Software Alternatives & Reviews

Three.js VS PlayCanvas

Compare Three.js VS PlayCanvas and see what are their differences

Three.js logo Three.js

A JavaScript 3D library which makes WebGL simpler.

PlayCanvas logo PlayCanvas

PlayCanvas is an open-source game engine built on WebGL and WebVR.
  • Three.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-05-05
  • PlayCanvas Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-22

Three.js videos

Getting Started With Three.js

More videos:

  • Review - Ricardo Cabello (Mr doob) - 5 years of three.js

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.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Three.js and PlayCanvas)
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Game Development
27 27%
73% 73
Flowcharts
100 100%
0% 0
Game Engine
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Three.js and PlayCanvas. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

Three.js Reviews

Top 20 Javascript Libraries
Cross-browser JS library and API that allows for the creation of beautiful animations, Three.js relies on WebGL rather than conventional browser-plugins. Through its library utilities, developers can include complex 3D animations on their website without much effort. Three.js include many features like geometry, lights, materials, shaders, effects, scenes, data loaders,...
Source: hackr.io

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Three.js should be more popular than PlayCanvas. It has been mentiond 229 times since March 2021. 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.

Three.js mentions (229)

  • Finding Stars and Affirmations in the Sky with Three.js for Ayra Starr
    Here's how we used Three.js to place and find affirmations in the sky. - Source: dev.to / 27 days ago
  • Incredible JavaScript Animation Libraries
    Three.js is dedicated to generating 3D visuals, offering a powerful suite of features and tools. It is built atop WebGL and optimizes GPU usage for rapid rendering, ensuring smooth performance across devices, including those with limited resources. Three.js's versatility allows for the creation of a vast spectrum of 3D graphics and animations, ranging from simple shapes to intricate models. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • React: A Mess That Shouldn't Exist In Web Development
    Most of frontend libraries are made with Vanilla JS. An example of library that you might frequently use is "Chart.js". But React is not compatible with Chart.js so here it comes "React-chartjs-2" A wrapper library to work with Chart.js in React ecosystem. Oh you want to use "three.js" for some cool 3D? You will need "React-three/fiber". In my case, I need to implement "telegram-web-app", not so fast, I have to... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • JPEG XL Is a Stupid Name
    The websites uses a 3D library called three.js https://threejs.org/ I think it is used for the loading splash screen. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Things you should know before learning Three.js
    For one of my 100-Day Challenges, I chose to dive into Three.js, a JavaScript 3D library. It's easy to start learning, and it becomes difficult to master with the inclusion of shaders. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

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
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Three.js and PlayCanvas, you can also consider the following products

p5.js - JS library for creating graphic and interactive experiences

Unity - The multiplatform game creation tools for everyone.

PixiJS - Fast and flexible WebGL-based HTML5 game and app development library.

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

Pixi.js - Fast lightweight 2D library that works across all devices

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