SHSelfHostIndex

EmulatorJS vs RomM

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted game engines & frameworks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
EM EmulatorJS Self-hosted in-browser retro game emulator VS RO RomM Self-hosted ROM manager and retro game library
FeatureEmulatorJSRomM
CategoryGame Engines & FrameworksGame Engines & Frameworks
LicenseGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguageJavaScriptPython
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, source
GitHub stars★ 4,074★ 11,967
First released20202023
ReplacesRetroArch webPlaynite, LaunchBox

Why pick each one

Choose EmulatorJS if…

  • Pure client-side
  • Easy to embed
EmulatorJS details

Choose RomM if…

  • Beautiful interface
  • Play games in browser
RomM details

Frequently asked questions

Is EmulatorJS or RomM better?

Neither is universally better. RomM has the larger community, while EmulatorJS is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are EmulatorJS and RomM free and open-source?

Yes. EmulatorJS is licensed under GPL-3.0 and RomM under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run EmulatorJS and RomM with Docker?

EmulatorJS: yes. RomM: yes.

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