A Dark Room vs papermc-docker
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted game servers options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare A Dark Room with
choose an app… Mindustry Lichess OpenRCT2 ArchiSteamFarm Cytopia Note - games browser alt 2048 Nakama Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot Unciv Prism Launcher BrowserQuest Pterodactyl AzerothCore OpenTTD Endless Sky Mineflayer Colyseus Agones shapez.io Battle for Wesnoth CTFd Ren'Py VCMI GeyserMC
Compare papermc-docker with
choose an app… Mindustry Lichess OpenRCT2 ArchiSteamFarm Cytopia Note - games browser alt 2048 Nakama Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot Unciv Prism Launcher BrowserQuest Pterodactyl AzerothCore OpenTTD Endless Sky Mineflayer Colyseus Agones shapez.io Battle for Wesnoth CTFd Ren'Py VCMI GeyserMC Leaf Cuberite SuperTuxKart MCSManager ink LinuxGSM untrusted Steam Headless Warzone 2100 Terasology Veloren PocketMine-MP OpenXRay Minecraft Overviewer WorldEdit Palworld Server Docker SuperTux Widelands Twine 0 A.D. Pitaya ioquake3 BlueMap Teeworlds BrowserQuest Note - mozilla-bq alt Hextris Purpur EssentialsX Valheim Server Docker Velocity Pelican Panel Freeciv-web Superpowers Cytopia PMMP Note - PocketMine alt BedrockConnect 0 A.D. Lobby Note - pyrogenesis server Pioneer OpenLoco Docker Minecraft Bedrock Server MTA:SA Multicraft Note - AMP free alt Pufferpanel Crafty Controller Inform 7 Hypersomnia Freeciv Server UnknownHorizons Note - settlement game Nukkit Mineserver Note - minecraft panel alt Lodestone Colobot Note - browser game alt Hextris-no OpenSpades EasyRPG Player AzuraCast Games LinuxGSM Note - SteamCMD-GUI alt SourceMod Veloren Note - games server alt Mindustry-server-no Gameyfin Leaf Note - Minecraft server alt Folia FreeOrion AssaultCube OpenHV Plan Note - Minecraft analytics alt Player Analytics go-mc Naev Terraforming Mars Lancache Ownfoil mc-router TES3MP Infrared Adventure Game Studio Zero-K DDNet Lichess Board Note - chessground alt pychess FlightGear JGR's Patchpack Note - OpenTTD multiplayer server Waterfall Citizens Drop ET: Legacy Factorio Server Manager FreeCol VoxeLibre Xonotic Posio RconCli Pioneer Note - space game alt Naev-server-no Scribble.rs LinCity-NG Flying Squid SoulFire Hedgewars Red Eclipse OpenDungeons Minecraft Server Control Script Suroi auto-mcs Sponge RAWeb MegaGlest OpenClonk EDOPro SourceBans++ MineOS Curse of War GameVault PyChess-Variants Mineclonia VirtualTabletop Enshrouded Dedicated Server Armagetron Advanced OpenArena EasyWI piqueserver SRVPro SteamCMD Server Screeps Server (screeps-launcher) UFO: Alien Invasion Lix Luanti ContentDB Note - minetest mods server Mineclone2 Note - VoxeLibre server alt MineClone5 Nexuiz Note - Xonotic server alt darkplaces Simutrans GeoQuest Repixture Lodestone Core The Mana World Minus Games NextGBA Gameap Cubiks 2048 CnCNet Server 20 euros 243 Digibuzzer Framagames Sutom Trivabble
Feature A Dark Room papermc-docker Category Game Servers Game Servers License MPL-2.0 Apache-2.0 Language JavaScript Shell Setup difficulty Medium Easy Min. RAM 512 MB 1,024 MB Deployment bare-metal docker, kubernetes GitHub stars ★ 8,210 ★ 14,076 First released 2023 2014 Replaces — Minecraft Realms
Why pick each one
Choose A Dark Room if… Released under the MPL-2.0 license Mature project with 8.2k GitHub stars Written in JavaScript Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM A Dark Room details
Frequently asked questions Is A Dark Room or papermc-docker better? papermc-docker is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider A Dark Room if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are A Dark Room and papermc-docker free and open-source? Yes. A Dark Room is licensed under MPL-2.0 and papermc-docker under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run A Dark Room and papermc-docker with Docker? A Dark Room: check the project docs for container support. papermc-docker: yes.