head to head · open source
zinx vs mcrcon
zinx has 7,763 GitHub stars, 1,262 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. mcrcon has 1,085 stars, 126 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. zinx leads on adoption by 615% (7,763 vs 1,085 stars). zinx is written in Go under MIT; mcrcon is written in C under Zlib. zinx has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, mcrcon 12%. zinx 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
| zinx | mcrcon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.8K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | Zlib |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-06-06 | 2025-12-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 126 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick zinx if
- You weight community size — 7.8K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- 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 zinx
Zinx is a lightweight concurrent server framework written in Go, aimed at developers who want a small, readable TCP server skeleton they can study and customise rather than adopt a large opaque application framework.
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 zinx or mcrcon more popular?
zinx has 7,763 GitHub stars and mcrcon has 1,085. zinx has the larger community by that measure.
Are zinx and mcrcon free?
Both are open source. zinx is licensed under MIT and mcrcon under Zlib. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zinx and mcrcon?
zinx is written in Go 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, zinx or mcrcon?
Choose zinx if you want the larger community (7,763 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose mcrcon if its feature set, stack or Zlib licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.