head to head · open source
Excalidraw vs Pearcleaner
Excalidraw has 132,233 GitHub stars, 15,326 forks, 3,445 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Pearcleaner has 14,653 stars, 375 forks, 84 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Excalidraw leads on adoption by 802% (132,233 vs 14,653 stars). Excalidraw is written in TypeScript under MIT; Pearcleaner is written in Swift under a custom or non-standard licence. Excalidraw has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Pearcleaner 3%. 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 | Pearcleaner | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 132K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 375 |
| 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 Pearcleaner if
- You want the Pearcleaner feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and Pearcleaner 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 Pearcleaner
Pearcleaner is a free, source available, fair code licensed macOS application written in Swift and listed under Productivity & Utilities / System Cleanup & Optimization. It is described as a Mac app cleaner inspired by Freemacsoft's AppCleaner and by Sun Knudsen's Privacy Guides post about an app cleaner script. The project's homepage is hosted at itsalin.com, and the repository states that this is the only legitimate website owned by the author.
read the full Pearcleaner overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Excalidraw or Pearcleaner more popular?
Excalidraw has 132,233 GitHub stars and Pearcleaner has 14,653. Excalidraw has the larger community by that measure.
Are Excalidraw and Pearcleaner free?
Both are open source. Excalidraw is licensed under MIT, and Pearcleaner has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Excalidraw and Pearcleaner?
Excalidraw is written in TypeScript and Pearcleaner in Swift. 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 Pearcleaner?
Choose Excalidraw if you want the larger community (132,233 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Pearcleaner if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.