# F3D vs Mapnik

## Key differences

- F3D has 1.2× as many GitHub stars as Mapnik (4.7K vs 4K).
- F3D had more development activity over the last 12 months: 696 commits vs 191.
- F3D is licensed under BSD-3-Clause; Mapnik under LGPL-2.1.
- Mapnik is the older project: its repository was created in 2011, F3D's in 2020.

| | F3D | Mapnik |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Cross-platform, fast, and minimalist 3D viewer with scientific visualization tools. | Toolkit for rendering maps, widely used to render OpenStreetMap tiles. |
| GitHub stars | 4,741 | 3,965 |
| Commits (12 months) | 696 | 191 |
| Contributors | 120 | 98 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | LGPL-2.1 |
| Language | C++ | C++ |
| Status | Active | Active |
| Install | `npm install f3d`, `pip install f3d` | – |

Source: https://awesomedataviz.com/compare/f3d-vs-mapnik/ · Data updated 2026-10-04 · Content: CC BY 4.0, Awesome Dataviz (https://awesomedataviz.com).