head to head · open source
diagram-design vs plot
diagram-design has 64,318 GitHub stars, 4,247 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. plot has 5,418 stars, 251 forks, 349 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. diagram-design leads on adoption by 1,087% (64,318 vs 5,418 stars). diagram-design is written in HTML under MIT; plot is written in HTML under ISC. diagram-design has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, plot 5%. diagram-design was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (data-visualization, svg), 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 | plot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 64K | ★ 5.4K |
| License | MIT | ISC |
| Written in | HTML | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.2K | ⑂ 251 |
| 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 plot if
- You want the plot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the ISC license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and 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 plot
Observable Plot Observable Plot is a free, open source, JavaScript library for visualizing tabular data, focused on accelerating exploratory data analysis. It has a concise, memorable, yet expressive API, featuring scales and layered marks in the grammar of graphics style. Daily downloads of Observable Plot · oss analytics Documentation 📚 Examples 🖼️ Releases 🚀 See our CHANGELOG and summary release notes. Getting help 🏠 See our community guide. Contributing 🙏 See CONTRIBUTING.md.
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Frequently asked questions
Is diagram-design or plot more popular?
diagram-design has 64,318 GitHub stars and plot has 5,418. diagram-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are diagram-design and plot free?
Both are open source. diagram-design is licensed under MIT and plot under ISC. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between diagram-design and plot?
diagram-design is written in HTML and plot in HTML. 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 plot?
Choose diagram-design if you want the larger community (64,318 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose plot if its feature set, stack or ISC licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.