head to head · open source
anime vs webgradients
anime has 74,369 GitHub stars, 5,060 forks, 118 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. webgradients has 2,496 stars, 145 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. anime leads on adoption by 2,880% (74,369 vs 2,496 stars). anime is written in JavaScript under MIT; webgradients is written in CSS under MIT. anime has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, webgradients 6%. anime was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (css), 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
| anime | webgradients | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 74K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | CSS |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 145 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick anime if
- You weight community size — 74K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick webgradients if
- You want the webgradients feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches CSS
- You evaluated both and webgradients fits your workflow better
About anime
Anime.js Anime.js is a fast, multipurpose and lightweight JavaScript animation library with a simple, yet powerful API. It works with CSS properties, SVG, DOM attributes and JavaScript Objects. Sponsors Anime.js is 100% free and is only made possible with the help of our sponsors. Help the project become sustainable by sponsoring us on GitHub Sponsors . Platinum sponsors Silver sponsors Get featured here by becoming a GitHub Sponsor . Usage Anime.js V4 works by importing ES modules like so: V4 Documentation The full documentation is available here. V3 Migration guide You can find the v3 to v4 migration guide…
read the full anime overview →
About webgradients
WebGradients If you like WebGradients, consider supporting the project — it helps keep the tools free, fast, and ad free. A curated collection of 180 splendid gradients made in CSS3 , .sketch , .PSD and Figma formats — free for personal and commercial use. View all the gradients here » Made by Dima Braven · itmeo Machine readable data All 180 gradients are also available as structured JSON — useful for design tools, generators, or feeding gradient data to an LLM/agent: gradients.json — full dataset with per stop color positions gradients parsed.json — flattened variant with zero padded index deg is the CSS…
read the full webgradients overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is anime or webgradients more popular?
anime has 74,369 GitHub stars and webgradients has 2,496. anime has the larger community by that measure.
Are anime and webgradients free?
Both are open source. anime is licensed under MIT and webgradients under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between anime and webgradients?
anime is written in JavaScript and webgradients in CSS. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, anime or webgradients?
Choose anime if you want the larger community (74,369 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose webgradients if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.