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How Meep stacks up.

Meep is pinned. Pick up to two more engines to compare against. Sections cover web deployment, performance, architecture, graphics, AI tooling, workflow, licensing, and distribution targets.

Claims are evaluated against each engine's production web build — what actually ships in a browser today. Experimental backends are treated as not supported: if a feature only runs in a vendor-flagged experimental target, we mark the row as unavailable. Cross-compiled engines lose a lot of their native feature set in the WebGL 2 (GLES 3.0) translation; we mark those rows accordingly.

Pinned: Meep. Pick up to 2 more.

Web deployment

How the engine reaches a browser, and what that costs you in shipping size, startup time, and integration with the rest of your web stack.

	Meep Web-native	Unity Cross-compiled	Unreal Engine Cross-compiled
Runtime architecture	Native JavaScript Runs in the browser as JS; no cross-compile step.	C# → IL2CPP → WASM ⁸ Cross-compiled. Game logic runs as WebAssembly, not native JS.	✗ ¹⁴ No production web target. The HTML5 backend was deprecated in 4.24; the new 5.6 'for Web' project is experimental and not recommended for shipping.
Minimal bundle size ⓘ	~150 KB ^{1 ,2}	~5–15 MB ⁹ Compressed minimum for a near-empty build.	✗ ¹⁴ No production web build to measure.
Tree-shaking ⓘ	✓ ² Per-file ES modules, dead code drops cleanly.	◐ Code stripping at build, but the runtime is monolithic.	✗ Monolithic native runtime.
Asset streaming ⓘ	✓ AssetManager streams lazily by URL.	✓ Addressables system; requires explicit setup.	✗ ¹⁴ Native asset streaming exists, but with no production web target it doesn't reach a browser.
HTML / CSS / JS interop ⓘ	Native Game is a JS module; share the DOM, CSS, fetch, anything.	Bridged JS↔C# via SendMessage / .jslib — not native cohabitation.	✗ ¹⁴ No stable web build to interop with.
Native browser DevTools ⓘ	Full Set breakpoints in gameplay code, inspect entities in Sources.	Limited Source maps land in IL2CPP-emitted C++, not your C#.	✗ ¹⁴ No production web build to debug.
Mobile web	✓	◐ Runs, but bundle and memory are heavy for mobile browsers.	✗

Performance

What the engine can hold on screen and how steady the frame budget stays.

	Meep Web-native	Unity Cross-compiled	Unreal Engine Cross-compiled
Engine start after download ⓘ	< 200 ms ³ From bundle-loaded to first frame, on commodity hardware.	Several seconds WebAssembly compile + heap warmup + initial scene load on top of the multi-MB download.	✗ ¹⁴ No production web build.
Entity capacity at 60 FPS ⓘ	1,000,000 ⁴ Verified at 60 FPS in the live demo.	~10K – 30K ¹⁰ Classic GameObject path; Entities ECS data layout compiles to WebGL but the Burst + Jobs multipliers that drive DOTS native numbers don't transfer.	— Native excels; no production web target to measure.
GC-free architecture ⓘ	✓ Zero per-frame allocations across the core loop.	✗ ¹⁰ Mono runtime garbage-collects per frame on the WebGL target. The DOTS GC-light story relies on Burst, which doesn't deliver its native gains on web.	✓ C++ — no managed GC. Applies to native; no production web build.
Idle memory footprint	~20 MB	~150 MB+	— No production web build.
Concurrency model ⓘ	Cooperative task system ⁵ ConcurrentExecutor time-slices tasks with explicit dependencies. Workers optional, not required.	✗ ^{10 ,11} Jobs require Wasm threads (SharedArrayBuffer + COI) and Burst on WebGL is experimental. Treating experimental as not supported, the production web build is effectively main-thread.	Native threads Real OS threads on desktop / console. No production web build to evaluate.

Architecture

The shape of the codebase you'll work in day to day.

	Meep Web-native	Unity Cross-compiled	Unreal Engine Cross-compiled
Core pattern	Pure ECS One component per type per entity; queries are flat-array scans.	OOP (GameObject) ¹⁰ GameObject/Component is the default. The DOTS ECS path runs on WebGL but without the Burst + Jobs perf gains it's a costlier rewrite for little web benefit.	OOP (UObject) Reflection-driven C++ class hierarchy with Blueprints on top.
Scene format	Binary + JSON, versioned ⁶ First-class serialization with format-version reconciliation. User components are extensible via serialization adapters.	.scene / .prefab Binary-leaning YAML scene files.	.uasset (binary)
Editor model	Code-first No GUI editor required; edit code, not opaque scene files.	GUI-required Most workflows assume the Unity Editor.	GUI-required Unreal Editor is the workflow.
Engine source access	Yes Full source ships in the npm package — no binary blobs.	Subscription tier Reference source available; modification requires special agreement.	✓ Full C++ source available with an Epic account.

Graphics

Render-side features bundled in the box.

	Meep Web-native	Unity Cross-compiled	Unreal Engine Cross-compiled
3D rendering	✓	✓	✗ ¹⁴ AAA-class on native; not available in a production web build.
2D rendering	✓	✓ Strong 2D toolset (Tilemap, Sprite Atlas, 2D physics).	✗ Native Paper2D / UMG; not available in a production web build.
Many-light pipeline ⓘ	Forward+ Clustered, thousands of dynamic lights.	URP only on web ¹¹ Forward+ relies on structured buffers / compute, both absent on WebGL 2. URP forward is the practical web ceiling.	✗ ¹⁵ Lumen + Forward+ on native; no production web build.
PBR materials	✓	✓	✗ Native renderer is PBR-class; no production web build to deliver it.
Lightprobe GI + baking ⓘ	✓ Sparse lightprobe GI with built-in baker.	◐ ¹¹ Editor-baked lightmaps and light probes ship to the web target; real-time GI techniques do not.	✗ ¹⁵ Lightmass baker exists in the native editor; baked output cannot ship via a production web build because there isn't one.
Virtual textures + pipeline ⓘ	✓ Engine-native VT format with PNG → VT conversion tooling.	✗ ¹¹ Streaming Virtual Texturing is HDRP-only, and HDRP does not run on WebGL.	✗ ¹⁵ Streaming VT / Runtime VT exist on native; no production web build to consume them.
Decals	1M+ GPU-driven Decals are first-class entities, batched on the GPU.	Limited URP screen-space decals work on web; HDRP decal projectors do not.	✗ Decal projectors on native; no production web build.
Particle system	✓ Compiled into 4 shaders; no per-emitter state switching.	◐ ¹¹ Shuriken (CPU) works; VFX Graph (GPU) requires compute and is unavailable on WebGL.	✗ Niagara on native; no production web build.
Post-processing	✓	✓ URP post stack works; some compute-based effects don't.	✗ Native post stack; no production web build.
Offline path tracer ⓘ	✓ ⁷ Pure-JS, runs offline in a worker.	✗ HDRP-only feature, not present on the web target.	✗ ¹⁵ Offline Path Tracer is editor-only on native; no production web build either way.

Logic & AI

Decision-making and spatial-reasoning toolkits that come with the engine.

	Meep Web-native	Unity Cross-compiled	Unreal Engine Cross-compiled
Behavior trees	✓ Behavior trees with blackboards.	✗ Asset Store plugins (Behavior Designer, Opsive). Not in the box.	✗ Behavior Tree + Blackboard on native; no production web build to deliver them.
Grid pathfinding	✓ Grid A* over flat Uint8Array obstacle fields.	✗ Plugins on Asset Store.	✗ Plugins on native; no production web build.
Navmesh pathfinding	✓ Built-in navmesh builder + runtime pathfinder — rare outside AAA engines.	✓ Built-in NavMesh, NavMeshAgent.	✗ Native NavMesh; no production web build.
MCTS / search algorithms ⓘ	✓ Monte-Carlo Tree Search built in — see the chess example.	✗ Not provided; write your own.	✗
Inverse kinematics	✓ FABRIK inverse kinematics.	◐ Animation Rigging package; not a fully general IK toolkit.	✗ Control Rig + IK Rig on native; no production web build.
Physics	Targeted GJK collision, MLS-MPM fluids, intercept solvers — not a full rigid-body sim.	✓ PhysX (3D), Box2D (2D).	✗ Chaos on native; no production web build.
BVH spatial queries	✓ Scene BVH for broad-phase queries and raycasts.	✓ Internal broad-phase via PhysX.	✗ Available on native; no production web build.

Workflow

How code lives, how fast iteration is, how you extend the engine.

	Meep Web-native	Unity Cross-compiled	Unreal Engine Cross-compiled
Primary language	JavaScript	C#	C++ / Blueprints
Static typing	TypeScript via JSDoc .d.ts files emitted by the build for TS consumers.	✓ Statically typed C#.	✓
Hot reload	✓ Standard Vite HMR — no engine-specific reload dance.	Limited Domain reload is slow; hot-reload tooling is third-party.	Live Coding Patch-compile loop; limited compared to JS HMR.
Module granularity ⓘ	~3,000 modules ² Fine-grained; pull only what you reference.	Monolithic The runtime ships as one bundle; you don't import individual subsystems.	Monolithic

Licensing & cost

How the engine is licensed and what gets billed.

	Meep Web-native	Unity Cross-compiled	Unreal Engine Cross-compiled
License	Proprietary, source-available	Proprietary	Proprietary
Pricing model	One-time per project	Per-seat subscription (Pro / Enterprise) above the Personal threshold ¹²	Free until $1M / product ¹⁶
Runtime royalty	✗ No per-install, per-seat, or per-revenue runtime fee.	✗ ¹³ The 2023 Runtime Fee was retracted in 2024.	5% over $1M ¹⁶
Source available to licensees	✓ Full source ships in the npm package for every tier.	◐ Read-only reference source via subscription tiers.	✓
Revenue / funding gate	Funding-based Free under $50K funding & rev; Indie under $200K; Standard under $2M.	$200K revenue / funding ¹² Personal tier ceiling; Pro+ required above.	$1M lifetime / product ¹⁶

Distribution targets

Where finished products can ship.

	Meep Web-native	Unity Cross-compiled	Unreal Engine Cross-compiled
Web	Native The home target — runs in the browser without a cross-compiler.	Cross-compiled (WASM) ⁸	✗ ¹⁴ Experimental 'Unreal for Web' backend exists but is not production-ready. Treating experimental as not supported.
Desktop	Wrap (Electron / Tauri) Ship as a web app inside a desktop shell.	Native	Native
Mobile	Wrap (Capacitor / WebView)	Native	Native
Console	✗	✓ PlayStation, Xbox, Switch (via certified partner programs).	✓

Spotted something off? Email us. We try hard to be accurate about other engines and we'd rather fix a wrong claim than leave it hanging.