head to head · open source
Pumpkin vs zfoo
Pumpkin has 12,892 GitHub stars, 1,004 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zfoo has 2,008 stars, 415 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Pumpkin leads on adoption by 542% (12,892 vs 2,008 stars). Pumpkin is written in Rust under GPL-3.0; zfoo is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Pumpkin has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, zfoo 21%. 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 | zfoo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-09 | 2026-05-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 415 |
| 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 zfoo if
- You want the zfoo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and zfoo 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…
read the full Pumpkin overview →
About zfoo
English 简体中文 Ⅰ. Introduction of zfoo🚩 Extremely fast, asynchronous, actor design, lock free, universal RPC framework, native GraalVM support High scalability, Single server deployment, microservice deployment, cluster deployment, gateway deployment Can be used as a game server framework or website server framework zfoo protocol supports C++ Rust Java/Kotlin/Scala JavaScript/TypeScript/ES C Go Php Ruby Lua GDScript Python Dart Swift Perfect work development process, complete online solution Spring projects, distributed projects, container projects, hot update code without downtime hotswap Excel json csv…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pumpkin or zfoo more popular?
Pumpkin has 12,892 GitHub stars and zfoo has 2,008. Pumpkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pumpkin and zfoo free?
Both are open source. Pumpkin is licensed under GPL-3.0 and zfoo under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Pumpkin and zfoo?
Pumpkin is written in Rust and zfoo in Java. 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 zfoo?
Choose Pumpkin if you want the larger community (12,892 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose zfoo if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.