AzerothCore vs Lichess

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted game servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureAzerothCoreLichess
CategoryGame ServersGame Servers
LicenseAGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageC++Scala
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM4,096 MB4,096 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, source
GitHub stars★ 8,732★ 18,557
First released20172010
Replacesofficial WoW serversChess.com

Why pick each one

Choose AzerothCore if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 8.7k GitHub stars
  • Written in C++
AzerothCore details

Choose Lichess if…

  • Full-featured chess platform
  • Completely ad-free
Lichess details

Frequently asked questions

Is AzerothCore or Lichess better?

Neither is universally better. Lichess has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are AzerothCore and Lichess free and open-source?

Yes. AzerothCore is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Lichess under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run AzerothCore and Lichess with Docker?

AzerothCore: yes. Lichess: yes.

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