head to head · open source
raylib vs ebiten
raylib has 34,849 GitHub stars, 3,306 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ebiten has 13,501 stars, 791 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. raylib leads on adoption by 158% (34,849 vs 13,501 stars). raylib is written in C under Zlib; ebiten is written in Go under Apache-2.0. raylib has attracted 9% 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 3 topic tags (game-development, game-engine, gamedev), 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
| raylib | ebiten | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 14K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-23 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 791 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick raylib if
- You weight community size — 35K stars and counting
- You want the Zlib 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 raylib
raylib is an open source, Zlib licensed C programming library for building videogames and graphical applications, aimed at programmers who would rather write code directly than work inside a visual game engine editor.
read the full raylib overview →
About ebiten
Ebitengine (v2) is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed 2D game engine for the Go programming language, built for developers who want a simple API for writing 2D games that deploy across desktop, mobile, web and console platforms.
read the full ebiten overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is raylib or ebiten more popular?
raylib has 34,849 GitHub stars and ebiten has 13,501. raylib has the larger community by that measure.
Are raylib and ebiten free?
Both are open source. raylib is licensed under Zlib and ebiten under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between raylib and ebiten?
raylib 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, raylib or ebiten?
Choose raylib if you want the larger community (34,849 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose ebiten if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.