head to head · open source
cobalt vs drafft-ink
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars, 4,031 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. drafft-ink has 570 stars, 74 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. cobalt leads on adoption by 7,921% (45,722 vs 570 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; drafft-ink is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, drafft-ink 13%. drafft-ink was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), 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
| cobalt | drafft-ink | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 570 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-07-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 74 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cobalt if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Svelte
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick drafft-ink if
- You want the drafft-ink feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and drafft-ink fits your workflow better
About cobalt
best way to save what you love cobalt.tools 💬 community discord server 🐦 twitter 🦋 bluesky cobalt is a media downloader that doesn't piss you off. it's friendly, efficient, and doesn't have ads, trackers, paywalls or other nonsense. paste the link, get the file, move on. that simple, just how it should be. cobalt monorepo this monorepo includes source code for api, frontend, and related packages: api tree & readme web tree & readme packages tree it also includes documentation in the docs tree: how to run a cobalt instance how to protect a cobalt instance cobalt api instance environment variables cobalt api…
read the full cobalt overview →
About drafft-ink
Drafft.ink An infinite canvas whiteboard built with Rust and WebGPU. Try it now: drafft.ink — draw first, sign up never. Cross platform (Linux, Windows, macOS, browser, mobile). Real time collaboration via CRDTs. No account required. Self hostable with a single binary. Features Shapes and Drawing Rectangles, ellipses, lines, arrows, freehand paths with pressure sensitivity Smart Guides Smart alignment snapping, equal spacing detection, angle snapping Text Multiple font families (GelPen, GelPen Serif, Vanilla Extract), per character styling, inline LaTeX math Images Drag and drop, paste from clipboard, embedded…
read the full drafft-ink overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or drafft-ink more popular?
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars and drafft-ink has 570. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and drafft-ink free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and drafft-ink under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and drafft-ink?
cobalt is written in Svelte and drafft-ink 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, cobalt or drafft-ink?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (45,722 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose drafft-ink if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.