Lightweight Neural Networks ML Frameworks

Minimal, educational neural network frameworks built from scratch in C/C99/C++ without heavy dependencies. Includes basic implementations of MLPs, CNNs, and training algorithms for learning purposes. Does NOT include production-grade frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch), frameworks with GPU/CUDA as primary focus, or tensor computation libraries.

There are 186 lightweight neural networks frameworks tracked. 10 score above 50 (established tier). The highest-rated is Dobiasd/frugally-deep at 57/100 with 1,119 stars.

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#	Framework	Score	Tier	Stars	Language
1	Dobiasd/frugally-deep A lightweight header-only library for using Keras (TensorFlow) models in C++.	57	Established	1,119	C++
2	flashlight/flashlight A C++ standalone library for machine learning	56	Established	5,439	C++
3	NVlabs/tiny-cuda-nn Lightning fast C++/CUDA neural network framework	53	Established	4,430	C++
4	KasperskyLab/knp Kaspersky Neuromorphic Platform	53	Established	42	C++
5	wichtounet/dll Fast Deep Learning Library (DLL) for C++ (ANNs, CNNs, RBMs, DBNs...)	53	Established	685	C++
6	tiny-dnn/tiny-dnn header only, dependency-free deep learning framework in C++14	51	Established	6,020	C++
7	LBANN/lbann Livermore Big Artificial Neural Network Toolkit	51	Established	229	C++
8	pplonski/keras2cpp This is a bunch of code to port Keras neural network model into pure C++.	51	Established	681	C++
9	attractivechaos/kann A lightweight C library for artificial neural networks	50	Established	746	C
10	nntile/nntile A neural network training framework within a task-based parallel programming paradigm	50	Established	55	C++
11	OpenPPL/ppl.nn A primitive library for neural network	49	Emerging	1,367	C++
12	gosha20777/keras2cpp it's a small library for running trained Keras 2 models from a native C++ code.	48	Emerging	195	C++
13	Gattic/glades-ml Open Source C++ library for creating and managing deep feed forward neural networks.	47	Emerging	9	C++
14	xylcbd/EasyCNN easy convolution neural network	46	Emerging	168	C++
15	BobMcDear/neural-network-cuda Neural network from scratch in CUDA/C++	46	Emerging	87	Cuda
16	77axel/PyCNN A Python library to easily build, train, and test your CNN AI models.	46	Emerging	21	Python
17	GarethRichards/Machine-Learning-CPP Code from Michael Nielsen book Neural Networks and Deep Learning ported to C++.	45	Emerging	129	C++
18	LieluoboAi/radish C++ model train&inference framework	45	Emerging	223	C++
19	shi-yan/FreeWill A deep learning library in C++/CUDA	45	Emerging	81	JavaScript
20	Thalhammer/snowman Snowboy reimplementation	45	Emerging	95	C++
21	Tyill/sunnet tiny neural net	44	Emerging	62	C++
22	brohrer/sharpened-cosine-similarity An alternative to convolution in neural networks	44	Emerging	261	Python
23	apennisi/deep_sort Deep Sort algorithm C++ version	44	Emerging	96	C++
24	WICWIU/WICWIU WICWIU(What I can Create is What I Understand)	44	Emerging	105	C++
25	Bengal1/Simple-CNN-Guide A beginner’s guide to building Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs).	43	Emerging	32	Python
26	primitiv/primitiv A Neural Network Toolkit.	43	Emerging	177	C++
27	snuspl/nimble Lightweight and Parallel Deep Learning Framework	43	Emerging	264	C++
28	100/Cranium 🤖 A portable, header-only, artificial neural network library written in C99	43	Emerging	604	C
29	Miguelszzz/simple_mnist Minimalist MNIST implementation with two hidden layers written in C	42	Emerging	1	C
30	hshatti/LightNet Implemented in pure pascal LightNet is an artificial intelligence neural...	42	Emerging	63	Pascal
31	yixuan/MiniDNN A header-only C++ library for deep neural networks	42	Emerging	433	C++
32	intel/clDNN Compute Library for Deep Neural Networks (clDNN)	42	Emerging	576	C++
33	mz24cn/clnet OpenCL for Nets - A Deep Learning Framework based on OpenCL, written by C++....	42	Emerging	68	C
34	artyom-beilis/dlprimitives Deep Learning Primitives and Mini-Framework for OpenCL	42	Emerging	208	C++
35	artix75/psyc A C implementation of common Artificial Neural Networks	42	Emerging	15	C
36	lmnt-com/haste Haste: a fast, simple, and open RNN library	41	Emerging	336	C++
37	can1357/simple_cnn Simple Convolutional Neural Network Library	41	Emerging	197	C++
38	Ricardicus/recurrent-neural-net A recurrent (LSTM) neural network in C	41	Emerging	97	C
39	graphcore/poplibs Poplar libraries	41	Emerging	123	C++
40	YA2IR/cnn-in-c Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) In C	40	Emerging	2	C
41	Bengal1/Simple-CNN-OOP A from-scratch Convolutional Neural Network in C++ OOP.	39	Emerging	2	C++
42	thibo73800/deep-generation I used in this project a reccurent neural network to generate c code based...	39	Emerging	110	C
43	Okerew/larkos This repository shows an alternative neural network structure to modern...	37	Emerging	13	Objective-C
44	A-Georgiou/SmartDNN SmartDNN: A C++ Deep Learning library. Built from the ground up without any...	37	Emerging	4	C++
45	fengwang/ceras Ceras is yet another tiny deep learning engine, in pure c++ and header only.	37	Emerging	127	C++
46	RishabSA/AutoNeuroNet AutoNeuroNet is a fully implemented automatic differentiation engine with...	36	Emerging	6	C++
47	leleonardzhang/Capuchin A framework and model generator for Neural Network inferences on MSP430	36	Emerging	11	C
48	dreamilk/ANN An artificial neural network framework based on c++	35	Emerging	77	C++
49	fkkarakurt/Nerve This is a basic implementation of a neural network for use in C and C++...	35	Emerging	46	C
50	DomenSoberl/deep-c Pure C implementation of deep learning algorithms	35	Emerging	6	C
51	lancopku/meProp meProp: Sparsified Back Propagation for Accelerated Deep Learning (ICML 2017)	35	Emerging	110	C#
52	fkkarakurt/iNeural A library for creating Artificial Neural Networks, for use in Machine...	34	Emerging	6	C++
53	iVishalr/cDNN Fast and Efficient Deep Learning Library in C	34	Emerging	18	C
54	DorianBDev/TigiNet TigiNet is a simple c++ neural network library.	33	Emerging	7	C++
55	andreabonvini/pointprocess A C++ Library for Point Process Analysis	33	Emerging	8	C++
56	SorawitChok/Neural-Network-from-scratch-in-Cpp Build a Neural Network from scratch in C++ to deeply understand how it...	33	Emerging	40	C++
57	siekmanj/sieknet A recurrent/memory-based neural network library implemented from scratch in C.	33	Emerging	57	C
58	Gattic/NNCreator GUI interface for creating feed forward neural networks and its variants	32	Emerging	6	C++
59	CarloWood/machine-learning My first ML sandbox	32	Emerging	28	C++
60	rusih100/simple-neural-network 🧬 A simple scalable evolutionary neural network in C++	32	Emerging	5	C++
61	mrousavy/BrabeNetz 🧠 A fast and clean supervised neural network in C++, capable of effectively...	32	Emerging	26	C++
62	qaz9517532846/mnist_cudnn MNIST handwriting recognition using Deep learning and CUDNN library under ROS 2.	31	Emerging	1	C++
63	SmartPolarBear/cppbp A lightweight extensible library for constructing artificial neural network...	31	Emerging	4	C++
64	jkorsvik/NMBUFlowTorch Implementation of an Expandable Neural Net library - relying on the use of...	30	Emerging	2	C++
65	ddigiorg/simple-cortex A simple unsupervised on-line learning architecture	29	Experimental	15	C++
66	MGokcayK/gNet mini Deep Learning Library	29	Experimental	6	Python
67	dragunovdenis/DeepLearning C++ framework for deep neural networks	29	Experimental	4	C++
68	syedsalman137/mamba-inference-in-c Inference mamba in one file of C	28	Experimental	8	C
69	FFMG/neural-network A simple, from-scratch C++ Feedforward Neural Network with zero...	28	Experimental	2	C++
70	g0d/GANN Geeks Artificial Neural Network (G.A.N.N)	28	Experimental	18	C++
71	Andezion/CLib My attempts to understand neural networks	27	Experimental	2	C
72	AyushExel/LibNet Deep Neural Network algorithms library for c++ from scratch	27	Experimental	14	C++
73	mesutpiskin/characterRecognition :ab: Character Recognition with Artificial Neural Network ANN - C# Project	27	Experimental	12	C#
74	Magicalbat/TurboSpork A system for creating neural networks in C	27	Experimental	12	C
75	tungphambasement/TNN Tensor Neural Network - C/C++ Deep Learning Library built from scratch	26	Experimental	3	C++
76	Siwwyy/NN_ENGINE Neural Network engine! Design of code is based on popular Neural Networks,...	26	Experimental	5	C++
77	mehmet-kozan/simple-neural-network A from-scratch implementation of a feedforward neural network in C# (.NET 8)...	26	Experimental	5	C#
78	yadavsidhant/easycnn EasyCNN: A library to create, train, and use custom CNN models with ease.	26	Experimental	1	Python
79	bundit/neural-network-digit-recognition Multi-layered Convolutional Neural Network written in C++11	25	Experimental	6	C++
80	clay-arras/lamppp lamp++💡 fast and lightweight machine learning framework in cpp, supporting...	25	Experimental	3	C++
81	moinfra/sylvan 🌳 An educational modern C++ deep learning framework supporting CUDA	25	Experimental	53	C++
82	dredstone1/NeuralNetwork A modern C++ neural network library built from scratch — modular, fast, and...	24	Experimental	3	C++
83	dongyx/lnn A Command-Line Program of Feedforward Neural Networks	24	Experimental	19	C
84	takara-ai/SwarmFormer-C Full C implementation of the SwarmFormer model architecture.	24	Experimental	5	C
85	diegofps/wup Fast Weightless Neural Networks implemented in C++ 🏇🏇🏇	24	Experimental	3	C++
86	Gopal-Dahale/hpmoCNN High-Performance Memory Optimal CNN	23	Experimental	4	C++
87	iWolf22/neural-network.cpp A neural network written completely from scratch. No PyTorch. No TensorFlow....	23	Experimental	2	C++
88	Jens01/NewDann RPROP Neural Network with Delphi	23	Experimental	4	Pascal
89	kripxera1/MNIST-GAN-CPP A MNIST GAN implemented from scratch in C++	23	Experimental	4	C++
90	unipr-org/deep-neural-network Deep Neural Network Library: A flexible C++ library for building, training,...	23	Experimental	4	C++
91	zerothorder/synapse a multi-layer perceptron in C++ built from scratch.	22	Experimental	—	C++
92	Az-r-ow/NeuralNet A Neural Network in cpp	22	Experimental	5	C++
93	IltonPfleger/NeuroPulse A small and modular Neural Networks library for C programs	22	Experimental	7	C
94	Yahia995/tiny-nn Minimal neural network engine built from scratch in modern C++20 with...	22	Experimental	1	C++
95	mpcsource/7_Scratch_Neural_Network A simple neural network library written in C++ for educational purposes. It...	22	Experimental	—	C++
96	thejvdev/neural-net-from-scratch Repository for Writing a Neural Networks in the C Language	22	Experimental	—	C
97	lhldev/cneuron Lightweight neural network library in C.	21	Experimental	—	C
98	christopher-besch/neural_network Experimental C++ Deep-Learning Framework.	21	Experimental	9	C++
99	inclinedadarsh/logistic-regression-c This is my attempt to do logistic regression the deep learning way in C language.	21	Experimental	1	C
100	4imothy/clear_net A framework for the creation and training of vanilla and convolutional...	21	Experimental	12	C
101	Immortale-dev/NerOne Low level C++ neural network engine. The engine provides a huge flexibility...	21	Experimental	11	C++
102	MannCode/Mann_NeuralNetwork Handcrafted C++ neural network engine with manual math and training logic,...	21	Experimental	3	C++
103	yatorho/CHIME A Deep Learning Framework	20	Experimental	5	C++
104	GGasset/CudaNeatNetwork Neural Network framework made from scratch in CUDA/C++	20	Experimental	2	Cuda
105	Phoenix8215/build_neural_network_from_scratch_CPP Created a simple neural network using C++17 standard and the Eigen library...	20	Experimental	10	C++
106	QuanTran6309/NeuralNet A machine learning library C++	20	Experimental	3	Cuda
107	Jaswar/nnlib GPU-accelerated, C/C++ neural network library.	20	Experimental	7	C++
108	Schryzon/Neuro-CPP Syntax Semantic Sentience.	20	Experimental	3	C++
109	JiauZhang/nnops Neural Network Operators	20	Experimental	2	C++
110	nthnn/chisei A lightweight, efficient, and user-friendly C++ library for creating,...	20	Experimental	2	C++
111	Mgepahmge/NeuZephyr A simple C++ deep learning framework	20	Experimental	2	Cuda
112	jmaczan/curiosity Low-level deep learning concepts from scratch	20	Experimental	12	C
113	Tompil3r/laruen Easy to use C++ library for deep learning and multi-dimensional computations	19	Experimental	3	C++
114	Ilya-sss/Machine-Learning-Logic-Gates-C A lightweight neural network in C that learns logic gates (AND, OR, XOR,...	19	Experimental	1	C
115	emsar69/MNIST-AI-Without-External-AI-Libraries A pure C++ implementation of an MNIST digit classifier without using...	19	Experimental	2	C++
116	usamahz/cnn A simple CNN in C from scratch	19	Experimental	3	C
117	git-user-cpp/neural_real_estate_appraisal_calculator :robot: Neural real estate appraisal calculator is implemented in C...	19	Experimental	4	C
118	FahdSeddik/FeedForward-NeuralNetwork-from-scratch This is a Feed-Forward Neural Network with back-propagation written in C++...	19	Experimental	3	C++
119	Phoenix8215/BuildCudaNeuralNetworkFromScratch Build CUDA Neural Network From Scratch	18	Experimental	22	Cuda
120	ANSHAM1/LSTMiniNet LSTM gate implementation of RNN, demonstrates building deep sequence models...	18	Experimental	1	C++
121	CMaybe/VanillaDNN Dependency-free DNN framework with C++	18	Experimental	2	C++
122	pablodrake/Deep-Paquito A simple neuralnetwork framework (he a little small uWu)	18	Experimental	2	C++
123	ANSHAM1/ScratchRNNilla ScratchRNNilla is a fully handwritten Vanilla RNN regression model framework...	18	Experimental	1	C++
124	lchdl/Breeze A super light-weight CPU deep learning framework with no external dependency.	18	Experimental	2	C++
125	Rocky111245/Flux-A-Custom-Educational-Deep-Learning-Framework This neural network framework, built entirely from scratch in C++, offers a...	18	Experimental	6	C++
126	ANSHAM1/ScratchANNet scratchANNet is a minimalist deep learning framework written entirely from...	18	Experimental	1	C++
127	Astrodynamic/MultilayerPerceptron-in-Qt-CPP MultilayerPerceptron Project is a C++ implementation of a multilayer...	18	Experimental	2	C++
128	raphaelsenn/neural-network-autograd-cpp A simple feed forward neural network (with autograd capabilities) in C++ (no...	18	Experimental	2	C++
129	harrypaas1/fast-neural-network fast, easy to use c++ neural network for arff files	18	Experimental	2	C++
130	KenKenhehe/Wheel-DeeplearningFramework A deep learning framework made from scratch using C++ and the Eigen library	17	Experimental	1	C++
131	david-alvarez-rosa/neural-network Implementation of a (fully connected) Neural Network from scratch in C++.	17	Experimental	1	C++
132	zroe1/neural-network-from-scratch This repository contains a fully-functional neural network implemented using...	17	Experimental	1	C
133	research-note/deep-learning-from-scratch-using-modern-cpp 『밑바닥부터 시작하는 딥러닝』(한빛미디어, 2017), 『Deep Learning From Scratch』 (Hanbit media),...	17	Experimental	1	C++
134	crakesh27/CNN-CPP Modular implementation of CNN in C++. Extensible by inheriting existing...	17	Experimental	1	C++
135	ANDRVV/neuralnet 🤖 A sketch for deep neural network	17	Experimental	1	C++
136	nabla27/NeuralNet32 Simple Neural Network.	17	Experimental	1	C++
137	baimamboukar/neural-networks-in-cpp From scratch implementation of Neural Networks (MLPs) In C++	17	Experimental	—	CMake
138	LowLevelML/C-simple-neural-network A basic and simple neural network written in C. It uses perceptron...	17	Experimental	1	C
139	sopho-s/NN A basic C++ neural network	17	Experimental	1	C++
140	WW92030-STORAGE/NEURAL2 Neural Networks in C++ (Remastered!)	17	Experimental	—	C++
141	IagoFAlen/neuralnet This project is an adaptive neural network implemented in C that classifies...	16	Experimental	2	C++
142	NTDLS/NTDLS.Determinet Determinet is versatile multilayer perception neural network designed for...	15	Experimental	—	C#
143	Enerhim/neuralnetworkc A neural network written in C for classification & regression	15	Experimental	2	C
144	warg-void/Wolf C++ Neural net Implementation (CPU)	15	Experimental	8	C++
145	stort0/neural-network Simple neural network implementation in C++ and CUDA	15	Experimental	1	C++
146	Islam-hady9/ANN-from-scratch-in-C Creating an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) from scratch in C	15	Experimental	1	C
147	karanrobo/ML-Library-in-C A library for training MLP models, written in pure C.	14	Experimental	—	C
148	b-ionut-r/NeuroCore CUDA-first C++ deep learning framework with custom NDArray, Tensor autograd,...	14	Experimental	1	Cuda
149	K-T0BIAS/Spline-based-DeepLearning Library for Splines Based Alternatives to Neural Networks	13	Experimental	—	C++
150	udthegooner/neuralnet-cpp-cuda A modular Deep Learning library in C++ and CUDA. Implements full...	13	Experimental	—	Cuda
151	AndrewDarnall/DeepLearning4All Pet project to fall in love with C++ again	13	Experimental	—	—
152	BinAl-Sadiq/stochastic-gradient-descent Very simple c++ DNN implementation that uses the stochastic gradient descent...	13	Experimental	—	C++
153	sokmontrey/nodeflow A simple and highly extensible Computational graph library written in C++...	13	Experimental	—	C++
154	nishantHolla/neurite Standalone C library for training neural networks	12	Experimental	3	C
155	RockingAayush/Neural-network-Cpp A neural network design made from scratch in C++.	12	Experimental	3	C++
156	iWas-Coder/guanaco A simple, uncomplicated, multilayered Neural Network framework written in pure C.	12	Experimental	1	C
157	tingkuanpei/ugraph Deep Learning Framework	12	Experimental	1	C++
158	patztablook22/nanuk Basic Deep Learning library written in C++	12	Experimental	1	C++
159	JacobDomagala/SmollNet SmollNet is a small deep learning library written in pure CUDA/C++	12	Experimental	3	C++
160	muhammet-mucahit/Artificial-Neural-Networks :loop: Includes Single Neuron Implementation and Single Layer(Multi Neuron)...	12	Experimental	6	C++
161	TomasVenkrbec/Cpp_MNIST_CNN An implementation of deep learning framework in C++, without the use of any...	12	Experimental	1	C++
162	jsramesh1990/C-Variables C programming variables	12	Experimental	1	C
163	mahdizynali/MazeNet Mnist digits multi perceptron neural-network training from scratch with c++...	12	Experimental	8	C++
164	markorakita/xnn Windows framework for deep neural networks training on multiple GPUs.	11	Experimental	—	Cuda
165	Mike7831/Yet-Another-Neural-Network-Library Neural network library in C++	11	Experimental	—	C++
166	rupak10987/Neural-Network-Algorithoms This repository consists of codes regarding different neural network...	11	Experimental	—	C++
167	VOCOM/Neural-Network-CPP-Library Artificial Intelligence model	11	Experimental	—	C++
168	wwakabobik/NANA NANA (perceptron neural net prototype)	11	Experimental	—	C++
169	git-user-cpp/neural_converter_application :brain: The Neural converter is implemented in C programming language. The...	11	Experimental	—	C
170	UniquePython/cognition A high-performance, C-native tensor and machine learning library for...	11	Experimental	—	C
171	vcamro/NeuroBaseLib The purpose of the NeuroBase project is finding a way using the neural...	11	Experimental	—	C++
172	kurdsf/cgan A simple GAN written in C.	11	Experimental	—	C
173	Piero24/VanillaNet-cpp A fully connected Neural Network in C++ with SGD from scratch, achieving 98%...	11	Experimental	—	C++
174	gty111/ConvNN A simple CNN training framework support on CPU and GPU(CUDNN)	11	Experimental	3	C++
175	TatevKaren/Simple-convolutional-neural-network Simple Convolutional Neural Network	11	Experimental	3	—
176	akashgoswami/nanci A neural network beginner implementation in pure C	11	Experimental	—	C
177	0xnu/cpp_mdnn A deep neural network using the MiniDNN library to analyse the Adult dataset.	11	Experimental	—	C++
178	rexionmars/neural-network-library A collection of library for Deep Learning	11	Experimental	—	C
179	JonyanDunh/BackPropagationCPP In machine learning, Back Propagation is a widely used algorithm for...	11	Experimental	—	C++
180	Parxd/GroundUpNeuralNet C++ neural network library w/ support for various activation & loss functions	11	Experimental	—	C++
181	MaoSong2022/TinyNeuralNetwork A simply C++ implemented neural networks	11	Experimental	—	C++
182	erostedt/neural Small neural network on the cpu in C	11	Experimental	—	C
183	ba5t1an/cnet cnet is a lightweight, header-only framework to train and deploy...	11	Experimental	—	C++
184	SieR-VR/StaticNet Make your static machine learning network!	11	Experimental	4	C++
185	tahamucasiroglu/basic-deep-learning artificial neural networks homework	11	Experimental	3	C++
186	Xx220xX/Rede-convolucional Rede convolucional em C. Camadas Conv, ConvNc, Pool, PoolAv, Relu, Softmax,...	10	Experimental	2	C

Comparisons in this category

tiny-cuda-nn and tiny-dnn (53 vs 51) tiny-cuda-nn and neural-network-cuda (53 vs 46) frugally-deep and keras2cpp (57 vs 48)