head to head · open source
manim vs PlaceHolderView
manim has 95,399 GitHub stars, 7,817 forks, 500 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. PlaceHolderView has 2,133 stars, 362 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. manim leads on adoption by 4,373% (95,399 vs 2,133 stars). manim is written in Python under MIT; PlaceHolderView is written in Java under Apache-2.0. manim has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, PlaceHolderView 17%. 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 | PlaceHolderView | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 95K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-02-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.8K | ⑂ 362 |
| 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 PlaceHolderView if
- You want the PlaceHolderView feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and PlaceHolderView 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 PlaceHolderView
PlaceHolderView An advance view for lists and stacks Some Implementations Documentation You can find the PlaceHolderView documentation here which has extended usage instructions and other useful information. About PlaceHolderView Some of the views in PlaceHolderView library is build on top of RecyclerView and rest are written in its own. About The Author You can connect with me here: Janishar Ali Twitter YouTube Channel All the annotations are processed during build time to generate the binding classes There are two versions available for use. 1. Old version (branch 1.x): Uses Java reflection 2. New version…
read the full PlaceHolderView overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is manim or PlaceHolderView more popular?
manim has 95,399 GitHub stars and PlaceHolderView has 2,133. manim has the larger community by that measure.
Are manim and PlaceHolderView free?
Both are open source. manim is licensed under MIT and PlaceHolderView under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between manim and PlaceHolderView?
manim is written in Python and PlaceHolderView in Java. 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 PlaceHolderView?
Choose manim if you want the larger community (95,399 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose PlaceHolderView if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.