head to head · open source
lottie-ios vs thorvg
lottie-ios has 26,919 GitHub stars, 3,838 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. thorvg has 1,891 stars, 257 forks, 206 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. lottie-ios leads on adoption by 1,324% (26,919 vs 1,891 stars). lottie-ios is written in Swift under Apache-2.0; thorvg is written in C++ under MIT. lottie-ios has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, thorvg 14%. thorvg was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (animation), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| lottie-ios | thorvg | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Swift | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 257 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lottie-ios if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick thorvg if
- You want the thorvg feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and thorvg fits your workflow better
About lottie-ios
Lottie for iOS View documentation, FAQ, help, examples, and more at airbnb.io/lottie Lottie is a cross platform library for iOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS, Android, and Web that natively renders vector based animations and art in realtime with minimal code. Lottie loads and renders animations and vectors exported in the bodymovin JSON format. Bodymovin JSON can be created and exported from After Effects with bodymovin, Sketch with Lottie Sketch Export, and from Haiku. Designers can create and ship beautiful animations without an engineer painstakingly recreating them by hand. Since the animations are backed by JSON…
read the full lottie-ios overview →
About thorvg
ThorVG Thor Vector Graphics is a production ready vector graphics engine designed for creating interactive apps and creative tools . It combines high performance with lightweight efficiency , as Thor embodies a dual meaning—symbolizing both immense strength and lightning fast agility. Embracing the philosophy of simplicity leads to reliability, the ThorVG project provides easy, user friendly interfaces while maintaining a compact footprint and minimal overhead . The following primitives are supported by ThorVG: Lines & Shapes : rectangles, circles, paths, and arbitrary vector geometry Filling : solid colors /…
read the full thorvg overview →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Design & Prototyping projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Design & Prototyping field.
Frequently asked questions
Is lottie-ios or thorvg more popular?
lottie-ios has 26,919 GitHub stars and thorvg has 1,891. lottie-ios has the larger community by that measure.
Are lottie-ios and thorvg free?
Both are open source. lottie-ios is licensed under Apache-2.0 and thorvg under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lottie-ios and thorvg?
lottie-ios is written in Swift and thorvg 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, lottie-ios or thorvg?
Choose lottie-ios if you want the larger community (26,919 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose thorvg if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.