head to head · open source
Excalidraw vs vectorcraft
Excalidraw has 133,652 GitHub stars, 15,643 forks, 3,445 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vectorcraft has 6,960 stars, 3,087 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Excalidraw leads on adoption by 1,820% (133,652 vs 6,960 stars). Excalidraw is written in TypeScript under MIT; vectorcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Excalidraw has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, vectorcraft 44%. 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 | vectorcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 134K | ★ 7.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Excalidraw if
- You weight community size — 134K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick vectorcraft if
- You want the vectorcraft feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and vectorcraft 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 vectorcraft
VectorCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Illustrator written in pure Rust, aimed at illustrators and designers who want the Illustrator workflow without a proprietary licence.
read the full vectorcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Excalidraw or vectorcraft more popular?
Excalidraw has 133,652 GitHub stars and vectorcraft has 6,960. Excalidraw has the larger community by that measure.
Are Excalidraw and vectorcraft free?
Both are open source. Excalidraw is licensed under MIT and vectorcraft under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Excalidraw and vectorcraft?
Excalidraw is written in TypeScript and vectorcraft in Rust. 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 vectorcraft?
Choose Excalidraw if you want the larger community (133,652 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose vectorcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.