Software Alternatives & Reviews

SFML VS GLFW

Compare SFML VS GLFW and see what are their differences

SFML logo SFML

SFML provides a simple interface to the various components of your PC, to ease the development of games and multimedia applications. It is composed of five modules: system, window, graphics, audio and network.

GLFW logo GLFW

GLFW is an Open Source, multi-platform library for OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan development on the...
  • SFML Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-29
  • GLFW Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-03-22

SFML videos

Coding a Simple SFML Game Framework in C++/ SFML

More videos:

  • Review - A Closer Look at SFML
  • Review - ALLEGRO vs. SDL vs. SFML (Game Programming Q&A)

GLFW videos

Computer Graphics with Modern OpenGL and C++ : [THEORY] Introduction to GLEW, GLFW and SDL

More videos:

  • Tutorial - OpenGL Tutorial 17 - GLFW Text/Character Input

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to SFML and GLFW)
Game Engine
62 62%
38% 38
Game Development
61 61%
39% 39
3D Game Engine
56 56%
44% 44
Tool
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using SFML and GLFW. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

GLFW might be a bit more popular than SFML. We know about 1 link to it since March 2021 and only 1 link to SFML. 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.

SFML mentions (1)

  • Open source recreation of the PS Vita game -- Calling all creators
    I would like to recreate the Plastic Memories PS Vita game as a free, open source, cross-platform (any platform SFML runs on*) game for everyone to enjoy. I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to put into it (I don't have much time between school and various other projects of mine) but I can handle the code, coordination, and source code hosting. Source: over 2 years ago

GLFW mentions (1)

  • Need help getting started with GLFW on Linux and VS Code
    I'm on Arch linux, so I runned sudo pacman -S glfw-x11 to get GLFW. I started vscode and copied the boiler plate code from glfw.org and then I tried to run it but I got a bunch of linking/definition (?) errors. Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing SFML and GLFW, you can also consider the following products

raylib - Cross-platform, open-source game development library in C.

Vulkan - Vulkan is a new generation graphics and compute API that provides high-efficiency, cross-platform access to modern GPUs used in a wide variety of devices from PCs and consoles to mobile phones and embedded platforms.

SDL - Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level...

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

WebGL - WebGL is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D computer graphics and 2D graphics within any compatible web browser.

Allegro - Allegro 4 and Allegro 5 are cross-platform, libraries mainly aimed at video game and multimedia...