FeenoX vs OpenSim
FeenoX
seamplex.comOpenSim
opensim.stanford.eduSide by side
| Figure | FeenoX | OpenSim |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Physics Simulation Software | 8.8 (#3) | 8.7 (#6) |
| Audience | Official pages present FeenoX for industry engineers, Unix hackers and academic professors, with advanced users as the target audience. | The project describes OpenSim as suitable for research and teaching and welcomes academic and commercial applications. |
| Authoring tools | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Yes | Yes |
| Delivery mode | desktop | desktop |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Lesson library | No | Yes |
| License | FeenoX is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later version, with freedom to use, modify and redistribute it under the license terms. | The GUI and API are open source under Apache 2.0, while models, examples, and plugins may have their own licenses. |
| Purpose | FeenoX is a cloud-first computational engineering tool for solving engineering problems with one or many computers in parallel. | OpenSim models humans, animals, robots, and the environment, and simulates their interaction and movement. |
| Support | The project directs users to GitHub Discussions for help and GitHub Issues for bug reporting. | OpenSim provides documentation, tutorials, and a discussion forum where users can seek help from experts. |
| 3D visuals | Yes | Yes |
Plans
In their own words
FeenoX
FeenoX is free, open-source computational engineering software for solving mathematical and engineering problems, including work across computers in parallel. It handles ODEs and DAEs, along with finite-element problems such as heat conduction, thermo-mechanical analysis, modal analysis, neutron diffusion, and neutron transport. Users describe problems in self-descriptive, English-like plain-text input files, so changes do not require recompiling. FeenoX reads Gmsh meshes and writes results in Gmsh MSH or ParaView VTK/VTU formats. It uses GNU GSL, SUNDIALS, PETSc, and SLEPc for computational tasks, and supports MPI parallelization. Installation options include Debian or Ubuntu packages, source tarballs, the GitHub repository, and generic statically linked GNU/Linux binaries. Ubuntu packages are available from version 25.04 onward. The generic binaries omit MUMPS and MPI and use basic optimization flags. FeenoX has no graphical interface, targets GNU/Linux, and is not expected to run in Windows. Browser access is available through interfaces such as SunCAE and CAEplex.
OpenSim
OpenSim models and simulates how humans, animals, robots, and their environment move and interact. Its graphical interface displays models and supports creating and analyzing simulations. Models can contain rigid bodies, joints, constraints, contact, muscles, and other actuators. Movement analysis tools include inverse kinematics, inverse dynamics, static optimization, and forward dynamics; Computed Muscle Control can generate muscle-driven forward simulations. The API is usable through Matlab, Python, Java, and C++, and GUI scripting uses an embedded Jython shell. Plugins can add analyses and model components, but must be built for the same OpenSim version and platform. The graphical interface is distributed for 64-bit Windows and Mac, while there is no public Linux GUI distribution; the API source can be built for Linux. OpenSim is free and open source under Apache 2.0, though models, examples, and plugins may have separate licenses. It is intended for research and teaching and welcomes academic and commercial applications. Documentation, tutorials, and a discussion forum are available. Downloading requires a SimTK account.