See how Needle, three.js, 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 | ![]() Low-level JavaScript library for creating 3D graphics directly in the browser using WebGL. three.js | ![]() 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 | |
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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 three.js Solution Type:
3d-engine A foundational JavaScript library providing tools to draw 3D scenes using WebGL. | 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. | three.js Made for the web:
Yes A foundational technology designed specifically for creating 3D graphics on the web. | 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. | Code three.js Typical Workflows:
Code Development is code-centric, writing JavaScript to define scenes, materials, and interactions. | 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. | three.js Use with Unity:
No No direct integration. Solutions like Needle make integrating with three.js seamless. | 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. | three.js Use with Blender:
No No direct integration. Assets from Blender must be exported (e.g., as glTF) and loaded. | 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. | Limited three.js Interactivity Building Blocks:
Limited Three.js provides some built-in interactive components, for example loaders and camera controls, in the examples folder, but they require additional development to be used. | 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. | three.js Extensible with Coding:
Yes Uses JavaScript or TypeScript for all implementation, giving full control but requiring manual coding. | 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. | three.js Physically-Based Rendering:
Yes Supports PBR materials, various shadow types, post-processing effects, and gives fine-grained rendering control. | 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. | three.js Component System:
No Does not enforce an ECS architecture, though one can be implemented on top. | 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. | three.js Built-in Networking:
No Networking capabilities must be added using external libraries. | 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. | three.js Timelines and Sequencing:
No Basic animation system exists, but no built-in timeline or sequencing system. | 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. | three.js Animation Controls:
Yes Provides core functionalities for keyframe animation playback and morph targets. | Unreal Engine Animation Controls:
Yes Supports complex animations. |
Animated Materials | Needle Animated Materials:
Yes Supports material animations, shader graph, and procedural material effects. | three.js Animated Materials:
No Supports material animation through code, but not for imported assets. | 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. | three.js Audio Playback:
Yes Includes support for positional audio using the Web Audio API. | 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. | three.js Video Playback:
Yes Supports using HTML video elements as textures. | 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. | three.js Physics Integration:
No Requires integration with external physics libraries like Rapier, Cannon.js, or Ammo.js. | 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. | three.js glTF 3D Support:
Yes Provides robust support for loading and interacting with the glTF 2.0 standard, but some extensions like material animations or physics are missing. | 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. | three.js Custom User Interfaces:
No UI creation typically involves integrating with HTML/DOM elements or using external UI libraries, no built-in support in three.js. | 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. | three.js Web Component:
No It's a library, not a web component. | 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. | three.js PWA Support:
No As a JavaScript library, it can be used within Progressive Web Apps but provides no PWA features itself. | 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. | three.js HTML/CSS Integration:
Yes Integrates with standard HTML/JavaScript workflows, allowing rendering into a canvas element. | 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. | three.js Host Anywhere:
Yes Applications can typically be hosted on static web servers. | 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. | three.js Asset Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for 3D models and other assets. | 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. | three.js App Hosting:
No Requires external hosting for the application files. | 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. | Small three.js Engine Size:
Small The core library has a relatively small footprint, though application size depends on usage. | 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. | Fast three.js Loading Performance:
Fast Core library loads quickly; overall application load time depends heavily on asset sizes and application structure. | 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. | High three.js Runtime Performance:
High Offers high performance potential due to its low-level access, but optimization is the developer's responsibility. | 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. | three.js Smart Asset Optimization:
No Supports optimized formats like glTF (with Draco compression, KHR texture transforms etc.), but doesn't perform automatic optimization. | 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. | three.js Mesh and Texture LODs:
No Basic support for mesh LODs, no built-in system for texture LODs. | 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. | three.js VR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports VR experiences through the WebXR API. | 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. | three.js AR Support (WebXR):
Yes Supports AR experiences on compatible Android devices through the WebXR API. | 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 three.js AR Support (iOS):
Limited Limited support for static assets in QuickLook via USDZExporter. | 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 three.js AR Support (visionOS):
Limited Limited support for static assets in QuickLook via USDZExporter. | 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 three.js AR Tracking Types:
Surface Primarily supports World Tracking via the WebXR API. | 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. | three.js Official Support Availability:
No Support is primarily community-driven. | 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. | three.js Learning Resources:
Yes Vast number of official examples, tutorials, books, and community resources available. | 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. | Open Source | Commercial Unreal Engine License:
Commercial Free to use up to a revenue threshold, then royalty-based or custom licensing. |