I built a simple SVG chart including animations without any SVG Javascript library and it's not as difficult as you might think.

SVG is an underrated tool. It seems people are more exited about Canvas because it’s simple. But SVG lets you do a lot of things with way less effort. It’s just scary because it’s so powerful.

Normally when I need to do something with SVG, I automatically start thinking about which library to use this time. But for most simple stuff (like charts) you don’t even need a library. All the styling can be done in CSS. And you can dynamically manipulate it with some simple Javascript. Sounds familiar? - SVG just works like the DOM you’re used to work with! You can just start using SVG with your existing tools. If you look at the code for this example, you might realize that it’s not that difficult.