head to head · open source
manim vs LitMotion
manim has 95,043 GitHub stars, 7,789 forks, 500 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. LitMotion has 2,337 stars, 166 forks, 51 open issues and last shipped 26 days ago. manim leads on adoption by 3,967% (95,043 vs 2,337 stars). manim is written in Python under MIT; LitMotion is written in C# under MIT. manim has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, LitMotion 7%. LitMotion 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 | LitMotion | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 95K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.8K | ⑂ 166 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick manim if
- You weight community size — 95K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick LitMotion if
- You want the LitMotion feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and LitMotion fits your workflow better
About manim
Manim is a Python animation engine for precise, programmatic rendering of explanatory mathematics videos, built for educators, mathematicians, and developers who want frame accurate control over every element of a mathematical animation instead of editing on a timeline.
read the full manim overview →
About LitMotion
LitMotion is an MIT licensed, zero allocation tween library for Unity written in C , built on DOTS and aimed at Unity developers who need to animate transforms, materials, text, and arbitrary fields without per frame garbage.
read the full LitMotion overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is manim or LitMotion more popular?
manim has 95,043 GitHub stars and LitMotion has 2,337. manim has the larger community by that measure.
Are manim and LitMotion free?
Both are open source. manim is licensed under MIT and LitMotion under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between manim and LitMotion?
manim is written in Python and LitMotion in C#. 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 LitMotion?
Choose manim if you want the larger community (95,043 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose LitMotion if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.