head to head · open source
echarts vs kepler.gl
echarts has 67,348 GitHub stars, 19,819 forks, 1,501 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. kepler.gl has 12,013 stars, 1,957 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped today. echarts leads on adoption by 461% (67,348 vs 12,013 stars). echarts is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; kepler.gl is written in TypeScript under MIT. echarts has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, kepler.gl 16%. kepler.gl 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, 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
| echarts | kepler.gl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 67K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 20K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick echarts if
- You weight community size — 67K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick kepler.gl if
- You want the kepler.gl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and kepler.gl fits your workflow better
About echarts
Apache ECharts is a free, interactive charting and data visualization library that runs in the browser. It is written in pure JavaScript and built on top of zrender, a lightweight canvas library that handles rendering and interaction under the hood. The project lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem, is distributed through npm as the echarts package, and is developed under the Apache Software Foundation with an Apache 2.0 license. Its source is written in TypeScript, and the repository has been maintained for more than a decade.
read the full echarts overview →
About kepler.gl
Kepler.gl is an MIT licensed, TypeScript geospatial analysis tool that renders large scale geolocation data sets in the browser at million point scale, built for data analysts, GIS practitioners, and React developers who need to explore trip and point data without assembling their own rendering stack.
read the full kepler.gl overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is echarts or kepler.gl more popular?
echarts has 67,348 GitHub stars and kepler.gl has 12,013. echarts has the larger community by that measure.
Are echarts and kepler.gl free?
Both are open source. echarts is licensed under Apache-2.0 and kepler.gl under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between echarts and kepler.gl?
echarts is written in TypeScript and kepler.gl 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, echarts or kepler.gl?
Choose echarts if you want the larger community (67,348 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose kepler.gl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.