SciDAVis vs QtiPlot: Fork History & Differences

If SciDAVis and QtiPlot look suspiciously similar, there is a good reason: SciDAVis began life in 2007 as a fork of QtiPlot. People search for “SciDAVis vs QtiPlot” precisely because the two programs share a common ancestor — and then took very different paths. This page tells that story honestly, compares the two as they exist today, and helps you decide which one fits your needs.

The Fork Story: Why SciDAVis Exists

QtiPlot was created by Ion Vasilief as an open-source alternative to the proprietary program Origin — a clone, in the best sense, giving researchers an Origin-like workspace (tables, plots, curve fitting, scripting) under a free license. Up to version 0.9.8.9, QtiPlot was released under the GNU General Public License.

In 2007, two developers, Tilman Benkert and Knut Franke, forked the project and launched SciDAVis (initial release 5 August 2007). The split was not a technical accident: after disagreements with Vasilief, the founder and main developer of QtiPlot, they started their own project. Franke later stated that the topics of disagreement included “design goals, management of community resources and the right way to make money from a free software project.”

What happened next explains the divergence you see today. Starting with version 0.9.9, QtiPlot stopped releasing its source code and moved to a commercial model — downloading binaries from the author’s site requires purchasing an annual maintenance contract. SciDAVis went the opposite way: it stayed GNU GPLv2-licensed open-source software and has remained free ever since. The old GPL QtiPlot releases (up to 0.9.8.9) are still mirrored in some Linux distribution repositories, but they date from before the fork; SciDAVis is the maintained free descendant of that code line.

So the short version: QtiPlot is the original project, now commercial. SciDAVis is the 2007 community fork that kept the free-software promise. You can read more about how SciDAVis developed after the fork on our About page, which covers the version history.

One more chapter is worth knowing: in 2008, the SciDAVis and LabPlot developers — who found their project goals “very similar” — agreed to cooperate closely, aiming to merge their code into a common backend with two frontends (a KDE-integrated LabPlot 2.x and a pure-Qt SciDAVis for easier cross-platform use). The merger ultimately stalled, and after several quiet years SciDAVis development resumed on its own path.

Head-to-Head Comparison

A few notes on the table. First, QtiPlot is actively maintained as a commercial product — its 1.2.7 release in May 2026 is very recent, so paying users do get ongoing development. SciDAVis, being community-driven open source, moves at a slower release cadence, but its GPL license means nobody can take it away or charge you for it tomorrow. Second, feature-wise both programs descend from the same Origin-like design, so the biggest practical differences are the license and the business model, not the feature list.

Which One Should You Choose?

There is no trick answer here — the right choice depends on your situation:

For most independent users — especially students and educators — SciDAVis is the straightforward recommendation: it costs nothing, runs on every major platform, and covers the core workflow (import data, plot, fit, export). Grab it from our download page and work through the tutorials to get up to speed.

Switching Between the Two

If you are moving from one to the other, plan for a clean migration, not a conversion. Project files are not interchangeable, and older QtiPlot versions cannot even load files saved by newer ones (0.9.9 broke backward compatibility with 0.9.8-era files). The reliable path: export your raw data as CSV from the old program, import it fresh, and rebuild the plots and fits. It takes a little time, but it avoids silent corruption — and since SciDAVis scripting supports Python, reproducible analyses translate well.