OpenRA
Game Engines & FrameworksOpen-source remake of classic RTS games
Replaces Command & Conquer, Red Alert
Best Multi-User Game Engines & Frameworks for self-hosting
The 13 best Multi-User game engines & frameworks you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
Luanti
Game Engines & FrameworksOpen-source voxel game engine and server
Replaces Minecraft
RomM
Game Engines & FrameworksSelf-hosted ROM manager and retro game library
Replaces Playnite, LaunchBox
TrinityCore
Game Engines & FrameworksMMORPG server emulator for World of Warcraft
Replaces official WoW servers
DevilutionX
Game Engines & FrameworksModernized Diablo engine with cross-platform multiplayer
Replaces Diablo original
Spring RTS Engine Note - Beyond All Reason server
Game Engines & FrameworksOpen-source engine for hosting real-time strategy game servers
Replaces Total Annihilation
Retrom
Game Engines & FrameworksSelf-hosted game library server with launcher clients
Replaces Playnite, Steam library
Crafty Controller
Game Engines & FrameworksWeb-based Minecraft server management panel
Replaces Minecraft Realms, Pterodactyl
Gaseous Server
Game Engines & FrameworksSelf-hosted ROM library and metadata server
Replaces LaunchBox
Sapphire Server
Game Engines & FrameworksOpen-source server emulator for Final Fantasy XIV
Replaces official FFXIV servers
Aleph One
Game Engines & FrameworksOpen-source engine for the Marathon trilogy with multiplayer
Replaces Marathon original
CMaNGOS
Game Engines & FrameworksContinued MaNGOS World of Warcraft server emulator
Replaces official WoW servers
Ryzom Core
Game Engines & FrameworksOpen-source MMORPG engine and game framework
Replaces World of Warcraft
No apps match these filters.
At a glance
| App | Deploy effort | Difficulty | Min. RAM | License | ★ Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRA | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | GPL-3.0 | 17,559 |
| Luanti | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 512 MB | LGPL-2.1 | 13,721 |
| RomM | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | GPL-3.0 | 13,618 |
| TrinityCore | Read-the-docs project | Hard | 4,096 MB | GPL-2.0 | 10,821 |
| DevilutionX | Read-the-docs project | Medium | 256 MB | Unlicense | 9,836 |
| Spring RTS Engine Note - Beyond All Reason server | Read-the-docs project | Hard | 1,024 MB | GPL-2.0 | 4,016 |
| Retrom | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | GPL-3.0 | 2,098 |
| Crafty Controller | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 1,024 MB | GPL-3.0 | 1,700 |
| Gaseous Server | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | GPL-3.0 | 950 |
| Sapphire Server | Under-an-hour setup | Hard | 2,048 MB | GPL-3.0 | 836 |
Quick picks
- Most adopted: OpenRA (17,559 GitHub stars).
- Lightest footprint: DevilutionX (from 256 MB RAM, against 4,096 MB for the heaviest here).
- Licensing: 7 of 13 use GPL-3.0; check the rest individually if you plan to modify and redistribute.
Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged Multi-User within the game engines & frameworks category. Deploy effort is graded from published container recipes, not vendor claims — see the methodology.