head to head · open source
Excalidraw vs OBS Studio
Excalidraw has 132,233 GitHub stars, 15,326 forks, 3,445 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OBS Studio has 76,325 stars, 10,217 forks, 1,148 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Excalidraw leads on adoption by 73% (132,233 vs 76,325 stars). Excalidraw is written in TypeScript under MIT; OBS Studio is written in C under GPL-2.0. Excalidraw has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, OBS Studio 13%. Excalidraw was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | OBS Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 132K | ★ 76K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 10K |
| 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 OBS Studio if
- You want the OBS Studio feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and OBS Studio 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 OBS Studio
OBS Studio is a free, open source C application for capturing, compositing, encoding, recording, and streaming video content, built for streamers, screen recorders, and anyone who needs to produce live or recorded video without paying for a commercial suite.
read the full OBS Studio overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Excalidraw or OBS Studio more popular?
Excalidraw has 132,233 GitHub stars and OBS Studio has 76,325. Excalidraw has the larger community by that measure.
Are Excalidraw and OBS Studio free?
Both are open source. Excalidraw is licensed under MIT and OBS Studio under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Excalidraw and OBS Studio?
Excalidraw is written in TypeScript and OBS Studio in C. 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 OBS Studio?
Choose Excalidraw if you want the larger community (132,233 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose OBS Studio if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.