head to head · open source
bevy vs OpenRA
bevy has 49,549 GitHub stars, 5,025 forks, 3,418 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenRA has 17,736 stars, 3,112 forks, 1,598 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. bevy leads on adoption by 179% (49,549 vs 17,736 stars). bevy is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; OpenRA is written in C# under GPL-3.0. bevy has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, OpenRA 18%. bevy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (game-engine), 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
| bevy | OpenRA | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 18K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick bevy if
- You weight community size — 50K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenRA if
- You want the OpenRA feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and OpenRA fits your workflow better
About bevy
What is Bevy? Bevy is a refreshingly simple data driven game engine built in Rust. It is free and open source forever! WARNING Bevy is still in the early stages of development. Important features are missing. Documentation is sparse. A new version of Bevy containing breaking changes to the API is released approximately once every 3 months. We provide migration guides, but we can't guarantee migrations will always be easy. Use only if you are willing to work in this environment. MSRV: Bevy relies heavily on improvements in the Rust language and compiler. As a result, the Minimum Supported Rust Version (MSRV) is…
About OpenRA
OpenRA A Libre/Free Real Time Strategy game engine supporting early Westwood classics. Website: Chat: openra on Libera (web) or Discord Repository: Please read the FAQ in our Wiki and report problems at Join the Forum for discussion. Play Distributed mods include a reimagining of Command & Conquer: Red Alert Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn Dune 2000 EA has not endorsed and does not support this product. Check our Playing the Game Guide to win multiplayer matches. Contribute Please read INSTALL.md and Compiling on how to set up an OpenRA development environment. See Hacking for a (now very outdated) overview of…
read the full OpenRA overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bevy or OpenRA more popular?
bevy has 49,549 GitHub stars and OpenRA has 17,736. bevy has the larger community by that measure.
Are bevy and OpenRA free?
Both are open source. bevy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenRA under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bevy and OpenRA?
bevy is written in Rust and OpenRA 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, bevy or OpenRA?
Choose bevy if you want the larger community (49,549 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenRA if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.