and the platform keeps improving as it grows.

Cons

To be honest there is not much to complain about, though I do wish they offered more video tutorials online.

“great tool”

Pros

If you're already used to Seaborn, Matplotlib and similar tools, it's worth leaving those behind and switching to Plotly and Dash instead.

Cons

Honestly there's nothing here to complain about. 10/10 it is the top choice for Python visualizations.

“simple visualizations for web apps”

Pros

Using this user friendly framework, even novice web developers can build complex visualizations with libraries they already know.

Cons

Within our team, getting others to contribute to its projects has been challenging, probably because many data scientists are hesitant to take on the learning curve.

“Fantastic Python dashboard toolkit”

Pros

Building front end web dashboards in Python is best with Plotly Dash. It sits on Flask for the back end and React for the front end and the component-based approach is user friendly and quick to learn. The documentation is excellent and there are plenty of examples to follow.

Cons

It does feel a little bulky so it can be somewhat slow at times. When graphs contain a lot of data, rendering them can take a few seconds.

“interactive visuals”

Pros

There's a lot to like about Plotly especially the range of interactive visuals it lets me build. Dash also makes it much simpler to create data-driven applications since it hides a lot of the HTML and JavaScript work that would normally go into building a polished-looking app.

Cons

The documentation is limited and poorly organized which makes things harder than they should be. It's also frustrating that a number of features still seem to be in progress and not being able to print a dashboard with multiple visuals feels like a pretty basic capability that a modern BI tool should already have.

“Beautiful interactive dashboards”

Pros

Building interactive charts with Plotly has been fantastic. It works really well with Flask, the visuals look polished and Dash Bootstrap Components make the interface styling very simple. Being able to create all of this without needing to learn JavaScript or React is a huge plus.

Cons

Honestly I have had an excellent experience with it and don't have much to criticize. The only thing I'd slightly prefer is if it were organized more like a Flask extension since it's built on Flask but that's a very minor point.

“Powerful open-source charting”

Pros

Everything about it is good, the visuals look fantastic and it's genuinely enjoyable to use. On top of that nearly all of the functionality is available in the open-source version which is a huge plus.

Cons

My only real complaint is that it hasn't been adopted more widely, at least where I am. Hopefully that changes soon.

“Linked charts without coding”

Pros

One of the best parts is being able to build figures that interact with each other so when I select data in one chart, the other charts update right away.

Cons

Honestly I don't have any complaints about this product. It lets me create visualizations that just weren't possible for me before especially since I don't write JavaScript.

“interactive plotting done right”

Pros

Being able to build interactive plots is a real advantage and one of the strongest parts of Plotly.

Cons

At the beginning it's not very easy to understand how to structure larger apps with it especially when it comes to organizing components, views, callbacks and the rest of the codebase.

“Powerful for Python and R”

Pros

I like that I can build and launch interactive web analytics, data science apps and dashboards without needing to learn JavaScript, CSS or HTML.

Cons

The platform is still growing and I am hoping to see additional features added so it can bring even more of React UI's full power to R and Python developers.

“Fast app building”

Pros

With Plotly and Dash I can put together a web app with basic authentication for all kinds of use cases. Dashboards are the most obvious example but I have also built a few data-cleaning apps and even an entire product around it. At this point, I can get a first dashboard draft ready in under four hours which is a huge time saver.

Cons

Once you move past simple apps, there's less flexibility on the JavaScript side. Because of that we've ended up separating things out by using Python backend APIs with a standalone JS frontend.

“Excellent fit for Python”

Pros

Since all of our products are built on Python, Plotly fits perfectly into the way we work. The Python integration is exactly what we need and works really well for our setup.

Cons

The documentation still is a bit limited. I feel like it could be more helpful and offer clearer guidance in some areas.

“Powerful components for data apps”

Pros

The interface is user-friendly and the wide variety of components gives you a lot to work with. It makes it possible to build fully functional data applications without much friction.

Cons

I'd really like to see more companies invest in it so the team has the resources to keep expanding and improving its components.

“backend callbacks done right”

Pros

Building bioinformatics web apps used to mean juggling Python Flask with JavaScript and anyone who has had to make those two work closely together knows how messy it gets. Once there is a lot of communication between the frontend and backend, it is very easy to end up buried in callbacks and endless Ajax POST/GET confusion. Dash made that process much more manageable because the callbacks are still there but handling them from the backend side feels far more organized. Another thing I really appreciate is how extensible the Dash ecosystem is especially being able to create your own React components.

Cons

The debugging tools have definitely gotten better over time but they still are not as powerful as the Flask debug toolbar.

“one for all package”

Pros

As a Python developer Dash is like the one package that really covers both bases. And it's simple to get started with and incredibly flexible once you dive in. You can build something with Flask or Django but getting even a basic version running can take days, weeks or more. WYSIWYG tools or WordPress might get you part of the way, yet they never give you the level of control you actually want. Python is used for so many different things that it's hard to know every area well enough to move fast especially web development. For anyone working with data who doesn't want to spend time learning the web stack, Dash is exactly the right fit. Huge thanks to the Plotly team.

Cons

Honestly nothing really stands out as a downside. The only thing I'd love to see is a shareable offline version.

“Dash boosts web visualization”

Pros

When it comes to building data visualizations for the web, Dash has been a huge productivity boost. I spent five years creating graphs with SVG and now something that used to take me six months can be done in about a week.

Cons

It would be even better with more complete documentation and a wider range of examples.