Excalidraw vs Headlamp
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted developer tools & git options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Excalidraw with
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Compare Headlamp with
choose an app… lazygit Hoppscotch json-server Strapi NocoDB Penpot dive Windows lazydocker K9s Kubevious Skooner
Feature Excalidraw Headlamp Category Developer Tools & Git Developer Tools & Git License MIT Apache-2.0 Language TypeScript TypeScript Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 256 MB Deployment docker docker, helm, binary GitHub stars ★ 129,145 ★ 7,027 First released 2020 2021 Replaces Miro Lens, Kubernetes Dashboard
Why pick each one
Choose Excalidraw if… Released under the MIT license Easy to set up — beginner-friendly First-class Docker support for quick deployment Mature project with 129.1k GitHub stars Excalidraw details Choose Headlamp if… Released under the Apache-2.0 license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Mature project with 7k GitHub stars Written in TypeScript Headlamp details
Frequently asked questions Is Excalidraw or Headlamp better? Excalidraw is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Headlamp if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Excalidraw and Headlamp free and open-source? Yes. Excalidraw is licensed under MIT and Headlamp under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Excalidraw and Headlamp with Docker? Excalidraw: yes. Headlamp: yes.