head to head · open source
IronCalc vs xleak
IronCalc has 4,246 GitHub stars, 217 forks, 256 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xleak has 1,514 stars, 67 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. IronCalc leads on adoption by 180% (4,246 vs 1,514 stars). IronCalc is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; xleak is written in Rust under MIT. IronCalc has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, xleak 4%. IronCalc was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (rust, spreadsheet), 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
| IronCalc | xleak | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.2K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 217 | ⑂ 67 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick IronCalc if
- You weight community size — 4.2K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- 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 IronCalc
IronCalc [![MIT licensed][mit badge]][mit url] [![Apache 2.0 licensed][apache badge]][apache url] [![Build Status][actions badge]][actions url] [![Code coverage][codecov badge]][codecov url] [![docs badge]][docs url] [![Discord chat][discord badge]][discord url] [mit badge]: [mit url]: [apache badge]: [apache url]: [codecov badge]: [codecov url]: [actions badge]: [actions url]: [docs url]: [docs badge]: [discord badge]: [discord url]: IronCalc is a new, modern, work in progress spreadsheet engine and set of tools to work with spreadsheets in diverse settings. This repository contains the main engine and the xlsx…
read the full IronCalc overview →
About xleak
xleak Expose Excel files in your terminal no Microsoft Excel required! Inspired by doxx, xleak brings Excel spreadsheets to your command line with beautiful rendering, powerful export capabilities, and a feature rich interactive TUI. Features Core Functionality Beautiful terminal rendering with formatted tables Interactive TUI mode full keyboard navigation with ratatui Smart data type handling numbers right aligned, text left aligned, booleans centered Multi sheet support seamlessly navigate between sheets (Tab/Shift+Tab) Excel Table support list and extract named tables (.xlsx only) Multiple export formats CSV…
read the full xleak overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is IronCalc or xleak more popular?
IronCalc has 4,246 GitHub stars and xleak has 1,514. IronCalc has the larger community by that measure.
Are IronCalc and xleak free?
Both are open source. IronCalc is licensed under Apache-2.0 and xleak under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between IronCalc and xleak?
IronCalc is written in Rust 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, IronCalc or xleak?
Choose IronCalc if you want the larger community (4,246 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose xleak if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.