EmulatorJS vs Provenance
EmulatorJS
emulatorjs.org
Provenance
provenance-emu.comSide by side
| Figure | EmulatorJS | Provenance |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $3.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Game Boy Advance Emulators | 8.1 (#7) | 8.5 (#2) |
| Spec score · Multi-System Emulators | 8.0 (#21) | 8.5 (#8) |
| Spec score · Sega CD Emulators | 8.1 (#10) | 8.4 (#7) |
| Maker | The site credits @ethanaobrien and @allancoding. | Joseph Mattiello is identified as Provenance's creator and lead developer. |
| Open source | The official site describes EmulatorJS as open source. | The project publishes its source code on GitHub and identifies its license as BSD. |
| Purpose | EmulatorJS is a web-based frontend for RetroArch that lets users embed an emulator in a website. | Provenance is a free, open-source multi-system retro game emulator frontend for Apple platforms. |
| Supported systems | The supported systems documentation lists platforms including NES, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, PSP, Sega systems, and Commodore systems, and notes that its list may be out of date. | The project advertises support for more than 50 systems, including NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Wii, 3DS, PlayStation, PSP, Saturn and Dreamcast. |
Plans
Provenance
- FreeFree
- Monthly$3.99 a month
- Annual$39.99 a year
- Lifetime$99.99, paid once
In their own words
EmulatorJS
EmulatorJS is a free, open-source frontend for RetroArch that lets a site owner embed an emulator in a web page. The project provides a code generator, and says the resulting embed can be added with a few lines of code. EmulatorJS uses RetroArch’s libretro cores to run games. Its supported systems documentation includes NES, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, PSP, Sega systems, and Commodore systems, though the project warns that this list may be out of date. Built-in options allow customization, and multiple languages are supported. The project describes EmulatorJS as a library or plugin rather than a standalone website, and it does not provide a Docker container. A public CDN offers paths labeled stable, latest, and nightly. The listed platforms are web, Android, iOS, and self-hosted. Pages must be served through a web server; opening an HTML file directly is unsupported. Threaded cores may improve performance, but need SharedArrayBuffer enabled through COOP and COEP response headers. The 4.3.0-pre release is marked as a prerelease and is discouraged for production use where stability is needed.
Provenance
Provenance is a free, open-source retro game emulator frontend for Apple platforms, available for iOS and macOS. It supports more than 38 console systems, including systems from Atari, Nintendo, Sega, and Sony. Its library can display automatically downloaded box art, screenshots, release details, ratings, and scanned manuals. Listed emulation features include save states, cheats, fast forward, shaders, visual filters, controller support, RetroAchievements, and multiplayer. Apple integration includes native tvOS, Apple TV TopShelf, Siri Remote, Spotlight search, Siri shortcuts, and iCloud sync; Apple TV supports MFi, Xbox, and PlayStation gamepads. Nearly all CD-based cores support CHD disc images, and the native Mednafen core has a custom CHD implementation. The source is published on GitHub under the BSD license. Installation options include the App Store, sideloading with AltStore or SideStore, and building from source. The free plan includes emulation features when sideloaded or built from source. Plus adds iCloud sync and priority support.