head to head · open source
lottie-ios vs pencil
lottie-ios has 26,881 GitHub stars, 3,840 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pencil has 9,866 stars, 792 forks, 533 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. lottie-ios leads on adoption by 172% (26,881 vs 9,866 stars). lottie-ios is written in Swift under Apache-2.0; pencil is written in JavaScript under GPL-2.0. lottie-ios has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, pencil 8%. lottie-ios 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 | pencil | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 9.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Swift | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-06-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 792 |
| 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 pencil if
- You want the pencil feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and pencil fits your workflow better
About lottie-ios
Lottie for iOS is an Apache 2.0 Swift library that natively renders After Effects and bodymovin JSON vector animations in realtime on iOS, macOS, tvOS, and visionOS, and it is aimed at Apple platform developers who want to ship designer authored motion without rebuilding it by hand in code.
read the full lottie-ios overview →
About pencil
Pencil is a free and open source diagramming and GUI prototyping tool, licensed under GPL 2.0, that lets designers and developers sketch wireframes, mockups, and diagrams on the desktop without a commercial licence.
read the full pencil overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lottie-ios or pencil more popular?
lottie-ios has 26,881 GitHub stars and pencil has 9,866. lottie-ios has the larger community by that measure.
Are lottie-ios and pencil free?
Both are open source. lottie-ios is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pencil under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lottie-ios and pencil?
lottie-ios is written in Swift and pencil 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, lottie-ios or pencil?
Choose lottie-ios if you want the larger community (26,881 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pencil if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.