head to head · open source
manim vs zag
manim has 96,534 GitHub stars, 7,929 forks, 500 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. zag has 5,278 stars, 312 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped yesterday. manim leads on adoption by 1,729% (96,534 vs 5,278 stars). manim is written in Python under MIT; zag is written in TypeScript under MIT. manim has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, zag 6%. zag 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 | zag | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 97K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-11-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.9K | ⑂ 312 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick manim if
- You weight community size — 97K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick zag if
- You want the zag feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and zag 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 zag
Zag Finite state machines for accessible JavaScript components Write once, use everywhere 🦄 : The component interactions are modelled in a framework agnostic way. We provide adapters for JS frameworks like React, Solid, Svelte, or Vue. Focus on accessibility ♿️ : Zag is built with accessibility in mind. We handle many details related to keyboard interactions, focus management, aria roles and attributes. Headless ✨ : The machine APIs are completely unstyled and gives you the control to use any styling solution you prefer. Powered by state machines 🌳 : Zag is built on top of the latest ideas in Statecharts. We…
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Frequently asked questions
Is manim or zag more popular?
manim has 96,534 GitHub stars and zag has 5,278. manim has the larger community by that measure.
Are manim and zag free?
Both are open source. manim is licensed under MIT and zag under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between manim and zag?
manim is written in Python and zag 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 zag?
Choose manim if you want the larger community (96,534 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose zag if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.