head to head · open source
colyseus vs goworld
colyseus has 7,519 GitHub stars, 684 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. goworld has 2,722 stars, 472 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. colyseus leads on adoption by 176% (7,519 vs 2,722 stars). colyseus is written in TypeScript under MIT; goworld is written in Go under Apache-2.0. colyseus has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, goworld 17%. colyseus 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
| colyseus | goworld | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.5K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-07 | 2025-11-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 684 | ⑂ 472 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick colyseus if
- You weight community size — 7.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 colyseus
Multiplayer Framework for Node.js. View documentation Colyseus is an Authoritative Multiplayer Framework for Node.js, with SDKs available for all major platforms and engines. Client SDKs The project focuses on providing synchronizable data structures for realtime and turn based games, matchmaking, and ease of usage both on the server side and client side. The mission of the framework is to be a standard netcode & matchmaking solution for any kind of project you can think of! Why developers choose Colyseus: ⚡️ Real time state sync that just works → Define your state on the server and it automatically synchronizes…
read the full colyseus 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 colyseus or goworld more popular?
colyseus has 7,519 GitHub stars and goworld has 2,722. colyseus has the larger community by that measure.
Are colyseus and goworld free?
Both are open source. colyseus is licensed under MIT and goworld under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between colyseus and goworld?
colyseus is written in TypeScript 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, colyseus or goworld?
Choose colyseus if you want the larger community (7,519 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose goworld if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.