head to head · open source
diagram-design vs rawgraphs-app
diagram-design has 64,318 GitHub stars, 4,247 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rawgraphs-app has 9,052 stars, 1,838 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 26 days ago. diagram-design leads on adoption by 611% (64,318 vs 9,052 stars). diagram-design is written in HTML under MIT; rawgraphs-app is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. diagram-design has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, rawgraphs-app 20%. 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 | rawgraphs-app | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 64K | ★ 9.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | HTML | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.2K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 rawgraphs-app if
- You want the rawgraphs-app feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and rawgraphs-app 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 rawgraphs-app
About RAWGraphs is an open web tool to create custom vector based visualizations on top of the amazing d3.js library. It has been developed by DensityDesign Research Lab (Politecnico di Milano), Calibro and INMAGIK. Primarily conceived as a tool for designers and vis geeks, RAWGraphs aims at providing a missing link between spreadsheet applications (e.g., LibreOffice Calc, Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, Google Docs) and vector graphics editors (e.g., Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator). RAWGraphs works with tabular data (e.g., spreadsheets and comma separated values) as well as with copied and pasted texts from other…
read the full rawgraphs-app overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is diagram-design or rawgraphs-app more popular?
diagram-design has 64,318 GitHub stars and rawgraphs-app has 9,052. diagram-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are diagram-design and rawgraphs-app free?
Both are open source. diagram-design is licensed under MIT and rawgraphs-app under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between diagram-design and rawgraphs-app?
diagram-design is written in HTML and rawgraphs-app in JavaScript. 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 rawgraphs-app?
Choose diagram-design if you want the larger community (64,318 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rawgraphs-app if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.