🚀 Introducing ruby-charts: Native Charts for Ruby

May 10, 2026

Last Friday I released ruby-charts, a gem for generating charts directly in Ruby—no JavaScript, no external APIs.

Built for Ruby on Rails

Build Maps Without
Google APIs

Generate beautiful production-ready maps directly from your Rails backend. Fast rendering, zero external dependencies, full control.

View Live Demo → Read Docs

✓ No API fees ✓ Self-hosted ✓ Rails Native ✓ Fast Rendering

Why developers switch

Replace expensive map stacks.

Stop relying on third-party map billing and bloated JS libraries. Render static or dynamic maps directly in Ruby.

Try It Now

It started while building MapView (geospatial rendering). I needed server-side charts and realized there wasn’t a clean, native solution in the Ruby ecosystem.

What it does:

• Generate charts from CSV, XLSX, YAML, or Ruby data
• Output PNG/JPEG/GIF/WebP
• Supports pie, bar, and line charts
• Fully server-side (works great in jobs, reports, emails)

RubyCharts.from_csv('sales.csv')
  .type(:pie)
  .title('Q1 Sales')
  .save('report.png')

Under the hood, it builds on ruby-libgd (C bindings to libgd), so the focus is on performance + minimal dependencies, while keeping an idiomatic Ruby API.

This is part of a broader ecosystem:

• ruby-libgd → low-level graphics
• libgd-gis → geospatial rendering
• ruby-charts → data visualization

Looking for feedback

The gem is in alpha, but already usable. I’m especially interested in:

• Missing chart types
• API design feedback
• Real-world use cases (Rails apps, reporting, etc.)

Try it:

• RubyGems: https://rubygems.org/gems/ruby-charts
• GitHub: https://github.com/ggerman/ruby-charts

What would you build with native chart rendering in Ruby?