Charts,Server Side or Client Side?

Question

Client Side Charts or Server Side Charts ?

(I had seen some questions based on this topic but none gives a conclusion.)

I am currently evaluating Client Side charts(javascript charts).
I have came across many articles saying client side charting as good.
The main reasong behind is it saves a server trip. Now switching to client side charts should require some reasons. Some stats.

• My Web application involves high data operations.
• Need client side interaction on charts to a lot extent.

What are exact differences between using client side and server side in terms of performance .
What are the advantages of one over the other ?

Answer 1

Your choice of technology should mostly depend on the CPU vs I/O ratio that is formed when you create your charts:

• Charts generated from little data, such as pie-charts, are a good candidate for client side rendering; just send half a dozen data points and let the client render the chart, instead of rendering and sending a 30KB image on the server.

• Charts generated from a large amount of data points should be rendered on the server; sending two million data points to the client for rendering is going to be both slow and expensive - bandwidth is not free.

In general you should optimize for less bandwidth usage, both to lower the operational cost and to make your service more responsive.

Answer 2

HighCharts is a very popular javascript charting library http://www.highcharts.com/ the charts are rendered in the browser client side but the data you'd be processing should be coming from your server. Their demo includes an AJAX loaded data chart http://www.highcharts.com/demo/line-ajax

Zendesk is using highcharts. The performance will come from a combination of how much data you are sending to the charts, how you process it and what your server environment is setup like.