head to head · open source
anime vs pencil
anime has 72,899 GitHub stars, 4,929 forks, 118 open issues and last shipped 29 days ago. pencil has 9,865 stars, 791 forks, 533 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. anime leads on adoption by 639% (72,899 vs 9,865 stars). anime is written in JavaScript under MIT; pencil is written in JavaScript under GPL-2.0. anime has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, pencil 8%. anime was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| anime | pencil | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 9.9K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-21 | 2026-06-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 791 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick anime if
- You weight community size — 73K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pencil if
- You want the pencil feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and pencil fits your workflow better
About anime
Anime.js is a free, MIT licensed JavaScript animation engine for developers who need to animate CSS properties, SVG, DOM attributes, and plain JavaScript objects from a single lightweight API.
read the full anime overview →
About pencil
Pencil is a free and open source diagramming and GUI prototyping tool, licensed under GPL 2.0, that lets designers and developers sketch wireframes, mockups, and diagrams on the desktop without a commercial licence.
read the full pencil overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is anime or pencil more popular?
anime has 72,899 GitHub stars and pencil has 9,865. anime has the larger community by that measure.
Are anime and pencil free?
Both are open source. anime is licensed under MIT and pencil under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between anime and pencil?
anime is written in JavaScript and pencil in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, anime or pencil?
Choose anime if you want the larger community (72,899 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pencil if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.