head to head · open source
anime vs draw.io
anime has 72,899 GitHub stars, 4,929 forks, 118 open issues and last shipped 29 days ago. draw.io has 8,209 stars, 1,246 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. anime leads on adoption by 788% (72,899 vs 8,209 stars). anime is written in JavaScript under MIT; draw.io is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. anime has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, draw.io 15%. draw.io was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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
| anime | draw.io | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 8.2K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-21 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick anime if
- You weight community size — 73K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick draw.io if
- You want the draw.io feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and draw.io fits your workflow better
About anime
Anime.js is a free, MIT licensed JavaScript animation engine for developers who need to animate CSS properties, SVG, DOM attributes, and plain JavaScript objects from a single lightweight API.
read the full anime overview →
About draw.io
draw.io is a configurable, client side JavaScript diagramming and whiteboarding application, jointly owned and developed by draw.io Ltd (previously JGraph) and draw.io AG, intended for anyone who needs to draw diagrams and whiteboards in a browser or on the desktop without a login.
read the full draw.io overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is anime or draw.io more popular?
anime has 72,899 GitHub stars and draw.io has 8,209. anime has the larger community by that measure.
Are anime and draw.io free?
Both are open source. anime is licensed under MIT and draw.io under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between anime and draw.io?
anime is written in JavaScript and draw.io in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, anime or draw.io?
Choose anime if you want the larger community (72,899 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose draw.io if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.