{"slug": "rive", "name": "Rive", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 10, "warners": 0, "score": 4.98, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2026-01-07", "latest": "2026-10-03", "why": "I think Rive[0] is quite competitive with what was possible back then in covering the full authoring stack.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 4, "compare": 2, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I think Rive[0] is quite competitive with what was possible back then in covering the full authoring stack.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "rive.app", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://rive.app/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Rive"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 799063472, "item_id": 49941467, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49941467", "by": "cisc", "date": "2026-10-03", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rive's a pretty good animation engine.", "excerpt": "> I understand why Apple killed Flash, but what we got in its place is not better. WebAssembly is better compilation target and runtime than Flash ever was. Many languages can compile to WebAssembly. I think what you want is an authoring tool like Flash. Why not make that tool? Or if you don't want to make it, Rive's a pretty good animation engine. You can make games with it: https://rive.app/ https://rive.app/docs/s", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Newgrounds.com \u2013 A community of games, music, and art"}, {"id": 756191776, "item_id": 47261986, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47261986", "by": "hobofan", "date": "2026-03-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think Rive[0] is quite competitive with what was possible back then in covering the full authoring stack.", "excerpt": "I think Rive[0] is quite competitive with what was possible back then in covering the full authoring stack. [0]: https://rive.app", "context": "", "use_case": "Interactive animation authoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "Building a New Flash"}, {"id": 756117360, "item_id": 47257335, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47257335", "by": "socalgal2", "date": "2026-03-04", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There are other apps that give you animated vector graphics", "excerpt": "I get that Flash hit a sweet spot. I'm not sure I get why nothing has really replaced it. There are other apps that give you animated vector graphics, in an IDE, with coding. Here's 2? https://rive.app/editor https://cavalry.scenegroup.co/ I believe Unity doesn't do flash style vector animations. It will take in SVGs, turn them into meshes and apply skeletons. That said, it has replaced Flash in turns of the 1000s an", "context": "", "use_case": "Animated vector graphics", "switched_from": "", "story": "Building a New Flash"}, {"id": 750378272, "item_id": 46898642, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46898642", "by": "hibern8", "date": "2026-02-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://rive.app", "excerpt": "https://rive.app", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adobe Animate will be discontinued effective March 1, 2026"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "spetex", "context": "Product designer, 10 years, Prague", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361040", "date": "2026-06-01"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["app design animations", "interactive animation authoring", "animated vector graphics"], "compared": [], "makers": [{"id": 733619056, "item_id": 45851191, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45851191", "by": "RiveCareers", "date": "2025-11-07", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We're on a mission to make hard-coded graphics a thing of the past", "excerpt": "Senior Backend Software Engineer, Rive.app Remote U.K. Full time. We're on a mission to make hard-coded graphics a thing of the past with a new general-purpose graphics format for all types of software and Ul. The backend team builds and operates the systems behind Rive\u2019s cloud platform, focusing on the services and infrastructure that provide the core APIs, real-time collaboration, file storage, and background proce", "context": "", "use_case": "graphics format and editor", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2025)"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47253177", "title": "Building a New Flash", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46473247", "title": "Math of Vector graphics on GPU, inspired by piet-GPU", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49940394", "title": "Newgrounds.com \u2013 A community of games, music, and art", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49908962", "title": "SDF vs. MSDF vs. Slug: GPU Text Rendering", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49417766", "title": "Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 \u2013 Show and tell", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48488553", "title": "HTML is a native image format, hear me out", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"compare": 1, "recommend": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 799063472, "item_id": 49941467, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49941467", "by": "cisc", "date": "2026-10-03", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rive's a pretty good animation engine.", "excerpt": "> I understand why Apple killed Flash, but what we got in its place is not better. WebAssembly is better compilation target and runtime than Flash ever was. Many languages can compile to WebAssembly. I think what you want is an authoring tool like Flash. Why not make that tool? Or if you don't want to make it, Rive's a pretty good animation engine. You can make games with it: https://rive.app/ https://rive.app/docs/s", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Newgrounds.com \u2013 A community of games, music, and art"}, {"id": 798812867, "item_id": 49925804, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49925804", "by": "cubicool", "date": "2026-10-01", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "We're still nowhere near the levels of libraries like Noesis or Rive", "excerpt": "I'm the author of slughorn/osgSlug, and was surprised to find this thread. The article my boss put out a few days ago focused mostly on the \"text-centric\" aspects of Slug (which is what it was originally created for, afterall), but slughorn has grown into WAY more than that now. :) Glyphs are, afterall, \"just shapes\", and the whole experiment started with my asking: \"why can't it just do ALL VECTOR GRAPHICS!?\" And so", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "SDF vs. MSDF vs. Slug: GPU Text Rendering"}, {"id": 790696113, "item_id": 49418507, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49418507", "by": "bobthe3", "date": "2026-08-24", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "upping the design with more Rive assets", "excerpt": "Solo iOS app that I have been working on since January: https://bhol.app - crossed 500 MRR in June. Seeing the traction and feedback from users is the best form of motivation to keep going. Now working on scaling it via UGC/social media, landing deals with local language schools, and upping the design with more Rive assets.", "context": "", "use_case": "app design animations", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 \u2013 Show and tell"}, {"id": 775828992, "item_id": 48489312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48489312", "by": "ricardobeat", "date": "2026-06-11", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "Or an existing engine like Rive?", "excerpt": "A vibe-coded, binary mashup of SMIL and web components. Interesting. If the goal is self-contained documents, is there anything here that can\u2019t be achieved with SVG alone, using SMIL [1] and embedded HTML via <foreignObject>? Or an existing engine like Rive? [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Guides/SVG_animation_with_SMIL", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "HTML is a native image format, hear me out"}, {"id": 773776642, "item_id": 48361040, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361040", "by": "spetex", "date": "2026-06-01", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Technologies: Figma, Framer, Rive, HTML/CSS", "excerpt": "Location: Prague, Czech Republic Remote: Yes (EU/CET timezone) Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Figma, Framer, Rive, HTML/CSS, AI-augmented workflows (agentic), design systems, React/TS/JS (historical) R\u00e9sum\u00e9/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahulapetr/ Email: contact@petrsahula.cz Product Designer with 10 years of digital product experience, based in Prague. I design and ship consumer apps end-to-end \u2014 wireframe", "context": "Product designer, 10 years, Prague", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 756191776, "item_id": 47261986, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47261986", "by": "hobofan", "date": "2026-03-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think Rive[0] is quite competitive with what was possible back then in covering the full authoring stack.", "excerpt": "I think Rive[0] is quite competitive with what was possible back then in covering the full authoring stack. [0]: https://rive.app", "context": "", "use_case": "Interactive animation authoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "Building a New Flash"}, {"id": 756117360, "item_id": 47257335, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47257335", "by": "socalgal2", "date": "2026-03-04", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There are other apps that give you animated vector graphics", "excerpt": "I get that Flash hit a sweet spot. I'm not sure I get why nothing has really replaced it. There are other apps that give you animated vector graphics, in an IDE, with coding. Here's 2? https://rive.app/editor https://cavalry.scenegroup.co/ I believe Unity doesn't do flash style vector animations. It will take in SVGs, turn them into meshes and apply skeletons. That said, it has replaced Flash in turns of the 1000s an", "context": "", "use_case": "Animated vector graphics", "switched_from": "", "story": "Building a New Flash"}, {"id": 750378272, "item_id": 46898642, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46898642", "by": "hibern8", "date": "2026-02-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://rive.app", "excerpt": "https://rive.app", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adobe Animate will be discontinued effective March 1, 2026"}, {"id": 744448704, "item_id": 46528044, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46528044", "by": "pier25", "date": "2026-01-07", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "you can use the Rive renderer in your C++ app", "excerpt": "AFAIK you can use the Rive renderer in your C++ app. http://github.com/rive-app/rive-runtime", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Math of Vector graphics on GPU, inspired by piet-GPU"}, {"id": 744394593, "item_id": 46524662, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46524662", "by": "lukan", "date": "2026-01-07", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I think Rive also does vector rendering on the GPU", "excerpt": "Yeah, I have high hopes for Vello to take off. I could throw away lots of hacks and caching and whatnot if I could do fast vector rendering reliable on the GPU. I think Rive also does vector rendering on the GPU https://rive.app/renderer But it is not really meant (yet?) as a general graphics libary, but just a renderer for the rive design tools.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Math of Vector graphics on GPU, inspired by piet-GPU"}]}