head to head · open source
Pumpkin vs pinus
Pumpkin has 11,347 GitHub stars, 822 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pinus has 1,932 stars, 392 forks, 34 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Pumpkin leads on adoption by 487% (11,347 vs 1,932 stars). Pumpkin is written in Rust under GPL-3.0; pinus is written in JavaScript under MIT. Pumpkin has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, pinus 20%. 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 | pinus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 11K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-25 | 2026-07-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 822 | ⑂ 392 |
| 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 pinus if
- You want the pinus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and pinus 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 pinus
Pinus is a fast, scalable, distributed game server framework for Node.js, written in TypeScript and intended for developers building multiplayer games and real time applications such as chat and message push.
read the full pinus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pumpkin or pinus more popular?
Pumpkin has 11,347 GitHub stars and pinus has 1,932. Pumpkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pumpkin and pinus free?
Both are open source. Pumpkin is licensed under GPL-3.0 and pinus under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Pumpkin and pinus?
Pumpkin is written in Rust and pinus in JavaScript. 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 pinus?
Choose Pumpkin if you want the larger community (11,347 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pinus if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.