head to head · open source
azerothcore-wotlk vs mcrcon
azerothcore-wotlk has 9,187 GitHub stars, 3,957 forks, 2,445 open issues and last shipped today. mcrcon has 1,104 stars, 126 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. azerothcore-wotlk leads on adoption by 732% (9,187 vs 1,104 stars). azerothcore-wotlk is written in C++ under GPL-2.0; mcrcon is written in C under Zlib. azerothcore-wotlk has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, mcrcon 11%. 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 | mcrcon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.2K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Zlib |
| Written in | C++ | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-15 | 2025-12-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 126 |
| 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 mcrcon if
- You want the mcrcon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Zlib license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and mcrcon 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 mcrcon
mcrcon mcrcon is console based Minecraft rcon client for remote administration and server maintenance scripts. Installing: via packet manager: See for available packages in various Linux distros (note that available packages might be outdated). Gentoo Linux: Arch Linux: building from sources: Check INSTALL.md for more details. Precompiled binaries (if provided) : At the moment binaries are provided for Linux and Windows. Usage: mcrcon [OPTIONS] [COMMANDS] Sends rcon commands to Minecraft server. Server address, port and password can be set using following environment variables: Notes: mcrcon will start in…
read the full mcrcon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is azerothcore-wotlk or mcrcon more popular?
azerothcore-wotlk has 9,187 GitHub stars and mcrcon has 1,104. azerothcore-wotlk has the larger community by that measure.
Are azerothcore-wotlk and mcrcon free?
Both are open source. azerothcore-wotlk is licensed under GPL-2.0 and mcrcon under Zlib. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between azerothcore-wotlk and mcrcon?
azerothcore-wotlk is written in C++ and mcrcon in C. 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 mcrcon?
Choose azerothcore-wotlk if you want the larger community (9,187 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose mcrcon if its feature set, stack or Zlib licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.