head to head · open source
bevy vs kaplay
bevy has 49,728 GitHub stars, 5,052 forks, 3,418 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kaplay has 1,828 stars, 132 forks, 76 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bevy leads on adoption by 2,620% (49,728 vs 1,828 stars). bevy is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; kaplay is written in TypeScript under MIT. bevy has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, kaplay 7%. kaplay 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 | kaplay | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-13 | 2026-11-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 132 |
| 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 kaplay if
- You want the kaplay feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and kaplay 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 kaplay
🎮 KAPLAY.js — A JavaScript & TypeScript Game Library KAPLAY is the fun first , 2D game library for JavaScript and TypeScript . It’s made to feel like a game while you're making games. Simple. Fast. Powerful. ✨ Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced dev, KAPLAY comes with its own web based editor — the KAPLAYGROUND — so you can try code instantly, and learn with more than 90 examples ! 🎲 Quick Overview Game objects are composed from simple, powerful components: Blocky imperative syntax for describing behaviors 🖥️ Installation 🚀 Using create kaplay The fastest way to get started: Then open and edit…
read the full kaplay overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bevy or kaplay more popular?
bevy has 49,728 GitHub stars and kaplay has 1,828. bevy has the larger community by that measure.
Are bevy and kaplay free?
Both are open source. bevy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and kaplay under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bevy and kaplay?
bevy is written in Rust and kaplay in TypeScript. 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 kaplay?
Choose bevy if you want the larger community (49,728 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose kaplay if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.