head to head · open source
Pumpkin vs zfoo
Pumpkin has 11,341 GitHub stars, 820 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zfoo has 2,015 stars, 415 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Pumpkin leads on adoption by 463% (11,341 vs 2,015 stars). Pumpkin is written in Rust under GPL-3.0; zfoo is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Pumpkin has attracted 7% 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 | ★ 11K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-05-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 820 | ⑂ 415 |
| 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 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 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 zfoo
zfoo is an Apache 2.0 licensed Java server framework for RPC, game servers and web servers, aimed at teams that need very high throughput and want to keep server configuration small and simple.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pumpkin or zfoo more popular?
Pumpkin has 11,341 GitHub stars and zfoo has 2,015. 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 (11,341 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.