head to head · open source
Godot vs ebiten
Godot has 117,673 GitHub stars, 26,846 forks, 18,870 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ebiten has 13,501 stars, 791 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Godot leads on adoption by 772% (117,673 vs 13,501 stars). Godot is written in C++ under MIT; ebiten is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Godot has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, ebiten 6%. ebiten 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
| Godot | ebiten | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 118K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-23 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 27K | ⑂ 791 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Godot if
- You weight community size — 118K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- 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 Godot
Godot Engine is a free, MIT licensed, cross platform 2D and 3D game engine that ships an editor, a class reference, export templates, and one click deployment to desktop, mobile, web and console targets, aimed at game developers who want to own their toolchain and their games without royalties.
read the full Godot overview →
About ebiten
Ebitengine (v2) is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed 2D game engine for the Go programming language, built for developers who want a simple API for writing 2D games that deploy across desktop, mobile, web and console platforms.
read the full ebiten overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Godot or ebiten more popular?
Godot has 117,673 GitHub stars and ebiten has 13,501. Godot has the larger community by that measure.
Are Godot and ebiten free?
Both are open source. Godot is licensed under MIT and ebiten under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Godot and ebiten?
Godot is written in C++ 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, Godot or ebiten?
Choose Godot if you want the larger community (117,673 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ebiten if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.