head to head · open source
raylib vs agones
raylib has 35,557 GitHub stars, 3,376 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. agones has 7,099 stars, 956 forks, 59 open issues and last shipped yesterday. raylib leads on adoption by 401% (35,557 vs 7,099 stars). raylib is written in C under Zlib; agones is written in Go under Apache-2.0. raylib has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, agones 13%. agones was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (game-development), 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
| raylib | agones | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 7.1K |
| License | Zlib | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 956 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick raylib if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the Zlib license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick agones if
- You want the agones 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 agones fits your workflow better
About raylib
raylib is a simple and easy to use library to enjoy videogames programming. raylib is highly inspired by Borland BGI graphics lib and by XNA framework and it's especially well suited for prototyping, tooling, graphical applications, embedded systems and education. NOTE for ADVENTURERS: raylib is a programming library to enjoy videogames programming; no fancy interface, no visual helpers, no debug button... just coding in the most pure spartan programmers way. Ready to learn? Jump to code examples! features NO external dependencies , all required libraries are included in raylib Multiple platforms supported…
read the full raylib overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is raylib or agones more popular?
raylib has 35,557 GitHub stars and agones has 7,099. raylib has the larger community by that measure.
Are raylib and agones free?
Both are open source. raylib is licensed under Zlib and agones under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between raylib and agones?
raylib is written in C and agones 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, raylib or agones?
Choose raylib if you want the larger community (35,557 stars) or its Zlib licence terms. Choose agones if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.