head to head · open source
manim vs anime
manim has 96,012 GitHub stars, 7,895 forks, 500 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. anime has 74,225 stars, 5,044 forks, 118 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. manim leads on adoption by 29% (96,012 vs 74,225 stars). manim is written in Python under MIT; anime is written in JavaScript under MIT. manim has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, anime 7%. manim was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (animation), 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
| manim | anime | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 74K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-08-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.9K | ⑂ 5.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick manim if
- You weight community size — 96K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick anime if
- You want the anime feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and anime fits your workflow better
About manim
Manim is an engine for precise programmatic animations, designed for creating explanatory math videos. Note, there are two versions of manim. This repository began as a personal project by the author of 3Blue1Brown for the purpose of animating those videos, with video specific code available here. In 2020 a group of developers forked it into what is now the community edition, with a goal of being more stable, better tested, quicker to respond to community contributions, and all around friendlier to get started with. See this page for more details. Installation [!Warning] WARNING: These instructions are for…
read the full manim overview →
About anime
Anime.js Anime.js is a fast, multipurpose and lightweight JavaScript animation library with a simple, yet powerful API. It works with CSS properties, SVG, DOM attributes and JavaScript Objects. Sponsors Anime.js is 100% free and is only made possible with the help of our sponsors. Help the project become sustainable by sponsoring us on GitHub Sponsors . Platinum sponsors Silver sponsors Get featured here by becoming a GitHub Sponsor . Usage Anime.js V4 works by importing ES modules like so: V4 Documentation The full documentation is available here. V3 Migration guide You can find the v3 to v4 migration guide…
read the full anime overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is manim or anime more popular?
manim has 96,012 GitHub stars and anime has 74,225. manim has the larger community by that measure.
Are manim and anime free?
Both are open source. manim is licensed under MIT and anime under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between manim and anime?
manim is written in Python and anime 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, manim or anime?
Choose manim if you want the larger community (96,012 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose anime if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.