head to head · open source
colyseus vs goworld
colyseus has 7,313 GitHub stars, 664 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. goworld has 2,718 stars, 474 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. colyseus leads on adoption by 169% (7,313 vs 2,718 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 | ★ 7.3K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2025-11-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 664 | ⑂ 474 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick colyseus if
- You weight community size — 7.3K 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
Colyseus is an MIT licensed authoritative multiplayer framework for Node.js that provides synchronizable data structures, room based matchmaking, and client SDKs for TypeScript, React, Unity, Godot, GameMaker, Defold, Construct, Haxe, and C, aimed at developers building realtime and turn based multiplayer games.
read the full colyseus overview →
About goworld
GoWorld is an Apache 2.0 licensed, scalable distributed game server engine written in Go, with hot swapping of game logic, aimed at developers and studios that run persistent multiplayer game worlds.
read the full goworld overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is colyseus or goworld more popular?
colyseus has 7,313 GitHub stars and goworld has 2,718. 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 (7,313 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose goworld if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.