head to head · open source
Godot vs MonoGame
Godot has 119,457 GitHub stars, 27,336 forks, 18,870 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MonoGame has 14,602 stars, 3,119 forks, 766 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Godot leads on adoption by 718% (119,457 vs 14,602 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 21%. MonoGame 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 | ★ 119K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | C++ | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 27K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Godot if
- You weight community size — 119K 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 2D and 3D cross platform game engine Godot Engine is a feature packed, cross platform game engine to create 2D and 3D games from a unified interface. It provides a comprehensive set of common tools, so that users can focus on making games without having to reinvent the wheel. Games can be exported with one click to a number of platforms, including the major desktop platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows), mobile platforms (Android, iOS), as well as Web based platforms and consoles. Free, open source and community driven Godot is completely free and open source under the very permissive MIT license. No…
read the full Godot overview →
About MonoGame
MonoGame One framework for creating powerful cross platform games Supported Platforms • Resources • Samples • Support and Contributions • Source Code • Helpful Links • License Overview MonoGame is a simple and powerful .NET framework for creating games for desktop PCs, video game consoles, and mobile devices using the C programming language. It has been successfully used to create games such as Streets of Rage 4, Carrion, Celeste, Stardew Valley, and many others. It is an open source re implementation of the discontinued Microsoft's XNA Framework. Supported Platforms We support a growing list of platforms across…
read the full MonoGame overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Godot or MonoGame more popular?
Godot has 119,457 GitHub stars and MonoGame has 14,602. 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 (119,457 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose MonoGame if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.