head to head · open source
raylib vs murder
raylib has 35,210 GitHub stars, 3,338 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. murder has 3,343 stars, 97 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. raylib leads on adoption by 953% (35,210 vs 3,343 stars). raylib is written in C under Zlib; murder is written in C# under MIT. raylib has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, murder 3%. murder was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (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 | murder | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | Zlib | MIT |
| Written in | C | C# |
| Last push | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 97 |
| 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 murder if
- You want the murder feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and murder 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 murder
Murder is a pixel art ECS game engine built on top of FNA, written in C and licensed under MIT, intended for developers who want to build 2D games around worlds, entities and components while keeping full control of their own project.
read the full murder overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is raylib or murder more popular?
raylib has 35,210 GitHub stars and murder has 3,343. raylib has the larger community by that measure.
Are raylib and murder free?
Both are open source. raylib is licensed under Zlib and murder under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between raylib and murder?
raylib is written in C and murder in C#. 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 murder?
Choose raylib if you want the larger community (35,210 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose murder if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.