by Torstein Hønsi
Highcharts is solely based on native browser technologies and doesn't require client side plugins like Flash or Java. Furthermore you don't need to install anything on your server. No PHP or ASP.NET. Highcharts needs only the highcharts.js core to run.
Highcharts and Highstock work in all modern browsers including mobile devices and Internet Explorer from version 6. Standard browsers use SVG for the graphics rendering. In legacy Internet Explorer (IE8 and before) graphics are drawn using VML.
Highcharts and Highstock run on any server that supports HTML. You can even run Highcharts locally from a filesystem, since all the rendering is done locally in a browser.
We test our software on many browsers using the latest versions. Knowing that Internet Explorer users have a tendency not to upgrade we also systematically test older versions of that browser. Highcharts runs on the following browser versions:
| Brand | Versions supported |
|---|---|
| Internet Explorer | 6.0 + |
| Firefox | 2.0 + |
| Chrome | 1.0 + |
| Safari | 4.0 + |
| Opera | 9.0 + |
| iOS (Safari) | 3.0 + |
| Android Browser | 2.0 + *) |
*) Android browser 2.x has limited support, see below.
Different browsers support different rendering technologies, modern browsers have support for SVG but older versions of Internet Explorer do not, here we use VML to draw the graphs. This table describes the technologies we use in various browsers:
| Browser version | Rendering technology | Rendering performance |
|---|---|---|
| Internet Explorer 9 | SVG | Excellent |
| Internet Explorer 8 | VML | Ok |
| Internet Explorer 7 | VML | Slow |
| Internet Explorer 6 | VML | Slow |
| Firefox | SVG | Excellent |
| Chrome | SVG | Excellent |
| Safari | SVG | Excellent |
| Opera | SVG | Excellent |
| iOS Safari | SVG | Ok |
| Android 3+ | SVG | Ok |
| Android 2.x | Canvas | Slow |