head to head · open source
rea vs gitdiagram
rea has 338,828 GitHub stars, 85,529 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped today. gitdiagram has 18,325 stars, 1,498 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped today. rea leads on adoption by 1,749% (338,828 vs 18,325 stars). rea is written in TypeScript under MIT; gitdiagram is written in TypeScript under MIT. rea has attracted 25% as many forks as stars, gitdiagram 8%. gitdiagram was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (developer-tools), 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
| rea | gitdiagram | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 339K | ★ 18K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-20 | 2026-10-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 86K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rea if
- You weight community size — 339K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gitdiagram if
- You want the gitdiagram feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and gitdiagram fits your workflow better
About rea
English · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · Türkçe · Русский · Tiếng Việt · ไทย · Deutsch · Español · Français · Українська · Polski · Português (Brasil) · العربية · فارسی REA: Reverse Engineer Anything One MCP for reverse engineering across binaries, applications, and runtime behavior. See a feature you like. Understand how it works, down to the binary level. Website · Guides · Showcases Quick start · How REA works · What you can analyze · Showcases · FAQ · Documentation npx rea agents setup Join the Reverse Engineering Community Discord · Q&A · Show and Tell See a feature in an app that you want in your own product?…
About gitdiagram
GitDiagram Visualize any codebase: turn any public or private GitHub repository into an interactive architecture diagram, or watch it explained in a one minute narrated video. AI agents can use it too, through the MCP server or the Markdown version of any diagram ( gitdiagram.com/owner/repo.md ). Try GitDiagram → · Or replace hub with diagram in any GitHub repository URL. Sponsored SMS, WhatsApp, and RCS through one API. Try Sent → New: explainer videos GitDiagram can now turn a repository into a narrated video of about a minute. The video starts with what the project is for and what people do with it, then…
read the full gitdiagram overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rea or gitdiagram more popular?
rea has 338,828 GitHub stars and gitdiagram has 18,325. rea has the larger community by that measure.
Are rea and gitdiagram free?
Both are open source. rea is licensed under MIT and gitdiagram under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rea and gitdiagram?
rea is written in TypeScript and gitdiagram 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, rea or gitdiagram?
Choose rea if you want the larger community (338,828 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gitdiagram if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.