head to head · open source
manim vs webgradients
manim has 94,156 GitHub stars, 7,734 forks, 500 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. webgradients has 2,478 stars, 140 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. manim leads on adoption by 3,700% (94,156 vs 2,478 stars). manim is written in Python under MIT; webgradients is written in CSS under MIT. manim has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, webgradients 6%. manim was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| manim | webgradients | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 94K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | CSS |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-08-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.7K | ⑂ 140 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick manim if
- You weight community size — 94K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- 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 manim
Manim is a Python animation engine for precise, programmatic rendering of explanatory mathematics videos, built for educators, mathematicians, and developers who want frame accurate control over every element of a mathematical animation instead of editing on a timeline.
read the full manim overview →
About webgradients
WebGradients is a curated, MIT licensed collection of 180 ready made gradients distributed as CSS3, Sketch, PSD and Figma assets alongside a machine readable JSON dataset, aimed at frontend developers, designers and AI agent builders who need polished background colour treatments without composing them from scratch.
read the full webgradients overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is manim or webgradients more popular?
manim has 94,156 GitHub stars and webgradients has 2,478. manim has the larger community by that measure.
Are manim and webgradients free?
Both are open source. manim is licensed under MIT and webgradients under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between manim and webgradients?
manim is written in Python 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, manim or webgradients?
Choose manim if you want the larger community (94,156 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose webgradients if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.