head to head · open source
three.js vs pixijs
three.js has 115,666 GitHub stars, 36,556 forks, 386 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pixijs has 48,189 stars, 5,070 forks, 344 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. three.js leads on adoption by 140% (115,666 vs 48,189 stars). three.js is written in JavaScript under MIT; pixijs is written in TypeScript under MIT. three.js has attracted 32% as many forks as stars, pixijs 11%. three.js was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (canvas, javascript), 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
| three.js | pixijs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 116K | ★ 48K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 37K | ⑂ 5.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick three.js if
- You weight community size — 116K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pixijs if
- You want the pixijs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and pixijs fits your workflow better
About three.js
three.js is an MIT licensed JavaScript 3D library that provides an easy to use, lightweight, cross browser, general purpose layer for rendering interactive 3D graphics in the browser, aimed at JavaScript developers who need 3D scenes on the web without writing raw GPU code.
read the full three.js overview →
About pixijs
PixiJS is an open source 2D rendering library for the web, described in its README as the HTML5 Creation Engine. It ships WebGL and WebGPU renderers and is written in TypeScript, distributed under the MIT license from the pixijs/pixijs repository, which has been developed for fourteen years and holds roughly 48,000 stars across about 5,000 forks. The project lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem: it is installed through npm and driven from browser code, with GLSL shaders, canvas, canvas2d, and rendering engine listed among its topics. Its homepage is pixijs.com, and the repository carries the Data and …
read the full pixijs overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is three.js or pixijs more popular?
three.js has 115,666 GitHub stars and pixijs has 48,189. three.js has the larger community by that measure.
Are three.js and pixijs free?
Both are open source. three.js is licensed under MIT and pixijs under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between three.js and pixijs?
three.js is written in JavaScript and pixijs 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, three.js or pixijs?
Choose three.js if you want the larger community (115,666 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pixijs if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.