SHSelfHostIndex

A Dark Room vs Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

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?
A A Dark Room Minimalist text adventure game for your browser VS CA Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Open-source turn-based survival roguelike
FeatureA Dark RoomCataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
CategoryGame ServersGame Servers
LicenseMPL-2.0CC-BY-SA-3.0
LanguageJavaScriptC++
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metalbare-metal, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 8,210★ 12,896
First released20232013
Replaces—NetHack

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

Choose Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead if…

  • Enormous depth
  • Active development
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead details

Frequently asked questions

Is A Dark Room or Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead better?

Neither is universally better. Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are A Dark Room and Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead free and open-source?

Yes. A Dark Room is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead under CC-BY-SA-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run A Dark Room and Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead with Docker?

A Dark Room: check the project docs for container support. Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead: check the project docs for container support.

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