Godot vs GDevelop: code or events, and where each one ships

Godot is MIT licensed, and so are GDevelop's core library, game engines, editor and extensions, in its repository's own words. A game made with either can be sold without paying a royalty or opening its source.

So the choice is not about cost or ownership. It is about how you want to build, and what you need to ship.

GDevelop describes itself as no-code. Game logic is built from what its repository calls an event-based system and modular behaviours: rows of conditions and actions, such as "if the player collides with a coin, add 1 to the score and delete the coin", picked from lists rather than typed.

Godot's logic is code: GDScript, a Python-like language built for the engine, or C#. A coin is an Area2D whose body_entered signal calls a function you write. More to learn at first, and no ceiling later: anything the engine can do, a script can do.

The obvious reading is that events are for beginners and code is for professionals. It is closer to say events are fast for the things the event list covers, and code is fast for everything else. A platformer with stock movement is quick in GDevelop. A systems-heavy game, with a crafting tree, a save format and AI that plans, is where a scripting language earns its keep.

GDevelop's game engine is written in TypeScript, and its editor in JavaScript with React, Electron, PixiJS and Three.js, according to its repository. Games run on web technology, which is why gd.games, its own web portal, can host them directly.

Godot is a native engine written in C++. In Godot 4 it renders with Forward+ on Vulkan, Direct3D 12 or Metal, a Mobile renderer, and a Compatibility renderer on OpenGL for older hardware and the web. That is the difference that shows up in 3D: lighting, global illumination, particles and shaders are the engine's own, not a browser's.

Godot exports from the editor to Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and the web, using export templates you download once. It needs no account, and nothing limits how many builds you make.

GDevelop exports to mobile, desktop and the web. Its one-click builds run in its cloud, and its pricing page lists the free plan's limits: desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux) builds 1 per day, Android 1 per day, iOS not on the free plan (15 or 30 a month on paid plans), and publishing to gd.games unlimited. The free plan also lists 3 cloud projects, 1 leaderboard per game and multiplayer at 1 lobby of 4 players.

For a hobby project those limits rarely bind. For a release week, with a build after every fix, one desktop build a day is worth knowing about in advance.

Both are strong in 2D: sprites, tilemaps, physics, cameras, particles. GDevelop added 3D objects and scenes on Three.js, and they suit simple 3D. Godot's 3D is a full renderer with PBR materials, real-time global illumination (SDFGI, VoxelGI), baked lightmaps, and a scene tree that treats 3D as a first-class citizen.

If your game is 3D, or might become 3D, that decides it.

Pick GDevelop if you do not want to write code, your game is 2D or simple 3D, and you value publishing to the web in one click. Its event system is a real strength for people who think in rules rather than functions.

Pick Godot if you want to write or read your game's code, need serious 3D, want native builds with no build limits, or expect the project to grow past what a list of events expresses comfortably.

There is a third path now. With an AI agent writing the GDScript, Godot's learning curve stops being the deciding factor: you describe the coin, the agent writes the Area2D and the signal, and you read code you can change. That is what the Flockbay app does on the official Godot, with the code in your own project folder.