head to head · open source
Excalidraw vs draw.io
Excalidraw has 132,255 GitHub stars, 15,328 forks, 3,445 open issues and last shipped yesterday. draw.io has 8,193 stars, 1,244 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Excalidraw leads on adoption by 1,514% (132,255 vs 8,193 stars). Excalidraw is written in TypeScript under MIT; draw.io is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. Excalidraw has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, draw.io 15%. Excalidraw was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (whiteboard), 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
| Excalidraw | draw.io | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 132K | ★ 8.2K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Excalidraw if
- You weight community size — 132K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick draw.io if
- You want the draw.io 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 draw.io fits your workflow better
About Excalidraw
Excalidraw is an open source virtual whiteboard application built in TypeScript, designed for sketching hand drawn style diagrams, wireframes, and freeform ideas. It lives within the web based productivity and design visualization ecosystem, offering a lightweight alternative to commercial tools like Figma, Miro, and Canva. The project includes both a standalone web app at excalidraw.com and an embeddable npm package for integration into third party applications.
read the full Excalidraw overview →
About draw.io
draw.io is a configurable, client side JavaScript diagramming and whiteboarding application, jointly owned and developed by draw.io Ltd (previously JGraph) and draw.io AG, intended for anyone who needs to draw diagrams and whiteboards in a browser or on the desktop without a login.
read the full draw.io overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Excalidraw or draw.io more popular?
Excalidraw has 132,255 GitHub stars and draw.io has 8,193. Excalidraw has the larger community by that measure.
Are Excalidraw and draw.io free?
Both are open source. Excalidraw is licensed under MIT and draw.io under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Excalidraw and draw.io?
Excalidraw is written in TypeScript and draw.io 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, Excalidraw or draw.io?
Choose Excalidraw if you want the larger community (132,255 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose draw.io if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.