head to head · open source
G6 vs kepler.gl
G6 has 12,300 GitHub stars, 1,646 forks, 333 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. kepler.gl has 12,017 stars, 1,959 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. G6 leads on adoption by 2% (12,300 vs 12,017 stars). G6 is written in TypeScript under MIT; kepler.gl is written in TypeScript under MIT. G6 has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, kepler.gl 16%. kepler.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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| G6 | kepler.gl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-15 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick G6 if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick kepler.gl if
- You want the kepler.gl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and kepler.gl fits your workflow better
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.
About kepler.gl
Kepler.gl is an MIT licensed, TypeScript geospatial analysis tool that renders large scale geolocation data sets in the browser at million point scale, built for data analysts, GIS practitioners, and React developers who need to explore trip and point data without assembling their own rendering stack.
read the full kepler.gl overview →
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Business Intelligence & Reporting projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Business Intelligence & Reporting field.
Frequently asked questions
Is G6 or kepler.gl more popular?
G6 has 12,300 GitHub stars and kepler.gl has 12,017. G6 has the larger community by that measure.
Are G6 and kepler.gl free?
Both are open source. G6 is licensed under MIT and kepler.gl under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between G6 and kepler.gl?
G6 is written in TypeScript and kepler.gl 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, G6 or kepler.gl?
Choose G6 if you want the larger community (12,300 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose kepler.gl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.