head to head · open source
bevy vs JoltPhysics
bevy has 49,714 GitHub stars, 5,046 forks, 3,418 open issues and last shipped yesterday. JoltPhysics has 12,276 stars, 1,015 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bevy leads on adoption by 305% (49,714 vs 12,276 stars). bevy is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; JoltPhysics is written in C++ under MIT. bevy has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, JoltPhysics 8%. JoltPhysics was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (game-development, game-engine), 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
| bevy | JoltPhysics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-12 | 2026-11-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick bevy if
- You weight community size — 50K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick JoltPhysics if
- You want the JoltPhysics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and JoltPhysics fits your workflow better
About bevy
What is Bevy? Bevy is a refreshingly simple data driven game engine built in Rust. It is free and open source forever! WARNING Bevy is still in the early stages of development. Important features are missing. Documentation is sparse. A new version of Bevy containing breaking changes to the API is released approximately once every 3 months. We provide migration guides, but we can't guarantee migrations will always be easy. Use only if you are willing to work in this environment. MSRV: Bevy relies heavily on improvements in the Rust language and compiler. As a result, the Minimum Supported Rust Version (MSRV) is…
About JoltPhysics
Jolt Physics A multi core friendly rigid body physics and collision detection library. Suitable for games and VR applications. Used by Horizon Forbidden West and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. For more demos and videos go to the Samples section. Design considerations Why create yet another physics engine? Firstly, it has been a personal learning project. Secondly, I wanted to address some issues that I had with existing physics engines: Games do more than simulating physics. These things happen across multiple threads. We emphasize on concurrently accessing physics data outside of the main simulation update…
read the full JoltPhysics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bevy or JoltPhysics more popular?
bevy has 49,714 GitHub stars and JoltPhysics has 12,276. bevy has the larger community by that measure.
Are bevy and JoltPhysics free?
Both are open source. bevy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and JoltPhysics under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bevy and JoltPhysics?
bevy is written in Rust and JoltPhysics in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, bevy or JoltPhysics?
Choose bevy if you want the larger community (49,714 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose JoltPhysics if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.