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Solar2D

solar2d.com
Design & Prototyping
Weekend Project

Awesome 2D Game Engine

How to Replace Solar2D
Compare:vs Autodesk Mayavs Powtoonvs Spline

Overview

Solar2D is a Lua-based game engine focused on ease of iterations and usage. It is a fully open source project forked from Corona SDK, designed for cross-platform game development across mobile, desktop, and connected TV devices with a single codebase.

Features

13 features across 8 categories

Community(2)

Community Forums

Join a vibrant community of thousands of developers using Solar2D for live games on Forums

Discord Chat

Community support and discussion available via Discord chat

Also in: Squarespace, Hugging Face, Obsidian

Core Technology(1)

Lua-based Scripting

Built on Lua, an open source scripting language designed to be lightweight, fast, yet powerful

Also in: Shapr3D, Orca Security, Sharethrough

Development(1)

Cross-platform Development

Develop for mobile, desktop, and connected TV devices with just one code base: iOS, tvOS, Android, Android TV, macOS, Windows, Linux or HTML5

Also in: Kissflow, Lattice, WordPress.com

Development Tools(2)

Instant Update Simulator

Update your code, save the changes, and instantly see the results in the simulator without rebuilding

Live Builds

Build and deploy your app once, then see code/assets update automatically across your local network on real devices

Also in: Kong, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure API Management, OpenAI API

Extensibility(4)

Native Library Integration

Call any native (C/C++/Obj-C/Java) library or API using Solar2D Native

Plugin System

Select from numerous plugins which extend the Solar2D core for features like in-app advertising, analytics, media, and much more

Solar2D Marketplace

Third party store for accessing plugins and extensions

Solar2D Plugins Directory

Free directory of plugins available for Solar2D

Also in: Labelbox, Obsidian, WordPress.com

Licensing(1)

Open Source

All source code and resources are available under the MIT license

Also in: Perforce Akana API Management Platform, SonarQube, AccountEdge

Reliability(1)

Production Ready

Official fork of Corona SDK, which has been in active development for over 10 years and used by hundreds of thousands of apps

Also in: Make, LiveKit, Internal-io

Security & Privacy(1)

Privacy-aware

Solar2D does not track users - no anonymized data gathering, no server calls, no network requests except those explicitly requested

Also in: Anyword, ProWritingAid, Rephrase

Pricing

Free

Popular
Completely Free
  • ✓No hidden fees, charges, or royalties
  • ✓Available for indie developers and large publishers
  • ✓Full access to engine features

Cost Calculator

Pricing data not available for Solar2D. Check their website for current pricing.

Build vs Buy

Should you build a Solar2D alternative or buy the subscription? Estimate based on 13 features.

Buy Solar2D

Better Value
Monthly costContact Sales
3-year totalVaries
Time to deployDays

Build Your Own

Development cost$12,000
Maintenance$180/mo
3-year total$18,480
Dev time~1 months

Buying Solar2D saves ~$18,480 over 3 years vs building.

Estimates based on 13 features and a BuildScore of 5/5. Actual costs vary.