head to head · open source
manim vs ShipSwift
manim has 94,732 GitHub stars, 7,766 forks, 500 open issues and last shipped 29 days ago. ShipSwift has 3,235 stars, 185 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. manim leads on adoption by 2,828% (94,732 vs 3,235 stars). manim is written in Python under MIT; ShipSwift is written in Swift under MIT. manim has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, ShipSwift 6%. 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 | ShipSwift | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 95K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-08-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.8K | ⑂ 185 |
| 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 ShipSwift if
- You want the ShipSwift feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and ShipSwift 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 ShipSwift
ShipSwift is an AI native SwiftUI component library with full stack recipes, made available to AI coding assistants through an MCP server so developers building iOS apps can hand their assistant production ready component code.
read the full ShipSwift overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is manim or ShipSwift more popular?
manim has 94,732 GitHub stars and ShipSwift has 3,235. manim has the larger community by that measure.
Are manim and ShipSwift free?
Both are open source. manim is licensed under MIT and ShipSwift under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between manim and ShipSwift?
manim is written in Python and ShipSwift in Swift. 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 ShipSwift?
Choose manim if you want the larger community (94,732 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ShipSwift if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.