head to head · open source
zinx vs PowerNukkitX
zinx has 7,757 GitHub stars, 1,262 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. PowerNukkitX has 684 stars, 206 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zinx leads on adoption by 1,034% (7,757 vs 684 stars). zinx is written in Go under MIT; PowerNukkitX is written in Java under LGPL-3.0. zinx has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, PowerNukkitX 30%. PowerNukkitX 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 | PowerNukkitX | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.8K | ★ 684 |
| License | MIT | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-06-06 | 2026-10-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 206 |
| 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 PowerNukkitX if
- You want the PowerNukkitX feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and PowerNukkitX 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 PowerNukkitX
PowerNukkitX is an open source Java server implementation for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, built for server owners and plugin developers who want a customizable, high performance third party server.
read the full PowerNukkitX overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zinx or PowerNukkitX more popular?
zinx has 7,757 GitHub stars and PowerNukkitX has 684. zinx has the larger community by that measure.
Are zinx and PowerNukkitX free?
Both are open source. zinx is licensed under MIT and PowerNukkitX under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zinx and PowerNukkitX?
zinx is written in Go and PowerNukkitX 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, zinx or PowerNukkitX?
Choose zinx if you want the larger community (7,757 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose PowerNukkitX if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.