Highcharts
What it is: Commercial JavaScript charting library. Reliable, professional, excellent documentation.
What It Does Best
Enterprise reliability. Battle-tested in thousands of production apps. Backwards compatible, stable APIs.
Old browser support. Works back to IE 6. Critical for enterprise environments with legacy systems.
Exceptional documentation. Every option documented with live examples. Top-tier support available.
Pricing
Free: Personal/non-profit use
Single developer: $590/year
Team (5 devs): $1,290/year
Enterprise: Custom pricing
When to Use It
✅ Enterprise web applications
✅ Need commercial support
✅ Old browser compatibility required
✅ Budget for commercial software
When NOT to Use It
❌ Open source project (license issue)
❌ Budget constrained (Chart.js free)
❌ Modern browsers only (free alternatives work)
Bottom line: You're paying for reliability and support. Worth it for enterprise apps where downtime costs money. Free alternatives exist but Highcharts just works.