head to head · open source
Pumpkin vs LinuxGSM
Pumpkin has 11,301 GitHub stars, 815 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LinuxGSM has 4,903 stars, 863 forks, 405 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Pumpkin leads on adoption by 130% (11,301 vs 4,903 stars). Pumpkin is written in Rust under GPL-3.0; LinuxGSM is written in Shell under MIT. Pumpkin has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, LinuxGSM 18%. Pumpkin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (game-server, 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 | LinuxGSM | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 11K | ★ 4.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-08-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 815 | ⑂ 863 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Pumpkin if
- You weight community size — 11K 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 LinuxGSM if
- You want the LinuxGSM feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and LinuxGSM fits your workflow better
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 →
About LinuxGSM
LinuxGSM is an MIT licensed, Shell based command line tool that deploys and manages more than one hundred dedicated Linux game servers, built for administrators who want to run their own multiplayer servers without spending hours on manual setup and upkeep.
read the full LinuxGSM overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pumpkin or LinuxGSM more popular?
Pumpkin has 11,301 GitHub stars and LinuxGSM has 4,903. Pumpkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pumpkin and LinuxGSM free?
Both are open source. Pumpkin is licensed under GPL-3.0 and LinuxGSM under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Pumpkin and LinuxGSM?
Pumpkin is written in Rust and LinuxGSM in Shell. 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 LinuxGSM?
Choose Pumpkin if you want the larger community (11,301 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose LinuxGSM if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.