head to head · open source
agones vs pufferpanel
agones has 7,102 GitHub stars, 958 forks, 59 open issues and last shipped today. pufferpanel has 1,771 stars, 268 forks, 116 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. agones leads on adoption by 301% (7,102 vs 1,771 stars). agones is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pufferpanel is written in Go under Apache-2.0. agones has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, pufferpanel 15%. agones was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (game-server, golang), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| agones | pufferpanel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.1K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-14 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 958 | ⑂ 268 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick agones if
- You weight community size — 7.1K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pufferpanel if
- You want the pufferpanel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pufferpanel fits your workflow better
About agones
Agones is a library for hosting, running and scaling dedicated game servers on Kubernetes. Agones, is derived from the Greek word agōn which roughly translates to “contest”, “competition at games” and “gathering”. (source) Why does this project exist? Agones replaces usual bespoke or proprietary cluster management and game server scaling solutions with a Kubernetes cluster that includes the Agones custom Kubernetes Controller and matching Custom Resource Definitions for GameServers , Fleets and more. With Agones, Kubernetes gets native abilities to create, run, manage and scale dedicated game server processes…
read the full agones overview →
About pufferpanel
PufferPanel Website Discord Documentation Translations What is PufferPanel? PufferPanel is a web based Game Server Management System. PufferPanel allows you to manage multiple different game servers all from one central location. You can give other users their own servers or allow them to access to your servers. Installation Please follow the installation guide for PufferPanel located here. What's different about PufferPanel? In addition to being a free and open source project, PufferPanel provides an easy to use interface for everyone from individual users to large networks. We strive to create a friendly…
read the full pufferpanel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is agones or pufferpanel more popular?
agones has 7,102 GitHub stars and pufferpanel has 1,771. agones has the larger community by that measure.
Are agones and pufferpanel free?
Both are open source. agones is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pufferpanel under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between agones and pufferpanel?
agones is written in Go and pufferpanel in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, agones or pufferpanel?
Choose agones if you want the larger community (7,102 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pufferpanel if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.