head to head · open source
engine vs ebiten
engine has 17,182 GitHub stars, 2,050 forks, 471 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ebiten has 13,606 stars, 801 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped yesterday. engine leads on adoption by 26% (17,182 vs 13,606 stars). engine is written in JavaScript under MIT; ebiten is written in Go under Apache-2.0. engine has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, ebiten 6%. engine was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (game-development, game-engine, gamedev), 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
| engine | ebiten | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 801 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick engine if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ebiten if
- You want the ebiten feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and ebiten fits your workflow better
About engine
PlayCanvas Engine PlayCanvas is an open source game engine built on WebGL2 and WebGPU. Use it to create interactive 3D apps, games and visualizations that run in any browser on any device. English 中文 日本語 한글 Install Or scaffold a full project in seconds with create playcanvas : Usage Here's a super simple Hello World example a spinning cube! Want to play with the code yourself? Edit it on CodePen. A full guide to setting up a local development environment based on the PlayCanvas Engine can be found here. Features PlayCanvas is a fully featured game engine. 🧊 Graphics Advanced 2D + 3D graphics engine built on…
read the full engine overview →
About ebiten
Ebitengine (v2) A dead simple 2D game engine for Go Ebitengine (formerly known as Ebiten) is an open source game engine for the Go programming language. Ebitengine's simple API allows you to quickly and easily develop 2D games that can be deployed across multiple platforms. Website (ebitengine.org) API Reference Cheat Sheet Awesome Ebitengine Platforms Windows macOS Linux FreeBSD Android (Cgo required) iOS (Cgo required) WebAssembly Nintendo Switch (Cgo required) Xbox (Cgo required) (Xbox support is limited and not available to everyone. Negotiations are currently underway to make it accessible to all.) For…
read the full ebiten overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is engine or ebiten more popular?
engine has 17,182 GitHub stars and ebiten has 13,606. engine has the larger community by that measure.
Are engine and ebiten free?
Both are open source. engine is licensed under MIT and ebiten under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between engine and ebiten?
engine is written in JavaScript and ebiten in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, engine or ebiten?
Choose engine if you want the larger community (17,182 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ebiten if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.