head to head · open source
OpenRA vs ebiten
OpenRA has 17,717 GitHub stars, 3,107 forks, 1,598 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. ebiten has 13,606 stars, 801 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenRA leads on adoption by 30% (17,717 vs 13,606 stars). OpenRA is written in C# under GPL-3.0; ebiten is written in Go under Apache-2.0. OpenRA has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, ebiten 6%. ebiten was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (game, game-engine), 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
| OpenRA | ebiten | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 14K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C# | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 801 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenRA if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ebiten if
- You want the ebiten feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and ebiten fits your workflow better
About OpenRA
OpenRA A Libre/Free Real Time Strategy game engine supporting early Westwood classics. Website: Chat: openra on Libera (web) or Discord Repository: Please read the FAQ in our Wiki and report problems at Join the Forum for discussion. Play Distributed mods include a reimagining of Command & Conquer: Red Alert Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn Dune 2000 EA has not endorsed and does not support this product. Check our Playing the Game Guide to win multiplayer matches. Contribute Please read INSTALL.md and Compiling on how to set up an OpenRA development environment. See Hacking for a (now very outdated) overview of…
read the full OpenRA overview →
About ebiten
Ebitengine (v2) A dead simple 2D game engine for Go Ebitengine (formerly known as Ebiten) is an open source game engine for the Go programming language. Ebitengine's simple API allows you to quickly and easily develop 2D games that can be deployed across multiple platforms. Website (ebitengine.org) API Reference Cheat Sheet Awesome Ebitengine Platforms Windows macOS Linux FreeBSD Android (Cgo required) iOS (Cgo required) WebAssembly Nintendo Switch (Cgo required) Xbox (Cgo required) (Xbox support is limited and not available to everyone. Negotiations are currently underway to make it accessible to all.) For…
read the full ebiten overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenRA or ebiten more popular?
OpenRA has 17,717 GitHub stars and ebiten has 13,606. OpenRA has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenRA and ebiten free?
Both are open source. OpenRA is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ebiten under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenRA and ebiten?
OpenRA is written in C# and ebiten in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenRA or ebiten?
Choose OpenRA if you want the larger community (17,717 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ebiten if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.