# D2 vs Diagrams

## Key differences

- Diagrams has 1.7× as many GitHub stars as D2 (42.7K vs 25.6K).
- D2 had more development activity over the last 12 months: 324 commits vs 48.
- D2 is licensed under MPL-2.0; Diagrams under MIT.
- D2 is written primarily in Go, Diagrams in Python.
- Diagrams is the older project: its repository was created in 2020, D2's in 2022.

| | D2 | Diagrams |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Declarative diagram scripting language that turns text into diagrams. | Diagram as code in Python for prototyping cloud system architectures. |
| GitHub stars | 25,564 | 42,673 |
| Commits (12 months) | 324 | 48 |
| Contributors | 65 | 178 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Status | Active | Active |
| Install | `go get github.com/d2lang/d2` | `pip install diagrams` |

Source: https://awesomedataviz.com/compare/d2-vs-diagrams/ · Data updated 2026-10-04 · Content: CC BY 4.0, Awesome Dataviz (https://awesomedataviz.com).