head to head · open source
pixijs vs deck.gl
pixijs has 48,618 GitHub stars, 5,135 forks, 344 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. deck.gl has 14,728 stars, 2,297 forks, 532 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pixijs leads on adoption by 230% (48,618 vs 14,728 stars). pixijs is written in TypeScript under MIT; deck.gl is written in TypeScript under MIT. pixijs has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, deck.gl 16%. 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, javascript), 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
| pixijs | deck.gl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 49K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-30 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pixijs if
- You weight community size — 49K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick deck.gl if
- You want the deck.gl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and deck.gl fits your workflow better
About pixijs
Guides Tutorials Examples API Docs Discord Bluesky 𝕏 PixiJS ⚡️ Next Generation, Fastest HTML5 Creation Engine for the Web 🚀 WebGL & WebGPU Renderers ⚡️ Unmatched Performance & Speed 🎨 Easy to use, yet powerful API 📦 Asset Loader ✋ Full Mouse & Multi touch Support ✍️ Flexible Text Rendering 📐 Versatile Primitive and SVG Drawing 🖼️ Dynamic Textures 🎭 Masking 🪄 Powerful Filters 🌈 Advanced Blend Modes PixiJS is the fastest, most lightweight 2D library available for the web, working across all devices and allowing you to create rich, interactive graphics and cross platform applications using WebGL and…
read the full pixijs overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pixijs or deck.gl more popular?
pixijs has 48,618 GitHub stars and deck.gl has 14,728. pixijs has the larger community by that measure.
Are pixijs and deck.gl free?
Both are open source. pixijs is licensed under MIT and deck.gl under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pixijs and deck.gl?
pixijs is written in TypeScript and deck.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, pixijs or deck.gl?
Choose pixijs if you want the larger community (48,618 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose deck.gl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.