Is Diep.io Open Source? Free and Community Alternatives Explained
"Is Diep.io open source?" It's a question that comes up constantly, driven by a community of players who dream of tinkering with their own tanks. The short answer: no. Diep.io is a proprietary game created by Matheus Valadares (the same dev behind Agar.io). Its source code is not public. But around it, a thriving ecosystem of free and community-driven games has grown up — and it's genuinely exciting.
Why Diep.io has inspired so many projects
Diep.io nails a simple formula: one tank, some cannons, an upgrade tree, and an addictive power curve. That clarity made amateur developers want to rebuild it, extend it, remix it. The result is a whole galaxy of fan-games and recreations, many of them hosted on GitHub.
The free and community alternatives worth knowing
- Arras.io: the most famous one. A fan-made successor to Diep.io with far more tanks, modes, and sheer scale. Backed by an active community. We wrote a full Arras.io guide if you want to dive in.
- Woomy-Arras.io: an open source fork of Arras, with code living on GitHub. Tinkerers can host it themselves and modify it freely.
- Fantasy Tank Builder: an open source tank creator — perfect for designing your own diep.io-style machines without writing an engine from scratch.
- Various GitHub clones: student and hobbyist projects that recreate the Diep.io core as a learning exercise in networked game development.
⚠️ A quick note: "inspired by" doesn't mean "official." These projects are fan creations, with no connection to the Diep.io team.
Where does Dovion fit in?
Dovion isn't open source either, but it shares the indie spirit of these projects: a free `.io` game with no download required, made in France, where the entire game world is generated by code (no images to load) — we talk about that in the behind-the-scenes of a zero-dependency game. The difference? We swapped tanks for ships, and the arena for an archipelago. If you love Diep.io, you'll recognize the upgrade tree and the satisfying power curve — just in naval battle form.
For a side-by-side look, check out Dovion vs Diep.io and our roundup of games like Diep.io. And to go further down the open source rabbit hole, here are the best open source .io games.
The bottom line
Diep.io stays closed, but its DNA has spread across dozens of free and community-built games. Want to try something that goes off the beaten track? Set sail on dovion.io — same evolution thrill, completely different setting.