head to head · open source
raylib vs macroquad
raylib has 35,021 GitHub stars, 3,325 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped yesterday. macroquad has 4,652 stars, 426 forks, 340 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. raylib leads on adoption by 653% (35,021 vs 4,652 stars). raylib is written in C under Zlib; macroquad is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. raylib has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, macroquad 9%. raylib was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (android, 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
| raylib | macroquad | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 4.7K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-07 | 2026-08-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 426 |
| 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 macroquad if
- You want the macroquad feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and macroquad 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 macroquad
macroquad is a cross platform game library for Rust, aimed at developers who want to write one codebase and ship it to Windows, Linux, macOS, HTML5, Android, and iOS.
read the full macroquad overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is raylib or macroquad more popular?
raylib has 35,021 GitHub stars and macroquad has 4,652. raylib has the larger community by that measure.
Are raylib and macroquad free?
Both are open source. raylib is licensed under Zlib and macroquad under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between raylib and macroquad?
raylib is written in C and macroquad in Rust. 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 macroquad?
Choose raylib if you want the larger community (35,021 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose macroquad if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.