head to head · open source
raylib vs Excalibur
raylib has 35,538 GitHub stars, 3,370 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Excalibur has 2,361 stars, 228 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped yesterday. raylib leads on adoption by 1,405% (35,538 vs 2,361 stars). raylib is written in C under Zlib; Excalibur is written in TypeScript under BSD-2-Clause. raylib has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Excalibur 10%. Excalibur 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 | Excalibur | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Zlib | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | C | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 228 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick raylib if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the Zlib license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Excalibur if
- You want the Excalibur feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Excalibur fits your workflow better
About raylib
raylib is a simple and easy to use library to enjoy videogames programming. raylib is highly inspired by Borland BGI graphics lib and by XNA framework and it's especially well suited for prototyping, tooling, graphical applications, embedded systems and education. NOTE for ADVENTURERS: raylib is a programming library to enjoy videogames programming; no fancy interface, no visual helpers, no debug button... just coding in the most pure spartan programmers way. Ready to learn? Jump to code examples! features NO external dependencies , all required libraries are included in raylib Multiple platforms supported…
read the full raylib overview →
About Excalibur
[![Discord][discord badge]][discord url] [discord badge]: [discord url]: Excalibur is a free game engine written in TypeScript for making 2D games in HTML5 canvas. Our goal is to make it easier for you to create 2D HTML/JS games, whether you're new to game development or you're an experienced game developer. We take care of all of the boilerplate engine code, cross platform targeting (using browserstack 😎), and more! Use as much or as little as you need! Excalibur is an open source project licensed under the 2 clause BSD license (this means you can use it in commercial projects!). It's free and always will be…
read the full Excalibur overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is raylib or Excalibur more popular?
raylib has 35,538 GitHub stars and Excalibur has 2,361. raylib has the larger community by that measure.
Are raylib and Excalibur free?
Both are open source. raylib is licensed under Zlib and Excalibur under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between raylib and Excalibur?
raylib is written in C and Excalibur 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, raylib or Excalibur?
Choose raylib if you want the larger community (35,538 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose Excalibur if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.