head to head · open source
diagram-design vs lets-plot
diagram-design has 64,318 GitHub stars, 4,247 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. lets-plot has 1,784 stars, 62 forks, 145 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. diagram-design leads on adoption by 3,505% (64,318 vs 1,784 stars). diagram-design is written in HTML under MIT; lets-plot is written in Kotlin under MIT. diagram-design has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, lets-plot 3%. diagram-design was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (data-visualization), 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
| diagram-design | lets-plot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 64K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | HTML | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-07-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.2K | ⑂ 62 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick diagram-design if
- You weight community size — 64K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick lets-plot if
- You want the lets-plot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and lets-plot fits your workflow better
About diagram-design
Diagram Design Editorial diagrams your designer won't hate. New in 2.0 — the Loop: flywheels with a shared memory hub. The dashed lines are the write backs. New in 2.3: semantic system patterns and optional accessible motion, while static output stays the default. New in 2.5.10: ten more layout grammars — Sankey, fishbone, Wardley map, kanban, user journey, deployment, dependency graph, UML class, story map, and database schema. 39 editorial diagram types for Claude Code, Codex, Factory Droid, Pi, and Agent Skills compatible hosts. Self contained HTML + SVG. No shadows. No Mermaid slop. Semantic patterns…
read the full diagram-design overview →
About lets-plot
Lets Plot Lets Plot is a multiplatform plotting library built on the principles of the Grammar of Graphics. The library design is heavily influenced by Leland Wilkinson's work The Grammar of Graphics describing the deep features that underlie all statistical graphics. This grammar [...] is made up of a set of independent components that can be composed in many different ways. This makes [it] very powerful because you are not limited to a set of pre specified graphics, but you can create new graphics that are precisely tailored for your problem. Hadley Wickham, "ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis"…
read the full lets-plot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is diagram-design or lets-plot more popular?
diagram-design has 64,318 GitHub stars and lets-plot has 1,784. diagram-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are diagram-design and lets-plot free?
Both are open source. diagram-design is licensed under MIT and lets-plot under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between diagram-design and lets-plot?
diagram-design is written in HTML and lets-plot in Kotlin. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, diagram-design or lets-plot?
Choose diagram-design if you want the larger community (64,318 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose lets-plot if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.