ArchiSteamFarm vs EssentialsX
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 ArchiSteamFarm with
choose an app… Mindustry Lichess OpenRCT2 papermc-docker Cytopia Note - games browser alt 2048 Nakama Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot Unciv Prism Launcher BrowserQuest Pterodactyl AzerothCore A Dark Room 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 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 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
Compare EssentialsX with
choose an app… Mindustry Lichess OpenRCT2 papermc-docker Cytopia Note - games browser alt 2048 Nakama Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Paper Note - PaperMC server alt Spigot Unciv
Feature ArchiSteamFarm EssentialsX Category Game Servers Game Servers License Apache-2.0 GPL-3.0 Language C# Java Setup difficulty Medium Easy Min. RAM 256 MB 256 MB Deployment docker, binary bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 13,601 ★ 2,278 First released 2015 2016 Replaces Idle Master commercial server management plugins
Why pick each one
Choose ArchiSteamFarm if… Released under the Apache-2.0 license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Mature project with 13.6k GitHub stars Written in C# ArchiSteamFarm details Choose EssentialsX if… Released under the GPL-3.0 license Easy to set up — beginner-friendly Active community (2.3k GitHub stars) Written in Java EssentialsX details
Frequently asked questions Is ArchiSteamFarm or EssentialsX better? Neither is universally better. ArchiSteamFarm has the larger community, while EssentialsX is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are ArchiSteamFarm and EssentialsX free and open-source? Yes. ArchiSteamFarm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and EssentialsX under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run ArchiSteamFarm and EssentialsX with Docker? ArchiSteamFarm: yes. EssentialsX: check the project docs for container support.