head to head · open source
deck.gl vs G6
deck.gl has 14,732 GitHub stars, 2,297 forks, 532 open issues and last shipped yesterday. G6 has 12,376 stars, 1,651 forks, 333 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. deck.gl leads on adoption by 19% (14,732 vs 12,376 stars). deck.gl is written in TypeScript under MIT; G6 is written in TypeScript under MIT. deck.gl has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, G6 13%. deck.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
| deck.gl | G6 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick deck.gl if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick G6 if
- You want the G6 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and G6 fits your workflow better
About deck.gl
deck.gl Website GPU powered, highly performant large scale data visualization deck.gl is designed to simplify high performance, WebGL2/WebGPU based visualization of large data sets. Users can quickly get impressive visual results with minimal effort by composing existing layers, or leverage deck.gl's extensible architecture to address custom needs. deck.gl maps data (usually an array of JSON objects) into a stack of visual layers e.g. icons, polygons, texts; and look at them with views : e.g. map, first person, orthographic. deck.gl handles a number of challenges out of the box: Performant rendering and updating…
read the full deck.gl overview →
About G6
English 简体中文 G6: A Graph Visualization Framework in TypeScript Introduction • Examples • Quick Start • API G6 is a graph visualization engine. It provides basic capabilities for graph visualization and analysis such as drawing, layout, analysis, interaction, animation, themes, and plugins. With G6, users can quickly build their own graph visualization and analysis applications, making relational data simple, transparent, and meaningful. ✨ Features G6, as a professional graph visualization engine, boasts the following features: Rich Elements : It comes with a variety of built in node, edge, and Combo UI elements…
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Frequently asked questions
Is deck.gl or G6 more popular?
deck.gl has 14,732 GitHub stars and G6 has 12,376. deck.gl has the larger community by that measure.
Are deck.gl and G6 free?
Both are open source. deck.gl is licensed under MIT and G6 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between deck.gl and G6?
deck.gl is written in TypeScript and G6 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, deck.gl or G6?
Choose deck.gl if you want the larger community (14,732 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose G6 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.