head to head · open source
react vs d2
react has 252,429 GitHub stars, 52,031 forks, 1,377 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. d2 has 25,811 stars, 777 forks, 530 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. react leads on adoption by 878% (252,429 vs 25,811 stars). react is written in JavaScript under MIT; d2 is written in Go under MPL-2.0. react has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, d2 3%. react was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| react | d2 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 252K | ★ 26K |
| License | MIT | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-07 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 52K | ⑂ 777 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick react if
- You weight community size — 252K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick d2 if
- You want the d2 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and d2 fits your workflow better
About react
React · React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. Declarative: React makes it painless to create interactive UIs. Design simple views for each state in your application, and React will efficiently update and render just the right components when your data changes. Declarative views make your code more predictable, simpler to understand, and easier to debug. Component Based: Build encapsulated components that manage their own state, then compose them to make complex UIs. Since component logic is written in JavaScript instead of templates, you can easily pass rich data through your app and…
read the full react overview →
About d2
A modern diagram scripting language that turns text to diagrams. Docs Cheat sheet Comparisons Playground Table of Contents What does D2 look like? Quickstart Install D2 as a library Themes Fonts Export file types Language tooling Layout engines Comparison Contributing License Related Official plugins Community plugins Misc FAQ Notable open source projects documenting with D2 What does D2 look like? Open in playground For more examples, see ./docs/examples. Quickstart The most convenient way to use D2 is to just run it as a CLI executable to produce SVGs from .d2 files. A browser window will open with out.svg and…
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Frequently asked questions
Is react or d2 more popular?
react has 252,429 GitHub stars and d2 has 25,811. react has the larger community by that measure.
Are react and d2 free?
Both are open source. react is licensed under MIT and d2 under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between react and d2?
react is written in JavaScript and d2 in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, react or d2?
Choose react if you want the larger community (252,429 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose d2 if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.