head to head · open source
Pumpkin vs mcrcon
Pumpkin has 11,787 GitHub stars, 851 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mcrcon has 1,085 stars, 126 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Pumpkin leads on adoption by 986% (11,787 vs 1,085 stars). Pumpkin is written in Rust under GPL-3.0; mcrcon is written in C under Zlib. Pumpkin has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, mcrcon 12%. 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, minecraft), 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 | mcrcon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Zlib |
| Written in | Rust | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-30 | 2025-12-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 851 | ⑂ 126 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Pumpkin if
- You weight community size — 12K 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 mcrcon if
- You want the mcrcon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Zlib license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and mcrcon 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 mcrcon
mcrcon is a console based Rcon client for Minecraft that lets server administrators send remote administration commands and run server maintenance scripts from a Linux or Windows terminal.
read the full mcrcon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pumpkin or mcrcon more popular?
Pumpkin has 11,787 GitHub stars and mcrcon has 1,085. Pumpkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pumpkin and mcrcon free?
Both are open source. Pumpkin is licensed under GPL-3.0 and mcrcon under Zlib. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Pumpkin and mcrcon?
Pumpkin is written in Rust and mcrcon 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, Pumpkin or mcrcon?
Choose Pumpkin if you want the larger community (11,787 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose mcrcon if its feature set, stack or Zlib licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.