head to head · open source
diagram-design vs G6
diagram-design has 41,375 GitHub stars, 2,652 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped yesterday. G6 has 12,300 stars, 1,646 forks, 333 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. diagram-design leads on adoption by 236% (41,375 vs 12,300 stars). diagram-design is written in HTML under MIT; G6 is written in TypeScript under MIT. diagram-design has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, G6 13%. diagram-design was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (data-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
| diagram-design | G6 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | HTML | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-07-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick diagram-design if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- 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 diagram-design
Diagram Design is a skill for Claude Code, Codex, Factory Droid, Pi, and other Agent Skills compatible hosts that generates editorial quality diagrams as self contained HTML and SVG, aimed at writers, engineers, and designers who need brand consistent visuals without opening Figma.
read the full diagram-design overview →
About G6
G6 is a TypeScript graph visualization engine, published as @antv/g6 under the MIT licence, that provides the drawing, layout, analysis, interaction, animation, theme and plugin primitives developers need to build their own graph visualization and analysis applications.
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Frequently asked questions
Is diagram-design or G6 more popular?
diagram-design has 41,375 GitHub stars and G6 has 12,300. diagram-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are diagram-design and G6 free?
Both are open source. diagram-design is licensed under MIT and G6 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between diagram-design and G6?
diagram-design is written in HTML 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, diagram-design or G6?
Choose diagram-design if you want the larger community (41,375 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose G6 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.