head to head · open source
drawnix vs chat
drawnix has 15,010 GitHub stars, 1,306 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. chat has 13,548 stars, 2,093 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. drawnix leads on adoption by 11% (15,010 vs 13,548 stars). drawnix is written in TypeScript under MIT; chat is written in Go under GPL-3.0. drawnix has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, chat 15%. chat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), 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
| drawnix | chat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-08 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick drawnix 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 chat if
- You want the chat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and chat fits your workflow better
About drawnix
开源白板工具（SaaS），一体化白板，包含思维导图、流程图、自由画等 All in one 白板，思维导图、流程图、自由画等 English README 特性 💯 免费 + 开源 ⚒️ 思维导图、流程图 🖌 画笔 😀 插入图片 🚀 基于插件机制 🖼️ 📃 导出为 PNG, JSON( .drawnix ) 💾 自动保存（浏览器缓存） ⚡ 编辑特性：撤销、重做、复制、粘贴等 🌌 无限画布：缩放、滚动 🎨 主题模式 📱 移动设备适配 📈 支持 mermaid 语法转流程图 ✨ 支持 markdown 文本转思维导图（新支持 🔥🔥🔥） 关于名称 Drawnix ，源于绘画( Draw )与凤凰( Phoenix )的灵感交织。 凤凰象征着生生不息的创造力，而 Draw 代表着人类最原始的表达方式。在这里，每一次创作都是一次艺术的涅槃，每一笔绘画都是灵感的重生。 创意如同凤凰，浴火方能重生，而 Drawnix 要做技术与创意之火的守护者。 Draw Beyond, Rise Above. 与 Plait 画图框架 Drawnix 的定位是一个开箱即用、开源、免费的工具产品，它的底层是 Plait 框架， Plait 是我司开源的一款画图框架，代表着公司在知识库产品(PingCode Wiki)上的重要技术沉淀。 Drawnix
read the full drawnix overview →
About chat
Tinode Instant Messaging Server Instant messaging full stack. Backend in pure Go (license GPL 3.0), clients for Android (Java), iOS (Swift), and web (ReactJS), as well as gRPC client support for C++, C , Go, Java, Node, PHP, Python, Ruby, Objective C, etc (all clients licensed under Apache 2.0). Wire transport is JSON over websocket (long polling is also available) or protobuf with gRPC. This is beta quality software: feature complete and stable but probably with a few bugs or missing features. Follow instructions to install and run or use one of the cloud services below. Read API documentation. Tinode is not…
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawnix or chat more popular?
drawnix has 15,010 GitHub stars and chat has 13,548. drawnix has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawnix and chat free?
Both are open source. drawnix is licensed under MIT and chat under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between drawnix and chat?
drawnix is written in TypeScript and chat in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, drawnix or chat?
Choose drawnix if you want the larger community (15,010 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose chat if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.