head to head · open source
manim vs OpenTimelineIO
manim has 95,438 GitHub stars, 7,819 forks, 500 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. OpenTimelineIO has 2,032 stars, 360 forks, 211 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. manim leads on adoption by 4,597% (95,438 vs 2,032 stars). manim is written in Python under MIT; OpenTimelineIO is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. manim has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, OpenTimelineIO 18%. OpenTimelineIO 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 | OpenTimelineIO | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 95K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-10-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.8K | ⑂ 360 |
| 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 OpenTimelineIO if
- You want the OpenTimelineIO feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and OpenTimelineIO 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 OpenTimelineIO
OpenTimelineIO ======= ============== Links Main web site: Documentation: Wiki (more documentation): GitHub: Discussion group Slack channel To join, create an account here first: Presentations DEVELOPMENT STATUS OpenTimelineIO is a mature framework widely deployed across the film and television industries. It is natively supported in most non linear editing applications, and has deep integration in game engines, digital content creation tools and adjacent industries as well. The API for OpenTimelineIO is considered stable, but is still undergoing active development, refinement and bug fixes. Work is underway to…
read the full OpenTimelineIO overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is manim or OpenTimelineIO more popular?
manim has 95,438 GitHub stars and OpenTimelineIO has 2,032. manim has the larger community by that measure.
Are manim and OpenTimelineIO free?
Both are open source. manim is licensed under MIT and OpenTimelineIO under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between manim and OpenTimelineIO?
manim is written in Python and OpenTimelineIO 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 OpenTimelineIO?
Choose manim if you want the larger community (95,438 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose OpenTimelineIO if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.