head to head · open source
Godot vs OpenRA
Godot has 117,573 GitHub stars, 26,823 forks, 18,870 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenRA has 17,408 stars, 3,048 forks, 1,598 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Godot leads on adoption by 575% (117,573 vs 17,408 stars). Godot is written in C++ under MIT; OpenRA is written in C# under GPL-3.0. Godot has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, OpenRA 18%. Godot was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (game-engine), 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
| Godot | OpenRA | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 118K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 27K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Godot if
- You weight community size — 118K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenRA if
- You want the OpenRA feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and OpenRA 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 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 →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Gaming projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Gaming field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Godot or OpenRA more popular?
Godot has 117,573 GitHub stars and OpenRA has 17,408. Godot has the larger community by that measure.
Are Godot and OpenRA free?
Both are open source. Godot is licensed under MIT and OpenRA under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Godot and OpenRA?
Godot is written in C++ and OpenRA 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 OpenRA?
Choose Godot if you want the larger community (117,573 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose OpenRA if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.