head to head · open source
azerothcore-wotlk vs agones
azerothcore-wotlk has 8,936 GitHub stars, 3,802 forks, 2,445 open issues and last shipped today. agones has 7,032 stars, 943 forks, 59 open issues and last shipped today. azerothcore-wotlk leads on adoption by 27% (8,936 vs 7,032 stars). azerothcore-wotlk is written in C++ under GPL-2.0; agones is written in Go under Apache-2.0. azerothcore-wotlk has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, agones 13%. azerothcore-wotlk was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (game-server), 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
| azerothcore-wotlk | agones | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 7.0K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 943 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick azerothcore-wotlk if
- You weight community size — 8.9K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-2.0 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 azerothcore-wotlk
AzerothCore (azerothcore wotlk) is an open source, modular C++ game server and framework that recreates the World of Warcraft patch 3.3.5a experience, built for people who want to run and extend their own MMORPG server rather than pay for one.
read the full azerothcore-wotlk overview →
About agones
Agones is an open source library for hosting, running and scaling dedicated game servers on Kubernetes, built for game developers, platform engineers and live ops teams that need multiplayer server capacity without bespoke cluster management.
read the full agones overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is azerothcore-wotlk or agones more popular?
azerothcore-wotlk has 8,936 GitHub stars and agones has 7,032. azerothcore-wotlk has the larger community by that measure.
Are azerothcore-wotlk and agones free?
Both are open source. azerothcore-wotlk is licensed under GPL-2.0 and agones under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between azerothcore-wotlk and agones?
azerothcore-wotlk 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, azerothcore-wotlk or agones?
Choose azerothcore-wotlk if you want the larger community (8,936 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose agones if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.