See how Needle, Spline, and Unreal Engine compare across key features and capabilities for usage on the web and creating XR experiences for designers, developers and teams.
View all platform comparisonsWeb-first runtime integrated with Unity and Blender plugins, complemented by Needle Cloud for optimization and hosting. Needle | ![]() A web-based, real-time collaborative 3D design tool focused on creating interactive web experiences without requiring coding knowledge. Exports self-contained web packages or specific formats. Spline | ![]() High-fidelity engine primarily for native games/apps. Web strategy focuses on Pixel Streaming (server-side rendering) or exporting assets (glTF) for use in other web engines. Unreal Engine | |
---|---|---|---|
Core Platform & Workflow | |||
Solution Type | 3D Engine Cloud Platform Optimization Tool Web Component Needle Solution Type:
3d-engine, cloud-platform, authoring-tool, optimization-tool, web-component A comprehensive suite including a runtime engine, cloud services for optimization/hosting, authoring via Unity/Blender plugins, and embeddable web component output. | 3D Engine Cloud Platform Web Component Spline Solution Type:
3d-engine, cloud-platform, authoring-tool, web-component An online platform for 3D design and animation, with direct export options for web integration. | Unreal Engine Solution Type:
authoring-tool Primarily an authoring tool for creating experiences delivered via Pixel Streaming. No longer supports direct WebGL/Wasm client export. |
Made for the web | Needle Made for the web:
Yes Built from the ground up for the web, focusing on fast loading, efficient rendering, and cross-platform web deployment. | Spline Made for the web:
Yes Focuses on creating optimized interactive experiences specifically for the web, with tools to analyze and improve performance. | Unreal Engine Made for the web:
No A high-end engine designed for native performance. Web deployment relies on asset export or streaming. |
Typical Workflows | Unity Editor Blender Editor Code HTML Asset Upload Needle Typical Workflows:
Unity Editor, Blender Editor, Code, HTML, Asset Upload Primary workflow involves using Unity or Blender as the authoring environment, exporting scenes and logic. Custom scripts (TypeScript/JavaScript) extend functionality. | Web Editor Spline Typical Workflows:
Web Editor Primarily a visual design tool where scenes and interactions are built using a graphical interface. Logic is handled through an event/state system. | Standalone Editor Visual Scripting Code Unreal Engine Typical Workflows:
Standalone Editor, Visual Scripting, Code Content creation uses the Unreal Editor with Blueprints (visual scripting) or C++. |
Use with Unity | Needle Use with Unity:
Yes Deep integration with Unity Editor via dedicated plugin, allowing export of scenes, C# scripts (transpiled), materials (Shader Graph), animations, and components. | Spline Use with Unity:
No Exports glTF/USDZ which can be imported into Unity, but there is no direct integration or specific workflow. | Unreal Engine Use with Unity:
No Separate engine. |
Use with Blender | Needle Use with Blender:
Yes Integration with Blender via addon, supporting export of scenes, materials, animations, and custom logic nodes. | Spline Use with Blender:
No Can import formats like glTF (often exported from Blender) and export glTF, but no direct integration. | Unreal Engine Use with Blender:
No Separate engine. |
Interactivity Building Blocks | Needle Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Includes a rich set of components for common interactions, animations, and UI elements. | Spline Interactivity Building Blocks:
Yes Visual design tool with built-in interactive components for common behaviors like drag, hover, click interactions. | Unreal Engine Interactivity Building Blocks:
No Components can be created via scripting, but there is no built-in library of interactivity components. |
Extensible with Coding | Needle Extensible with Coding:
Yes Uses TypeScript with full IDE support in both Unity and standalone projects. | Limited Spline Extensible with Coding:
Limited Visual event system allows for creating interactive behaviors without coding. Limited JavaScript API for exported scenes. | Unreal Engine Extensible with Coding:
Yes Blueprints visual scripting and C++. |
Engine Capabilities | |||
Physically-Based Rendering | Needle Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Supports Physically Based Rendering (PBR), custom shaders (via Unity Shader Graph export), lighting, and post-processing effects. | Good Spline Physically-Based Rendering:
Good Supports PBR materials through a layer-based system, lighting (directional, spot, point), shadows, and post-processing effects. | Unreal Engine Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes High-end rendering capabilities (Nanite, Lumen, PBR) for desktop and high-performance mobile devices. |
Component System | Needle Component System:
Yes Leverages the component-based architecture of Unity/Blender, extended with custom web-specific components. | Spline Component System:
Yes Features a 'Component' system allowing reuse of objects and their properties, aiding in creating design systems within Spline, but differs from traditional ECS architectures. | Unreal Engine Component System:
Yes Uses the Actor-Component model. |
Built-in Networking | Needle Built-in Networking:
Yes Built-in real-time networking for multiplayer and collaborative applications. | Spline Built-in Networking:
No Supports real-time collaboration within the editor but does not provide features for runtime networking or multiplayer experiences in exported applications. | Unreal Engine Built-in Networking:
Yes Pixel Streaming is fundamentally a networking solution. Unreal Engine has robust native networking. |
Timelines and Sequencing | Needle Timelines and Sequencing:
Yes Supports timeline-based sequencing, complex animations, animator state machines, blending, and more. | Spline Timelines and Sequencing:
Yes Includes timeline-based animation system for keyframe animation and sequencing. | Unreal Engine Timelines and Sequencing:
Yes Comprehensive Sequencer timeline system for cinematic sequences and complex animation control. |
Animation Controls | Needle Animation Controls:
Yes Supports complex animations authored in Unity (Animator, Timeline) or Blender and exports them for the web. | Spline Animation Controls:
Yes Supports keyframe animation, state-based transitions, and interactive events to trigger animations. | Unreal Engine Animation Controls:
Yes Supports complex animations. |
Animated Materials | Needle Animated Materials:
Yes Supports material animations, shader graph, and procedural material effects. | Spline Animated Materials:
Yes Supports material animation through the timeline system and visual animation tools. | Unreal Engine Animated Materials:
Yes Advanced material system with dynamic parameters, material instances, and material functions. |
Audio Playback | Needle Audio Playback:
Yes Supports spatial audio configured via Unity/Blender components. | Spline Audio Playback:
Yes Supports adding sounds to scenes, including positional audio and background music. | Unreal Engine Audio Playback:
Yes Audio features are part of the engine. |
Video Playback | Needle Video Playback:
Yes Supports video textures and playback controlled via components. | Spline Video Playback:
Yes Supports using videos as textures on 3D models. | Unreal Engine Video Playback:
Yes Supported within the streamed Unreal application. |
Physics Integration | Needle Physics Integration:
Yes Integrates with physics engines, configured via Unity/Blender components. | Spline Physics Integration:
Yes Includes built-in physics simulation capabilities for creating dynamic interactions. | Unreal Engine Physics Integration:
Yes Physics simulation is part of the engine but not exported via glTF. |
glTF 3D Support | Excellent Needle glTF 3D Support:
Excellent Uses glTF as its core runtime format and supports import of various formats (FBX, USD, VRM etc.) which are converted. | Spline glTF 3D Support:
Yes Can import and export models in glTF format for interoperability with other tools. | Unreal Engine glTF 3D Support:
Yes Provides an official importer and exporter for glTF assets. |
Custom User Interfaces | Needle Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Facilitates creation of UI using standard HTML/CSS and frontend frameworks, integrated with the 3D scene. | Limited Spline Custom User Interfaces:
Limited UI elements are typically created using 3D text and objects within the scene itself; no dedicated 2D canvas UI system. | Unreal Engine Custom User Interfaces:
Yes Features the UMG UI Designer. |
Web Integration & Deployment | |||
Web Component | Needle Web Component:
Yes Exports projects as standard web components (<needle-engine> tag) for easy embedding into any HTML page or web application. | Spline Web Component:
Yes Exports can be embedded using iframe or Javascript code snippets, including a React component export and a generic web component ('spline-viewer') for better performance with multiple embeds. The authoring tool itself is not web component based. | Unreal Engine Web Component:
No Pixel Streaming requires a custom client player. |
PWA Support | Needle PWA Support:
Yes Being web-native, Needle Engine projects can be easily included in Progressive Web Apps for offline capabilities and installation. | Spline PWA Support:
No Spline exports can be included within a PWA, but Spline itself doesn't provide specific features for PWA development. | Unreal Engine PWA Support:
No Not supported. |
HTML/CSS Integration | Excellent Needle HTML/CSS Integration:
Excellent Designed to seamlessly integrate with HTML, CSS, and frontend frameworks (React, Vue, Svelte etc.), allowing blending of 2D UI and 3D content. | Good Spline HTML/CSS Integration:
Good Designed to be easily embedded into HTML pages using generated code snippets (iframe or JavaScript). | Unreal Engine HTML/CSS Integration:
No Pixel Streaming client allows some UI customization and JS interaction, but doesn't contain features to make this easy. |
Host Anywhere | Needle Host Anywhere:
Yes The core runtime can be self-hosted on any static server. Needle Cloud features (optimization, hosting, analytics) require the cloud service. | Spline Host Anywhere:
Yes Exports are self-contained web packages deployable on static servers. Spline also offers hosting for public URL embeds. | Unreal Engine Host Anywhere:
No Pixel Streaming requires significant server infrastructure (GPU instances). glTF export requires only static hosting for assets. |
Asset Hosting | Needle Asset Hosting:
Yes Needle Cloud provides managed hosting and CDN delivery for optimized assets. | Spline Asset Hosting:
Yes Spline hosts scenes shared via Public URLs. Exported code/files can be self-hosted. | Unreal Engine Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting. |
App Hosting | Needle App Hosting:
Yes Needle Cloud provides managed hosting and CDN delivery for optimized applications. | Unreal Engine App Hosting:
No Requires external hosting. | |
Performance & Optimization | |||
Engine Size | Medium Needle Engine Size:
Medium Optimized runtime aims for minimal footprint, size depends on included features. | Medium/Large (includes runtime) Spline Engine Size:
Medium/Large (includes runtime) Exports include the Spline runtime, which can increase the initial download size compared to solutions using shared runtimes or minimal frameworks. Size depends on scene complexity and export settings. | Large Unreal Engine Engine Size:
Large Not applicable for client-side web builds. |
Loading Performance | Excellent Needle Loading Performance:
Excellent Rapid development cycles and fast loading times through optimized runtime and asset handling. | Moderate Spline Loading Performance:
Moderate Loading times depend heavily on scene complexity, polygon count, texture sizes, and the included runtime. Optimization tools are provided, but complex scenes can experience noticeable load times. | Low Unreal Engine Loading Performance:
Low Pixel Streaming load time involves connecting to the server. |
Runtime Performance | Excellent Needle Runtime Performance:
Excellent Designed for efficient rendering performance across desktop, mobile, and XR devices. | Good (scene dependent) Spline Runtime Performance:
Good (scene dependent) Performance is generally good for well-optimized scenes but can degrade with high polygon counts, complex materials, numerous objects, or intensive interactions, especially on lower-end devices. | High (Streaming) Unreal Engine Runtime Performance:
High (Streaming) glTF performance depends on target engine. Pixel Streaming performance is high (server-rendered) but subject to network latency. |
Smart Asset Optimization | Excellent Needle Smart Asset Optimization:
Excellent Needle Cloud provides significant automated optimization: LOD generation, mesh optimization, extensive texture compression (Basis Universal, WebP, JPG, PNG) and resizing options. | Limited (Internal) Spline Smart Asset Optimization:
Limited (Internal) Provides tools like polygon reduction guidance, material asset reuse, geometry compression on export, and image quality controls, but lacks explicit support for advanced texture compression formats like Basis Universal or Draco geometry compression visibility. | Unreal Engine Smart Asset Optimization:
Yes Features like Nanite/Lumen can pre-process assets. glTF exporter offers texture control. |
Mesh and Texture LODs | Excellent Needle Mesh and Texture LODs:
Excellent Supports automatic mesh simplification, level-of-detail generation and automatic texture compression with multiple quality levels. | Spline Mesh and Texture LODs:
No Focuses on optimization but does not have a dynamic LOD system. | Unreal Engine Mesh and Texture LODs:
Yes Robust LOD system for both meshes and textures with automatic generation options. |
XR Support (AR/VR/Spatial) | |||
VR Support (WebXR) | Needle VR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports VR headsets via the WebXR standard. | Spline VR Support (WebXR):
No Does not directly export WebVR experiences. Requires exporting models (e.g., glTF) and using a VR-capable framework. | Unreal Engine VR Support (WebXR):
No Very limited experimental support. |
AR Support (WebXR) | Needle AR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports markerless WebAR on compatible Android devices via the WebXR standard. | Spline AR Support (WebXR):
No Does not directly export WebAR experiences. Exports USDZ for AR Quick Look on iOS, but full WebAR requires external frameworks. | Unreal Engine AR Support (WebXR):
No Not supported. |
AR Support (iOS) | Needle AR Support (iOS):
Yes Supports interactive markerless WebAR on iOS devices via WebXR. | Limited Spline AR Support (iOS):
Limited USDZ files compatible with AR Quick Look on iOS can be exported from the web app. Also provides native Swift embeds for iOS apps. | Unreal Engine AR Support (iOS):
No Not supported. |
AR Support (visionOS) | Needle AR Support (visionOS):
Yes Explicit support for creating spatial computing experiences deployable on visionOS. | Limited Spline AR Support (visionOS):
Limited USDZ files compatible with AR Quick Look on iOS can be exported from the web app. Also provides native Swift embeds for iOS apps. | Unreal Engine AR Support (visionOS):
No Pixel Streaming is a potential path. Native visionOS support exists. |
AR Tracking Types | Surface Image Needle AR Tracking Types:
Surface, Image Supports World Tracking via the WebXR standard on compatible devices. Image tracking is supported on iOS AR but requires a device-specific flag for Android AR. | Surface Spline AR Tracking Types:
Surface Primarily through USDZ export for object placement in AR Quick Look. | Unreal Engine AR Tracking Types:
No AR tracking would need to be handled by the custom Pixel Streaming client application. |
Ecosystem & Support | |||
Official Support Availability | Needle Official Support Availability:
Yes Dedicated support available for licensed users. | Spline Official Support Availability:
Yes Official support channels are typically available for paid subscribers, while community support is available for all users via Discord. | Unreal Engine Official Support Availability:
Yes Paid support and enterprise options available. |
Learning Resources | Needle Learning Resources:
Yes Extensive documentation, tutorials, live samples, and active community support. | Good Spline Learning Resources:
Good Offers official documentation, tutorials (text and video), a library of templates/examples, and an active community forum/Discord server. | Unreal Engine Learning Resources:
Yes Vast library of learning content on the Epic Developer Community and elsewhere. |
License | Commercial Needle License:
Commercial Commercial license required for full features and deployment. Free evaluation available. | Commercial Spline License:
Commercial Spline is a proprietary tool with free and paid subscription tiers offering different feature sets and usage limits. | Commercial Unreal Engine License:
Commercial Free to use up to a revenue threshold, then royalty-based or custom licensing. |