SHSelfHostIndex

Citizens 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?
CI Citizens NPC plugin for Bukkit, Spigot and Paper Minecraft servers VS CA Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Open-source turn-based survival roguelike
FeatureCitizensCataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
CategoryGame ServersGame Servers
LicenseISCCC-BY-SA-3.0
LanguageJavaC++
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metalbare-metal, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 722★ 12,896
First released20112013
Replacescommercial NPC pluginsNetHack

Why pick each one

Choose Citizens if…

  • Released under the ISC license
  • Written in Java
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Citizens details

Choose Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead if…

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

Frequently asked questions

Is Citizens 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 Citizens and Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead free and open-source?

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

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

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

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