head to head · open source
Godot vs MonoGame
Godot has 117,369 GitHub stars, 26,777 forks, 18,870 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MonoGame has 14,428 stars, 3,107 forks, 766 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Godot leads on adoption by 713% (117,369 vs 14,428 stars). Godot is written in C++ under MIT; MonoGame is written in C# under a custom or non-standard licence. Godot has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, MonoGame 22%. Godot was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (game-development, game-engine, gamedev, open-source), 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
| Godot | MonoGame | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 117K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | C++ | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 27K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Godot if
- You weight community size — 117K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick MonoGame if
- You want the MonoGame feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and MonoGame fits your workflow better
About Godot
Godot Engine is a free, MIT licensed, cross platform 2D and 3D game engine that ships an editor, a class reference, export templates, and one click deployment to desktop, mobile, web and console targets, aimed at game developers who want to own their toolchain and their games without royalties.
read the full Godot overview →
About MonoGame
MonoGame is a free, open source C and .NET game framework for building cross platform games. It lives in the .NET game development ecosystem and is positioned as one framework for creating games on desktop PCs, mobile devices, and consoles. It is an open source re implementation of Microsoft's discontinued XNA Framework, used to create games such as Streets of Rage 4, Carrion, Celeste, and Stardew Valley.
read the full MonoGame overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Godot or MonoGame more popular?
Godot has 117,369 GitHub stars and MonoGame has 14,428. Godot has the larger community by that measure.
Are Godot and MonoGame free?
Both are open source. Godot is licensed under MIT, and MonoGame has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Godot and MonoGame?
Godot is written in C++ and MonoGame in C#. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Godot or MonoGame?
Choose Godot if you want the larger community (117,369 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose MonoGame if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.