Software Alternatives & Reviews

PlayCanvas VS Scratch

Compare PlayCanvas VS Scratch and see what are their differences

PlayCanvas logo PlayCanvas

PlayCanvas is an open-source game engine built on WebGL and WebVR.

Scratch logo Scratch

Scratch is the programming language & online community where young people create stories, games, & animations.
  • PlayCanvas Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-22
  • Scratch Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-17

PlayCanvas videos

PlayCanvas Turns 1.0! Open Source 3D HTML5 Game Engine Is All Grown Up

More videos:

  • Tutorial - PlayCanvas Revisited -- Bowling With PlayCanvas Tutorial
  • Review - WebGL R&D: Unity vs Unreal vs PlayCanvas Comparison.

Scratch videos

Scratch 3.0 Review: My Thoughts About Scratch 3.0

More videos:

  • Review - Numark PT01 Scratch Review
  • Review - Meguiar's scratch X 2.0 review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PlayCanvas and Scratch)
Game Development
37 37%
63% 63
Kids Education
0 0%
100% 100
Game Engine
49 49%
51% 51
3D Game Engine
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using PlayCanvas and Scratch. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare PlayCanvas and Scratch

PlayCanvas Reviews

Best Game Engines for Linux in 2021
PlayCanvas is an advanced WebGL game engine. With PlayCanvas, you can create interactive VR and 3D games. This game engine runs directly from the browser.
Source: kerneltips.com

Scratch Reviews

  1. TOO GOOD

    It is just awesome. you can make so many things WITHOUT A TEAM! If you are starting then this is an awesome place to start at.

    🏁 Competitors: Python, Java, Code.org
    👍 Pros:    Good UI|Remix|Works perfectly|100% free|Many, many languages

16 Scratch Alternatives
It can even permit anyone to access its junior program through which kids can learn how to make any app by taking their focus on the study related to programming. Scratch also comes with facilitating users with the permission to mix all the programming blocks so that they can create multiple characters for singing, jumping, dancing, moving, and more.
Coding Websites That Help Kids Learn Programming In A Fun Way in 2023
Scratch, created by MIT students, teaches coding by allowing students to create tales, games, and animations using programming blocks. There is a vibrant online community as well as a step-by-step tutorial to assist those who are just getting started. Students can also use an offline editor to revise their work. ScratchJr, a simplified version of the software, is targeted at...
20 Best Scratch Alternatives 2023
Unlike Scratch, Snap targets not only kids but also high school and college students. The platform provides a solution for serious computer science study, while Scratch focuses on just the basics.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Scratch seems to be a lot more popular than PlayCanvas. While we know about 557 links to Scratch, we've tracked only 29 mentions of PlayCanvas. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

PlayCanvas mentions (29)

  • Normal Map Interpolation on Deferred Shading
    For some reason that I cannot understand in my case the calculated shading normals are pixelated. Compared to playcanvas.com (probably a forward renderer), mine is like utter shit. Source: 10 months ago
  • Migrating from WordPress After 12 Years
    PlayCanvas has been using WordPress for 12 years now. Generally speaking, it's been fine. However, after much consideration, we have migrated away to Jekyll + GitHub Pages. I thought our experience might be of interest to other WordPress users (if only to confirm why you wouldn't consider switching): Https://blog.playcanvas.com/moving-from-wordpress-to-jekyll-a-case-study/ Interested to hear peoples' thoughts... Source: 11 months ago
  • I made a 3D editor that models in pure CSS+HTML
    It's just a cool tech demo that pushes CSS to its limits, but it's completely useless if you want to create usable 3d models. If you want to model in the browser, you can check out vectary, playcanvas, or spline. Source: 11 months ago
  • I made a 3D editor that models in pure CSS+HTML
    The model in the video has no spheres, which is why the performance is decent. In any case, I agree with you for the most part, I'm just lazy and didn't expect anyone to actually want to use this for serious modelling. You should check out playcanvas or vectary if you are serious about in-browser 3D modelling. Source: 11 months ago
  • Help With Web AR App Project Completion?
    Hey, I do not have any experience with deepar.ai so I’m not super familiar with the process using that platform. In my opinion I’d probably recommend another platform to try and accomplish this. Since you mentioned that you have everything set up in a engine already (lens studio) I’d recommend you just use a webxr engine. In my experience the two best engines are https://playcanvas.com and... Source: 11 months ago
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Scratch mentions (557)

  • Screen-free coding for children: the xylophone maze
    And https://codecombat.com, which has been around for a while now. I think this paradigm (navigating a character using "move" function invocations) is good but kind of exhausts its usefulness after a while. I question whether my daughter learns coding this way or just is playing a turn based top down platformer. The most code like thing is when you use 'loops' to have characters repeat sequences of moves. I... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: Yo wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
    +1 Scratch! My son started with it, then expanded into Roblox/Lua. Children can download other people's games and experiment there. Scratch also has pre-made art, sounds, music. https://scratch.mit.edu/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Ask HN: Yo wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
    I am also going to highly recommend Scratch[1]. That is what got me into a programming around that age. You can even help him make a website to host his games on. [1]: https://scratch.mit.edu/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Ask HN: Yo wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
    This ! Learning to code will come after, spending time with your son writing down ideas might be more fun at first and it's a good time to teach him that games are thoughts first and then coded after. I would have recommended Scratch [1] for a first introduction instead of hoping into code right away, but since he is 9yo he will most likely want to hop on big game engine like he sees his favorite youtubers doing.... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Ask HN: Yo wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
    How about using https://scratch.mit.edu/ ? - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing PlayCanvas and Scratch, you can also consider the following products

Unity - The multiplatform game creation tools for everyone.

Code.org - Code.org is a non-profit whose goal is to expose all students to computer programming.

Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 4 is a suite of integrated tools for game developers to design and build games, simulations, and visualizations.

Godot Engine - Feature-packed 2D and 3D open source game engine.

Blender - Blender is the open source, cross platform suite of tools for 3D creation.

GDevelop - GDevelop is an open-source game making software designed to be used by everyone.