vectorstream vs Terra Draw

Terra Draw centralises drawing logic across six map libraries under the MIT licence. vectorstream covers three, with shapes that share a border where they meet.

What vectorstream is

vectorstream is a geometry editor for web maps built on a topological data model: where two areas meet, the border is stored once, so an edit on one side is an edit on both. It runs on Leaflet, OpenLayers and MapLibre GL through adapters that share one editing core, and it is in pre-release: no package has been published and no price or licence has been set. Besides shared borders, the editor includes cut, split, union and difference tools, snapping, an exact undo and a layer tree, each exercised by the project's own test suite rather than taken on faith.

What Terra Draw is: Terra Draw (terradraw.io) is a JavaScript library for frictionless drawing on web maps. It centralises drawing logic and provides drawing modes that work across six mapping libraries: Leaflet, OpenLayers, MapLibre GL JS, Mapbox GL JS, the Google Maps JavaScript API and the ArcGIS JavaScript SDK. It is released under the MIT licence. Rather than a thin wrapper around each library's own drawing API, it ships one set of modes that behaves the same way regardless of which adapter is driving the map.
Map libraries: 6 — Leaflet, OpenLayers, MapLibre GL JS, Mapbox GL JS, Google Maps JS API, ArcGIS JS SDK
Licence: MIT
Pricing: Free, no paid tier
Topology and undo: Not described in its own materials

This page compares drawing, editing and map-library coverage, the two vendors' own self-reported facts, and public pricing. It does not compare performance, bundle size or server-side rendering, since neither vendor's own materials gave a verified figure to cite for those.

Feature comparison

Feature comparison of vectorstream and Terra Draw

Feature comparison of vectorstream and Terra Draw
Feature	vectorstream	Terra Draw
Drawing modes that work the same across every supported map library	Yes, across Leaflet, OpenLayers and MapLibre GL	Yes, by design: drawing logic is centralised across its adapters Source: Terra Draw README (GitHub)
OpenLayers adapter	Yes (one of three adapters)	Yes (dedicated OpenLayers v10 adapter) Source: Terra Draw README (GitHub)
Number of supported map libraries	3 — Leaflet, OpenLayers, MapLibre GL	6 — Leaflet, OpenLayers, MapLibre GL JS, Mapbox GL JS, Google Maps JS API, ArcGIS JS SDK Source: Terra Draw README (GitHub)
Topology: shared borders stored once between neighbours	Yes	Not described Source: Terra Draw README (GitHub)
Exact undo of an edit	Yes	Not described Source: Terra Draw README (GitHub)
Licence	Not yet published	MIT Source: Terra Draw README (GitHub)

Where vectorstream differs

Shared borders, stored onceWhere two areas meet, vectorstream keeps a single edge: dragging a shared corner or edge reshapes both areas in the same edit, with an undo that restores every neighbour the edit touched. Terra Draw's own README does not describe this kind of border behaviour between adjacent shapes, or an undo history.
Fewer libraries, the same editing corevectorstream covers three map libraries (Leaflet, OpenLayers, MapLibre GL) through adapters over one editing core. Terra Draw reaches further, across six libraries, which matters more to a project that needs Mapbox GL, Google Maps or ArcGIS specifically. For the three libraries vectorstream does cover, the same shared-border and undo behaviour applies on all of them.
Checked GeoJSON in, GeoJSON outShapes import as GeoJSON after a geometry check, so an invalid file is reported before anyone edits it, and a document exports as one GeoJSON FeatureCollection again. That keeps vectorstream a step between the systems that hold the record, not a replacement for them.
A layer tree and saved documentsShapes are organised in a layer tree that can be added to, renamed, hidden, locked and reordered, and several documents are saved automatically in the browser's own storage, so a session survives a reload without an extra save step.
Honest about being pre-releasevectorstream has not published a package and has not set a price. Its free packages are planned under the MIT license, like Terra Draw, with the proprietary Pro package on top, which is priced on request. Every capability named on this page is backed by a passing test in the editor's own suite, listed in the project's verified-capabilities file.

Differs

Where Terra Draw differs

Six map libraries under one projectTerra Draw supports adapters for Leaflet, OpenLayers, MapLibre GL JS, Mapbox GL JS, the Google Maps JavaScript API and the ArcGIS JavaScript SDK, more than vectorstream's three, which makes it the broader choice for a project that may change its map library or run on more than one at once. A team targeting Mapbox GL, Google Maps or ArcGIS specifically has no equivalent vectorstream adapter to reach for today.Source: Terra Draw README (GitHub)
MIT licence, available todayTerra Draw is released under the MIT licence and can be installed today, with no free-versus-paid split to consider. vectorstream has not published a package yet, so a team that needs a dependency it can install this week has a clear answer here and none yet from vectorstream.Source: Terra Draw README (GitHub)
One project to learn, many libraries to targetBecause Terra Draw centralises its drawing logic and exposes the same modes on every adapter, a team that builds on more than one map library at once can learn one API instead of several. That also makes it easier to switch map libraries later without rewriting the drawing layer.Source: Terra Draw README (GitHub)

Pricing and status

Pricing and status
Plan	vectorstream	Terra Draw
Free	Free, MIT license	Free, MIT licence
Pro	Price on request, proprietary license	Free, MIT licence

vectorstream's plan names match its own pricing page: Free and Pro, with no price set for Pro yet. Terra Draw has no paid tier: the whole project is released under the MIT licence, the same terms for every use, from a side project to a commercial product.

Last verified: 2026-10-13. Checked against the vendor's own site and public packages; vectorstream's own facts come from our verified-capabilities list, each with a passing test. Where the other vendor's materials did not address a point, this page says "not described" rather than guessing at an answer. Read the docs

FAQ

Questions about this comparison

Which map libraries does vectorstream support?

vectorstream has adapters for Leaflet, OpenLayers and MapLibre GL, and all three run the same editing core, so the tools behave alike on each.

Is vectorstream published as a package?

Not yet. vectorstream is in pre-release, and no package has been published so far.

When does Terra Draw make more sense than vectorstream?

Terra Draw covers more map libraries than vectorstream, including Mapbox GL, Google Maps and ArcGIS, and is free under the MIT licence today. It is the stronger choice for a project that needs one of those libraries specifically or cannot wait for vectorstream's release. A project on Leaflet, OpenLayers or MapLibre GL that wants shared borders between adjacent shapes is the clearer case for vectorstream instead, once it ships.