head to head · open source
zinx vs pufferpanel
zinx has 7,763 GitHub stars, 1,262 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. pufferpanel has 1,749 stars, 270 forks, 116 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. zinx leads on adoption by 344% (7,763 vs 1,749 stars). zinx is written in Go under MIT; pufferpanel is written in Go under Apache-2.0. zinx has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, pufferpanel 15%. pufferpanel was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (game-server, golang), 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 | pufferpanel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.8K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-06-06 | 2026-09-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 270 |
| 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 pufferpanel if
- You want the pufferpanel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pufferpanel 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 pufferpanel
PufferPanel is a free and open source, web based game server management system written in Go that lets an operator manage multiple different game servers from one central location and give other users their own servers or access to existing ones, aimed at everyone from individual users and personal setups through to small networks and larger operations.
read the full pufferpanel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zinx or pufferpanel more popular?
zinx has 7,763 GitHub stars and pufferpanel has 1,749. zinx has the larger community by that measure.
Are zinx and pufferpanel free?
Both are open source. zinx is licensed under MIT and pufferpanel under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zinx and pufferpanel?
zinx is written in Go and pufferpanel 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, zinx or pufferpanel?
Choose zinx if you want the larger community (7,763 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pufferpanel if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.