head to head · open source
anime vs layui
anime has 72,944 GitHub stars, 4,931 forks, 118 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. layui has 30,573 stars, 7,354 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped 19 days ago. anime leads on adoption by 139% (72,944 vs 30,573 stars). anime is written in JavaScript under MIT; layui is written in JavaScript under MIT. anime has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, layui 24%. layui was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (css, javascript), 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
| anime | layui | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 31K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-21 | 2026-09-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 7.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick anime if
- You weight community size — 73K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick layui if
- You want the layui feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and layui fits your workflow better
About anime
Anime.js is a free, MIT licensed JavaScript animation engine for developers who need to animate CSS properties, SVG, DOM attributes, and plain JavaScript objects from a single lightweight API.
read the full anime overview →
About layui
Layui is a free, open source Web UI component library built on plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript that follows the browser's native development model, aimed at developers who need to assemble complex page interfaces without adopting a front end framework toolchain.
read the full layui overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is anime or layui more popular?
anime has 72,944 GitHub stars and layui has 30,573. anime has the larger community by that measure.
Are anime and layui free?
Both are open source. anime is licensed under MIT and layui under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between anime and layui?
anime is written in JavaScript and layui 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, anime or layui?
Choose anime if you want the larger community (72,944 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose layui if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.