Mesen vs Panda3DS
Mesen
mesen.ca
Panda3DS
panda3ds.comSide by side
| Figure | Mesen | Panda3DS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Game Console Emulators | 7.7 (#21) | 8.3 (#8) |
| Builds | Development builds are provided for Windows, Linux x64 and ARM64, and macOS Intel and Apple Silicon. | Panda3DS offers nightly builds that update automatically and may contain newer, less-tested features, plus stable builds updated manually every few weeks. |
| License | Mesen is available under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later. | The emulator is licensed under GPLv3, while the website is under the MIT License. |
| Product | Mesen is a multi-system emulator for Windows, Linux and macOS. | Panda3DS is an emulator for the Nintendo 3DS. |
Plans
In their own words
Panda3DS
Panda3DS is a free, open-source emulator for Nintendo 3DS games on computers and portable devices. It supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android, with Lua scripting, cheats, controller input, support for some system apps, and work-in-progress amiibo support. The project offers automatically updated nightly builds and manually updated stable builds released every few weeks. Desktop builds include an SDL frontend without a GUI and an experimental Qt frontend with a user interface. Panda3DS is still in early development: many games boot, while many do not, and graphics, audio, and usability features can be incomplete. Compatibility information may not always be up to date, and not all games have been tested. Android is also early in development, so compatibility and performance may differ from desktop. Audio support is experimental; the configuration menu is still being developed, and settings must be changed by editing config.toml in a text editor. The emulator is licensed under GPLv3.