{"data":{"slug":"defold","name":"Defold","tagline":"Source-available Lua game engine; forever free, not OSI Open Source","category":"libraries","categoryName":"Libraries","url":"https://defold.com","github":"https://github.com/defold/defold","pricing":"source-available","hook":"Defold is the forever-free Lua engine for HTML5 and native when Phaser is JS-only canvas.","whatsGood":"Defold License v1.0. Forever free, no royalty. Lua scripting, HTML5 and native targets. Source available to read and build games. Small runtime, editor included.","theCatch":"LOUD: source-available NOT OSI Open Source — §4a may not commercialize as a Game Engine Product. Forever free for making games; license is not MIT/Apache. Vs Phaser/melonJS/KAPLAY JS engines. Distinct from Phaser, melonJS, and KAPLAY.","verdict":"Forever-free Lua engine. Source-available — not OSI OSS; do not ship it as your own engine product.","addedAt":"2026-09-04","featured":false,"domain":"Graphics & 3D","subSpecialty":"Game Engines","capabilities":["lua","html5","native"],"surfaces":[],"ecosystem":["Multi-platform","Browser"],"licenseModel":"Open-Core","githubStars":6283},"related":[{"slug":"hono","name":"Hono","tagline":"Tiny TypeScript web framework that runs on every runtime"},{"slug":"phaser","name":"Phaser","tagline":"MIT HTML5 2D game framework with scenes, physics, and tilemaps"},{"slug":"pixijs","name":"PixiJS","tagline":"MIT 2D WebGPU/WebGL renderer, not a game engine"},{"slug":"babylonjs","name":"Babylon.js","tagline":"Apache-2.0 3D engine for the web, now on v9"},{"slug":"playcanvas","name":"PlayCanvas","tagline":"MIT WebGL2/WebGPU engine plus an optional hosted Editor"}],"links":{"self":"/api/gems/defold","html":"/gems/defold","markdown":"/gems/defold.md","category":"/api/gems?category=libraries","categoryPage":"/stacks/libraries"}}