head to head · open source
Pumpkin vs goworld
Pumpkin has 12,867 GitHub stars, 998 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. goworld has 2,722 stars, 472 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. Pumpkin leads on adoption by 373% (12,867 vs 2,722 stars). Pumpkin is written in Rust under GPL-3.0; goworld is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Pumpkin has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, goworld 17%. Pumpkin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (game-server), 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 | goworld | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-07 | 2025-11-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 998 | ⑂ 472 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Pumpkin if
- You weight community size — 13K 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 goworld if
- You want the goworld feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and goworld fits your workflow better
About Pumpkin
Pumpkin Pumpkin is a Minecraft server built entirely in Rust, offering a fast, efficient, and customizable experience. It prioritizes performance and player enjoyment while adhering to the core mechanics of the game. Goals Performance : Leveraging multi threading for maximum speed and efficiency. Compatibility : Supports the latest Java & Bedrock Minecraft server version while adhering to Vanilla game mechanics. Security : Prioritizes security by preventing known security exploits. Flexibility : Highly configurable, with the ability to disable unnecessary features. Extensibility : Provides a foundation for…
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About goworld
GoWorld Scalable Distributed Game Server Engine with Hot Reload in Golang Features Architecture Introduction Get GoWorld Manage GoWorld Servers Demos Chatroom Demo Unity Demo: GoWorldUnityDemo.zip 中文资料 中文文档 游戏服务器介绍 目录结构说明 使用GoWorld轻松实现分布式聊天服务器 游戏服务端开源引擎GoWorld教程 1.安装和运行 2.Unity示例双端联调 3.手把手写一个聊天室 4.多个频道的聊天室 5.登录注册和存储 6.移动同步和AOI 7.源码解析之启动流程和热更新 8.码解析之gate 9.源码解析之dispatcher 10.源码解析之entity 欢迎加入Go服务端开发交流群：662182346 Features Spaces & Entities : manage multiple spaces and entities with AOI support Distributed : increase server capacity by using more machines Hot Swappable : update game logic by restarting server…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pumpkin or goworld more popular?
Pumpkin has 12,867 GitHub stars and goworld has 2,722. Pumpkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pumpkin and goworld free?
Both are open source. Pumpkin is licensed under GPL-3.0 and goworld under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Pumpkin and goworld?
Pumpkin is written in Rust and goworld in Go. 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 goworld?
Choose Pumpkin if you want the larger community (12,867 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose goworld if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.