head to head · open source
Pumpkin vs colyseus
Pumpkin has 11,292 GitHub stars, 813 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. colyseus has 7,311 stars, 665 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped today. Pumpkin leads on adoption by 54% (11,292 vs 7,311 stars). Pumpkin is written in Rust under GPL-3.0; colyseus is written in TypeScript under MIT. Pumpkin has attracted 7% 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. The two share 2 topic tags (game-server, networking), 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
| Pumpkin | colyseus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 11K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 813 | ⑂ 665 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Pumpkin if
- You weight community size — 11K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- 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 Pumpkin
Pumpkin is a Minecraft server implementation written entirely in Rust that aims to let anyone host fast and efficient Java and Bedrock Edition servers, and it is built for server operators and plugin developers who want vanilla compatible gameplay without the official Java server.
read the full Pumpkin 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pumpkin or colyseus more popular?
Pumpkin has 11,292 GitHub stars and colyseus has 7,311. Pumpkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pumpkin and colyseus free?
Both are open source. Pumpkin is licensed under GPL-3.0 and colyseus under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Pumpkin and colyseus?
Pumpkin is written in Rust 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, Pumpkin or colyseus?
Choose Pumpkin if you want the larger community (11,292 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose colyseus if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.