# HyCanvas

> HyCanvas is a young Canva-style platform from HyScaler (repo created June 2026, v0.3.17 on 15 Oct 2026). It runs as one Go binary or Docker image with PostgreSQL and covers social posts, presentations, video, whiteboards, docs and print, plus brand kits and a presentation generation API. AI features use your own provider keys. Licence changed from Elastic 2.0 to AGPL-3.0-only with v0.3.17; earlier releases stay ELv2. Realtime collaboration is still on the roadmap. Hardware needs are not documented.

- Repository: https://github.com/hyscaler/HyCanvas
- Official docs: https://github.com/hyscaler/HyCanvas/tree/HEAD/docs
- Checked: 2026-10-15

## What it replaces
- Canva: Template-based social and marketing graphics, Designed presentations and slide decks, Brand kits (shared colours, Online whiteboards, Print designs (posters (partial). Covers most Canva document types; very new and collaboration is not built yet.

## Facts, with sources

| Question | Status | Answer | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on my machine? | Confirmed | Self-hosted web app (single binary or Docker with PostgreSQL) | https://github.com/hyscaler/HyCanvas#production | 2026-10-15 |
| Code licence | Partial | AGPL-3.0-only from v0.3.17 (copyleft); releases up to v0.3.16 are Elastic License 2.0 | https://github.com/hyscaler/HyCanvas#license | 2026-10-15 |
| Model weights licence | Confirmed | No bundled model weights; AI uses your own provider keys | https://github.com/hyscaler/HyCanvas#readme | 2026-10-15 |
| Commercial use | Partial | Yes under AGPL; internal and unmodified self-hosting need no commercial licence | https://github.com/hyscaler/HyCanvas/blob/HEAD/COMMERCIAL.md | 2026-10-15 |
| Paid services needed? | Partial | None required; AI features need your own provider key; optional commercial licence | https://github.com/hyscaler/HyCanvas#production | 2026-10-15 |
| Hardware | Unknown | Not documented | none found | - |
| Operating systems | Partial | Server binary runs on Linux, macOS and Windows; Docker image for linux/amd64 and arm64; web-only client | https://github.com/hyscaler/HyCanvas#production | 2026-10-15 |
| Setup effort | Confirmed | Medium; Docker Compose or binary plus your own PostgreSQL, guided by a setup wizard | https://github.com/hyscaler/HyCanvas#run-with-docker-self-host | 2026-10-15 |

GitHub: 229 stars, 36 forks, last push 2026-10-15, archived: no.
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Source: RepoQuarry (https://repoquarry.dev/projects/hycanvas). Data licence: CC BY 4.0. Quotes are from project documentation and belong to their authors.