head to head · open source
deck.gl vs sigma.js
deck.gl has 14,597 GitHub stars, 2,269 forks, 532 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sigma.js has 12,169 stars, 1,620 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. deck.gl leads on adoption by 20% (14,597 vs 12,169 stars). deck.gl is written in TypeScript under MIT; sigma.js is written in TypeScript under MIT. deck.gl has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, sigma.js 13%. deck.gl was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (data-visualization, javascript, webgl), 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
| deck.gl | sigma.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 sigma.js if
- You want the sigma.js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sigma.js 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 sigma.js
Sigma.js is an open source JavaScript and TypeScript library for rendering graphs of thousands of nodes and edges in the browser using WebGL, released under the MIT licence and built on top of graphology.
read the full sigma.js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is deck.gl or sigma.js more popular?
deck.gl has 14,597 GitHub stars and sigma.js has 12,169. deck.gl has the larger community by that measure.
Are deck.gl and sigma.js free?
Both are open source. deck.gl is licensed under MIT and sigma.js under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between deck.gl and sigma.js?
deck.gl is written in TypeScript and sigma.js in TypeScript. 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 sigma.js?
Choose deck.gl if you want the larger community (14,597 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sigma.js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.