head to head · open source
Pumpkin vs zinx
Pumpkin has 12,827 GitHub stars, 986 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zinx has 7,760 stars, 1,262 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. Pumpkin leads on adoption by 65% (12,827 vs 7,760 stars). Pumpkin is written in Rust under GPL-3.0; zinx is written in Go under MIT. Pumpkin has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, zinx 16%. 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 | zinx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 7.8K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 986 | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 zinx if
- You want the zinx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and zinx 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 zinx
English 简体中文 Zinx is a lightweight concurrent server framework based on Golang. Document Note : Zinx has been widely used in many enterprises for development purposes, including message forwarding for backend modules, long linked game servers, and message handling plugins for web frameworks. Zinx is positioned as a framework with concise code that allows developers to quickly understand the internal details of the framework and easily customize it based on their own enterprise scenarios. Source of Zinx Website Online Tutorial Online Tutorial Video I. One word that has been said before Why did we create Zinx?…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Pumpkin or zinx more popular?
Pumpkin has 12,827 GitHub stars and zinx has 7,760. Pumpkin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pumpkin and zinx free?
Both are open source. Pumpkin is licensed under GPL-3.0 and zinx under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Pumpkin and zinx?
Pumpkin is written in Rust and zinx in Go. 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 zinx?
Choose Pumpkin if you want the larger community (12,827 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose zinx if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.