head to head · open source
raylib vs engine
raylib has 34,832 GitHub stars, 3,304 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped yesterday. engine has 16,890 stars, 2,000 forks, 471 open issues and last shipped today. raylib leads on adoption by 106% (34,832 vs 16,890 stars). raylib is written in C under Zlib; engine is written in JavaScript under MIT. raylib has attracted 9% 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 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
| raylib | engine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 17K |
| License | Zlib | MIT |
| Written in | C | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick raylib if
- You weight community size — 35K stars and counting
- You want the Zlib 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 raylib
raylib is an open source, Zlib licensed C programming library for building videogames and graphical applications, aimed at programmers who would rather write code directly than work inside a visual game engine editor.
read the full raylib 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 raylib or engine more popular?
raylib has 34,832 GitHub stars and engine has 16,890. raylib has the larger community by that measure.
Are raylib and engine free?
Both are open source. raylib is licensed under Zlib and engine under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between raylib and engine?
raylib 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, raylib or engine?
Choose raylib if you want the larger community (34,832 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose engine if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.