PlayCanvas
MIT WebGL/WebGPU 3D engine with a collaborative browser editor and free hosting
PlayCanvas pairs an MIT-licensed JavaScript 3D runtime (WebGL, WebGPU, WebXR, glTF) with a browser-based collaborative editor, so a team can build and ship real-time 3D without installing anything. Alongside the engine and editor it maintains SuperSplat for editing and optimising 3D Gaussian splats, and a Model Viewer for asset review. You can drive it from the visual editor, plain JavaScript, a React binding or Web Components, and free accounts get unlimited public projects with hosting included. It is for product teams adding configurators, WebXR scenes or splat viewers to a web app, and for browser game developers.
npm install playcanvasPrefer PlayCanvas over three.js when the deliverable is a whole scene a non-programmer must edit — the hosted editor, asset pipeline and free hosting are the actual product, and the engine alone is the smaller half of the value. Reach for it specifically for 3D Gaussian splats, where SuperSplat is the best free tooling available. Skip it for simple decorative 3D on a marketing page: react-three-fiber ships far less runtime, and PlayCanvas private projects need a paid seat.
Why it is here. One of very few 3D engines that is both genuinely open source and backed by a working collaborative editor, which is why it keeps showing up behind commercial web configurators.
- MIT engine, 16k stars
- browser-based collaborative editor
- SuperSplat Gaussian-splat tooling
- WebGPU and WebXR support
- free tier includes app hosting
Verified 2026-08-15. HTTP 200. https://playcanvas.com/, https://playcanvas.com/plans (exact tier prices), GitHub API repos/playcanvas/engine and repos/playcanvas/editor
