head to head · open source
zinx vs stendhal
zinx has 7,759 GitHub stars, 1,262 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. stendhal has 703 stars, 226 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. zinx leads on adoption by 1,004% (7,759 vs 703 stars). zinx is written in Go under MIT; stendhal is written in Java under GPL-2.0. zinx has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, stendhal 32%. stendhal 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 | stendhal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.8K | ★ 703 |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-06-06 | 2026-07-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 226 |
| 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 stendhal if
- You want the stendhal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and stendhal 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 stendhal
Stendhal is a free, open source multiplayer online adventure game (MORPG) written in Java, playable by anyone with a web browser, an Android device, or a desktop with Java installed.
read the full stendhal overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zinx or stendhal more popular?
zinx has 7,759 GitHub stars and stendhal has 703. zinx has the larger community by that measure.
Are zinx and stendhal free?
Both are open source. zinx is licensed under MIT and stendhal under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zinx and stendhal?
zinx is written in Go and stendhal 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 stendhal?
Choose zinx if you want the larger community (7,759 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose stendhal if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.