head to head · open source
bevy vs Pumpkin
bevy has 48,288 GitHub stars, 4,850 forks, 3,418 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Pumpkin has 11,292 stars, 813 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bevy leads on adoption by 328% (48,288 vs 11,292 stars). bevy is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Pumpkin is written in Rust under GPL-3.0. bevy has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Pumpkin 7%. Pumpkin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (gamedev, rust), 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
| bevy | Pumpkin | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 813 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick bevy if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Pumpkin if
- You want the Pumpkin feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Pumpkin fits your workflow better
About bevy
Bevy is a free and open source, data driven game engine written in Rust that gives developers a complete 2D and 3D feature set through an Entity Component System architecture, and it is aimed at Rust programmers building games and interactive applications who accept an early stage engine that ships breaking API changes roughly every three months.
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bevy or Pumpkin more popular?
bevy has 48,288 GitHub stars and Pumpkin has 11,292. bevy has the larger community by that measure.
Are bevy and Pumpkin free?
Both are open source. bevy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pumpkin under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bevy and Pumpkin?
bevy is written in Rust and Pumpkin in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, bevy or Pumpkin?
Choose bevy if you want the larger community (48,288 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Pumpkin if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.