head to head · open source
gspread vs xleak
gspread has 7,507 GitHub stars, 978 forks, 73 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. xleak has 1,503 stars, 66 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 24 days ago. gspread leads on adoption by 399% (7,507 vs 1,503 stars). gspread is written in Python under MIT; xleak is written in Rust under MIT. gspread has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, xleak 4%. xleak was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (spreadsheet, spreadsheets), 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
| gspread | xleak | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.5K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-07-30 | 2026-09-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 978 | ⑂ 66 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gspread if
- You weight community size — 7.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick xleak if
- You want the xleak feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and xleak fits your workflow better
About gspread
gspread is a Python client library for the Google Sheets API v4 that lets Python code open, read, write, format, and share Google Sheets spreadsheets without hand writing HTTP requests against the Sheets REST endpoints.
read the full gspread overview →
About xleak
xleak is a fast, MIT licensed terminal Excel viewer with an interactive TUI, written in Rust and aimed at developers, data engineers and system administrators who need to read spreadsheet files from a command line or an SSH session instead of opening Microsoft Excel.
read the full xleak overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gspread or xleak more popular?
gspread has 7,507 GitHub stars and xleak has 1,503. gspread has the larger community by that measure.
Are gspread and xleak free?
Both are open source. gspread is licensed under MIT and xleak under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gspread and xleak?
gspread is written in Python and xleak 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, gspread or xleak?
Choose gspread if you want the larger community (7,507 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose xleak if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.