head to head · open source
OpenRA vs engine
OpenRA has 17,418 GitHub stars, 3,048 forks, 1,598 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. engine has 16,890 stars, 2,000 forks, 471 open issues and last shipped today. OpenRA leads on adoption by 3% (17,418 vs 16,890 stars). OpenRA is written in C# under GPL-3.0; engine is written in JavaScript under MIT. OpenRA has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, engine 12%. engine was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (game-engine, hacktoberfest), 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
| OpenRA | engine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 17K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C# | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenRA if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick engine if
- You want the engine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and engine fits your workflow better
About OpenRA
OpenRA is a libre, free and open source real time strategy game engine written in C with SDL and OpenGL, built for players, mappers and modders who want to run and extend early Westwood classics such as Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Dune 2000 on Windows, Linux, BSD and Mac OS X.
read the full OpenRA overview →
About engine
PlayCanvas Engine is an open source, MIT licensed JavaScript and TypeScript runtime for building interactive 3D apps, games and visualizations that run in any browser on any device, built on WebGL2 and WebGPU.
read the full engine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenRA or engine more popular?
OpenRA has 17,418 GitHub stars and engine has 16,890. OpenRA has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenRA and engine free?
Both are open source. OpenRA is licensed under GPL-3.0 and engine under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenRA and engine?
OpenRA is written in C# and engine 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, OpenRA or engine?
Choose OpenRA if you want the larger community (17,418 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose engine if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.