head to head · open source
OpenRA vs colyseus
OpenRA has 17,408 GitHub stars, 3,048 forks, 1,598 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. colyseus has 7,312 stars, 665 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenRA leads on adoption by 138% (17,408 vs 7,312 stars). OpenRA is written in C# under GPL-3.0; colyseus is written in TypeScript under MIT. OpenRA has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, colyseus 9%. colyseus was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| OpenRA | colyseus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C# | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 665 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenRA if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick colyseus if
- You want the colyseus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and colyseus fits your workflow better
About OpenRA
OpenRA is a libre, free and open source real time strategy game engine written in C with SDL and OpenGL, built for players, mappers and modders who want to run and extend early Westwood classics such as Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Dune 2000 on Windows, Linux, BSD and Mac OS X.
read the full OpenRA overview →
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 →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Gaming projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Gaming field.
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenRA or colyseus more popular?
OpenRA has 17,408 GitHub stars and colyseus has 7,312. OpenRA has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenRA and colyseus free?
Both are open source. OpenRA is licensed under GPL-3.0 and colyseus under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenRA and colyseus?
OpenRA is written in C# and colyseus in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenRA or colyseus?
Choose OpenRA if you want the larger community (17,408 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose colyseus if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.