head to head · open source
Godot vs macroquad
Godot has 118,244 GitHub stars, 26,980 forks, 18,870 open issues and last shipped yesterday. macroquad has 4,652 stars, 426 forks, 340 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Godot leads on adoption by 2,442% (118,244 vs 4,652 stars). Godot is written in C++ under MIT; macroquad is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Godot has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, macroquad 9%. Godot was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (game-engine), 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 | macroquad | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 118K | ★ 4.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-07 | 2026-08-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 27K | ⑂ 426 |
| 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 macroquad if
- You want the macroquad feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and macroquad 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 macroquad
macroquad is a cross platform game library for Rust, aimed at developers who want to write one codebase and ship it to Windows, Linux, macOS, HTML5, Android, and iOS.
read the full macroquad overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Godot or macroquad more popular?
Godot has 118,244 GitHub stars and macroquad has 4,652. Godot has the larger community by that measure.
Are Godot and macroquad free?
Both are open source. Godot is licensed under MIT and macroquad under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Godot and macroquad?
Godot is written in C++ and macroquad in Rust. 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 macroquad?
Choose Godot if you want the larger community (118,244 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose macroquad if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.