head to head · open source
lottie-ios vs OpenPencil
lottie-ios has 26,926 GitHub stars, 3,838 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 28 days ago. OpenPencil has 9,551 stars, 1,004 forks, 46 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lottie-ios leads on adoption by 182% (26,926 vs 9,551 stars). lottie-ios is written in Swift under Apache-2.0; OpenPencil is written in TypeScript under MIT. lottie-ios has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, OpenPencil 11%. OpenPencil was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| lottie-ios | OpenPencil | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 9.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Swift | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-06 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lottie-ios if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenPencil if
- You want the OpenPencil feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and OpenPencil fits your workflow better
About lottie-ios
Lottie for iOS View documentation, FAQ, help, examples, and more at airbnb.io/lottie Lottie is a cross platform library for iOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, Android, and Web that natively renders vector based animations and art in realtime with minimal code. Lottie loads and renders animations and vectors exported in the bodymovin JSON format. Bodymovin JSON can be created and exported from After Effects with bodymovin, Sketch with Lottie Sketch Export, and from Haiku. Designers can create and ship beautiful animations without an engineer painstakingly recreating them by hand. Since the animations are backed by JSON…
read the full lottie-ios overview →
About OpenPencil
OpenPencil Open source design editor. Opens .fig and .pen design files, includes built in AI, and ships as a programmable toolkit with a headless Vue SDK for building custom editors. Status: Active development. Usable today, with some rough edges as features evolve. Try it online → · Download · Documentation · Roadmap · llms.txt Installation macOS (Homebrew): Or download from the releases page, or use the web app — no install needed. What it does Opens .fig and .pen files — read and write native Figma files, open supported Pencil documents from the app or OS file browser, copy & paste nodes between apps AI…
read the full OpenPencil overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lottie-ios or OpenPencil more popular?
lottie-ios has 26,926 GitHub stars and OpenPencil has 9,551. lottie-ios has the larger community by that measure.
Are lottie-ios and OpenPencil free?
Both are open source. lottie-ios is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenPencil under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lottie-ios and OpenPencil?
lottie-ios is written in Swift and OpenPencil 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, lottie-ios or OpenPencil?
Choose lottie-ios if you want the larger community (26,926 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenPencil if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.