head to head · open source
manim vs m3e-canvas
manim has 96,012 GitHub stars, 7,895 forks, 500 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. m3e-canvas has 9,998 stars, 1,106 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. manim leads on adoption by 860% (96,012 vs 9,998 stars). manim is written in Python under MIT; m3e-canvas is written in TypeScript under MIT. manim has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, m3e-canvas 11%. m3e-canvas 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
| manim | m3e-canvas | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 10.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.9K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 m3e-canvas if
- You want the m3e-canvas feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and m3e-canvas 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 m3e-canvas
M3E Canvas Sketch Material 3 Expressive screens in the browser, link them, tap through them, and copy a prompt for your AI coding tool. 日本語 · 中文 · 한국어 · Open the app Sketch a recipes app, retheme it, copy the prompt, hand it to an AI coding tool, and run the result on Android. ( mp4 ) Works with any AI coding tool that takes a prompt, such as Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or Cursor: copy the prompt, paste it into the tool, and ask for the app. What it does Drag and drop parts – buttons, icon buttons, FABs, split buttons, FAB menus, chips, app bars, navigation bars, floating toolbars, tabs, search bars, cards…
read the full m3e-canvas overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is manim or m3e-canvas more popular?
manim has 96,012 GitHub stars and m3e-canvas has 9,998. manim has the larger community by that measure.
Are manim and m3e-canvas free?
Both are open source. manim is licensed under MIT and m3e-canvas under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between manim and m3e-canvas?
manim is written in Python and m3e-canvas 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, manim or m3e-canvas?
Choose manim if you want the larger community (96,012 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose m3e-canvas if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.