head to head · open source
Affine vs vectorcraft
Affine has 73,387 GitHub stars, 5,345 forks, 732 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vectorcraft has 6,960 stars, 3,087 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Affine leads on adoption by 954% (73,387 vs 6,960 stars). Affine is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; vectorcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Affine has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, vectorcraft 44%. vectorcraft was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (rust, rust-lang), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Affine | vectorcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 7.0K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Affine if
- You weight community size — 73K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick vectorcraft if
- You want the vectorcraft feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and vectorcraft fits your workflow better
About Affine
AFFiNE is an open source, privacy first workspace that merges documentation, whiteboarding, and databases into one hyper fused platform. It lives in the productivity and knowledge management ecosystem, positioned as a direct alternative to Notion and Miro. Built with local first principles, it ensures users retain full control of their data while supporting real time collaboration across web and desktop clients.
read the full Affine overview →
About vectorcraft
VectorCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Illustrator written in pure Rust, aimed at illustrators and designers who want the Illustrator workflow without a proprietary licence.
read the full vectorcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Affine or vectorcraft more popular?
Affine has 73,387 GitHub stars and vectorcraft has 6,960. Affine has the larger community by that measure.
Are Affine and vectorcraft free?
Both are open source. Affine has no licence declared in this registry, and vectorcraft is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Affine and vectorcraft?
Affine is written in TypeScript and vectorcraft in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Affine or vectorcraft?
Choose Affine if you want the larger community (73,387 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose vectorcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.