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Awesome C++ Awesome Track Awesome List

A curated list of awesome C++ (or C) frameworks, libraries, resources, and shiny things. Inspired by awesome-… stuff.

Standard Libraries

C++ Standard Library – including STL Containers, STL Algorithm, STL Functional, etc.

Frameworks

C++ generic frameworks and libraries.

  • abseil-cpp – Abseil C++ Common Libraries. [Apache2]
  • Apache C++ Standard Library – STDCXX, A collection of algorithms, containers, iterators, and other fundamental components. [retired] [Apache2]
  • APR – Apache Portable Runtime. Another library of cross-platform utility functions. [Apache2]
  • ASL – Adobe Source Libraries provides peer-reviewed and portable C++ source libraries. [MIT]
  • Boost :zap: – A large collection of generic C++ libraries. [Boost] website
  • BDE – The BDE Development Environment from Bloomberg Labs. [Apache2]
  • C++ Workflow – C++ Parallel Computing and Asynchronous Networking Engine. [Apache2]
  • Cinder – A community-developed, free and open source library for professional-quality creative coding. [BSD]
  • CO – A collection of C++ libraries, containing a go-style coroutine library, log, JSON, RPC framework and other base components. [MIT]
  • Cxxomfort – A small, header-only library that backports various facilities from more recent C++ Standards to C++03 and later. [MIT]
  • Dlib :zap: – A toolkit for making real world machine learning and data analysis applications in C++ [Boost] website
  • EASTL – Electronic Arts Standard Template Library. [BSD]
  • ETL – Embedded Template Library. [MIT]
  • ffead-cpp – Framework for Enterprise Application Development. [Apache2]
  • Folly – An open-source C++ library developed and used at Facebook. [Apache2]
  • FunctionalPlus – Functional Programming Library for C++. Write concise and readable C++ code. [MIT]
  • GLib – GLib provides the core application building blocks for libraries and applications written in C. [LGPL]
  • JUCE – An all-encompassing C++ class library for developing cross-platform software. [Core-Module: ISC, Rest: GPL2/GPL3/Commercial] website
  • Kigs framework – A free and open source C++ modular multi-purpose cross platform RAD framework. [MIT] website
  • libPhenom – libPhenom is an eventing framework for building high performance and high scalability systems in C. [Apache2]
  • LibSourcey – C++11 evented IO for real-time video streaming and high performance networking applications. [LGPL]
  • LibU – A multiplatform utility library written in C. [BSD]
  • Loki – A C++ library of designs, containing flexible implementations of common design patterns and idioms. [MIT]
  • MiLi – Minimal headers-only C++ Library. [Boost]
  • OpenFrameworks – A cross platform open source toolkit for creative coding in C++. [MIT] website
  • Qt :zap: – A cross-platform application and UI framework. [GPL/LGPL/Commercial]
  • Reason – A cross platform framework designed to bring the ease of use of Java, .Net, or Python to developers who require the performance and strength of C++. [GPL2]
  • ROOT – A set of OO frameworks with all the functionality needed to handle and analyze large amounts of data in a very efficient way. Used at CERN. [LGPL]
  • STLport – An exemplary version of STL. [Free]
  • STXXL – Standard Template Library for Extra Large Data Sets. [Boost]
  • tbox – A glib-like multi-platform c library. [Apache2] website
  • Ultimate++ – A C++ cross-platform rapid application development framework. [BSD]
  • uSTL – The small STL library. [MIT]
  • Windows Template Library – A C++ library for developing Windows applications and UI components. [Public]
  • Yomm2 – Fast, Orthogonal, Open multi-methods. Supersedes Yomm11 [Boost]

Artificial Intelligence

  • ANNetGPGPU – A GPU (CUDA) based Artificial Neural Network library. [LGPL]
  • btsk – Game Behavior Tree Starter Kit. [zlib]
  • Evolving Objects – A template-based, ANSI-C++ evolutionary computation library which helps you to write your own stochastic optimization algorithms insanely fast. [LGPL]
  • frugally-deep – Header-only library for using Keras models in C++. [MIT]
  • Genann – Simple neural network library in C. [zlib]
  • MXNet – Lightweight, Portable, Flexible Distributed/Mobile Deep Learning with Dynamic, Mutation-aware Dataflow Dep Scheduler; for Python, R, Julia, Scala, Go, Javascript and more website
  • PyTorch – Tensors and Dynamic neural networks in Python with strong GPU acceleration. website
  • flashlight – Flashlight is a fast, flexible machine learning library written entirely in C++. [BSD]
  • Recast/Detour – (3D) Navigation mesh generator and pathfinder, mostly for games. [zlib]
  • TensorFlow – An open source software library for numerical computation using data flow graphs [Apache]
  • oneDNN – An open-source cross-platform performance library for deep learning applications. [Apache] website
  • CNTK – Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (CNTK), an open source deep-learning toolkit. [Boost]
  • tiny-dnn – A header only, dependency-free deep learning framework in C++11. [BSD]
  • Veles – Distributed platform for rapid Deep learning application development. [Apache]
  • Kaldi – Toolkit for speech recognition. [Apache]

Asynchronous Event Loop

  • Asio – A cross-platform C++ library for network and low-level I/O programming that provides developers with a consistent asynchronous model using a modern C++ approach. [Boost] website
  • Boost.Asio – A cross-platform C++ library for network and low-level I/O programming. [Boost]
  • C++ Actor Framework – An Open Source Implementation of the Actor Model in C++. [BSD-3-Clause] website
  • Ichor – An event queue which focuses on thread safety and provides dependency injection. [MIT]
  • libev – A full-featured and high-performance event loop that is loosely modelled after libevent, but without its limitations and bugs. [BSD and GPL]
  • libevent – An event notification library. [BSD]
  • libhv – Cross-platform event loop library. [BSD]
  • libuv – Cross-platform asynchronous I/O. [BSD]
  • promise-cpp – Header only library that implements Promise/A+ standard. [Anti-996]
  • uvw – C++ wrapper for libuv. [MIT]

Audio

Audio, Sound, Music, Digitized Voice Libraries

  • AudioFile – A simple C++ library for reading and writing audio files. [GPL3]
  • FMOD – An easy to use crossplatform audio engine and audio content creation tool for games. [Free for non-commercial/Commercial]
  • KFR – Fast, modern C++ DSP framework, FFT, FIR/IIR filters, Sample Rate Conversion. [GPL/Commercial]
  • LAME – LAME is a high quality MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) encoder. [LGPL]
  • libsndfile – C library with C++ wrapper for reading and writing files containing sampled sound through one standard library interface. [LGPL-2.1] website
  • libsoundio – C library for cross-platform real-time audio input and output. [MIT] website
  • Maximilian – C++ Audio and Music DSP Library. [MIT]
  • OpenAL – Open Audio Library – A crossplatform audio API. [BSD/LGPL/Commercial]
  • miniaudio – Single file audio playback and capture library. [Unlicense]
  • ni-media – C++ library for reading and writing audio files. [MIT]
  • Opus – A totally open, royalty-free, highly versatile audio codec. [BSD]
  • PortAudio – PortAudio is a free, cross-platform, open-source, audio I/O library. [MIT]
  • SELA – SimplE Lossless Audio. [MIT]
  • SoLoud – Easy, portable audio engine for games. [zlib]
  • Speex – A free codec for free speech. Obsoleted by Opus. [BSD]
  • Tonic – Easy and efficient audio synthesis in C++. [Unlicense]
  • Vorbis – Ogg Vorbis is a fully open, non-proprietary, patent-and-royalty-free, general-purpose compressed audio format. [BSD]
  • minimp3 – Public domain, header-only MP3 decoder with clean-room implementation. [CC0]
  • Verovio – Verovio is a fast and lightweight music notation engraving library. [LGPL] website
  • Wav2Letter++ – Public domain, a fast open source speech processing toolkit written entirely in C++ and uses the ArrayFire tensor library and the flashlight machine learning library for maximum efficiency [BSD]

Biology

Bioinformatics, Genomics, Biotech

  • BioC++ – C++ Computational Libraries for Bioinformatics. [BSD]
  • Chaste – An open source C++ library for the computational simulation of mathematical models developed for physiology and biology. [BSD]
  • libsequence – A C++ library for representing and analyzing population genetics data. [GPL]
  • SeqAn – Algorithms and data structures for the analysis of sequences with the focus on biological data. [BSD/3-clause]
  • Vcflib – A C++ library for parsing and manipulating VCF files. [MIT]
  • Wham – Structural variants (SVs) in Genomes by directly applying association tests to BAM files. [MIT]

BitTorrent

  • jech/dht – BitTorrent DHT library in C. [MIT]
  • libtorrent (a.k.a. libtorrent-rasterbar) – An efficient feature complete C++ bittorrent implementation. [BSD]
  • LibTorrent (a.k.a. libtorrent-rakshasa) – BitTorrent library. [GPL]
  • libutp – uTorrent Transport Protocol library. [MIT]

Chemistry

Chemistry, Geochemistry, Biochemistry

  • d-SEAMS – A molecular dynamics trajectory analysis engine in C++ and Lua with Nix. It is an acronym for Deferred Structural Elucidation Analysis for Molecular Simulations. [GPL] website
  • gromacs – A message-passing parallel molecular dynamics implementation. [GPL] website
  • Reaktoro – A computational framework in C++ and Python for modeling chemically reactive systems. [LGPL] website
  • LAMMPS – A classical molecular dynamics code with a focus on materials modeling. It's an acronym for Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator. [GPL] website

CLI

Console/Terminal User Interface, Command Line Interface

  • Argh! – A minimalist, frustration-free, header-only argument handler. [BSD]
  • Taywee/args – A simple header-only C++ argument parser library. [MIT]
  • Boost.Program_options – A library to obtain program options via conventional methods such as command line and config file. [Boost]
  • Clara – A simple to use, composable, command line parser for C++ 11 and beyond. [BSL-1.0]
  • cli – A cross-platform header only C++14 library for interactive command line interfaces (Cisco style). [Boost]
  • CLI11 – Header only single or multi-file C++11 library for simple and advanced CLI parsing. [BSD]
  • jarro2783/cxxopts – Lightweight C++ command line option parser. [MIT]
  • docopt.cpp – A library to generate option parser from docstring. [MIT/Boost]
  • gflags – Commandline flags module for C++. [BSD]
  • indicators – Activity indicators for Modern C++. [MIT]
  • linenoise – A small self-contained alternative to readline and libedit. [BSD-2-Clause]
  • linenoise-ng – A small, portable GNU readline replacement for Linux, Windows and MacOS which is capable of handling UTF-8 characters. [BSD]
  • Lyra – A simple to use, composable, command line parser for C++ 11 and beyond. [Boost]
  • Ncurses – A terminal user interface. [MIT]
  • PDCurses – Public domain curses library with both source code and pre-compiled library available. [PublicDomain]
  • replxx – A readline and libedit replacement that supports UTF-8, syntax highlighting, hints, works on Unix and Windows. [BSD]
  • tabulate – Table Maker for Modern C++ [MIT]
  • TCLAP – A mature, stable and feature-rich library for defining and accessing command line arguments in ANSI C++. [MIT]
  • termbox – A C library for writing text-based user interfaces. [MIT]
  • cpp-terminal – Small header only C++ library for writing multiplatform terminal applications. [MIT]
  • FTXUI – C++ Functional Terminal User Interface. [MIT]
  • imtui – Immediate Mode Text-based User Interface [MIT]

Compression

Compression and Archiving Libraries

  • bit7z – A C++ static library offering a clean and simple interface to the 7-zip DLLs. [GPLv2]
  • Brotli – Brotli compression format. Developed by Google. [MIT]
  • bzip2 – A freely available, patent free, high-quality data compressor. [BSD]
  • FiniteStateEntropy – New generation entropy codecs : Finite State Entropy and Huff0.
  • PhysicsFS – A library to provide abstract access to various archives. It is intended for use in video games, and the design was somewhat inspired by Quake 3's file subsystem. [zlib]
  • KArchive – A library for creating, reading, writing and manipulating file archives like zip and tar. It also provides transparent compression and decompression of data, using formats like gzip, via a subclass of QIODevice. [LGPL]
  • libarchive – Multi-format archive and compression library. [New BSD] website
  • LZ4 – Extremely Fast Compression algorithm. [BSD] website
  • LZFSE – LZFSE compression library and command line tool. Developed by Apple.
  • LZHAM – Lossless data compression library with a compression ratio similar to LZMA but with much faster decompression. [BSD]
  • LZMA :zap: – The default and general compression method of 7z format. [PublicDomain]
  • LZMAT – An extremely fast real-time lossless data compression library. [GPL]
  • miniz – Single C source file Deflate/Inflate compression library with zlib-compatible API, ZIP archive reading/writing, PNG writing. [MIT]
  • Minizip – Zlib with latest bug fixes that supports PKWARE disk spanning, AES encryption, and IO buffering. [zlib]
  • smaz – Small strings compression library. [BSD]
  • Snappy – A fast compressor/decompressor. [BSD]
  • ZLib – A very compact compression library for data streams. [zlib]
  • zlib-ng – zlib for the "next generation" systems. Drop-In replacement with some serious optimizations. [zlib]
  • zstd – Zstandard – Fast real-time compression algorithm. Developed by Facebook. [BSD]
  • ZZIPlib – Provides read access on ZIP-archives. [MPL/LGPL]

Concurrency

Concurrency and Multithreading

  • alpaka – Abstraction library for parallel kernel acceleration. [LGPLv3+]
  • ArrayFire – A general purpose GPU library. [BSD]
  • Async++ – A lightweight concurrency framework for C++11, inspired by the Microsoft PPL library and the N3428 C++ standard proposal. [MIT]
  • Boost.Compute – A C++ GPU Computing Library for OpenCL. [Boost]
  • Bolt – A C++ template library optimized for GPUs. [Apache2]
  • ck – Concurrency primitives, safe memory reclamation mechanisms and non-blocking data structures. [BSD]
  • concurrentqueue – A fast multi-producer, multi-consumer lock-free concurrent queue for C++11. [BSD,Boost]
  • Cpp-Taskflow – Fast C++ Parallel Programming with Task Dependencies. [MIT]
  • CUB – CUB provides state-of-the-art, reusable software components for every layer of the CUDA programming mode. [New BSD]
  • cuda-api-wrappers – Lightweight, Modern-C++ wrappers for the CUDA GPU programming runtime API. [BSD]
  • cupla – C++ API to run CUDA/C++ on OpenMP, Threads, TBB, … through Alpaka. [LGPLv3+]
  • C++React – A reactive programming library for C++11. [Boost]
  • FiberTaskingLib – Task-based multi-threading library that supports task graphs with arbitrary dependencies. [Apache]
  • HPX – A general purpose C++ runtime system for parallel and distributed applications of any scale. [Boost]
  • Intel Games Task Scheduler – A task scheduling framework designed for the needs of game developers. [MIT]
  • Intel Parallel STL – Intel® implementation of C++17 STL for C++11 and above. [Apache2]
  • Intel TBB – Intel® Threading Building Blocks. [Apache2]
  • junction – A library of concurrent data structures in C++. [BSD]
  • Kokkos – A performance portable programming model for parallel execution and memory abstraction. [BSD]
  • libcds – A C++ library of Concurrent Data Structures. [BSD]
  • Libclsph – An OpenCL based GPU accelerated SPH fluid simulation library. [MIT]
  • libdill – Introduces structured concurrency in C. [MIT]
  • libdispatch – Grand Central Dispatch (GCD), developed by Apple Inc., is a task parallelism technology based on the thread pool pattern. libdispatch is a library that provides the implementation of GCD's services. [Apache-2.0] website
  • libmill – Introduces Go-style concurrency in C. [MIT]
  • marl – Marl is a hybrid thread / fiber task scheduler written in C++ 11. [Apache-2.0]
  • moderngpu – moderngpu is a productivity library for general-purpose computing on GPUs. It is a header-only C++ library written for CUDA. The unique value of the library is in its accelerated primitives for solving irregularly parallel problems. [FreeBSD & Copyright, Sean Baxter]
  • NCCL – Optimized primitives for collective multi-GPU communication. [BSD]
  • OpenCL – The open standard for parallel programming of heterogeneous systems.
  • OpenMP – The OpenMP API.
  • SObjectizer – An implementation of Actor, Publish-Subscribe, and CSP models in one rather small C++ framework. [BSD-3-Clause]
  • Quantum – A powerful C++ coroutine dispatcher framework built on top of boost::coroutines2.
  • RaftLib – The RaftLib C++ library, streaming/dataflow concurrency via C++ iostream-like operators [Apache2]
  • readerwriterqueue – A fast single-producer, single-consumer lock-free queue for C++. [BSD]
  • stdgpu – Efficient STL-like Data Structures on the GPU. [Apache2]
  • Thrust – A parallel algorithms library which resembles the C++ Standard Template Library (STL). [Apache2]
  • transwarp – A header-only C++ library for task concurrency. [MIT]
  • VexCL – A C++ vector expression template library for OpenCL/CUDA. [MIT]
  • STAPL – A C++ parallel programming framework designed to work on both shared and distributed memory parallel computers. [BSD]
  • concurrencpp – A general concurrency library containing tasks, executors, timers and C++20 coroutines to rule them all.

Configuration

Configuration files, INI files

  • inih – Simple .INI file parser in C, good for embedded systems. [BSD-3-Clause]
  • inih – Single header only C++ version of inih. [BSD-3-Clause]
  • iniparser – INI file parser. [MIT]
  • libconfig – C, C++ library for processing structured configuration files. [LGPL-2.1] website
  • libconfuse – Small configuration file parser library for C. [ISC]
  • simpleini – Cross-platform C++ library providing a simple API to read and write INI-style configuration files. [MIT]
  • toml++ – Header-only TOML parser and serializer for C++17 and later. [MIT] website

Containers

  • C++ B-tree – A template library that implements ordered in-memory containers based on a B-tree data structure. [Apache2]
  • Colony – An unordered "bag"-type container which outperforms std containers in high-modification scenarios while maintaining permanent pointers to non-erased elements regardless of insertion/erasure. [zLib] website
  • dynamic_bitset – A C++17 header-only dynamic bitset. [MIT]
  • Forest – Template library implementing an AVL, a Binary Search, a KD and a Quad Tree. [MIT]
  • Hashmaps – Implementation of open addressing hash table algorithms in C++. [MIT]
  • Hopscotch map – A fast header-only hash map which uses hopscotch hashing for collisions resolution. [MIT]
  • LSHBOX – A c++ toolbox of locality-sensitive hashing (LSH), provides several popular LSH algorithms, also support Python and MATLAB. [GPL]
  • PGM-index – A data structure that enables fast lookup, predecessor, range searches and updates in arrays of billions of items using orders of magnitude less space than traditional indexes. [Apache2] website
  • plf::list – A std::list implementation which removes range splicing in order to enable cache-friendlier structure, yielding significant performance gains. [zLib] website
  • plf::stack – A replacement container for the std::stack container adaptor, with better performance than any std container in a stack context. [zLib] website
  • ring_span lite – A simplified implementation of Arthur O'Dwyer's ring_span implementation ie. a circular buffer view. [MIT]
  • robin-hood-hashing – Fast & memory efficient hashtable based on robin hood hashing for C++14. [MIT]
  • robin-map – Fast hash map and hash set using robin hood hashing. [MIT]
  • sparsepp – A fast, memory efficient hash map for C++. [BSD 3-clause]

Cryptography

Cryptography and Encryption Libraries

  • Bcrypt – A cross platform file encryption utility. Encrypted files are portable across all supported operating systems and processors. [BSD]
  • BeeCrypt – A portable and fast cryptography library. [LGPLv2.1+]
  • Botan – A crypto library for C++. [BSD-2]
  • Crypto++ – A free C++ class library of cryptographic schemes. [Boost] website
  • digestpp – C++11 header-only message digest (hash) library. [PublicDomain]
  • GnuPG – A complete and free implementation of the OpenPGP standard. [GPL]
  • GnuTLS – A secure communications library implementing the SSL, TLS and DTLS protocols. [LGPL2.1]
  • Libgcrypt – A general purpose cryptographic library originally based on code from GnuPG. [LGPLv2.1+]
  • LibreSSL – A free version of the SSL/TLS protocol forked from OpenSSL in 2014. [?]
  • libsodium – P(ortable|ackageable) NaCl-based crypto library, opinionated and easy to use. [ISC]
  • libhydrogen – A lightweight, secure, easy-to-use crypto library suitable for constrained environments. [ISC]
  • LibTomCrypt – A fairly comprehensive, modular and portable cryptographic toolkit. [WTFPL]
  • mbedTLS – An open source, portable, easy to use, readable and flexible SSL library, previously known as PolarSSL. [Apache2] website
  • Nettle – A low-level cryptographic library. [LGPL]
  • OpenSSL – A robust, commercial-grade, full-featured, and Open Source cryptography library. [Apache] website
  • retter – A collection of hash functions, ciphers, tools, libraries, and materials related to cryptography.
  • s2n – An implementation of the TLS/SSL protocols. [Apache]
  • sha1collisiondetection – Library and command line tool to detect SHA-1 collision in a file. [MIT]
  • Tink – A multi-language, cross-platform library that provides cryptographic APIs that are secure, easy to use correctly, and hard(er) to misuse. [Apache-2.0]
  • Tiny AES in C – Small portable AES128/192/256 in C. [PublicDomain]
  • Themis – crypto library for painless data security, providing symmetric and asymmetric encryption, secure sockets with forward secrecy, for mobile and server platforms. [Apache2]

CSV

Libraries for parsing Comma Separated Value (CSV) files

  • csv2 – Fast CSV parser for modern C++. [MIT]
  • Csv::Parser – Compile-time and runtime CSV parser written in C++17. [Zlib]
  • Fast C++ CSV Parser – Small, easy-to-use and fast header-only library for reading CSV files. [BSD-3-Clause]
  • Vince's CSV Parser – A fast, self-contained, streaming C++17 CSV parser with optional type-casting and statistics. [MIT]

Database

Database Libraries, SQL Servers, ODBC Drivers, and Tools

  • hiberlite – C++ Object-relational mapping for sqlite3. [BSD]
  • Hiredis – A minimalistic C client library for the Redis database. [BSD]
  • LevelDB – A fast key-value storage library written at Google that provides an ordered mapping from string keys to string values. [BSD]
  • LMDB – Very fast embedded key/value store with full ACID semantics. [OpenLDAP]
  • LMDB++ – C++11 wrapper for the LMDB embedded database library. [PublicDomain]
  • MongoDB C Driver – MongoDB client library for C. [Apache2]
  • MongoDB C++ Driver – C++ driver for MongoDB. [Apache2]
  • MongoDB Libbson – A BSON utility library. [Apache2]
  • MySQL++ – A C++ wrapper for MySQL's C API. [LGPL]
  • nanodbc – A small C++ wrapper for the native C ODBC API. [MIT]
  • ODB – An open-source, cross-platform, and cross-database object-relational mapping (ORM) system for C++. [GPLv2]
  • redis3m – Wrapper of hiredis with clean C++ interface, supporting sentinel and ready to use patterns. [Apache2]
  • RocksDB – Embedded key-value store for fast storage from facebook. [BSD]
  • SimDB – High performance, shared memory, lock free, cross platform, single file, minimal dependencies, C++11 key-value store [Apache2]
  • SOCI – A database abstraction layer for C++. [BSL-1.0]
  • SQLite – A completely embedded, full-featured relational database in a few 100k that you can include right into your project. [PublicDomain]
  • SQLiteC++ – SQLiteC++ (SQLiteCpp) is a smart and easy to use C++ SQLite3 wrapper. [MIT]
  • sqlite_modern_cpp – Header only C++14 wrapper around sqlite library. [MIT]
  • sqlite_orm – SQLite ORM light header only library for modern C++. [BSD-3-Clause]
  • sqlpp11 – A type safe embedded domain specific language for SQL queries and results in C++. [BSD-2-Clause]
  • TileDB – Fast Dense and Sparse Multidimensional Array DBMS. [MIT] website
  • UnQLite – A self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional NoSQL engine. [BSD-2-Clause] website
  • upscaledb – An embedded "typed" key/value store with a built-in query interface. [GPLv3]

Debug

Debugging Libraries, Memory Leak and Resource Leak Detection, Unit Testing

  • backward-cpp – A beautiful stack trace pretty printer for C++. [MIT]
  • benchmark – Google provided small microbenchmark support library. [Apache2]
  • Boost.Test – Boost Test Library. [Boost]
  • check – Check is a unit testing framework for C. [LGPL-2.1] website
  • doctest – The lightest feature rich C++ single header testing framework. [MIT]
  • Catch – A modern, C++-native, header-only, framework for unit-tests, TDD and BDD. [Boost]
  • Catch2 – A modern, C++-native, header-only, test framework for unit-tests, TDD and BDD. [BSL-1.0]
  • Celero – C++ Benchmarking Framework. [Apache2]
  • CppUTest – Unit testing and mocking framework for C/C++. [BSD-3-clause]
  • CUTE – C++ Unit Testing Easier. [LGPL3]
  • CMocka – unit testing framework for C with support for mock objects. [Apache2]
  • CppUnit – C++ port of JUnit. [LGPL2]
  • CTest – The CMake test driver program. [BSD]
  • dbg-macro – A dbg(…) macro for C++. [MIT]
  • Deleaker – A tool for resource leak detection, including memory, GDI and handle leaks.
  • fff – A micro-framework for creating fake C functions. [MIT]
  • Google Mock – A library for writing and using C++ mock classes. [BSD]
  • Google Test – Google C++ Testing Framework. [BSD]
  • ig-debugheap – Multiplatform debug heap useful for tracking down memory errors. [BSD]
  • libtap – Write tests in C. [GPL2]
  • MemTrack – Tracking memory allocations in C++.
  • microprofile – Profiler with web-view for multiple platforms. [Unlicense]
  • MinUnit – A minimal unit testing framework for C self-contained in a single header file. [MIT]
  • Mockator – Eclipse CDT plug-in for C++ Seams and Mock Objects.
  • Nanotimer – A simple low-overhead cross-platform timer class for benchmarking. [zLib] website
  • Nonius – A C++ micro-benchmarking framework. [CC]
  • Remotery – Single C File Profiler with Web Viewer. [Apache2]
  • UnitTest++ – A lightweight unit testing framework for C++. [MIT/X Consortium license]
  • Unity – Simple Unit Testing for C. [MIT]
  • utest.h – Single header unit testing framework for C and C++. [Unlicense]
  • μt – C++20 single header/single module, macro-free μ(micro)/Unit Testing Framework [Boost]
  • VLD – Visual Leak Detector. A free, robust, open-source memory leak detection system for Visual C++.

Font

Libraries for parsing and manipulating font files.

  • Fontconfig – Font configuration and customization library. [MIT] website
  • FreeType – FreeType is a freely available software library to render fonts. [FTL & GPLv2]
  • otfcc – A C library and utility used for parsing and writing OpenType font files. [Apache-2.0]

Game Engine

  • Acid – A high speed C++17 Vulkan game engine. [MIT]
  • Allegro – A cross-platform library mainly aimed for video games and multimedia programming. [zlib]
  • Cocos2d-x – A multi-platform framework for building 2d games, interactive books, demos and other graphical applications. [MIT]
  • Corange – A game engine written in pure C, SDL and OpenGL. [BSD]
  • crown – Crown is a general purpose data-driven game engine, written from scratch in orthodox C++ with a minimalistic and data-oriented design philosophy in mind. [MIT]
  • delta3d – A robust simulation platform. [LGPL2]
  • EnTT – Gaming meets modern C++. [MIT]
  • GamePlay – A cross-platform native C++ game framework for creating 2D/3D mobile and desktop games. [Apache2]
  • Godot – A fully featured, open source, MIT licensed, game engine. [MIT]
  • Grit – Community project to build a free game engine for implementing open world 3D games. [MIT]
  • Halley – A lightweight game engine written in C++14 with a "true" entity-component system. [Apache 2.0]
  • KlayGE – a cross-platform open source game engine with plugin-based architecture. [GPLv2] website
  • nCine – A cross-platform 2D game engine with an emphasis on performance, written in C++11 and optionally scriptable in Lua. [MIT] website
  • o3de – An open-source, real-time, multi-platform 3D engine based on Amazon Lumberyard. [Apache2] website
  • OpenXRay – a community-modified X-Ray engine used in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series. [Modified BSD/non-commercial only]
  • Oxygine – A cross-platform 2D C++ game engine. [MIT]
  • Panda3D – A game engine, a framework for 3D rendering and game development for Python and C++ programs. [Modified BSD] website
  • PixelGameEngine – The official distribution of olcPixelGameEngine, a tool used in javidx9's YouTube videos and projects. [OLC3]
  • Polycode – A cross-platform framework for creative code in C++ (with Lua bindings). [MIT] website
  • raylib – A simple and easy-to-use library to enjoy videogames programming. [zlib/libpng] website
  • Spring – A powerful free cross-platform RTS game engine. [GPLv2/GPLv3] website
  • Torque2D – An open-source and cross-platform C++ engine built for 2D game development. [MIT] website
  • Torque3D – An open-source C++ engine built for 3D game development. [MIT] website
  • toy engine – toy is a thin and modular c++ game engine and offers simple expressive c++ idioms to design full featured 2D or 3D games in fast iterations.
  • Urho3D – A free lightweight, cross-platform 2D and 3D game engine implemented in C++. Greatly inspired by OGRE and Horde3D. [MIT]

GUI

Graphic User Interface

  • Boden – Native, mobile, cross-platform GUI Framework. [GPL/LGPL/Commercial] website
  • CEGUI – Flexible, cross-platform GUI library.
  • Elements – Lightweight, fine-grained, resolution independent, modular GUI library. [MIT]
  • FLTK – Fast, light, cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit. [GPL2]
  • GacUI – GPU Accelerated C++ User Interface, with WYSIWYG developing tools, XML supports, built-in data binding and MVVM features. [Ms-PL]
  • GTK+ – A multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. [LGPL]
  • gtkmm – The official C++ interface for the popular GUI library GTK+. [LGPL]
  • imgui – Immediate Mode Graphical User Interface with minimal dependencies. [MIT]
  • implot – Immediate Mode Plotting widgets for imgui. [MIT]
  • iup – Multi-platform toolkit for building graphical user interfaces. [MIT]
  • libui – Simple and portable (but not inflexible) GUI library in C that uses the native GUI technologies of each platform it supports. [MIT]
  • MyGUI – Fast, flexible and simple GUI. [MIT]
  • nana – Nana is a cross-platform library for GUI programming in modern C++ style. [Boost]
  • NanoGui – A minimalistic cross-platform widget library for OpenGL 3.x or higher. [BSD]
  • nuklear – A single-header ANSI C gui library. [PublicDomain]
  • QCustomPlot – Qt plotting widget without further dependencies. [GPLv3]
  • Qwt – Qt Widgets for Technical Applications. [Own based on LGPL]
  • QwtPlot3D – A feature-rich Qt/OpenGL-based C++ programming library, providing essentially a bunch of 3D-widgets. [zlib]
  • RmlUi – The HTML/CSS User Interface library evolved. Fork of libRocket. [MIT]
  • Sciter – Sciter is an embeddable HTML/CSS/scripting engine aimed to be used as an UI layer of modern desktop applications. [Free/Commercial]
  • wxWidgets – A C++ library that lets developers create applications for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other platforms with a single code base. [Own LGPL]
  • Yue – A library for creating native cross-platform GUI apps. [LGPLv2]

Graphics

  • assimp – Open Asset Import Library (assimp) is a cross-platform 3D model import library which aims to provide a common API for different 3D asset file formats. [BSD-3-Clause] website
  • bgfx – A cross-platform rendering library. [BSD]
  • Blend2D – 2D vector graphics engine powered by a JIT compiler. [Zlib] website
  • bs::framework – Modern C++14 library for the development of real-time graphical applications. [MIT]
  • Cairo – A 2D graphics library with support for multiple output devices. [LGPL2 or Mozilla MPL]
  • C-Turtle – A C++11 header-only turtle graphics library acting as a CImg wrapper. [MIT]
  • Diligent Engine – A modern cross-platform low-level 3D graphics library. [Apache2]
  • DirectXTK – A collection of helper classes for writing DirectX 11.x code in C++. [MIT]
  • GLFW – A simple, cross-platform OpenGL wrangling library. [zlib/libpng]
  • herebedragons – A basic 3D scene implemented with various engines, frameworks or APIs. [MIT] website
  • Horde3D – A small 3D rendering and animation engine. [EPL]
  • Ion – A small and efficient set of libraries for building cross-platform client or server applications that use 3D graphics. [Apache2] website
  • Irrlicht – A high performance realtime 3D engine written in C++. [zlib]
  • libigl – Simple C++ geometry processing library. [MPL2]
  • LLGL – Low Level Graphics Library (LLGL) is a thin abstraction layer for the modern graphics APIs. [BSD-3-Clause]
  • magnum – Lightweight and modular C++11/C++14 graphics middleware for games and data visualization. [MIT] website
  • NanoVG – Antialiased 2D vector drawing library on top of OpenGL for UI and visualizations. [Zlib]
  • Ogre 3D :zap: – A scene-oriented, real-time, flexible 3D rendering engine (as opposed to a game engine) written in C++. [MIT]
  • OpenSceneGraph – An open source high performance 3D graphics toolkit. [OSGPL]
  • OpenSubdiv – Pixar's library for evaluating and rendering subdivision surfaces on CPU and GPU. [Modified Apache2]
  • OpenVDB – Library and tools for storing, editing, and rendering volumetric datasets. [MPL2]
  • Panda3D – A framework for 3D rendering and game development for Python and C++. [BSD]
  • Partio – Library for wrangling particle data, with support for most common file formats. [Modified BSD]
  • Skia – A complete 2D graphic library for drawing Text, Geometries, and Images. [BSD] webpage
  • TinySpline – A small, yet powerful ANSI C library for interpolating, transforming, and querying arbitrary NURBS, B-Splines, and Bézier curves. [MIT]
  • urho3d – Cross-platform rendering and game engine. [Many different, mostly MIT]
  • Yocto/GL – Tiny C++ Libraries for Data-Driven Physically-based Graphics. [MIT]

Image Processing

  • Boost.GIL – Generic Image Library.
  • CImg – A small, open source, C++ toolkit for image processing. [Own LGPL or GPL]
  • CxImage – An image processing and conversion library to load, save, display, transform BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, MNG, ICO, PCX, TGA, WMF, WBMP, JBG, J2K images. [zlib]
  • Dlib :zap: – A modern C++11 machine learning, computer vision, numerical optimization, and deep learning toolkit. [Boost] website
  • FreeImage – An open source library that supports popular graphics image formats and others as needed by today's multimedia applications. [GPL2 or GPL3]
  • GD – GD Graphics Library, famously used in PHP for image loading/manipulation & thumbnail generation. [custom permissive license, requires mention in user docs] website
  • DCMTK – DICOM Toolkit.
  • GDCM – Grassroots DICOM library.
  • ITK – An open-source, cross-platform system for image analysis. [Apache2 from ITK 4.0]
  • Leptonica – Leptonica is an open source library containing software that is broadly useful for image processing and image analysis applications. [BSD-2-Clause] website
  • libfacedetection – Open source library for face detection in images. The face detection speed can reach 1500FPS. [BSD]
  • libjpeg-turbo – A JPEG image codec that uses SIMD instructions to accelerate baseline JPEG encoding and decoding. [IJG & BSD-3-Clause & zlib] website
  • libvips – A fast image processing library with low memory needs. [LGPL] website
  • Magick++ – ImageMagick program interfaces for C++. [Apache2]
  • MagickWnd – ImageMagick program interfaces for C. [Apache2]
  • OpenCV :zap: – Open source computer vision. [BSD]
  • OpenEXR – Cross-platform library for high dynamic range imaging. [Modified BSDF]
  • OpenImageIO – Powerful image and texture wrangling library with support for a wide number of common lossy and RAW formats. [Modified BSD]
  • SAIL – Easy-to-use cross-platform image decoding library with pluggable image codecs. [MIT]
  • Simd – C++ image processing library with using of SIMD: SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, AVX-512, VMX(Altivec) and VSX(Power7), NEON for ARM. [MIT]
  • stb-image – STB single-header image loading library. [Public Domain]
  • tesseract-ocr – An OCR engine. [Apache2]
  • TinyEXIF – Tiny ISO-compliant C++ EXIF and XMP parsing library for JPEG. [MIT]
  • Video++ – A C++14 high performance video and image processing library. [MIT]
  • VIGRA – A generic C++ computer vision library for image analysis. [MIT X11]
  • VTK – Open-source, freely available software system for 3D computer graphics, image processing and visualization. [BSD]

Internationalization

  • gettext – GNU ‘gettext'. [GPL2]
  • IBM ICU – A set of C/C++ and Java libraries providing Unicode and Globalization support. [ICU]
  • libiconv – An encoding conversion library between different character encodings. [GPL]
  • utf8.h – Single header utf8 string functions for C and C++. [Unlicense]
  • utf8proc – A clean C library for processing UTF-8 Unicode data. [MIT]

Inter-process communication

  • Apache Thrift – Efficient cross-language IPC/RPC, works between C++, Java, Python, PHP, C#, and many more other languages. Originally developed by Facebook. [Apache2]
  • Cap'n Proto – Fast data interchange format and capability-based RPC system. [MIT] website
  • eCAL – Pub/sub, client/server, C++/Python/C#, various message protocols (protobuf, capnproto ..). [Apache2] website
  • gRPC – A high performance, open source, general-purpose RPC framework. [BSD] website
  • Ice – Comprehensive RPC framework with support for C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python and more. [GPLv2]
  • libjson-rpc-cpp – JSON-RPC framework for C++ servers and clients. [MIT]
  • nanomsg – A simple high-performance implementation of several "scalability protocols". [MIT] website
  • nng – nanomsg-next-generation, a light-weight brokerless messaging library. [MIT] website
  • rpclib – A modern C++ msgpack-RPC server and client library. [MIT]
  • simple-rpc-cpp – A simple RPC wrapper generator to C/C++ functions. [BSD]
  • WAMP – Provides RPC and pub/sub messaging patterns. (various implementations, various languages)
  • xmlrpc-c – A lightweight RPC library based on XML and HTTP. [BSD]

JSON

  • Boost.PropertyTree – A property tree parser/generator that can be used to parse XML/JSON/INI/Info files. [Boost]
  • cJSON – Ultralightweight JSON parser in ANSI C. [MIT]
  • frozen – JSON parser and generator for C/C++. [GPL & GPL2]
  • Jansson – C library for encoding, decoding and manipulating JSON data. [MIT]
  • jbson – jbson is a library for building & iterating BSON data, and JSON documents in C++14. [Boost]
  • JeayeSON – A very sane (header only) C++ JSON library. [BSD]
  • Jsmn – A minimalistic JSON parser in C. [MIT]
  • json :zap: – JSON for Modern C++. [MIT]
  • JSON++ – A JSON parser in C++. [MIT]
  • json.h – A simple one header/one source solution to parsing JSON in C and C++. [Unlicense]
  • json-c – A JSON implementation in C. [MIT]
  • jsoncons – A C++ header-only library for JSON and JSON-like binary formats with JSONPointer, JSONPatch, JSONPath and JMESPath. [Boost]
  • JsonCpp – A C++ library for interacting with JSON. [MIT]
  • json-parser – Very low footprint JSON parser written in portable ANSI C. [BSD]
  • json11 – A tiny JSON library for C++11. [MIT]
  • json-struct – High performance, single header JSON parser parsing to and from C++ structs. [MIT]
  • json-voorhees – JSON library for C++. Support for C++11. No dependencies, fast and dev-friendly. [Apache2]
  • jute – Very simple C++ JSON Parser. [PublicDomain]
  • libjson – A JSON parser and printer library in C. easy to integrate with any model. [LGPL]
  • libjson – Lightweight JSON library. [?]
  • LIBUCL :zap: – Universal configuration library parser [BSD-2-Clause]
  • parson – Parson is a lighweight json library written in C. [MIT]
  • PicoJSON – A header-file-only, JSON parser serializer in C++. [BSD]
  • qt-json – A simple class for parsing JSON data into a QVariant hierarchy and vice versa. [GPLv3]
  • QJson – A qt-based library that maps JSON data to QVariant objects. [LGPL2]
  • RapidJSON :zap: – A fast JSON parser/generator for C++ with both SAX/DOM style API. [MIT]
  • sajson – Lightweight, extremely high-performance JSON parser for C++11. [MIT]
  • simdjson – Extremely fast JSON library that can parse gigabytes of JSON per second. [Apache-2.0]
  • taoJSON – Zero-dependency C++ header-only JSON library. [MIT]
  • ujson – µjson is a a small, C++11, UTF-8, JSON library. [MIT]
  • YAJL – A fast streaming JSON parsing library in C. [ISC]
  • yyjson – A high performance JSON library written in ANSI C. [MIT]

Logging

  • Blackhole – Attribute-based logging framework, which is designed to be fast, modular and highly customizable. [MIT]
  • Boost.Log – Designed to be very modular and extensible. [Boost]
  • Easylogging++ – Extremely light-weight high performance logging library for C++11 (or higher) applications. [MIT]
  • fmtlog – A performant fmtlib-style logging library with latency in nanoseconds. [MIT]
  • G3log – Asynchronous logger with Dynamic Sinks. [PublicDomain]
  • glog – C++ implementation of the Google logging module.
  • Log4cpp – A library of C++ classes for flexible logging to files, syslog, IDSA and other destinations. [LGPL]
  • log4cplus – A simple to use C++ logging API providing thread-safe, flexible, and arbitrarily granular control over log management and configuration. [BSD & Apache2]
  • loguru – A lightweight C++ logging library. [PublicDomain]
  • plog – Portable and simple log for C++ in less than 1000 lines of code. [MPL2]
  • reckless – Low-latency, high-throughput, asynchronous logging library for C++. [MIT]
  • spdlog – Super fast, header only, C++ logging library.
  • templog – A very small and lightweight C++ library which you can use to add logging to your C++ applications. [Boost]
  • P7Baical – An open source and cross-platform library for high-speed sending telemetry & trace data with minimal usage of CPU and memory. [LGPL]
  • Quill – Asynchronous cross platform low latency logging library. [MIT]

Machine Learning

  • Caffe – A fast framework for neural networks. [BSD]
  • CCV – C-based/Cached/Core Computer Vision Library, A Modern Computer Vision Library. [BSD]
  • darknet – Open source neural network framework written in C and CUDA. [PublicDomain] website
  • Dlib :zap: – A modern C++11 machine learning, computer vision, numerical optimization, and deep learning toolkit. [Boost] website
  • Fido – A highly-modular C++ machine learning library for embedded electronics and robotics. [MIT] website
  • flashlight – A fast, flexible machine learning library from Facebook AI Research written entirely in C++ and based on the ArrayFire tensor library. [BSD-3-Clause] website
  • libsvm – A simple, easy-to-use, efficient library for Support Vector Machines. [BSD-3-Clause] website
  • MeTA – A modern C++ data sciences toolkit. [MIT] website
  • Minerva – A fast and flexible system for deep learning. [Apache2]
  • mlpack – A scalable c++ machine learning library. [LGPLv3] website
  • OpenCV :zap: – Open Source Computer Vision Library. [BSD] website
  • oneDAL – A powerful machine learning library that helps speed up big data analysis. [Apache]
  • Recommender – C library for product recommendations/suggestions using collaborative filtering (CF). [BSD]
  • RNNLIB – RNNLIB is a recurrent neural network library for sequence learning problems. [GPLv3]
  • SHOGUN – The Shogun Machine Learning Toolbox. [GPLv3]
  • sofia-ml – The suite of fast incremental algorithms for machine learning. [Apache2]
  • VLFeat – The VLFeat open source library implements popular computer vision algorithms specialising in image understanding and local featurexs extraction and matching. [BSD-2-Clause] website
  • xgboost – Scalable, Portable and Distributed Gradient Boosting (GBDT, GBRT or GBM) Library, for Python, R, Java, Scala, C++ and more. Runs on single machine, Hadoop, Spark, Flink and DataFlow. [Apache2]
  • ncnn – A high-performance neural network inference computing framework optimized for mobile platforms. [BSD]

Math

  • Apophenia – A C library for statistical and scientific computing [GPL2]
  • Armadillo – Fast C++ library for linear algebra & scientific computing. [Apache2] website
  • autodiff – A modern, fast and expressive C++ library for automatic differentiation. [MIT] website
  • blaze – high-performance C++ math library for dense and sparse arithmetic. [BSD]
  • Boost.Multiprecision – provides higher-range/precision integer, rational and floating-point types in C++, header-only or with GMP/MPFR/LibTomMath backends. [Boost]
  • ceres-solver – C++ library for modeling and solving large complicated nonlinear least squares problems from google. [BSD]
  • CGAL – Collection of efficient and reliable geometric algorithms. [LGPL&GPL] website
  • cml – free C++ math library for games and graphics. [Boost]
  • Dlib :zap: – A modern C++11 machine learning, computer vision, numerical optimization, and deep learning toolkit. [Boost] website
  • Eigen – A high-level C++ library of template headers for linear algebra, matrix and vector operations, numerical solvers and related algorithms. [MPL2]
  • ExprTK – The C++ Mathematical Expression Toolkit Library (ExprTk) is a simple to use, easy to integrate and extremely efficient run-time mathematical expression parser and evaluation engine. [MIT]
  • Geometric Tools – C++ library for computing in the fields of mathematics, graphics, image analysis and physics. [Boost] website
  • GLM – Header-only C++ math library that matches and inter-operates with OpenGL's GLSL math. [MIT] website
  • GMTL – Graphics Math Template Library is a collection of tools implementing Graphics primitives in generalized ways. [GPL2]
  • GMP – A C library for arbitrary precision arithmetic, operating on signed integers, rational numbers, and floating-point numbers. [LGPL3 & GPL2]
  • Klein – A fast, SIMD-optimized C++17 Geometric Algebra library for point, line, and plane projections, intersections, joins, rigid-body motion, and more. [MIT] website
  • linalg.h – Single header, public domain, short vector math library for C++. [Unlicense]
  • MIRACL – A Multiprecision Integer and Rational Arithmetic Cryptographic Library. [AGPL]
  • NumCpp – A templatized header only C++ implementation of the Python Numpy library. [MIT]
  • muparser – muParser is an extensible high performance math expression parser library written in C++. [MIT]
  • LibTomMath – A free open source portable number theoretic multiple-precision integer library written entirely in C. [PublicDomain & WTFPL] website
  • linmath.h – A lean linear math library, aimed at graphics programming. [WTFPL]
  • lp_solve – A library used to formulate and solve linear programming problems. [LGPL] website
  • OpenBLAS – An optimized BLAS library based on GotoBLAS2 1.13 BSD version. [BSD 3-clause] website
  • PCG-rand – PCG is a family of simple fast space-efficient statistically good algorithms for random number generation. Unlike many general-purpose RNGs, they are also hard to predict. [Apache]
  • QuantLib – A free/open-source library for quantitative finance. [Modified BSD] website
  • StatsLib – A C++ header-only library of statistical distribution functions. [Apache2] website
  • SymEngine – Fast symbolic manipulation library, a rewriting of SymPy's core in C++. [MIT]
  • TinyExpr – A C library for parsing and evaluating math expressions from strings. [zlib]
  • Vc – SIMD Vector Classes for C++. [BSD]
  • Versor – A (fast) Generic C++ library for Geometric Algebras, including Euclidean, Projective, Conformal, Spacetime (etc).
  • Wykobi – A C++ library of efficient, robust and simple to use C++ 2D/3D oriented computational geometry routines. [MIT]
  • xtensor – A C++14 library for numerical analysis with multi-dimensional array expressions, inspired by NumPy syntax. [BSD 3-clause] website
  • universal – A C++14 header-only library implementing arbitrary posit arithmetic. The posit number system is a tapered floating point that is more efficient than IEEE floating point. Posits enable reproducible computational science. [MIT license] website

Memory Allocation

  • Boehm GC – Conservative garbage collector for C and C++. [similar to X11] website
  • C Smart Pointers – Smart pointers for the (GNU) C programming language. [MIT]
  • Hoard – Fast, Scalable, and Memory-efficient Malloc for Linux, Windows, and Mac. [GPL, commercial] website
  • jemalloc – General purpose malloc(3) implementation that emphasizes fragmentation avoidance and scalable concurrency support. [BSD] website
  • memory – STL compatible C++ memory allocator library. [ZLib]
  • memory-allocators – Custom memory allocators to improve the performance of dynamic memory allocation. [MIT]
  • mimalloc – A compact general purpose allocator with excellent performance. [MIT]
  • tgc – A tiny garbage collector for C written in \~500 LOC. [BSD]

Multimedia

  • GStreamer – A library for constructing graphs of media-handling components. [LGPL]
  • libass – Portable subtitle renderer for the ASS/SSA subtitle format. [ISC]
  • libav – A collection of libraries and tools to process multimedia content such as audio, video, subtitles and related metadata. [LGPL v2.1+ and others] website
  • LIVE555 Streaming Media – Multimedia streaming library using open standard protocols (RTP/RTCP, RTSP, SIP). [LGPL]
  • libVLC – libVLC (VLC SDK) media framework. [GPL]
  • MediaInfoLib – Convenient unified display of the most relevant technical and tag data for video and audio files. [BSD]
  • QtAv – A multimedia playback framework based on Qt and FFmpeg to write a player easily. [LGPL] website
  • SDL :zap: – Simple DirectMedia Layer. [zlib]
  • SFML :zap: – Simple and Fast Multimedia Library. [zlib] website
  • TagLib – A library for reading and editing the metadata of several popular audio formats. [LGPL/MPL] website

Networking

  • ACE – An OO Network Programming Toolkit in C++. [?MIT?]
  • Boost.Asio :zap: – A cross-platform C++ library for network and low-level I/O programming. [Boost]
  • Boost.Beast :zap: – HTTP and WebSocket built on Boost.Asio in C++11. [BSL-1.0] website
  • Breep – Event based, high-level C++14 peer-to-peer library. [EUPL-1.1 (OSI approved)]
  • C++ REST SDK – C++ REST SDK (previously named Casablanca). [Apache2]
  • Restbed – C++11 Asynchronous RESTful framework. [AGPL]
  • Restinio – A header-only C++14 library that gives you an embedded HTTP/Websocket server. [BSD]
  • c-ares – A C library for asynchronous DNS requests. [MIT]
  • cpp-httplib – A single file C++11 header-only HTTP/HTTPS server library. [MIT]
  • cpp-netlib – A collection of open-source libraries for high level network programming. [Boost]
  • cpp-netlib/uri – URI parser/builder library for C++, compatible with RFC 3986 and RFC 3987. [BSL-1.0]
  • CppServer – Ultra fast and low latency asynchronous socket server & client C++ library with support TCP, SSL, UDP, HTTP, HTTPS, WebSocket protocols and 10K connections problem solution. [MIT]
  • cpr – A modern C++ HTTP requests library with a simple but powerful interface. Modeled after the Python Requests module. [MIT] website
  • curlcpp – An object oriented C++ wrapper for CURL(libcurl). [MIT]
  • DPDK – Data Plane Development Kit, libraries and drivers for fast packet processing. [BSD-3-Clause & GPL-2.0] website
  • Dyad.c – Asynchronous networking for C. [MIT]
  • ENet – Reliable UDP networking library. [MIT] website
  • evpp – C++ high performance networking with TCP/UDP/HTTP protocols. [BSD]
  • H2O – An optimized HTTP server with support for HTTP/1.x and HTTP/2. It can also be used as a library. [MIT]
  • HTTP Parser :zap: – A http request/response parser for C. [MIT]
  • KCP – A fast and reliable ARQ protocol that helps applications to reduce network latency. [MIT]
  • libcurl – Multiprotocol file transfer library. [MIT/X derivate license]
  • libhttpserver – C++ library for creating an embedded Rest HTTP server (and more). [LGPL2.1]
  • Libmicrohttpd – GNU libmicrohttpd is a small C library that is supposed to make it easy to run an HTTP server as part of another application. [LGPL v2.1+]
  • libpcap – A portable C/C++ library for network traffic capture. [BSD] website
  • libquic – A QUIC protocol library extracted from Chromium's QUIC Implementation. [BSD]
  • librdkafka – Apache Kafka client library for C and C++. [BSD-2-Clause]
  • libwebsockets – A lightweight pure C WebSocket implementation that provides both client and server libraries. [LGPL2.1 + static link exception] website
  • lwIP – A lightweight TCP/IP stack. [Modified BSD]
  • Mongoose – Extremely lightweight webserver. [GPL2]
  • MQTT-C – A portable MQTT C client for embedded systems and PCs alike. [MIT] website
  • mTCP – Highly scalable user-level TCP stack for multicore systems. [Modified BSD]
  • Muduo – A C++ non-blocking network library for multi-threaded server in Linux. [BSD]
  • nghttp2 – HTTP/2 C Library. [MIT] website
  • Onion – HTTP server library in C designed to be lightweight and easy to use. [Apache2/GPL2]
  • PF_RING™ – High-speed packet processing framework. [LGPL-2.1] website
  • PicoHTTPParser – A tiny, primitive, fast HTTP request/response parser. [MIT]
  • POCO :zap: – C++ class libraries and frameworks for building network- and internet-based applications that run on desktop, server, mobile and embedded systems. [Boost] website
  • Proxygen – Facebook's collection of C++ HTTP libraries including an easy to use HTTP server. [BSD]
  • RakNet – A cross platform, open source, C++ networking engine for game programmers. [BSD]
  • restclient-cpp – Simple REST client for C++. It wraps libcurl for HTTP requests. [MIT]
  • Seasocks – Simple, small, C++ embeddable webserver with WebSockets support. [BSD]
  • Silicon – A high performance, middleware oriented C++14 http web framework. [MIT]
  • tlse – Single C file TLS 1.2/1.3 implementation, using tomcrypt as crypto library [BSD-2-Clause]
  • Tufão – An asynchronous web framework for C++ built on top of Qt. [LGPL2]
  • uriparser – Strictly RFC 3986 compliant URI parsing and handling library. [BSD-3-Clause]
  • uWebSockets – µWS is one of the most lightweight, efficient & scalable WebSocket & HTTP server implementations available. [Zlib]
  • WAFer – A C language-based ultra-light software platform for scalable server-side and networking applications. Think node.js for C programmers. [GPL2]
  • Wangle – A client/server application framework to build asynchronous, event-driven modern C++ services. [Apache-2.0]
  • wdt – An embeddedable library (and command line tool) aiming to transfer data between 2 systems as fast as possible over multiple TCP paths. [BSD-3-Clause]
  • WebSocket++ – C++/Boost Asio based websocket client/server library. [BSD]
  • PcapPlusPlus – a multiplatform C++ network sniffing and packet parsing and crafting framework. [Unlicense]
  • ZeroMQ – High-speed, modular asynchronous communication library. [LGPL] website

PDF

Libraries for parsing and manipulating PDF documents.

  • libharu – A free, cross platform, open-sourced software library for generating PDF. [zlib]
  • litePDF – Library to create and edit PDF documents that uses GDI functions through a device context to draw the page content. [LGPL v3 and zlib]
  • MuPDF – A lightweight PDF, XPS, and E-book viewer. [AGPL/Commercial]
  • PoDoFo – A library to work with the PDF file format. [LGPL]
  • Poppler – Open-source multi-backend PDF rendering library based on the xpdf-3.0 code base. [GPLv2/GPLv3]
  • Xpdf – Xpdf is a free PDF viewer and toolkit, including a text extractor, image converter, HTML converter, and more. [GPL v2/GPL v3]
  • DynaPDF – An easy-to-use PDF generation library. [Commercial]

Physics

Dynamics simulation engines

  • Box2D – A 2D physics engine for games. [BSD-like]
  • Bullet – A 3D physics engine for games. [zlib] website
  • Chipmunk – A fast and lightweight 2D game physics library. [MIT] website
  • LiquidFun – A 2D physics engine for games. [BSD-like]
  • Newton Dynamics – An integrated solution for real time simulation of physics environments. [zlib]
  • ODE – Open Dynamics Engine – An open source, high performance library for simulating rigid body dynamics. [BSD&LGPL]
  • ofxBox2d – openFrameworks wrapper for Box2D. [BSD-like]
  • PhysX – An open-source realtime physics engine middleware SDK developed by Nvidia as a part of Nvidia GameWorks software suite. [BSD-3-Clause]
  • Project Chrono – An open source multi-physics simulation engine. [BSD-3-Clause] website
  • Quantum++ – A modern C++11 quantum computing library. [MIT]
  • Simbody – High-performance C++ multibody dynamics/physics library for simulating articulated biomechanical and mechanical systems like vehicles, robots, and the human skeleton. [Apache2]
  • SOFA – SOFA is an open-source framework targeting at real-time simulation, with an emphasis on medical simulation. [LGPL] website

Reflection

  • config-loader – A C++17 static reflection framework, from parse configuration file to native data structure. [MIT]
  • Better Enums – Reflective enums (to string, iteration). Single header. [BSD] website
  • clReflect – C++ Reflection using clang. [MIT]
  • CPFG – A C++03 library for reflection, callback and script binding. [Apache2] website
  • CPP-Reflection – C++ Reflection using clang. [MIT]
  • Magic Enum – Header-only C++17 library provides static reflection for enums (to string, from string, iteration), work with any enum type without any macro or boilerplate code. [MIT]
  • magic_get – std::tuple like methods for user defined types without any macro or boilerplate code. [Boost]
  • meta – Header-only, non-intrusive and macro-free runtime reflection system in C++. [MIT]
  • Nameof – Header-only C++17 library provides nameof macros and functions to obtain the simple name of variable, type, function, macro, and enum. [MIT]
  • Ponder – A C++11 library for reflection. [MIT]
  • RTTR – A C++11 library for reflection. [MIT] website
  • visit_struct – A miniature library for struct-field reflection in C++. [BSL-1.0]
  • Refureku – A C++17 runtime reflection and code generation library. [MIT]

Regular Expression

  • CppVerbalExpressions – C++ regular expressions made easy. [MIT]
  • CTRE – A Compile time PCRE (almost) compatible regular expression matcher. [MIT]
  • Hyperscan – Hyperscan is a high-performance multiple regex matching library by Intel. Provides simultaneous matching of large numbers of regexps (up to tens of thousands). Typically used in a DPI library stack. [BSD]
  • Oniguruma – A modern and flexible regular expressions library that supports a variety of character encodings. [BSD]
  • PCRE – A regular expression C library inspired by the regular expression capabilities in Perl. [BSD]
  • PIRE – Perl Incompatible Regular Expressions library by Yandex. Can be really fast (more than 400 MB/s). [LPGL v3.0]
  • RE2 – A software library for regular expressions via a finite-state machine using automata theory. [BSD-3-Clause]
  • SLRE – Super Light Regexp engine for C/C++. [GPLv2/Commercial]
  • sregex – A non-backtracking NFA/DFA-based Perl-compatible regex engine library for matching on large data streams. [BSD]

Robotics

  • MOOS-IvP – A set of open source C++ modules for providing autonomy on robotic platforms, in particular autonomous marine vehicles.
  • MRPT – Mobile Robot Programming Toolkit. [BSD]
  • PCL – Point Cloud Library is a standalone, large scale, open project for 2D/3D image and point cloud processing [BSD] website
  • Robotics Library (RL) – A self-contained C++ library for robot kinematics, motion planning and control. [BSD]
  • RobWork – A collection of C++ libraries for simulation and control of robot systems. [Apache2] website
  • ROS – Robot Operating System provides libraries and tools to help software developers create robot applications. [BSD]
  • YARP (Yet Another Robot Platform) – Library and toolkit for communication and device interfaces. [BSD-3-Clause] website

Scientific Computing

  • AMGCL – a header-only C++ library for solving large sparse linear systems with algebraic multigrid. [MIT]
  • FFTW – A C library for computing the DFT in one or more dimensions. [GPL]
  • GSL – GNU scientific library. [GPL]
  • TileDB – Fast Dense and Sparse Multidimensional Array DBMS. [MIT] website
  • Trilinos – High performance PDE solvers. [BSD]
  • Torch – A scientific computing framework with wide support for machine learning algorithms that puts GPUs first. [BSD-3-Clause] website

Scripting

  • AngelScript – AngelScript is a game-oriented interpreted/compiled scripting language. [zlib]
  • Boost.Python – A C++ library which enables seamless interoperability between C++ and the Python programming language. [Boost]
  • cppimport – Import C++ files directly from Python! [MIT]
  • CppSharp – Tools and libraries to glue C/C++ APIs to high-level languages. [MIT]
  • ChaiScript – An easy to use embedded scripting language for C++. [BSD] website
  • ctypes.sh – A foreign function interface for bash. [MIT]
  • Cython – Cython is an optimising static compiler for both the Python programming language and the extended Cython programming language (based on Pyrex). It makes writing C extensions for Python as easy as Python itself. [Apache] website
  • djinni – A tool for generating cross-language type declarations and interface bindings. [Apache2]
  • Duktape – An embeddable Javascript engine with compact footprint. [MIT] website
  • JavaCpp – The missing bridge between Java and native C++. [Apache2]
  • libffi – A portable foreign-function interface library. [MIT] website
  • Lua – A minimal and fast scripting engine for configuration files and basic application scripting. [MIT]
  • LuaBridge – A lightweight, dependency-free library for binding Lua to C++. [MIT]
  • luacxx – C++11 API for creating Lua bindings. [MIT]
  • nbind – Magical headers that make your C++ library accessible from JavaScript. [MIT]
  • PHP-CPP – A library to build PHP extensions with C++. [Apache2] website
  • pybind11 – Seamless operability between C++11 and Python. [BSD]
  • SIP – C or C++ Bindings Generator for Python v2 and v3. [GPL]
  • sol2 – A C++ <-> Lua API wrapper with advanced features and top notch performance. [MIT]
  • SWIG – A wrapper/interface Generator that let you link your c++ code to Javascript, Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl and Ruby. [GPL/Output not licensed] website
  • V7 – An embedded JavaScript engine. [GPL2]
  • V8 – A fast JavaScript engine by Google that can be embedded into any C++ application. [BSD]
  • ChakraCore -A JavaScript engine by Microsoft that can be embedded into nodejs. [MIT]

Serialization

  • Bitsery – Header only C++ binary serialization library. [MIT]
  • Bond – An open source, cross-platform framework for working with schematized data. [MIT]
  • Boost.Serialization – Boost Serialization Library. [Boost]
  • Cap'n Proto – Fast data interchange format and capability-based RPC system. [MIT] website
  • cereal – A C++11 library for serialization. [BSD]
  • cppcodec – Header-only C++11 library to encode/decode base64, base32 and hex with consistent, flexible API. [MIT]
  • FastBinaryEncoding – Fast Binary Encoding is ultra fast and universal serialization solution for C++, C#, Go, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, Python, Ruby, Swift. [MIT]
  • FlatBuffers – A Memory efficient serialization library. [Apache2]
  • MessagePack – Efficient binary serialization format "like JSON" for C and C++. [Apache2] website
  • mrpt-serialization – Versioned serialization to binary or text formats. [BSD] website
  • nanopb – Small code-size Protocol Buffers implementation in ANSI C. [Zlib]
  • protobuf – Protocol Buffers – Google's data interchange format. [BSD]
  • protobuf-c – Protocol Buffers implementation in C. [BSD]
  • SimpleBinaryEncoding – encoding and decoding application messages in binary format for low-latency applications. [Apache2]
  • upb – A small protobuf implementation in C. [BSD]
  • YAS – Very fast Yet Another Serialization library supports the binary/text/json formats. [Boost]

Sorting

  • pdqsort – Pattern-defeating quicksort. [zlib]
  • Timsort – A templated stable sorting function which outperforms quicksort-based algorithms including std::sort, for reversed or semi-sorted data. [MIT]
  • Indiesort – A sort wrapper which enables the use of std::sort (& other random-access sort functions) with non-random-access containers, and also improves sort performance for large/non-trivially-copyable types in random-access containers and arrays. [zLib] website

Video

  • libvpx – VP8/VP9 Codec SDK. [BSD]
  • FFmpeg – A complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video. [LGPL2/GPL2]
  • libde265 – Open h.265 video codec implementation. [LGPL] website
  • x265 – Open h.265 video codec implementation. [GPL2] website
  • OpenH264 – Open Source H.264 Codec. [BSD] website
  • Theora – A free and open video compression format. [BSD]
  • Vireo – A lightweight and versatile video processing library by Twitter. [MIT]

Virtual Machines

  • CarpVM – "interesting" VM in C. Let's see how this goes. [GPLv3]
  • MicroPython – Aims to put an implementation of Python 3.x on a microcontroller. [MIT]
  • TinyVM – A small, fast, lightweight virtual machine written in pure ANSI C. [MIT]

Web Application Framework

  • Civetweb – Provides easy to use, powerful, C/C++ embeddable web server with optional CGI, SSL and Lua support. [MIT]
  • C++ REST SDK – Microsoft project for cloud-based client-server communication in native code using a modern asynchronous C++ API design. [MIT]
  • CppCMS – A Free High Performance Web Development Framework (not a CMS). [LGPLv3]
  • Crow – Crow is C++ micro web framework (inspired by Python Flask). [BSD]
  • Cutelyst – A C++ Web Framework built on top of Qt, using the simple approach of Catalyst (Perl) framework. [LGPLv2.1+] website
  • Drogon – A C++14/17 based, high-performance HTTP application framework. [MIT]
  • facil.io – Evented, high performance C web framework supporting HTTP, WebSockets, SSE and more. [MIT] website
  • Kore – ultra fast and flexible web server / framework for web applications developed in C. [ISC]
  • libOnion – lightweight library to help you create webservers in C programming language. [LGPLv3]
  • lwan – Experimental, scalable, high performance HTTP server. [GPL2]
  • oat++ – Light, zero-dependency framework to create high-performance web-services. [Apache-2.0] website
  • Pistache – Pistache is a C++ REST framework written in pure C++11 with no external dependency. [Apache2]
  • QDjango – A web framework written in C++ and built on top of the Qt library. Where possible it tries to follow django's API, hence its name. [LGPL]
  • TreeFrog Framework – High-speed and full-stack web application framework based on C++ and Qt, which supports HTTP and WebSocket protocol (with O/R mapping). [BSD] website
  • Wt – A C++ library for developing web applications. [GPL/Commercial]

XML

XML is crap. Really. There are no excuses. XML is nasty to parse for humans, and it's a disaster to parse even for computers. There's just no reason for that horrible crap to exist. – Linus Torvalds

  • Boost.PropertyTree – A property tree parser/generator that can be used to parse XML/JSON/INI/Info files. [Boost]
  • Expat – An XML parser library written in C. [MIT]
  • Libxml2 – The XML C parser and toolkit of Gnome. [MIT]
  • libxml++ – An XML Parser for C++. [LGPL2]
  • Mini-XML – A small XML parsing library written in ANSI C. [LGPL2 with exceptions]
  • PugiXML – A light-weight, simple and fast XML parser for C++ with XPath support. [MIT]
  • RapidXml – An attempt to create the fastest XML parser possible, while retaining useability, portability and reasonable W3C compatibility. [Boost]
  • TinyXML – A simple, small, minimal, C++ XML parser that can be easily integrating into other programs. [zlib]
  • TinyXML2 – A simple, small, efficient, C++ XML parser that can be easily integrating into other programs. [zlib]
  • TinyXML++ – A completely new interface to TinyXML that uses MANY of the C++ strengths. Templates, exceptions, and much better error handling. [MIT]
  • Xerces-C++ – A validating XML parser written in a portable subset of C++. [Apache2]

Yaml

  • mini-yaml – Single header YAML 1.0 C++11 serializer/deserializer. [MIT]
  • yaml-cpp – A YAML parser and emitter in C++ [MIT]

Miscellaneous

Useful libraries or tools that don't fit in the categories above or maybe just not categorised yet

  • access_profiler – A tool to count accesses to member variables in c++ programs. [GPL3]
  • American fuzzy lop a.k.a. afl-fuzz – Crazy fuzzing tool that automatically discovers bugs given time and minimal example input. [Apache2]
  • Better String – An alternative to the string library for C which is more functional and does not have buffer overflow overrun problems. Also includes a C++ wrapper. [BSD, GPL2]
  • Boost.Signals – An implementation of a managed signals and slots system. [Boost]
  • CPPItertools – Range-based for loop add-ons inspired by the Python builtins and itertools library. [BSD-2-Clause]
  • DynaMix – A library which allows you to compose and modify objects at run time. [MIT]
  • {fmt} :zap: – Small, safe and fast formatting library for C++. [Simplified BSD]
  • FastFormat – Fast, Safe C++ Formatting inspired by log4j and Pantheios [Simplified BSD]
  • casacore – A set of c++ core libraries derived from aips++. [LGPL]
  • QtVerbalExpressions – This Qt lib is based off of the C++ VerbalExpressions library. [MIT]
  • cxx-prettyprint – A pretty printing library for C++ containers. [Boost]
  • icecream-cpp – A small printing library for debugging purposes. [MIT]
  • gcc-poison – A simple header file for developers to ban unsafe C/C++ functions from applications.
  • Kangaru – A dependency injection container for C++11 and C++14. [MIT]
  • Klib – Small and lightweight implementations of common algorithms and data structures. [MIT]
  • libsigc++ – A typesafe callback system for standard C++. [LGPL] website
  • libcpuid – A small C library for x86 CPU detection and feature extraction. [BSD]
  • libevil – The Evil License Manager. [GPLv3]
  • libnih – A lightweight library of C functions and structures. [GPL2.1]
  • libusb – A universal USB library which allows for portable access to USB devices. [LGPL2]
  • Mach7 – A Pattern-matching library for C++. [BSD]
  • mio – Cross-platform C++11 header-only library for memory mapped file IO. [MIT]
  • PEGTL – The Parsing Expression Grammar Template Library. [MIT]
  • Remote Call Framework – Inter-process communication framework for C++. [GPL2/Commercial]
  • Scintilla – A free source code editing component. [MIT]
  • SDS – Simple Dynamic Strings library for C. [BSD]
  • semver.c – A semver parser and render in ANSI C. [MIT]
  • Serial Communication Library – Cross-platform, Serial Port library written in C++. [MIT]
  • sigslot – C++ Signal/Slot Library. [PublicDomain]
  • SimpleSignal – High performance C++11 signals. [PublicDomain]
  • Stage – Mobile robot simulator. [GPL2]
  • stdman Formatted C++11/14 stdlib man pages (from cppreference). [MIT]
  • stb :zap: – A range of single-file libraries for C/C++. [PublicDomain]
  • StrTk – A C++ library consisting of high performance string processing routines. [MIT]
  • Tulip Indicators – A C library of over 100 financial technical analysis indicators. [LGPL]
  • ub-canaries – A collection of C/C++ programs that try to get compilers to exploit undefined behavior.
  • value-category-cheatsheet A PDF cheatsheet for lvalues, rvalues, and the like. [Jank copyleft]
  • VarTypes – A feature-rich, object-oriented framework for managing variables in C++ / Qt4. [LGPL]
  • ZBar – A barcode scanner library, which allows to scan photos/images/video streams for barcodes and return their value. [LGPL2]
  • ZXing – An open-source, multi-format 1D/2D barcode image processing library implemented in Java, with ports to other languages. [Apache]
  • pprint – Pretty Printer for Modern C++. [MIT]

Software

Software for creating a development environment.

Compiler

List of C or C++ compilers

  • 8cc – A Small C Compiler.
  • c – Compile and execute C "scripts" in one go! [MIT]
  • Clang – A C compiler for LLVM. Supports C++11/14/1z C11. Developed by LLVM Team. [NCSA]
  • GCC – GNU Compiler Collection. Supports C++11/14/1z C11 and OpenMP. [GNU GPL3]
  • PCC – A very old C compiler. Supports C99.
  • Intel C++ Compiler – Developed by Intel.
  • LLVM – Collection of modular and reusable compiler and toolchain technologies.
  • Microsoft Visual C++ – MSVC, developed by Microsoft.
  • Open WatCom – Watcom C, C++, and Fortran cross compilers and tools. [Sybase Open Watcom Public License]
  • Oracle Solaris Studio – C, C++ and Fortran compiler for SPARC and x86. Supports C++11. Available on Linux and Solaris. [OTN Developer License]
  • TCC – Tiny C Compiler. [LGPL]

Online Compiler

List of online C or C++ compilers

  • codepad – An online compiler/interpreter, and a simple collaboration tool.
  • coliru – Online compiler/shell with support for various C++ compilers.
  • Compiler Explorer – An interactive compiler with assembly output available.
  • CompileOnline – Compile and Execute C++ online on Linux.
  • Ideone – An online compiler and debugging tool which allows you to compile source code and execute it online in more than 60 programming languages.
  • repl.it – A powerful yet simple tools and platforms for educators, learners, and developers.
  • Rextester – Online compiler which provides several compilers(Clang, GCC, MSVC) and several editors.
  • Try It Online – TIO is a family of online interpreters for an evergrowing list of practical and recreational programming languages.
  • Wandbox – An online Clang/GCC compiler with Boost available.
  • paiza.io – An online C/C++ compiler with multiple files supporting feature, Github(gist) integration and collaborative editing.

Debugger

List of C or C++ debuggers

  • Comparison of debuggers – A list of Debuggers from Wikipedia.
  • GDB – GNU Debugger.
  • LLDB – The LLDB Debugger.
  • Metashell – An interactive template metaprogramming shell which includes the MDB metadebugger.
  • Valgrind – A tool for memory debugging, memory leak detection, and profiling.
  • x64dbg – An open-source x64/x32 debugger for windows.

Integrated Development Environment

List of C or C++ nominal IDEs.

  • Anjuta DevStudio – The GNOME IDE. [GPL3]
  • AppCode – an IDE for Objective-C, C, C++, and JavaScript development built on JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA platform.
  • Cevelop – Cross-platform C and C++ IDE based on Eclipse CDT with additional plug-ins.
  • CLion – Cross-platform C and C++ IDE from JetBrains.
  • Code::Blocks – A free C, C++ and Fortran IDE.
  • CodeLite – Another cross-plaform, free C and C++ IDE. [GPL2 with an exception for plugins]
  • color_coded – A vim plugin for libclang-based highlighting. [MIT]
  • Dev-C++ – A portable C/C++/C++11 IDE.
  • Eclipse CDT – A fully functional C and C++ IDE based on the Eclipse platform.
  • Geany – Small, fast, cross-platform IDE. [GPL]
  • IBM VisualAge – A family of computer integrated development environments from IBM.
  • Irony-mode – A C/C++ minor mode for Emacs powered by libclang.
  • juCi++ – Cross-platform, lightweight C++ IDE with libclang integration. [MIT]
  • KDevelop – A free, open source IDE.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio – An IDE from Microsoft.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio Code :zap: – An open-source IDE from Microsoft. [MIT]
  • NetBeans – An IDE for developing primarily with Java, but also with other languages, in particular PHP, C/C++, and HTML5.
  • Qt Creator :zap: – A cross-platform C++, JavaScript and QML IDE which is part of the SDK for Qt.
  • rtags – A c/c++ client/server indexer with for integration with emacs based on clang.
  • Xcode – Developed by Apple.
  • YouCompleteMe – YouCompleteMe is a fast, as-you-type, fuzzy-search code completion engine for Vim.
  • cquery – A C++ code completion engine for vscode, emacs, vim, etc.

Build Systems

  • Bazel – A multi-language, fast and scalable build system from Google. [Apache]
  • Bear – A tool to generate compilation database for clang tooling. [GPLv3]
  • Buck – A fast build system that encourages the creation of small, reusable modules over a variety of platforms and languages including C++ developed and used at Facebook. Written in Java. [Apache]
  • build2 – cross-platform build, packaging and dependency management toolchain for developing and packaging C/C++ projects. [MIT]
  • clib – Package manager for the C programming language. [MIT]
  • CMake – Cross-platform free and open-source software for managing the build process of software using a compiler-independent method. [BSD]
  • Cget – Cmake package retrieval. [Boost] website
  • Conan – C/C++ Package Manager, open sourced. [MIT]
  • CPM – A C++ Package Manager based on CMake and Git.
  • FASTBuild – High performance, open-source build system supporting highly scalable compilation, caching and network distribution.
  • Hunter – CMake driven cross-platform package manager for C++. [BSD-2]
  • MesonBuild – An open source build system meant to be both extremely fast, and, even more importantly, as user friendly as possible.
  • Ninja – A small build system with a focus on speed.
  • Scons – A software construction tool configured with a Python script.
  • Sconsolidator – Scons build system integration for Eclipse CDT.
  • Spack – A flexible package manager that supports multiple versions, configurations, platforms, and compilers. [Apache-2.0/MIT]
  • SW – Cross-platform C++ (and other langs) Build System and Package Manager with a lot of packages available. [GPLv3]
  • tundra – High-performance code build system designed to give the best possible incremental build times even for very large software projects.
  • tup – File-based build system that monitors in the background for changed files.
  • Premake – A tool configured with a Lua script to generate project files for Visual Studio, GNU Make, Xcode, Code::Blocks, and more across Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
  • Vcpkg – C++ library manager for Windows, Linux, and MacOS. [MIT]
  • waf – Python-based framework for configuring, compiling and installing applications. [BSD] website
  • XMake – A C/C++ cross-platform build utility based on Lua. [Apache]

Static Code Analysis

List of tools for improving quality and reducing defects by code analysis

  • Cppcheck – A tool for static C/C++ code analysis. – source
  • CppDepend – Simplifies managing a complex C/C++ code base by analyzing and visualizing code dependencies, by defining design rules, by doing impact analysis, and comparing different versions of the code.
  • cpplint – A C++ style checker following Google's C++ style guide.
  • PVS-Studio – A tool for bug detection in the source code of programs, written in C, C++ and C#.
  • cpp-dependencies – Tool to check C++ #include dependencies (dependency graphs created in .dot format). [Apache]
  • include-what-you-use – A tool for use with clang to analyze includes in C and C++ source files. website
  • Infer – A static analyzer for Java, C and Objective-C. [BSD]
  • OCLint – A static source code analysis tool to improve quality and reduce defects for C, C++ and Objective-C. – source
  • Clang Static Analyzer – A source code analysis tool that finds bugs in C, C++, and Objective-C programs.
  • Linticator – Eclipse CDT integration of Pc-/FlexeLint.
  • IKOS – Static analyzer for C/C++ based on the theory of Abstract Interpretation. [NOSA 1.3]
  • List of tools for static code analysis – A list of tools for static code analysis from Wikipedia.

Coding Style Tools

  • Artistic Style – A tool to format C/C++/C#/Obj-C/Java code. Also known as astyle.
  • ClangFormat – A tool to format C/C++/Obj-C code.
  • Clang-Tidy – Clang-based C++ linter tool.
  • EditorConfig – EditorConfig helps maintain consistent coding styles across different editors and IDEs.
  • Uncrustify – Code beautifier.

Resources

Various resources, such as books, websites, and articles for improving your C++ development skills and knowledge.

API Design

Books

Fantastic C or C++ related books.

Coding Style

Podcasts

  • CppCast – The first podcast by C++ developers for C++ developers.
  • CppChat – A (sometimes) weekly look at what's going on in the world of C++ chatting with a guest from the community.

Talks

Videos

Fantastic C or C++ related videos.

Websites

Useful C or C++ related websites.

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