head to head · open source
deck.gl vs Ghostwriter
deck.gl has 14,597 GitHub stars, 2,269 forks, 532 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ghostwriter has 1,916 stars, 257 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. deck.gl leads on adoption by 662% (14,597 vs 1,916 stars). deck.gl is written in TypeScript under MIT; Ghostwriter is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. deck.gl has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Ghostwriter 13%. deck.gl was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| deck.gl | Ghostwriter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 257 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick deck.gl if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Ghostwriter if
- You want the Ghostwriter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Ghostwriter fits your workflow better
About deck.gl
deck.gl is an MIT licensed, WebGL2 and WebGPU powered visualization framework that renders large scale geospatial and data driven layers in the browser, built for JavaScript, TypeScript and Python developers who need high performance maps and custom visualizations without writing their own GPU rendering code.
read the full deck.gl overview →
About Ghostwriter
Ghostwriter is open source Python project management and reporting engine for offensive security work. It lives in information security, penetration testing, red team ecosystem. Category: Data & Analytics, Business Intelligence & Reporting. Stack: Python 3.13, Django 5.2. Topics: informationsecurity, penetration testing, red team, reporting.
read the full Ghostwriter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is deck.gl or Ghostwriter more popular?
deck.gl has 14,597 GitHub stars and Ghostwriter has 1,916. deck.gl has the larger community by that measure.
Are deck.gl and Ghostwriter free?
Both are open source. deck.gl is licensed under MIT and Ghostwriter under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between deck.gl and Ghostwriter?
deck.gl is written in TypeScript and Ghostwriter in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, deck.gl or Ghostwriter?
Choose deck.gl if you want the larger community (14,597 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Ghostwriter if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.