Comparing
The go-to plotting library for Python — create static, animated, and interactive visualizations with a MATLAB-like API.
Statistical data visualization built on matplotlib — beautiful charts with sensible defaults and one-line syntax.
| Metric | matplotlib | seaborn |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | Python | Python |
| Difficulty | Intermediate | Beginner ✓ |
| Weekly downloads | 25.0M↑ | 8.0M |
| Latest version | v3.9.2 | v0.13.2 |
| Recipes | 3↑ | 2 |
matplotlib only
Shared
seaborn only
Scientific plots, publication figures, embedding charts in reports, quick data exploration, custom visualizations that seaborn can't express, or when you need pixel-level control over a chart.
Exploratory data analysis, correlation matrices, distribution comparisons, categorical plots, regression plots, or any time you want a beautiful statistical chart in a few lines.
Interactive web dashboards (use Plotly or Bokeh), real-time streaming charts, or when you just want something beautiful fast (try seaborn first).
Custom non-statistical visualizations, interactive web charts, or when you need pixel-perfect control over layout.
matplotlib
seaborn