head to head · open source
GDevelop vs Excalibur
GDevelop has 28,355 GitHub stars, 1,641 forks, 633 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Excalibur has 2,361 stars, 228 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped yesterday. GDevelop leads on adoption by 1,101% (28,355 vs 2,361 stars). GDevelop is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Excalibur is written in TypeScript under BSD-2-Clause. GDevelop has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Excalibur 10%. GDevelop 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
| GDevelop | Excalibur | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 228 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick GDevelop if
- You weight community size — 28K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Excalibur if
- You want the Excalibur feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Excalibur fits your workflow better
About GDevelop
GDevelop is a full featured, no code, open source game development software. You can build 2D, 3D and multiplayer games for mobile (iOS, Android), desktop and the web. GDevelop is designed to be fast and incredibly intuitive: make games using an easy to understand yet powerful event based system and modular behaviors. Create with AI that assists or builds alongside you. Getting started Are you interested in contributing to GDevelop for the first time? Take a look at the list of good first issues , good first contributions or the "🏐 not too hard" cards on the Roadmap. Games made with GDevelop Find GDevelop games…
read the full GDevelop overview →
About Excalibur
[![Discord][discord badge]][discord url] [discord badge]: [discord url]: Excalibur is a free game engine written in TypeScript for making 2D games in HTML5 canvas. Our goal is to make it easier for you to create 2D HTML/JS games, whether you're new to game development or you're an experienced game developer. We take care of all of the boilerplate engine code, cross platform targeting (using browserstack 😎), and more! Use as much or as little as you need! Excalibur is an open source project licensed under the 2 clause BSD license (this means you can use it in commercial projects!). It's free and always will be…
read the full Excalibur overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is GDevelop or Excalibur more popular?
GDevelop has 28,355 GitHub stars and Excalibur has 2,361. GDevelop has the larger community by that measure.
Are GDevelop and Excalibur free?
Both are open source. GDevelop has no licence declared in this registry, and Excalibur is licensed under BSD-2-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between GDevelop and Excalibur?
GDevelop is written in JavaScript and Excalibur 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, GDevelop or Excalibur?
Choose GDevelop if you want the larger community (28,355 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Excalibur if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.