head to head · open source
manim vs primitives
manim has 96,143 GitHub stars, 7,896 forks, 500 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. primitives has 19,470 stars, 1,300 forks, 356 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. manim leads on adoption by 394% (96,143 vs 19,470 stars). manim is written in Python under MIT; primitives is written in TypeScript under MIT. manim has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, primitives 7%. primitives 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 | primitives | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.9K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 primitives if
- You want the primitives feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and primitives 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 primitives
Radix Primitives An open source UI component library for building high quality, accessible design systems and web apps. Radix Primitives is a low level UI component library with a focus on accessibility, customization and developer experience. You can use these components either as the base layer of your design system, or adopt them incrementally. Installation First, install pnpm if you haven't already. Open your terminal and run: Then, install the dependencies: Documentation For full documentation, visit radix ui.com/primitives/docs. Releases For changelog, visit radix ui.com/primitives/docs/overview/releases…
read the full primitives overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is manim or primitives more popular?
manim has 96,143 GitHub stars and primitives has 19,470. manim has the larger community by that measure.
Are manim and primitives free?
Both are open source. manim is licensed under MIT and primitives under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between manim and primitives?
manim is written in Python and primitives 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 primitives?
Choose manim if you want the larger community (96,143 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose primitives if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.