head to head · open source
colyseus vs pinus
colyseus has 7,326 GitHub stars, 664 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pinus has 1,932 stars, 392 forks, 34 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. colyseus leads on adoption by 279% (7,326 vs 1,932 stars). colyseus is written in TypeScript under MIT; pinus is written in JavaScript under MIT. colyseus has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, pinus 20%. colyseus was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (game-server, nodejs), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| colyseus | pinus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.3K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-25 | 2026-07-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 664 | ⑂ 392 |
| 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 pinus if
- You want the pinus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and pinus 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 pinus
Pinus is a fast, scalable, distributed game server framework for Node.js, written in TypeScript and intended for developers building multiplayer games and real time applications such as chat and message push.
read the full pinus overview →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Gaming projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Gaming field.
Frequently asked questions
Is colyseus or pinus more popular?
colyseus has 7,326 GitHub stars and pinus has 1,932. colyseus has the larger community by that measure.
Are colyseus and pinus free?
Both are open source. colyseus is licensed under MIT and pinus under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between colyseus and pinus?
colyseus is written in TypeScript and pinus in JavaScript. 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 pinus?
Choose colyseus if you want the larger community (7,326 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pinus if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.