head to head · open source
azerothcore-wotlk vs goworld
azerothcore-wotlk has 9,151 GitHub stars, 3,948 forks, 2,445 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. goworld has 2,722 stars, 472 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. azerothcore-wotlk leads on adoption by 236% (9,151 vs 2,722 stars). azerothcore-wotlk is written in C++ under GPL-2.0; goworld is written in Go under Apache-2.0. azerothcore-wotlk has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, goworld 17%. 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 | goworld | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.2K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-06 | 2025-11-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.9K | ⑂ 472 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick azerothcore-wotlk if
- You weight community size — 9.2K 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 goworld if
- You want the goworld 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 goworld fits your workflow better
About azerothcore-wotlk
AzerothCore Build Status Introduction AzerothCore is an open source game server application and framework designed for hosting massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). It is based on the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW) and seeks to recreate the gameplay experience of the original game from patch 3.3.5a. The original code is based on MaNGOS, TrinityCore, and SunwellCore and has since then had extensive development to improve stability, in game mechanics, and modularity to the game. AC has also grown into a community driven project with a significant number of contributors and developers…
read the full azerothcore-wotlk overview →
About goworld
GoWorld Scalable Distributed Game Server Engine with Hot Reload in Golang Features Architecture Introduction Get GoWorld Manage GoWorld Servers Demos Chatroom Demo Unity Demo: GoWorldUnityDemo.zip 中文资料 中文文档 游戏服务器介绍 目录结构说明 使用GoWorld轻松实现分布式聊天服务器 游戏服务端开源引擎GoWorld教程 1.安装和运行 2.Unity示例双端联调 3.手把手写一个聊天室 4.多个频道的聊天室 5.登录注册和存储 6.移动同步和AOI 7.源码解析之启动流程和热更新 8.码解析之gate 9.源码解析之dispatcher 10.源码解析之entity 欢迎加入Go服务端开发交流群：662182346 Features Spaces & Entities : manage multiple spaces and entities with AOI support Distributed : increase server capacity by using more machines Hot Swappable : update game logic by restarting server…
read the full goworld overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is azerothcore-wotlk or goworld more popular?
azerothcore-wotlk has 9,151 GitHub stars and goworld has 2,722. azerothcore-wotlk has the larger community by that measure.
Are azerothcore-wotlk and goworld free?
Both are open source. azerothcore-wotlk is licensed under GPL-2.0 and goworld under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between azerothcore-wotlk and goworld?
azerothcore-wotlk is written in C++ and goworld 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 goworld?
Choose azerothcore-wotlk if you want the larger community (9,151 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose goworld if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.