head to head · open source
azerothcore-wotlk vs pitaya
azerothcore-wotlk has 8,955 GitHub stars, 3,807 forks, 2,445 open issues and last shipped today. pitaya has 2,829 stars, 545 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. azerothcore-wotlk leads on adoption by 217% (8,955 vs 2,829 stars). azerothcore-wotlk is written in C++ under GPL-2.0; pitaya is written in Go under MIT. azerothcore-wotlk has attracted 43% as many forks as stars, pitaya 19%. azerothcore-wotlk was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (game, 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 | pitaya | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.0K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 545 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick azerothcore-wotlk if
- You weight community size — 9.0K 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 pitaya if
- You want the pitaya feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pitaya 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 pitaya
Pitaya is an open source, MIT licensed game server framework written in Go that provides clustering support and client libraries for iOS, Android, Unity and other platforms through a shared C SDK, aimed at teams building distributed multiplayer games and other server side applications.
read the full pitaya overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is azerothcore-wotlk or pitaya more popular?
azerothcore-wotlk has 8,955 GitHub stars and pitaya has 2,829. azerothcore-wotlk has the larger community by that measure.
Are azerothcore-wotlk and pitaya free?
Both are open source. azerothcore-wotlk is licensed under GPL-2.0 and pitaya under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between azerothcore-wotlk and pitaya?
azerothcore-wotlk is written in C++ and pitaya 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 pitaya?
Choose azerothcore-wotlk if you want the larger community (8,955 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose pitaya if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.