Keen Dashboards vs uPlot
Which should you use? A side-by-side look at what each one does, who it suits, what it costs, how hard it is to set up, and where each falls short.
Open source · MIT
Free, responsive HTML/CSS Grid dashboard templates you can copy and fill with your own charts.
Open source · MIT
A small, fast JavaScript chart library for time series, lines, areas, OHLC and bars.
The short answer
Choose Keen Dashboards if you need…
- Developers who need a starting layout for an internal analytics dashboard
- Front-end developers who want responsive grid layouts without writing CSS from scratch
- Teams already using Keen IO's keen-dataviz.js and keen-analysis.js libraries
- People who want to see example dashboards for specific domains before choosing one
Choose uPlot if you need…
- Web developers who need a fast chart for large time series data
- Dashboards that update live with streamed data
- Apps where a small download size matters
- Projects that need zoom and cursor sync across multiple charts
Side-by-side
| Keen Dashboards | uPlot | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Library | Library |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 11k | 10.6k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| How you get it | Clone and build from source | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | HTML | JavaScript |
| Last code update | 5 years ago | 6 days ago |
What each one is
Keen Dashboards
This project is a set of pre-built dashboard layouts made with CSS Grid, plus example pages showing how they look with charts. You copy a template's HTML and CSS, then place chart containers in it and connect them to your data. The README says the templates are built to work well on different screen sizes and are designed to be pointed at Keen IO's charting libraries, though they can also be used with other data sources or charts.
uPlot
uPlot is a JavaScript library that draws charts in a web page using the browser's Canvas 2D drawing API. It is built for plotting time series data such as lines, areas, OHLC and bars. The README says it is about 50 KB minified and aims to render large datasets quickly with low memory use.
Best for
Keen Dashboards
- Developers who need a starting layout for an internal analytics dashboard
- Front-end developers who want responsive grid layouts without writing CSS from scratch
- Teams already using Keen IO's keen-dataviz.js and keen-analysis.js libraries
- People who want to see example dashboards for specific domains before choosing one
uPlot
- Web developers who need a fast chart for large time series data
- Dashboards that update live with streamed data
- Apps where a small download size matters
- Projects that need zoom and cursor sync across multiple charts
Strengths
Keen Dashboards
- Uses CSS Grid, so layouts adapt to different screen sizes with little custom CSS
- Ships with multiple ready-made layouts and domain examples to start from
- MIT license allows reuse in commercial and personal projects
uPlot
- The README reports strong benchmark results against other chart libraries, with a small bundle size
- Supports time zones (IANA names) and daylight saving time, plus features like missing data handling and high/low bands
- Has a plugin and hooks API for extending behavior
Not ideal for
Keen Dashboards
- Non-developers who want a finished dashboard with no coding, since the README assumes editing HTML and wiring up scripts
- Teams that need active maintenance: the last push was 2021-11-02, so the code may be out of date with current libraries
- Anyone who wants a hosted analytics product, since this is a set of templates rather than a service
uPlot
- People who want a ready-made chart with no coding, since the README focuses on the API and docs are described as a work in progress
- Projects needing built-in drag panning, since the README says it is not included and must be added via plugins
- Very large live views above about 100k points, which the README says may struggle
- Projects needing 3D or WebGL-style rendering, since the README points to other libraries for that
Trade-offs
Keen Dashboards
- The last push was in November 2021 and the README references older setup steps, so parts may be outdated
- Setup requires editing HTML and attaching scripts by hand, which takes some web development knowledge
- The README is tied to Keen IO's libraries and says templates are streamlined for them, so other charting tools need extra work
uPlot
- The README says the docs are a work in progress, so some APIs need to be learned from the type definitions and demos
- Does not include data parsing, aggregation or statistics, and has no animations or built-in panning
- Axis tick labels have no collision avoidance, so spacing may need manual tuning
Getting started
Keen Dashboards
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/keen/dashboards.gitBuild the Docker image
docker build -t keen/dashboards .uPlot
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/leeoniya/uPlotFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between Keen Dashboards and uPlot?
Keen Dashboards: Free, responsive HTML/CSS Grid dashboard templates you can copy and fill with your own charts. uPlot: A small, fast JavaScript chart library for time series, lines, areas, OHLC and bars. Keen Dashboards suits developers who need a starting layout for an internal analytics dashboard, while uPlot suits web developers who need a fast chart for large time series data.
Are Keen Dashboards and uPlot free?
Keen Dashboards: Free and open source. uPlot: Free and open source.
Is Keen Dashboards or uPlot more popular?
Keen Dashboards has more GitHub stars (11k) than uPlot (10.6k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to Keen Dashboards and uPlot?
Other options people compare them with include Tabler, AdminLTE, Chart.js, Sigma.js, Plotly.js.
Keep comparing
Built from our catalogue entries for both products: open-source details come from each project's README (AI-assisted, refreshed weekly) and GitHub data; AI-tool details are editorial. Spotted something wrong? Let us know from either product's page.