Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Sandboxels v1.8.6
In-browser particle simulator with hundreds of elements
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Sandboxels v1.8.6 launched in 2023; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
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- 3AS
I was inspired to make a web based ants simulator after watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81GQNPJip2Y Any feedback appreciated. Best viewed on Chromium based browsers. Firefox is slow for some reason and Safari is not tested as I don't have a Mac.
2022 · ants-sandbox.io · its alternatives →
- 4IM
2021 · simulator.money · its alternatives →
- 5AM
Hello HN! We’re a small creative studio specializing in real-time 3D experiences. Netlify approached us to design and build an interactive experience to celebrate reaching 5 million developers. Inspired by the classic game Marble Madness, we created a gamified experience where users control a ball through playful, interactive levels. The goal was to blend marketing content with the look and feel of a game to engage users. The app is built with Three.js [1], using our custom render pipeline and shaders, and uses Rapier for physics simulation [2]. The 2D content is overlaid on the WebGL view…
2024 · 5-million-devs.netlify.com · its alternatives →
- 6LP
Took a break from the falling sand simulation blog posts this week to work on another small project. It's a little pixel world generator- each time you visit, you'll see a new little world. I really like this stuff and had a blast building it yesterday!
2022 · jason.today · its alternatives →
- 7MS
2018 · magicsandbox.com · its alternatives →
- 8AS
The little particles will gravitate to your cursor (or touch location), and can even enter stable orbits if the conditions are right! Mainly an excuse for me to experiment with wasm and WebGL, but it makes for a surprisingly good fidget toy.
2024 · aestuans.github.io · its alternatives →
- 9
Local sandboxes for AI agents on your Mac, Linux, bare metal
Aug 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10IV
Hi HN! Thanks for your attention to my post. It was a big challenge to run most of Node.js packages in browser, fast moreover. Virtual File system, resolve import/export. I got cold many times, depressions, burned out, yet still alive and finished it. Many guys helped me with an advice. Many users give a lot of positive feedback. There are 200,000 monthly unique users. I work full time now because of the freemium business model. To be honest - I am happy after many years of hard work.
2022 · playcode.io · its alternatives →
- 11S2
Had some fun with shared array buffers over many months of free time. Skip to the end to play around with the final app. Open to ideas on how to simulate more whilst staying in js land.
2024 · dgerrells.com · its alternatives →
- 12EW
2020 · exophysics.net · its alternatives →
- 13AI
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 14AS
I didn't realize Universe Sandbox ran on MacOS, and I was in the mood to play around a bit. Some functions it's got: - Random system generation - Sonification is super fun too - Habitability Simulation (Just for fun, don't cite this please) - Replacing, spawning, deleting objects I've had tons of fun building this, so I hope someone else can share the joy. It's free and runs in the browser. I'd love to hear any feedback. I think this is at a state where I might leave it as it is, but if people are interested in other features, maybe I'll keep working on it. I've kept saying I'll stop working…
Dec 2025 · luna.watermelonson.com · its alternatives →
- 15
Hi HN, I’m a chemical engineer and I manage logistics at a refinery down in Texas. Whenever I try to explain downstream operations to people outside the industry (including my kids), I usually get blank stares. I wanted to build something that visualizes the concepts and chemistry of a plant without completely dumbing down the science, so I put together this 5-minute browser game. Here's a simple runthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is-moBz6upU. I pushed to get through a full product pathway to show the V-804 replay. I am not a software developer by trade, so I relied…
Mar 2026 · fuelingcuriosity.com · its alternatives →
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- 17TF
It's free to play on steam, but you'll need a computer with a dedicated graphics card. I just released a new version after first releasing it 18 months ago. It's been a hard slog to scrounge time as it's not my day job but that's life. There's a ton of obvious improvements in the future (weather systems, temperature, varying rainfall, ice/snow, more biomes, more plate tectonics, lava, etc) but all suggestions/feedback is welcome.
2023 · store.steampowered.com · its alternatives →
- 18
Toolkit for building live coding experiences in browser
2021 · its alternatives →
- 19PW
2021 · observablehq.com · its alternatives →
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- 21
- 22CC
2020 · cycell2d.com · its alternatives →
- 23
WebTerm Learn▲139Learn the terminal like a game — in a browser sandbox
17d ago · learn.webterm.app · its alternatives →
- 24OS
Kshitij and Rahul here. We're building Playground, an open-source sandbox that lets your non-technical teams prototype directly on production codebases, without bugging you (developers) to spin up and maintain another repo. The repo is here: https://github.com/B1u3B01t/design-playground. We've been working together for six years. Last year we built an AI design agent because we thought designers were the biggest bottleneck. But we were wrong. After talking to teams, we realised designers, PMs, founders and even sales people all wanted to quickly change and explore flows…
Jul 2026 · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →