Sstrhsrtj

I am trying to choose between pgfplots and tkz-fct for producing beautiful graphs in LaTeX. It seems tkz-fct graphs look better with less effort (fewer lines of code) compared to pgfplots. The documentation for tkz-fct isn't English however, so I am struggling with finding how to draw things like horizontal and vertical lines, points, holes, etc. which I know how to draw in pgfplots. Because of the language barrier, I am leaning toward using pgfplots for my plots. However, I want to know what else one should consider when deciding between the two systems.

As an experiment, I tried producing the same plot using both systems and compared the results:

documentclass{book}

usepackage[margin=.75 in]{geometry}

usepackage[english = american]{csquotes}

usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

usepackage{amsmath,amsfonts,amssymb,amsthm,color,srcltx,thmtools}

MakeOuterQuote{"}

usepackage{pgf,tikz}

usepackage{pgfplots}

usepgfplotslibrary{polar}

usepgflibrary{shapes.geometric}

usetikzlibrary{automata,arrows,positioning,calc,decorations.pathreplacing}

usepackage{physics}

usepackage{tkz-fct}



begin{document}

begin{center}

begin{tikzpicture}

begin{axis}[

grid, height=10cm,

axis x line=middle,

axis y line=middle,

xlabel={$x$}, ylabel={$y$},

xtick={-5,-4,...,5}, ytick={-40,-30,...,40},

xmin=-5, xmax=5, ymin=-40, ymax=40,

]

addplot[domain=-5:5, samples=100, mark=none, thick, blue]{-3*x^4+6*x^3+9*x^2-24*x+12};

end{axis}

end{tikzpicture}

end{center}



begin{center}

begin{tikzpicture}

tkzInit[xmin=-5,xmax=5,ymin=-40,ymax=40,ystep=10]  

tkzGrid

tkzAxeXY

tkzFct[color=blue, thick, domain=-5:5]{-3*x**4+6*x**3+9*x**2-24*x+12};

end{tikzpicture}

end{center}

end{document}

The graphs look mostly the same, except better positions of the x and y labels from tkz-fct.

It seems like this pgfplots requires writing more manual specifications to get a good-looking picture (e.g. if you don't specify the number of samples, you'll get a jaggedly-drawn graph), while tkz-fct is a bit more automatic.

Currently pgfplots is throwing an error Package pgfplots Warning: running in backwards compatibility mode (unsuitable tick labels; missing features). Consider writing pgfplotsset{compat=1.15} into your preamble." However the code still compiles, so this isn't a complete deal-breaker for me (I'm probably just doing something wrong.)

On the other hand, there's a breaking incompatibility with tkz-fct and thmtools, as this question discusses. This issue, combined with the lack of English documentation, make me lean toward using pgfplots for my graphs.

Are there any downsides to using pgfplots relative to tkz-fct I should keep in mind, before counting out tkz-fct? What should one consider when choosing between packages? What are the relative strengths of each, and relative disadvantages? Thanks for your thoughts.